You might already know this, but...

Code Buttons really nailed it when he coined "datta-tsunami" in reference to you-know-who. Out of curiosity as to whether the word "dattaswami" is a known proper name, a generic word or actually unique to this poster, I did an internet search. I was astounded to find that google had gotten over 35,000 hits, a sampling of which looks exactly like the dattaswami that we all know and hate. He's just about everywhere--mostly on forums with religious, scientific and/or philosophical themes. The all-too-familar tedious loooooong booooring posts filled with chronic, nonsensical datta-rhea have charmed message boards all over the internet.

Personally, I think dattaswami is not really a he (or even a she), but a fairly sophisticated bot programmed to register at message boards and then proceed to create flurries of threads at random intervals. If anyone dares to respond, dattaswami is ever-ready with an answer, possibly by reacting to certain words in the responder's post which match words within a vast stockpile of parables and sermons. When a hit is found, the applicable lecture is posted.

I found a lot of instances of multiple threads created at forums with very little (if any) response, exactly like what happens here. But when people did respond, their reactions and comments were amusing. I pulled the following snippets from various forums in which dattaswami participates. Since dattaswami apparently doesn't communicate the way a real person would, his (its) posts are very much subject to interpretation. Seems people really do see what they want to see.

**Dattaswami?, What are you?

**The Baha'i Faith is yet another religion whose solution to the problem posed by dattaswami is Let's all become Baha'is

**THis was the last thread that I looked at before going to bed last night. During my sleep, I had a vision of what Dattaswami is. According to this vision, the definition of a dattaswami is "an illegal Chinese martial arts manouvre".

**This question was prompted by several posts made by DattaSwami (in the Spirituality forum)... something which I, as an athiest, took a little offence at. But I must thank Dattaswami for those posts as,...it is possible to learn a great deal and to listen and question ones own beliefs.

**Dattaswami is temporarily being shut off from any proposed new topics. He can elaborate on all of his ideas in the topic that he has open. I will try and work with him there.

**That's just plain brilliant! Brilliant imagination that is... Dattaswami is like the hindu answer to Douglas Adams, he just don't realize it himself...

**The thing that concerned me most about Dattaswami's posts is that at one point, he was challenged about eating disorders...dangerous to the more vulnerable members of the board.

**Can't we get a block on dattaswami? i feel that most of what he says (and I am sure most other people would agree) is pointless. He quite clearly has a problem with sprirituality and not an eating disorder!
Response:
Excuse me for butting in here! This is Britain, am I right? In this country we have a thing called 'freedom of speech', am I right?...he is entitled to his opinions,

**I probably sound like Dattaswami by now...

**...is such long-winded crap as dattaswami's only the province of Christians and Hindus ?

**Shame on you , Dattaswami , for posing as an incarnation of God

**Maybe you should try a little tenderness with dattaswami? I suspect he resorts to quiet comptemplation now and then...

**So far, dattaswami is making the atheist argument without need for an atheist to do it - oh, the irony!

**Who created Dattaswami? Or does Dattaswami believe he is God? I'm still hoping for an answer.

**dattaswami's parents created him.

**Dattaswami has tried to say only a fraction of reality but is not able to project it wholely.

**He's not that bad . Ive met worse. And i do like Yogurt ......... or was it Yoga he was talking about ?

**My point about Dattaswami is that he posts but doesn't reply. I take this attitude as "I am right, so there is nothing to discuss".

**ARGH! ANOTHER ONE. Dattaswami, I swear... Look, pal - this is the wrong forum for this. Stop spamming. You were banned once and if you keep this up you'll be banned again, you don't want that, do you?

**Dattaswami is not using racist, sexist or homaphobic language, and just because people might not agree or comprehend what he is saying is not in my view reason enough to be banned! That is for the Administrator to decide.

**Dattaswami (Anil) KNOWS there is a reward from Satan if Christians can be led off the path.

**Is it just me, or does it seem like dattaswami is simply lecturing, and the lectures are based on a list of unsaid broad assumptions.

**...dattaswami is not necessarily pushing a single culty thing - he could merely being saying, in essence, "there is only one God".

**Dattaswami is discussing God from his perspective and so his knowledge and understanding on sin is based on that perspective of God..

**Dattaswami's agenda appears very New Age to me

**I submit that Dattaswami is trying to "enlighten" us Christian with non-Christian teachings. I further submit that Dattaswami is not trying to discuss them with us; he is simply trying to "flash" us with them, hoping that we will see the "light" simply by seeing them.

**All one can do to "stop Dattaswami from equating Hindusim with Christianity" is to present the true Lord Jesus Christ, and then let God do the rest.

**You gotta give dattaswami credit for recognising the obvious: that a God cannot be sectarian and universally righteous at the same time.

**dattaswami, Let me get this straight. You believe that Shria Datta Swami is god or has godlike powers?

**If dattaswami is looking to promote Universal Spirituality for World Peace I think it would go down better starting from chapter one!

**dattaswami, by his very presence, changes and adds to the nature of the forum.

**in the end, dattaswami is apparently merely presenting us with yet another concept of God, and nothing more, albeit one that seems to makes more sense....

**Dattaswami is humorously ignorant and it seems he loves it? Where did he get the idea that Mlecha means muslims? Give me a break!!!.

**the only way to successfully dialogue with dattaswami was to...act as if one was speaking to a god.

**Samael has banned ' dattaswami ' . The Reason for this ban was : Posting a series of Right - Hand Path nonsense to the boards

**ban this bumbling barrister of blasphemy!

**Anagram of dattaswami is - I'm a sad twat

**************

That last one is my favorite.

Interesting research. I like the 'bot theory.

**ban this bumbling barrister of blasphemy!

Funny!

By the way, ON: Thanks for taking the time to do the research on Datta-stunami. I feel better about the situation with him/it here at BM. Sounds like some new kind of spamming from the religious wing or something of that nature.

So....Did you ban it?

Please refer to Shawn or Lucid for that. I'm just a humble servant tryint to keep an eye out for spammers here at BM. My monitoring abilities don't go too much beyond editing and deleting spammers and/or offensive posts. And I'm very hesitant at that most of the time, anyway.

I will remove Dattaswami's posts if they contribute nothing, as other mods should too. What he does can be regarded as spam posting since it is done in rapid succession, in great amounts, and is rarely relevant to ongoing discussions or threads. I think if he was serious about initiating a dialogue, he would take the time to thoughtfully condense his posts and make a greater effort to engage others, or at least contribute to other threads besides the ones he starts.

How very... lucid.