THE MYSTICAL QUALITY OF RAINS ACROSS CULTURES

WHEN the heat-ravaged plains of North India welcomed a few pre-monsoon showers, I couldn't help but be reminded of an interesting belief in world culture that holy men can wring rain out of burning skies by their penance, even by just their presence, by setting foot in rain-starved places.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

To begin at home, it's an old Indian belief that there exist holy men who can make rain come and make it stop, by appealing to the gods. In the Ramayana, the sage Rishyasringa is said to have made rain fall on parched land just by his presence. As recently as the 20th century, it seems former Tamil Nadu CM MG Ramachandran besought a luminous sage revered across the south to save the state from drought, and rains did come. The sage was the 68th Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati (1894-1994). He was away doing padayatra in the Deccan outside TN, which underwent a severe drought. The story has it he was finally besought in despair to return to the state. The sage knew his duty and made his way back. The legend goes that as he crossed into TN, dark clouds began to gather and it rained. Such stories may defy 'rationalism' and not be reported in our media, but how do we explain what happened? Meteorological coincidence?

It is a belief that when the Vedas, revered as 'God's Breath', are chanted with sincerity, the good vibrations benefit everybody. It is expressed thus: "Samastha loka sukhino bhavantu" or "May all people everywhere live well and be happy".

The ancient Jews had a similar belief, as found in the story of scholar Honi, the Circle-Drawer of Galilee, who lived in the 1st century BCE.