RSSB guru (and me!) appear in animation about Singh brothers scandal

Thanks to Amar, a regular commenter on this blog, I learned about this amazingly creative, well-done, and generally accurate animated depiction of the financial scandals involving the Singh brothers (Malvinder and Shivinder), Gurinder Singh Dhillon (the guru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, and a bunch of other characters.

I make an appearance near the end of the video.

Sadly, the animators used a rendering of one of the worst photographs of me that can be found on Google images. Oh, well, such is life. At least I didn't cause relatives of mine to lose billions of dollars, as this video describes in an entertaining fashion -- how the Singh brothers' faith in Gurinder Singh Dhillon, "Babaji," led them to lose their wealth.

My only quibble with the video is that it fails to mention that, so far as I know, the criminal complaint filed by Malvinder against Dhillon, his family, and close associates remains active. And the board of directors of Religare has filed a separate complaint urging investigators to track the money that was siphoned into shell companies controlled by the RSSB guru, his family, and associates.

Enjoy. The video is less than seven minutes long. Well worth your time to watch it. By the way, I caused Shahid Kapoor, the Bollywood actor mentioned near the beginning of the video, to become a vegetarian. Check out "I changed a Bollywood actor's life...turning him vegetarian."

 

Comments

[Amar]

Brian, you wrote: I make an appearance near the end of the guru.

Lol, I think you meant to say "near the end of the video."

or maybe "near the end AS the guru"?

[Brian Hines]

Amar, I blame my poor proofreading for a lack of caffeine. Wrote this post before my morning cup of coffee. Thanks for pointing out the typo. And also for pointing out the video. Kind of amazing how a clever video like this conveys facts that otherwise take lots and lots of words to describe.

I loved the bowing and scraping before the guru with cries of "Babaji!" It also was great to simply show the hypocrisy of Gurinder Singh Dhillon's public persona -- "We must all live a clean and simple life" -- that contrasts so greatly with his quest to extract billions of dollars from the pockets of the Singh brothers, who are both his relatives and his initiates.

Lesson: don't trust a guru with your money. Or, your life. Be independent, both in your monetary and spiritual investing.

[s*]

We, ofcourse do not know what is behind this.
Whas it nessesary for him,(Babaji) to manage it this way?
What is behind all this??
Is it really about greed of money and houses and land?
Or is there something else at stake about this what we do not know (yet).???
It could be interesting what babaji will do with this money at the cost of the brothers and many more people.
And his Cousin (Nimmy) who lives also near him in Dera,what would she feel and think about all this?
Or does she know/understand something,we do not??(mother of the brothers,daughter of Maharaji)..
Really.., ofcourse we want to know this!!

[Dungeness]

"We must all live a clean and simple life" -- that contrasts so greatly with his quest to
extract billions of dollars from the pockets of the Singh brothers, who are both his
relatives and his initiates.

I musta missed the Singh bro's testimony. Did GSD advise them
to put Sunil Godhwani in charge of Ranbaxy with no oversight?
None at all?

What was Sunil's role in the sale to Daichi, in the shell companies,
in the subsequent fleecing? Or is it all on the Dhillon crime family?
Who purchased all the land? Who signed all the paper? Did the
bro's or others not get inklings of what was going down?

Who's off the hook? Anybody... anybody? Who do ya "like" for all
this? Da big man himself?

Did he command his family, Sunil, the bro's themselves how to
orchestrate the fraud? Or was it subtler, more casual... maybe
one afternoon over tea, say... a suggestion that one lucky soul
drop who gave a substantial share of money seva, might well
be looking at an ascension to the Gaddi?

Then when things got hot, maybe it was da big man again, who
set the wedge between Shivi and Malvi. Later he grew even more
panicked and hinted to attorney it was time to whisper threats of
eternal damnation to Malvi. Same thing for that meddlesome
Bollywood dude.

Could be. Or maybe those accusers are all just angry "Baba haters",
An impeachment could be coming soon. In any case, no one will
be able to claim "executive privilege".

[anami]

Easy come, easy go.

[Di]

Dungeness,
Wouldn't it be a lot easier if one of the defenders of BBji actually went to dera management or BBji and simply asked what exactly led to current financial situation?
Then present that side on this blog, instead of just saying it can't be because BBji is God sent.
The blogger and alleged "BBji haters" are presenting what they have come to learn from business journals and court documents.
Let's try to refute them with reasonable fact based rebutals.
Or we can all wait and see how everything unfolds with time and stop commenting.
However, some here feel that BBji is using his Godman privilege by not addressing the issue. Satsangis should know what are they defending? Are they defending BBji's name and image, or are they defending their own beliefs and faith? If the later, we should understand that no one is challenging our faith.
Anyway this is my read on the back end forth on this site.
Di

[navneet]

bkwas
trooth will never change
its easy to charge any one
but tough to proove

[Dungeness]

Wouldn't it be a lot easier if one of the defenders of BBji actually went to dera management or BBji and simply asked what exactly led to current financial situation?

Maybe, but I suspect he'd just refer them to the RSSB article again.

