Mantras to induce Rain

[B.Krishnamurthy]

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CAN Ancient Mantras induce rain?
DO the Vedic Chants impact the surrounding environment? Scientists will attempt to find out the
answers when they descend on the ancient village of PANJAL in Kerala to study the 3100 year old
Vedic Ritual called "ATHIRATHIRAM" to be held from April 4 to April 14. The ritual to invoke 'AGNI'
the God of Fire will be conducted by 18 priests in the presincts of Lakshminarain Temple.
SOURCE:-FACE BOOK--Global Organisation of Hindus.

 

[sangom]

CAN Ancient Mantras induce rain?
DO the Vedic Chants impact the surrounding environment? Scientists will attempt to find out the
answers when they descend on the ancient village of PANJAL in Kerala to study the 3100 year old
Vedic Ritual called "ATHIRATHIRAM" to be held from April 4 to April 14. The ritual to invoke 'AGNI'
the God of Fire will be conducted by 18 priests in the presincts of Lakshminarain Temple.
SOURCE:-FACE BOOK--Global Organisation of Hindus.

Shri Krishnamurthy,

An athirathram will now cost around Rs.50 lakhs or nearabout. At best it may produce a little shower for about half an hour, that too not definite. (The concerned people select the day according to some rules.) It will be cheaper to do cloud-seeding and obtain longer showers for a larger area at the same cost.

 

[kunjuppu]

personally, i feel that this type of activity, is tempting the fates, or put it simply, 'fooling around with the faith'.

it appears to me, that we treat our God as a merchant - dump some prayers, smoke and brahmins on him, and in turn expect him to provide water.

if it succeeds, well and good. the first time if it succeeds, then it is going to give birth to more of such stuff. i am compelled to believe, that sooner or later, not all prayer instances will be rewarded.

so what happens? are we going to find fault with the process? or the purity of our beliefs? or give another shot in the arm for christian or islamic proselytzers?

for all such above reasons, and more if i could spend a few more minutes of thought, i hope to God, that they do this one session, fail and it all ends here and hushed up, and conveniently forgotten. the only ones to profit would be the contractors and the brahmin priests.

it may be simpler to accept cloud seeding. atleast, in this case, we have a track record of its success and know what are the chances of success.

 

[sangom]

This athirathram was done in the same Panjal in 1975 or so, on the initiative of some foreign scholars who wanted to film it and keep for archives because the vedic yagas and the knowledge and expertise for doing them were fast disappearing. I think they sacrificed a goat at that time, (by suffocating it by covering all its "dwarams" as prescribed in the yajurveda) or, may have bowed to public disapproval and replaced it with a pishta pasu (an image made of grain flour).

Ever since the Namboodiris who know something about these yagas (the old 'experts' have died) are finding it lucrative to take up this tamasha whenever some NRI sources come forward to finance them. Now there are a few more outfits under the aegis of the All India Brahmin Federation or some such organisation who seem to "invent" newer types of yagas and blow up a lot of currency into smoke, really, so to say. And our public ritually go, participate and thus encourage these.

 

[SwamiTaBra]

This athirathram was done in the same Panjal in 1975 or so, on the initiative of some foreign scholars who wanted to film it and keep for archives because the vedic yagas and the knowledge and expertise for doing them were fast disappearing. I think they sacrificed a goat at that time, (by suffocating it by covering all its "dwarams" as prescribed in the yajurveda) or, may have bowed to public disapproval and replaced it with a pishta pasu (an image made of grain flour).

Ever since the Namboodiris who know something about these yagas (the old 'experts' have died) are finding it lucrative to take up this tamasha whenever some NRI sources come forward to finance them. Now there are a few more outfits under the aegis of the All India Brahmin Federation or some such organisation who seem to "invent" newer types of yagas and blow up a lot of currency into smoke, really, so to say. And our public ritually go, participate and thus encourage these.

Some time in 1980s a big yagam was conducted in TVM -- I don't know which.
As was the practice the whole of the yagasalas were consigned to flames, and reportedly there were some showers..

Rgds.

