THE TSUNAMI DISASTER & THE "OMNISCIENT, OMNIPOTENT, DIVINE" GEO-THEOLOGIST?   Date: 12-31-04 By: Robert Priddy  One would expect Sai devotees to turn to their know-all guru and God for illumination as to the causes of the undersea earthquake and consequent tsunami calamities. What would they find? "Many natural calamities are entirely due to man's behaviour. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, wars, floods and famines and other calamities are the result of grave disorders in Nature. These disorders are traceable to man's conduct." p. 290, Sanathana Sarathi, December -1992 & p. 375 - Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 25. So it is all the fault of 'man'. However, since such major earthquake calamities took place for millions of years before and during humanity's emergence and are known to be caused by the regular releases through aeons of vast pressures built up in the gradually-moving continental tectonic plates, Sai Baba's connection to "man's conduct" it is really a tough conundrum to solve! This kind of talk may satisfy (and misinform) poor peasants or cringing servitors, but no one with a smattering of education can rationalise this away. But wait, could it have been a wrong translation or misquote by Sai Baba's translator/editor at the time, V.K. Narasimhan? Definitely not, for I often saw Narasimhan working on translations of Baba's Telugu and Sanskrit and he explained his process in detail. He was very thorough and generally very accurate. However, he also told me of numerous things he he omitted and modified to suppress the worst of Sai Baba's mistakes, confusions of facts and theoretical absurdities when translating. He was worried about his reputation if he were found out. This can now be told since poor old Narasimhan died in 2000. Just to show that Sai Baba really meant what he said, consider his following statement about one year later: "Nature is causing various disasters such as earthquakes, famines, floods and volcanic eruptions. What is the reason? The spiritual lapses of man account for these calamities." p. 11, Sanathana Sarathi, Nov. 1993. - or - p. 342 - Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 27 The kind of conduct, to which Sai Baba attributes all the ills of the world, is "spiritual lapses", don't you know. How spiritual lapses cause Nature to cause calamities is what Sai Baba cannot explain. He can tell of no observable or other precise connecting links which anyone can believe in (except perhaps Indra worshippers and the like). It is all postulation and arises from the primitive pre-scientific misunderstanding of causes of man's afflictions, whether it be illnesses like leprosy, or otherwise avoidable accidents, or anything the empirical causes of which were unknown to our relativel;y very ignorant and superstitious forefathers and the many and various faulty 'religious tenets' they have handed down to us. Still uncertain whether Sai Baba can be so ignorant, vague and pompously absurd? Try the following for size then:- "What is the cause of droughts and floods which occur in the world? Man seeks to enjoy the benefits of Nature which has grave consequences. Here you have a globe. If you hit it one way, its balance is disturbed. We should always see to it that the utilisation of natural resources a proper balance is kept. Excessive use in one direction will result in harm in another direction." p. 282, Sanathana Sarathi November, 1997 -- or - p. 241-242, Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 30. One could forgive Sathya Sai Baba his profound ignorance of undisputable facts were it not for the arrogant and all-knowing manner with which he uses these falsehoods to try to impress his listeners and even to cow people into submission to his 'spiritual teaching'. Of course, we must expect that all manner of imaginitive 'Sai miracle stories' after this - too good a chance for the 'spiritual self'-promoters, fantasists and Sai apologists to miss! How long before someone claims that Sai Baba protected all his devotees and none lost their lives or families? Perhaps it will take a while, as definitive contrary evidence will surely be available when the names of most are known. One of the commonest types of dream is of the sea rising threateningly, of floodings and oceanic storm surges etc. It is widely agreed among dream researchers since Freud and Jung that water very often symbolises the so-called 'unconscious mind' or some aspect of it. It can also symbolise life essence (water being the main constituent of the body and necessary to all living beings). In persons who have vulnerable psyches, underdeveloped consciousness, poor touch with reality and in 'borderline' cases, flooding and tsunamis etc. can represent the potential overwhelming of the ego or closed-off emotions and awareness by what it is blocking off. Reports from devotees of 'dream warnings from Svami' are always based on subjective interpretations of dream materials on the expectation that they are prescient warnings from Sai Baba. Many catastrophe's have been announced in Sai books, but none have been borne out by events. However, Sai Baba's recent definitive denial in his Birthday discourse (after decades of affirming it) that he ever comes in anyone's dreams, which makes some sense at last! Consider also his recent fantasised and totally incorrect report on what happened at the hi-jack in which the Goldstein's were involved! Devotees are still presumably also waiting for Sai Baba's own predictions to come about, such as those below:- "Let me tell you one more thing: Nothing can impede or halt the work of this Avathaara... Formerly when the Govardhanagiri (mountain) was raised aloft by a little boy, the gopis and gopalas realised that Krishna was the Lord. Now, it is not one Govardhanagiri, a whole range will be lifted, you will see!" Sathya Sai Speaks Vol.3 new ed. p. 92 "I will have to forego the car and even the aeroplane when I move from place to place, for the crowds pressing around them will be too huge; I will have to move across the sky; yes, that too will happen, believe Me." Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. II, p. 92