Or we can all wait and see how everything unfolds with time and stop commenting.
However, some here feel that BBji is using his Godman privilege by not addressing
the issue.

Seems to be a rut doesn't it... wait to see what unfolds. Scramble for
the crumbs that are thrown out. It'd take all the fun outta of CofC to
stop commenting though.

Besides, every church needs a nun/priest or two to rap knuckles when
the fun gets outta hand. This is a place of worship after all.

[sanjeev kumar Aggarw]

As per my view some international blackmailer want to defame Honerable
Gurinder singh Dhillon withot any proof.
You know we all are under the management of God. If any one guilty then God give him " Sajja ". No one can spare by God.

[Lakshya]

You are fools if you believe the Singh brothers story . You don't have any proof nor the sufficient data to support their story . You are just an anxious fellow who found something interesting which is actually not and then doing the further plotting using false information.
The brothers weren't able to handle the business well it's their mistake and blaming someone else won't do anything good

[Mukesh Kumar]

TIME HAS BEGUN SARDARI GARAM JANANI NARAM RADHA SOAMI SCANDAL APPEAL STARTED BY THAKUR LEELA VRINDAVAN..
SARDARI SETUP VRINDAVAN & THEY SHOUTED RADHEY RADHEY .
FOREIGN LINKUP IS NOT FOUND .SINGH SARDAR OPENED OWN DREAM LAND & RETURNED TO RADHEY MAHADEV & CALCULATED IN PAST GROCERY & ENTERTAINMENT SATSANG DILUTED ONE DRUG PILL RADHEY RADHEY ...
NOW TELL DID YOU FIND SWAMI ..BHO***K DABA K LEY CH***Y

[Mike England]

This story is very boring. Too much time has been spent blogging, commenting and blogging comments.
We should send in The Rock and Jason Statham to sort it out.
They can return the money, reunite the Brothers, and get holy imitation. All the while cracking jokes and buddy buddying.
How’s that for a Happy Ending 🤩

[Karan]

Fake news

[R.k]

I think if millions of people who visit Dera every year don't seem to have any problem with all that what's​ going wrong according to you then what's the problem with you. Do you think that after watching all this all these people would stop following him, and what purpose you will achieve in that.The number of followers will just keep on growing and your hate, frustration and discontent will also grow simultaneously. Remember that this man has his followers not only in India but around the world, and this is the man who invites them all at once to come to his place every weekend and doesn't even charge a single penny for their stay at 'Dera 'no matter how long their stay may last. That's the place where people give up their evil addictions, evil intentions, evil deeds
and transform into a peaceful, loving and a civilized person. These are those of million people who don't take any advantage of their numbers and in Radha Swami
history they have never been involved in any act of violence against society or any other organization no matter how many times the Sikh followers along with their swords and abuses may have tried to provoke them at their corridor. These are the people who build hundreds of Radha Soami centers with their own hands, by doing it themselves, manually, along with their families and friends. And all of them are not uneducated and poor as you might think so, they have got enough
control and knowledge of what is good for them and their families and what's not. And finally this is the man who
has created such a huge following
of his ideology without any advertisement of his own .You may find some of his photographs on the internet, but you will never find anything more than that about his personal life , or of his discourses anywhere else.

[Kabir]

Whatever you say or write is just baseless.
Why don't you mind ur own business Mr. ??
You can never understand the spirituality path. No one is going to believe on ur posts. Life is short ....Go and get a life...

[Anjali]

From many years my father use to follow him and many times I have also visited his place and trust me he never ask for single penny from anyone infact just because of his teaching my father is such a gentleman man he never touch alcohol he never smoke nor he eats non veg nhe is govt job and he Never takes bribe I am not saying people who do all these things are bad I just want to tell that this guy will never teaches bad things nor he takes anything from his followers and if you think by seeing all this people will stop following him sorry to say but nobody even cares until you have some strong evidence and by doing all this you are just making him more and more famous .

[anami]

My only hope is that Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput conquer ahankar and krodh...
https://www.indiatoday.in/amp/movies/celebrities/story/shahid-kapoor-reveals-that-his-fights-with-mira-rajput-can-last-15-days-1549899-2019-06-16

[Amar]

R.k. those millions of people you're talking about don't know this is going on.
The dera actually pulled the links for the scandal that they had on their website after the June 10th court order. Not my problem if you have problems understanding that the guru and his family has been names in a court order to pay back MILLIONS of dollars.

[As]

Only the aurhor is intellectual and millions are fools..
We can write any rehotric and try to become hero on social media but truth will always prevail that babajee is spiritual guru who have done everything for betterment of we human soul and have sacrifised even his personal life for upliftment of his initates. This will only be realised once you enter inside through the process he tells you.

[j]

Here's a copy of an email I just sent to the Executive Editor of the Press Democrat, Petaluma's newspaper. I invite others to use it (or write a better one, which shouldn't be hard) and send it to other newspaper editors, eg Fayetteville or other RSSB locales, or even the New York Times.