 

[CLN]

I would very much like to know whether this technique / tactics of attempting to propitiate 'devatas' like Indra, Varuna, Agni, Vayu etc. and ugradevatas like Kali, Durga, Muneeswaran and many others through several kinds of 'balis' and 'aahuthis' of animals like cock, goat, buffalo, deer, Seemanthaputra, avivahithkanya etc. during temple festivals, certain special Homams and Yajnas, has any real sanction in Vedas. Further, irrespective of whether these acts have or have not the sanction of Vedas, how relevant really are they today?

 

[sangom]

I would very much like to know whether this technique / tactics of attempting to propitiate 'devatas' like Indra, Varuna, Agni, Vayu etc. and ugradevatas like Kali, Durga, Muneeswaran and many others through several kinds of 'balis' and 'aahuthis' of animals like cock, goat, buffalo, deer, Seemanthaputra, avivahithkanya etc. during temple festivals, certain special Homams and Yajnas, has any real sanction in Vedas. Further, irrespective of whether these acts have or have not the sanction of Vedas, how relevant really are they today?

Shri CLN,

I feel you are mixing up two types of worship here. The vedic sacrifices did include killing of a very large number of animals - I think more than 500 or so in every aśvamedham, and there were many other such sacrifices including "naramedha" or human sacrifice; in fact the cremation rites state "pitṛmedhvidhinā" which ought to translate as "sacrificing father" but I am not quite sure as to how our orthodox pundits have interpreted it. There was a "donkey sacrifice" for some infractions of brahmacarya rules by a brahmacaari. One dharmasaastra lays down the law that if a brahmacaari has sex with his gurupatnee - guru's wife (gurutalpagah) he should cut off his penis himself and walk southwards till he drops dead! I used to wonder when viewing some movies with student-teacher love how society has changed!!

But the type of sacrifices like those for propitiating ugradevatas like Kali, Durga, Muneeswaran, etc., have their origin in the tribal, non-aryan cults which were practised in India and are continued even today. These, naturally, have no sanction in the vedas. Tantric cults also practised/practise (?) even now as may be seen by the number of goats, fowls etc., sacrificed at the Kalighat Temple in Kolkatta and the Kaamaakhya temple in Guwahati, Assam. Interestingly Vivekananda believed in such goat sacrifice for all his public postures it seems. Please see this and this.

I have heard of "kanyaa" bali in the case of the Kodungalloor temple in Kerala; otherwise it is done by fringe magicians for gaining treasure and what not.

Hope the position is somewhat clear.

 

[CLN]

Very interesting informations, indeed, Mr. Sangom!. I do not know whether things have changed much or not in the practice at Kaamaakhya, but I still vividly remember the harrowing and nauseating experience of standing in a queue to take dharsan of Kaamaakhya Devi some 25 years ago when I had to move past very close to the area where the sacrificial goats were beheaded at a break-neck speed by the Pandas there! I decided then and there that I would never visit that temple again, and though I lived near Guwahati a few more years and visited the city many times in later years also, I never went to that temple again.

As you have confirmed, just as I feared, Vedas did prescribe several life-sacrifices. So, it now appears to me, leave alone shastras, even all the prescriptions of the Vedas cannot / should not be blindly accepted today by us, simply taking umbrage under the sanction of holy scriptures. People who steadfastly believe and accept Vedas to be sancro-sanct and equate it to Parabrahman itself will certainly castigate me for saying this, but I have to take the risk, nevertheless, and so I have said it anyway.

BTW, the link pertaining to Vivekananda which you have given, seems to contain several more shocking revelations! Thank you for the reference.

 

[sangom]

As you have confirmed, just as I feared, Vedas did prescribe several life-sacrifices. So, it now appears to me, leave alone shastras, even all the prescriptions of the Vedas cannot / should not be blindly accepted today by us, simply taking umbrage under the sanction of holy scriptures. People who steadfastly believe and accept Vedas to be sancro-sanct and equate it to Parabrahman itself will certainly castigate me for saying this, but I have to take the risk, nevertheless, and so I have said it anyway.

BTW, the link pertaining to Vivekananda which you have given, seems to contain several more shocking revelations! Thank you for the reference.

Shri CLN,

You have a like-minded person in me as regards the sacro-sanctness of the vedas. As for Vivekananda, despite all that is contained in that blog - by an erstwhile vivekanandaphile, the status of vivekananda will remain unaffected, I feel.