The Hindu Business Line : Search for explanations

THE New York Times, which is usually matter-of-fact and to the point, has allowed itself a bit of philosophising in its editorial on the enormous scale and sweep of the terror and tragedy of the black Sunday when the sea struck with such catastrophic fury at the coastal areas of many countries in this part of the world. As it rightly says, "It's instinctive in humans to search for the meaning of an event like this, once shock and grief have begun to subside. And there will be plenty of meanings to find in the ways that humans reacted as this disaster struck..."

How true! To persons in the street stunned by the tsunami's ferocity, the only explanation suggesting itself would be in the nature of some divine retribution for some monstrous transgression committed by human beings. There were many theories floating around. Some said that it was God's punishment for the disrespect shown to his teachings and to those engaged in propagating them.

In fact, it came to my ears that the religious-minded and spiritually inclined, and, indeed, some among the poorer sections in the affected localities, were blaming the terrifying havoc on the arrest of the Shankaracharya and defaming of the Kanchi mutt. Some others felt that it was brought on by the lies indulged in by nations such as the US and the UK, followed by their unjustified and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq.

This hypothesis, however, needs to be immediately dismissed since it does not explain why an omniscient power should inflict so much suffering on those who had nothing to do with those decisions. Finally, there were those who argued that it was meant to jolt the world out of its headlong rush towards crass commercialism, meretricious materialism and mindless consumerism.

These deserve to be dismissed for what they are: Idle speculations. The death and devastation were certainly not any supernaturally ordained event, but resulted from the earth's "amoral mechanics", proving yet again that man is no match for nature in the awesome force and power that it represents.

But man still has the invincible spirit, tools of technology and time-tested mechanisms to nullify the effects of its onslaught. Society must now put all of them to use to ameliorate the tremendous human suffering and gear itself to face similar challenges in future.

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