Dear (Executive Editor)

As you may know, Science of the Soul is one of Petaluma's largest religious centers. At the end of this month it will host their guru, Baba Gurinder Singh, who is one of the most popular religious leaders in India. Many thousands of people will attend.
https://petalumaprogram.org/

This organization prides itself on its high ideals, and attracts many members based on its apparent integrity. But many people don't know that the guru and his family are embroiled in a huge financial scandal.

Here's the gist: Roughly 500 million dollars was siphoned from corporations that were run by the guru's family members, and then distributed to other members of the guru's family, and to the guru himself. A court has ruled that the money must be paid back to the corporations, but so far no restitution has been made. The guru has also borrowed large sums of money from individuals for his personal use (and opulent lifestyle) and likewise has so far refused to pay it back.

I bring this matter to your attention in hopes that the Press Democrat can do a story about it. So far, no American newspaper has published anything on this matter.

Here are a few websites that explain the scandal in more detail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaAjtRZ1S5E

https://hinessight.blogs.com/church_of_the_churchless/radha_soami_satsang_beas/

https://www.businesstoday.in/buzztop/buzztop-corporate/delhi-hc-orders-recovery-from-rssb-chief-gurinder-dhillon-wife-and-sons-to-pay-singh-brothers-due-to-daiichi/story/354797.html

https://www.firstpost.com/business/malvinder-singh-alleges-spiritual-leader-gurinder-singh-dhillon-used-money-from-ranbaxy-stake-sale-to-buy-properties-6207121.html

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/malvinder-for-spiritual-seat-shivinder-allowed-dhillon-to-siphon-off-8646-crore/article26297796.ece

If you have any questions please let me know,

Regards,

Your Name

[Dungeness]

Here's the gist: Roughly 500 million dollars was siphoned from corporations that were run by the guru's family members, and then distributed to other members of the guru's family, and to the guru himself. A court has ruled that the money must be paid back to the corporations, but so far no restitution has been made. The guru has also borrowed large sums of money from individuals for his personal use (and opulent lifestyle) and likewise has so far refused to pay it back.

I would suggest "run by the guru's family members" be amended to
"were set up under the Dhillon family name". The Dhillons are legally
on the hook of course, but it's uncertain who within the family or others
in their power orbit, eg, Godhwani, pulled strings and/or masterminded
actual criminality.

To be fair, all of them coulda been aware of and/or been abetting those
who did commit criminal acts too. But that's TBD in criminal court. The HC's
civil ruling only provides clarity about civil remedies.

In my opinion though terms like "opulent lifestyle" and "refused to pay it back"
are heavily freighted with the whiff of a personal agenda. Unless articles
say, for instance, "GSD allegedly ran outta the room and swore 'I'll never pay
you suckers a dime' ", It sounds like a heavy thumb is on the scale to tell the
reader what to believe.

Far more persuasive to agnostically cite the articles and let facts speak for
themselves.... or back up loaded assertions with juicy details from the articles.

[j]

"The Dhillons are legally
on the hook of course, but it's uncertain who within the family or others
in their power orbit, eg, Godhwani, pulled strings and/or masterminded
actual criminality."

That's absolutely true and pertinent, but my hope is more investigative journalism is always better. Even though who's to blame is a matter yet uncertain, and even if the best-case scenario turns out to be true - -that Gurinder was somehow completely out of the loop -- I think there's enough evidence that strongly suggests something is very wrong in RSSB land. 500 million dollars, Gurinder's right hand man installed as corporate head, a million dollar loan to a film maker that wasn't paid back, Malvinder's lawsuit against the guru...this is significant and serious stuff that deserve wider publicity and investigation. If this matter gets fuller attention in the media (as of now there's really very little), then I feel this can only work to the good in making RSSB more accountable. It may force Gurinder out of his policy of total silence and apparent disregard of the high ethics he preaches so much.

[Dheeraj Lalwani]

The important thing to understand here is the concept of lifting the corporate veil.
Singh brothers have lost money in various deals ranging from selling of Ranbaxy to Daiichi during the period of controversial ban by FDA on dozens of drugs leading to fines to mortgaing SRL stakes to bank for lending money.
During the course of event the court realized that the only beneficiary/profitable person left to recover the Singh brothers debt loss was Baba Gurinder Singh Ji. It is as simple as that Gurinder Singh did not incur loses in his real estate deals and other companies. Therefore the only way to recover money was to impose on RSSB. This in indeed is his success story or else Singh brothers would have been behind the bars by now.
An important question to ask is why Malvinder Singh took to convert to become a sage couple of years ago because he knew whats coming...All the debts and crises which only Gurinder Singh Ji can help them with all this trouble..
Yes being a Guru he does engage into business activities but the definition of guru is not just to practise spiritual duties but also to perform the world activities too...Instituions that massive with millions of followers do not run for free.
Friends money is essential to live in this world but important thing to understand is where its been invested(good or bad purposes)
Think about it!

[Amar]

Over 110K views in the English and Hindi version combined. The comments on the YouTube are hilarious.

People getting extremely defensive and swearing at each other, threats of violence, lol.

A lot of denial to be quite honest. Actually quite a few links back to Brian's Blog linking the scandals.