The dangers of XYZ country's president getting into Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD)
Note: XYZ refers to a particular country which I do not want to name.
I would say that XYZ country's president seems to be getting into Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) which seems to be getting HUGELY ENABLED by a support base that wants an Emperor to rule the country as per their wishes & agenda (as against a democratic President accountable to democratic checks & balances institutions of the country).
My traumatic experience of NPD type people whose NPD got into full blown mode after they found themselves in UNACCOUNTABLE positions of power in the Sathya Sai ashram system (based in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, India) including the Sathya Sai university (Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning), after Sathya Sai's passing away (in April 2011), is that these NPD types think they have a god-given right to dominate over and impose their rule (and their views) upon their subordinates. The ex warden elder and the vice-chancellor of the Sai university both got into full blown NPD cases, in my considered opinion. That encouraged some lower level officers like the Registrar, university campus director(s) and the Maths & Comp. Sc department head to also get into NPD behaviour. And, to my utter astonishment, the vast majority of staff and the alumni of the Sai university gladly accepted their dominance (sweetened for paid staff by significant salary raises or plum positions with good salary, with money coming from the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (and associated sister trusts') corpus donated by Sathya Sai devotees over the years and NOT the money of either the ex warden or the vice-chancellor). The few naysayers were brutally but non-violently, I repeat brutally but non-violently, marginalized leading to them either accepting their rule or getting out/being thrown out (like me). The effective HIJACK of the Sai university (supported by co-operative officers like the Registrar, university campus director(s) and some HOD(s)) and its powerful alumni group by the ex warden and vice-chancellor and some of their supporters/followers, lasted nearly three and a half years (Jul 2011 to Nov. 2014 when the VC stepped down)!!! The damage done will take decades, I repeat decades, for the Sai university as well as its alumni group to recover from.
Now XYZ President is doing something similar in XYZ. What took me by great surprise and astonishment was how most of his party representatives in XYZ top legislative body have accepted this dominance by XYZ President which seems to have made him even more dominant and into full NPD type behaviour. Frankly, I expected more spine from his party representatives in XYZ top legislative body. I have been very sorely disappointed by their lack of spine to protect XYZ democracy from being dominated over by this man who is behaving like a dictator, especially in his atrocious behaviour towards the mainstream media in XYZ.
I did a lot of study about NPD in the past few years to understand how people who had behaved in one way before Sathya Sai passed away (out of fear of Sathya Sai who was accessible to be offered a complaint letter by any staff of the ashram system during his daily presence (sort-of holding court) at the main hall of the ashram), got transformed into Hitler-Stalin type monsters after they found themselves in positions of power where they were no longer accountable to almost anybody or accountable to just one or two persons whom they kept happy, one way or another.
Now in 2017 over 6 years after the passing away of Sathya Sai, slowly and steadily fear of Indian govt. agencies including district level police and courts of law, is replacing the fear of Sathya Sai (physical form). So, in most institutions of the ashram, it seems to me that abuse of power, and mental harassment and humiliation of subordinates by NPD types is coming down from the absolutely crazy levels seen in the year or two after Sathya Sai passed away in April 2011. However, a recent suicide by a lady ex-employee of an ashram project/dept. in the office where she had worked, and which case's police investigation is yet to be completed, raises concerns about workplace harassment's role in the suicide. So more needs to be done in terms of making ashram bosses and department heads accountable to the devotee fraternity, donors, and also to the govt. agencies of India.
But who will control XYZ President??? The XYZ constitution gives extraordinary protection to the position of president for the term that he has been elected for. And then the president gets extraordinary power to bring in a large team of people of his choosing (not elected representatives), including his relatives, into top positions of his administration. Now most of his party representatives in XYZ top legislative body, barring just a very few, seem to have become devoted followers (devotees) of the Emperor-President! And he is using his social media following and his support base to immense effect in ensuring this devotion from his party representatives. I mean, these party representatives seem to be afraid of attracting the displeasure and wrath of the Emperor-President as then he may publicly (verbally) attack them which may then lead to his (Emperor-President's) support base in the representatives' constituencies, opposing them (representatives) and seeking to unseat them!
