Sathya Sai Baba and ‘Suka Nadi’ prophecies

saibabaofindia.com and others have publised a list of prophecies allegedly made about Sathya Sai Baba. The following (in black text) is one statement made there:-

“- The advent of this Avatar Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba was uniquely prophesied not only in some ancient books of Indian origin but also in books of other lands and religions. It is found that Baba’s horoscope has been extolled in the Indian palmyra “Nadi” scrolls of hundreds of years antiquity, containing prophesies by celebrated sages like Agastha, Brahma, Bhrigu, Buddha, Shuka and Shukra. Since there is said to be remarkable accord amongst the different Nadis interpreted by different and independent readers, we can confidently ascribe genuineness and credibility to those Nadi predictions.”

Nadis

Comments (in purple text) As has been shown earlier here, we can certainly not confidently ascribe genuineness and credibility to the Nadi predictions. “There is said to be remarkable accord” – this is vague hearsay, for no known authoritative sources are ever stated nor documented. There are no photographs detailing any of the of alleged palm leaf texts referring to Sathya Sai Baba. Nowhere is a source to original text preserved, and there are not even direct translations of the alleged text because firstly they have to be selected from a mass of palm leaves on astrological data – most often got by the doubtful method of measuring the shadow of the person involved and noting the time and location (which was surely never done by Narayana Shastri for Sathya Sai Baba) or by having a correct, accurate birth date (and Sathya Sai Baba’s alleged birth date is contradicted by several official public records of his school days – see here). Secondly, these nadi readers have to interpret the very compact Sanskrit text through intuition. They even allow questions about what the text says and they answer as if virtually everything one wishes to know were to be found there!

The various ‘nadis’ are basis for one of the biggest ‘occult’ money-earning scams in India, practiced by Hindu astrologers and ‘shastris’ (i.e. who have reached a certain level in the Sanskrit language). Many hundreds of such palm leaf soothsayers are to be found, but can they all have leaves aged anything from 400 to 5000 years old, as is invariably claimed (though many are but copies). The business of faking copies is also rife. E.V. Narayana Shastri asked Sathya Sai Baba to bless publication of his Suka Nadi prophecies, but he was told ‘no!’. Later he went ahead anyhow and is so far – as far as can be discovered – the only nadi interpreter who has discovered the remarkable predictions about Sathya Sai Baba! Since the supposed ages who wrote such nadis are a few (Suka, Brighu, Kumar) how can it be that the predictions about Sai Baba were so unique that no one else can corroborate them or provide objective evidence of any kind? Is it just a matter of ‘believe what you want’ yet again? Further, considering how rewarding any scientific confirmation would be for their fortune-telling business, none have subjected any palm leaves to independent historical researchers or presented them for scientific examination or even carbon-dating. Not so far as can be discovered. In short, plenty of sound reasons to doubt their authenticity.