Drought in Ethiopia (photo courtesy -- AFP)
India being a
rich country inhabited by the poor, the beliefs and convictions of its teeming
millions are wide ranging and varied. It is a land of not only snake-charmers and
rope-tricksters but also of flamboyant yogis and flying swamis who run a gun
factory even as they chant mantras (like
the ilk of Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari).
A certain chief
minister (or for that matter, N. T. Rama Rao of Andhra Pradesh, to be exact)
who reportedly wore a sari and an ear-ring on his left ear for seven
consecutive nights to appease the goddess of luck but propagated against the
evils of adult illiteracy and the resultant social backwardness is the popular
hero in his State; like a yogi, who claims can bring rains on parched earth by
the swish of his hand and is still a much venerated soul in our country.
In this context,
the thirsty city of Bangalore (“Bangalore Turns to Yogi for Rain”, May 6,) is
at least richer by a yogi than Ethiopia or Sudan. The Bangalore Water Supply
and Sewage Board, (BWSSB), has reportedly decided to avail the services of the
yogi to get rains.
While the
reluctant swami in R. K. Narayan’s The
Guide was compelled by the circumstances to undertake a fast for fourteen
days to propitiate the rain gods, Shivabalayogi’s spiritual feat would be at
the request of the BWSSB. However, the late Dr. Abraham Koovoor, (had he been
alive), might not like the spiritual hardware of a yogi to materialize in this
mundane world of shredded metaphysics and, as such, it would be wiser on the
part of the respected Yogi to consult weather reports before a date is fixed
for him to squeeze the rain clouds.
Konjengbam Kameshore
(Courtesy: The
Telegraph, Calcutta,
Wednesday, 22 May 1985)