What an extraordinary state of affairs in a wealthy and militarily powerful country (XYZ) in the world today, that (country XYZ) is a democracy!
=======================================================================
Given below is a comment exchange from my Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1939622989587602, associated with this blog post:
In response to comment, "Well written post ( NPD ). We find such people everywhere now-a-days. Must be cautious. And it seems like you are still very hurt over the treatment meted out to you at your workplace. Years have passed by but your wounded heart hasn't healed. I do understand you. Take Care.", I (Ravi) wrote (slightly edited):
Thanks. About the "still very hurt": Well, now for me it is more of a matter of documenting my experience, and keeping it alive, as that would help deter such harassment and humiliation of others. That deterrence part is one key reason why I keep mentioning it, from time to time. In this particular case, I felt it appropriate to refer to those experiences as I am sharing my learning from that experience in the context of country XYZ president.
Also, emotional closure of such matters comes when the wrongdoers apologize and seek forgiveness. I have not received any such apology or seeking of forgiveness request from then vice-chancellor, Registrar, then Director campus and then HOD of Maths & Comp. Sc. dept. They think that they can bully and bluff their way through the matter. I want to keep this alive as a way to counter their efforts to bluff and bully their way through their wrongdoings.
---
--Name-snipped-- responded:
Yes, i get your point of view. You see, we live in Kali Yuga, so we encounter many such problems in our daily life. These wrongdoers never apologise because they are too egoistic. Let me tell you, such people are very well aware of their flaws. They may be highly educated, but do not have basic manners to say "Sorry" I am saying this based on my personal experiences.
----
Ravi S. Iyer responded (slightly edited):
Thanks for your valuable response.
See sister --Name-snipped--, I did not write about these matters publicly from June/July 2012 by which time I had terminated my association with the Sai university and also let the bosses know in a polite but not public way that they should follow Sathya & Dharma, till sometime in the year 2015! Around three years!!! After July 2012 I had taken the approach of just walking away from Asathya-Adharma and focusing on my spiritual journey in outside ashram Puttaparthi.
But what happened? Did these fellows show remorse for their bad behaviour? No. Instead the vice-chancellor and ex warden continued their dominance over Sai university till Nov. 2014!!! The Registrar, Director PN campus and HOD Maths & Comp. Sc. dept acted as if they were pure as Ganges water and had done nothing wrong in my case!!!
It is in March 2015 that I realized in a more comprehensive way than earlier how much damage was being done worldwide due to DIVISION created by ex warden supported by vice-chancellor and others including many in the alumni community.
Some people had to publicly challenge and expose these fellows. That was the only way to reverse the HIJACK and reduce the number of people these fellows were misguiding by misusing the HOLY NAME of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Unless these fellows were exposed they would hide their misdeeds and bully their way out of any situation!!
So I publicly wrote, and continue to write from time to time, about the misdeeds they did in the Sai university in the crucial period of a year or so after Mahasamadhi which resulted in HIJACK of Sai university from Jul 2011 till Nov. 2014 by ex warden and then vice-chancellor.
Look at the example of Gangadhara Bhat sir of Alike school. Did he not make a public confession about him making a big mistake by following Narasimhamurthy after Mahasamadhi? He even apologized, I am told.
Should not these fellows from Sai university follow Gangadhara Bhat sir's footsteps? If they are genuine spiritual people instead of Dhongis (hypocrites), that is what they will do. But so far they prefer to hide their misdeeds and act as if they are all pure Ganges water fellows! These fellows should be forced to accept their mistakes PUBLICLY and made to apologize to Sathya Sai fraternity and seek forgiveness from Sathya Sai fraternity for their misdeeds.
That is the intent of me continuing to write from time to time about the misdeeds of some administrators of the Sai university in the crucial year or two after Mahasamadhi. Further, it is my view that the spiritual glory of the Sai university can be regained ONLY AFTER these administrators make such a confession and show GENUINE remorse. Otherwise the spiritual glory of the Sai university will continue to be eclipsed by mere UGC and NAAC related pure academic efforts with only some hypocritical show of spirituality.
----
--Name-snipped-- responded (slightly edited):
Exactly brother, i agree with you.
