Pouring Rain and Red Earth

T his is something I have never understood. The moment it rains, everybody runs as if they are made of sugar or salt, and they are going to melt away. If I have a program or a public event, I will also run a little bit because I don't want to go in a certain way. But otherwise, even as a child, I never understood why people run from the rain. When I was just four years of age, the moment it rained, my parents and everybody else would be screaming, “run, run, run!” as if there is fire. We lived in a very open space where there was a large acreage of land, and monsoons in Mysore were big. It would be pouring, but I would just stand there.

For me, the first shower that came in the summer was ecstasy. When drops of rain fell on me, I would just burst. Later on, after a certain experience changed my life, it became even deeper. Earlier, I just enjoyed it; it made me blissful in a certain different way. But later on, being in the rain became a very big experience for me. I even have a little quadrangle in the house so it rains inside, and I just go stand in it.

Over 72% of your body is water. You are actually a water bottle. This is the most important waterbody in your life. If you can experience this aspect as “myself,” rain is a wonderful time for you; you will relate to nature in a big way because it connects you. Rain is a connection for you because it is you that is raining upon you, not something else. So for me, rain is a very powerful spiritual experience. It has always been.

When Isha Home School started, there were big storms because school starts during monsoon. The teachers asked, “How to protect the children?” I told them, “Take them out to the stream in the rain and let them experience it the way it is.” When you are soaked through and through in the rain, you will see there is not much difference between you and the elements around you. When you are dry, you don’t realize that; when you are wet, you know that. That is why it used to be that in every Indian temple, before you enter, you are supposed to have a dip. Unfortunately, most of these kulams (ponds) are now gone. You are supposed to have a dip because your ability to perceive and connect to the Divine is so much better. This is one idea behind the Theerthakunds. The water is energized and consecrated in a different way, but it is water.

Dhyanalinga is a consecrated space, but you must be very subtle to feel it because it is just air. Water is so much easier for people. Though Dhyanlinga is a powerful experience for some people, others just sit and gape around. They do not understand what is happening; they are not able to perceive the experience; that is why we created the Theerthakunds. Let people feel the water; after that, feeling the space becomes easier. It is a preparatory step, but unfortunately the Theerthakunds are becoming more popular than Dhyanalinga itself!

Make the most of the Monsoon, soak and connect with the ELEMENTAL MAGIC of creation. Know life beyond the boundaries of your physical existence. Here is an opportunity to break and go beyond the compulsions of Body. Know the joy of being in the embrace of creation and loving intimacy with the source of creation.

Know the dripping ecstasy of mingling with the Monsoon Rain.

THOU SHALL NEVER SAY RAIN RAIN GO AWAY.

Monsoon

Pouring rain and red earth
meet and mingle like lovers
Passion crazed in feverish haze
With the single mindedness
to end all that is oneself
To merge and know the other.
This longing to destroy oneself
And to be delivered into the other.

What immortal hand did put them apart
Only to be put together as mortal pawns

Red earth and pouring rain
have met indeed not to lie as slush
To nourish life to life and keep dead – dead.
To become tree, flower or fruit
When this earth & sky kiss & copulate
This earth with life will populate
It is in this life that Divine celebrates.