“Scientists today are inventing several things. A double-decker plane is being flown in the sky. However, along with the great advances made in science and technology, loss of the quality of human life is also on a large scale. This was not the case in earlier times. Several people used to live together under one roof, with peace and happiness. There was no fear complex at all! But, today, the fear complex is all pervading. Wherefrom did this fear come? It is due to lack of self-confidence. People have no faith in their inner Self.” (Sathya Sai Baba in his Convocation discourse, 22-11-2008)
Comment: Sathya Sai Baba bemoans the “loss of quality in human life”. He evidently believes that all was light and love, that traditional society in Indian was better than in the democracies today, but there was constant internecine war and invasions – from the Mahabharata war to the vast genocide by Ashoka, from the Mogul holocaust to the brutal maharajas. It is sheer rubbish to say “there was no fear complex at all”! Sai Baba wants to set the clock back to strict puritan religious and oppressive values, to rife superstition and fear of the environment, as if all people were more moral and good in former times. History teaches us otherwise (if one knows any). The huge world majority rejects any such return to the past. Sathya Sai Baba preaches of a golden age in forgotten times, but nothing indicates that such legends have any truth behind them, it is mythological only. Little does he therefore know or understand of the improved quality of life since earlier times, the benefits of civilised law, increasing human rights, greater security from hunger and illness than ever (even though this has not reached all nations, it is so in the huge majority). One could go on with hundreds of improvements, for even in the last half century, human life conditions have improved vastly on a scale which would have been unimaginable to our forefathers.
“Due to an indiscriminate use of technology, the air, water, food, and everything is polluted and poisoned all over the world. Fortunately, the country of Bharat is spared from this widespread pollution. We should not run after science and technology. Science without humanness is fraught with great danger to the very existence of humanity. There is no greater power than human power.”
On the whole, and increasingly today, the many sciences covering all aspects of existence in greater and greater detail is the very expression of human striving to improve all the conditions and quality of life. They can hardly be said to be inventing only “several things”. The use of technology has been and still may continue to be a two-edged sword, though world awareness as to its wrong uses and proper development has increased vastly in recent decades, which has improved science greatly.
Air, water and food are not “polluted and poisoned all over the world” other than in “ the country of Bharat”. Pollution occurs in many industrialised countries, but it is being tackled on a massive scale too now. Many countries which had real problems have clean air and living rivers again already. Pollution in India is truly massive, the air in most cities (eg. Bangalore) is grey with exhaust, even the Ganges is no example with all the industrial effluents constantly pouring into it. Food pollution is far from unknown in India, as informed people know.
Most revealing is the declaration, or the admission, by the self-proclaimed Creator of the Universe that “There is no greater power than human power.” These discourses are a source of amusement to all who can see how bogus are the claims made in them.
As to Sai Baba’s claim that people today lack confidence in themselves (revamped as ‘the inner Self’), this is based on an upside-down version of life and the world which he has been preaching all his life. One can see some of the deep flaws in his doctrine in the following:-
Sathya Sai Baba Deceptions Exposed 