---
I would say that XYZ country's president seems to be getting into Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) which seems to be getting HUGELY ENABLED by a support base that wants an Emperor to rule the country as per their wishes & agenda (as against a democratic President accountable to democratic checks & balances institutions of the country).
My traumatic experience of NPD type people whose NPD got into full blown mode after they found themselves in UNACCOUNTABLE positions of power in the Sathya Sai ashram system (based in Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, India) including the Sathya Sai university (Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning), after Sathya Sai's passing away (in April 2011), is that these NPD types think they have a god-given right to dominate over and impose their rule (and their views) upon their subordinates. The ex warden elder and the vice-chancellor of the Sai university both got into full blown NPD cases, in my considered opinion. That encouraged some lower level officers like the Registrar, university campus director(s) and the Maths & Comp. Sc department head to also get into NPD behaviour. And, to my utter astonishment, the vast majority of staff and the alumni of the Sai university gladly accepted their dominance (sweetened for paid staff by significant salary raises or plum positions with good salary, with money coming from the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (and associated sister trusts') corpus donated by Sathya Sai devotees over the years and NOT the money of either the ex warden or the vice-chancellor). The few naysayers were brutally but non-violently, I repeat brutally but non-violently, marginalized leading to them either accepting their rule or getting out/being thrown out (like me). The effective HIJACK of the Sai university (supported by co-operative officers like the Registrar, university campus director(s) and some HOD(s)) and its powerful alumni group by the ex warden and vice-chancellor and some of their supporters/followers, lasted nearly three and a half years (Jul 2011 to Nov. 2014 when the VC stepped down)!!! The damage done will take decades, I repeat decades, for the Sai university as well as its alumni group to recover from.
Now XYZ President is doing something similar in XYZ. What took me by great surprise and astonishment was how most of his party representatives in XYZ top legislative body have accepted this dominance by XYZ President which seems to have made him even more dominant and into full NPD type behaviour. Frankly, I expected more spine from his party representatives in XYZ top legislative body. I have been very sorely disappointed by their lack of spine to protect XYZ democracy from being dominated over by this man who is behaving like a dictator, especially in his atrocious behaviour towards the mainstream media in XYZ.
I did a lot of study about NPD in the past few years to understand how people who had behaved in one way before Sathya Sai passed away (out of fear of Sathya Sai who was accessible to be offered a complaint letter by any staff of the ashram system during his daily presence (sort-of holding court) at the main hall of the ashram), got transformed into Hitler-Stalin type monsters after they found themselves in positions of power where they were no longer accountable to almost anybody or accountable to just one or two persons whom they kept happy, one way or another.
Now in 2017 over 6 years after the passing away of Sathya Sai, slowly and steadily fear of Indian govt. agencies including district level police and courts of law, is replacing the fear of Sathya Sai (physical form). So, in most institutions of the ashram, it seems to me that abuse of power, and mental harassment and humiliation of subordinates by NPD types is coming down from the absolutely crazy levels seen in the year or two after Sathya Sai passed away in April 2011. However, a recent suicide by a lady ex-employee of an ashram project/dept. in the office where she had worked, and which case's police investigation is yet to be completed, raises concerns about workplace harassment's role in the suicide. So more needs to be done in terms of making ashram bosses and department heads accountable to the devotee fraternity, donors, and also to the govt. agencies of India.
But who will control XYZ President??? The XYZ constitution gives extraordinary protection to the position of president for the term that he has been elected for. And then the president gets extraordinary power to bring in a large team of people of his choosing (not elected representatives), including his relatives, into top positions of his administration. Now most of his party representatives in XYZ top legislative body, barring just a very few, seem to have become devoted followers (devotees) of the Emperor-President! And he is using his social media following and his support base to immense effect in ensuring this devotion from his party representatives. I mean, these party representatives seem to be afraid of attracting the displeasure and wrath of the Emperor-President as then he may publicly (verbally) attack them which may then lead to his (Emperor-President's) support base in the representatives' constituencies, opposing them (representatives) and seeking to unseat them!
What an extraordinary state of affairs in a wealthy and militarily powerful country (XYZ) in the world today, that (country XYZ) is a democracy!
=======================================================================
Given below is a comment exchange from my Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1939622989587602, associated with this blog post:
In response to comment, "Well written post ( NPD ). We find such people everywhere now-a-days. Must be cautious. And it seems like you are still very hurt over the treatment meted out to you at your workplace. Years have passed by but your wounded heart hasn't healed. I do understand you. Take Care.", I (Ravi) wrote (slightly edited):
Thanks. About the "still very hurt": Well, now for me it is more of a matter of documenting my experience, and keeping it alive, as that would help deter such harassment and humiliation of others. That deterrence part is one key reason why I keep mentioning it, from time to time. In this particular case, I felt it appropriate to refer to those experiences as I am sharing my learning from that experience in the context of country XYZ president.
Also, emotional closure of such matters comes when the wrongdoers apologize and seek forgiveness. I have not received any such apology or seeking of forgiveness request from then vice-chancellor, Registrar, then Director campus and then HOD of Maths & Comp. Sc. dept. They think that they can bully and bluff their way through the matter. I want to keep this alive as a way to counter their efforts to bluff and bully their way through their wrongdoings.
---
--Name-snipped-- responded:
Yes, i get your point of view. You see, we live in Kali Yuga, so we encounter many such problems in our daily life. These wrongdoers never apologise because they are too egoistic. Let me tell you, such people are very well aware of their flaws. They may be highly educated, but do not have basic manners to say "Sorry" I am saying this based on my personal experiences.
----
Ravi S. Iyer responded (slightly edited):
Thanks for your valuable response.
See sister --Name-snipped--, I did not write about these matters publicly from June/July 2012 by which time I had terminated my association with the Sai university and also let the bosses know in a polite but not public way that they should follow Sathya & Dharma, till sometime in the year 2015! Around three years!!! After July 2012 I had taken the approach of just walking away from Asathya-Adharma and focusing on my spiritual journey in outside ashram Puttaparthi.
But what happened? Did these fellows show remorse for their bad behaviour? No. Instead the vice-chancellor and ex warden continued their dominance over Sai university till Nov. 2014!!! The Registrar, Director PN campus and HOD Maths & Comp. Sc. dept acted as if they were pure as Ganges water and had done nothing wrong in my case!!!
It is in March 2015 that I realized in a more comprehensive way than earlier how much damage was being done worldwide due to DIVISION created by ex warden supported by vice-chancellor and others including many in the alumni community.
Some people had to publicly challenge and expose these fellows. That was the only way to reverse the HIJACK and reduce the number of people these fellows were misguiding by misusing the HOLY NAME of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Unless these fellows were exposed they would hide their misdeeds and bully their way out of any situation!!
So I publicly wrote, and continue to write from time to time, about the misdeeds they did in the Sai university in the crucial period of a year or so after Mahasamadhi which resulted in HIJACK of Sai university from Jul 2011 till Nov. 2014 by ex warden and then vice-chancellor.
Look at the example of Gangadhara Bhat sir of Alike school. Did he not make a public confession about him making a big mistake by following Narasimhamurthy after Mahasamadhi? He even apologized, I am told.
Should not these fellows from Sai university follow Gangadhara Bhat sir's footsteps? If they are genuine spiritual people instead of Dhongis (hypocrites), that is what they will do. But so far they prefer to hide their misdeeds and act as if they are all pure Ganges water fellows! These fellows should be forced to accept their mistakes PUBLICLY and made to apologize to Sathya Sai fraternity and seek forgiveness from Sathya Sai fraternity for their misdeeds.
That is the intent of me continuing to write from time to time about the misdeeds of some administrators of the Sai university in the crucial year or two after Mahasamadhi. Further, it is my view that the spiritual glory of the Sai university can be regained ONLY AFTER these administrators make such a confession and show GENUINE remorse. Otherwise the spiritual glory of the Sai university will continue to be eclipsed by mere UGC and NAAC related pure academic efforts with only some hypocritical show of spirituality.
----
--Name-snipped-- responded (slightly edited):
Exactly brother, i agree with you.
---
Comments
Post a Comment