In Praise of Rain

[Vinayaka]

Rain, food, can't have one without the other. Our ancients recognised it ... in the Vedas, Varuna is praised. I was sitting with our Kurukkal this morning, talking about the rain here this year. It was last April that I watered the lawn. This year has been the rainiest since I started assisting with the landscaping at koyil. The grass is stunning.

My parents knew it, as do all farmers. Since I have farmer in my blood, I know it.

Sometimes we forget. Here is Chapter 2 of the Tirukurral. Note ... it is Chapter 2. If Tiruvalluvar had his chapters written in any sense of importance, then he sure knew it.

I have 3 rainwater collecting barrels at koyil, connected with syphon hoses. That water is so soft you can feel the contrast just on your hands.

https://thirukkural133.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/chapter-2-glory-of-rain/

 

[Fireside_Hindu]

It amazes me how afraid people are of the rain. Everyone goes racing indoors when it starts to rain, worried about getting a little wet. People pack umbrellas and waterproof coats for short excursions. (Obviously on long treks in extreme weather, wet clothes can be dangerous) But I actually really enjoy a nice spring rain. It feels refreshing and as I try to tell people I'm with - "It's just water. Water never hurt anyone....except the Wicked Witch of the West, I suppose."

 

[Vinayaka]

My father called those long summer rains, 'million dollar rains'. They were, too. Not just food, but livelihood.

 

[StarryNightshade]

It amazes me how afraid people are of the rain. Everyone goes racing indoors when it starts to rain, worried about getting a little wet. People pack umbrellas and waterproof coats for short excursions. (Obviously on long treks in extreme weather, wet clothes can be dangerous) But I actually really enjoy a nice spring rain. It feels refreshing and as I try to tell people I'm with - "It's just water. Water never hurt anyone....except the Wicked Witch of the West, I suppose."

Kind of like here in Korea. When it rains hard, it can be a hassle to walk without an umbrella, but when it's light, rain is refreshing to walk in. Especially after being cooped up in a dorm for hours or days at a time.

 

[DeviChaaya]

I grew up in the tropics. We love the rain. None of this running inside to get out of the cold because the rain was always a cooling relief. So you get a little wet, so what? That has translated to me, here in Melbourne, going about in the middle of winter without an umbrella or waterproof garment because, well, it's just rain and I can always go inside to get warm.

Rain is a blessing, always, but sadly it does not rain properly anymore where I grew up as human influenced climate change is moving the seasons about all willy nilly. The monsoon is meant to happen over November, December, January, February and March but now you can go well into February without a drop of rain.

 

[Aupmanyav]

We long for the rain after five months of heat. Some times rain obliges, sometimes not, many times it creates havoc as it has done this year. But can't do without it.

Robert Kerry was in Delhi. He was caught in a traffic jam for one and a half hour on arrival. Even the Indian Army Chief was caught in a traffic jam. Later, speaking to the students of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; Kerry congratulated them on being able to come to the lecture and asked them if they had come by boats?
Past 24 hours in Delhi. https://www.google.co.in/search?q=f...ved=0ahUKEwiWkYqPvu3OAhXLtI8KHf1xASwQ_AUIBygC

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rain+songs+from+films
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sawan+songs+from+films

 

[Jainarayan]

It amazes me how afraid people are of the rain. Everyone goes racing indoors when it starts to rain, worried about getting a little wet.

If the rain comes they run and hide their heads
They might as well be dead
If the rain comes, if the rain comes... Rain, The Beatles

 

[sayak83]

Rain, food, can't have one without the other. Our ancients recognised it ... in the Vedas, Varuna is praised. I was sitting with our Kurukkal this morning, talking about the rain here this year. It was last April that I watered the lawn. This year has been the rainiest since I started assisting with the landscaping at koyil. The grass is stunning.

My parents knew it, as do all farmers. Since I have farmer in my blood, I know it.

Sometimes we forget. Here is Chapter 2 of the Tirukurral. Note ... it is Chapter 2. If Tiruvalluvar had his chapters written in any sense of importance, then he sure knew it.

I have 3 rainwater collecting barrels at koyil, connected with syphon hoses. That water is so soft you can feel the contrast just on your hands.

https://thirukkural133.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/chapter-2-glory-of-rain/

Here is a poetic rendition done by R C Dutta of a Rig Veda verse celebrating the onset of the monsoon in the guise of Indra slaying Vritra.


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I sing the lay, our fathers knew, -
How Indra mighty Vritra slew!
He pierced the rain-cloud in his might,
And gave us water, copious, bright!
The joyous mountain streams rolled swiftly by,
For Indra cleared for them the rocky way!

He pierced the rain-cloud, stout of heart,
And Tvashtr forged the lightning's dart!
The grateful showers in torrents fell,
And joyous streamlets roar and swell!
And as the milch-kin hasten to their young,
Unto the sea the streamlets speed along!

Impetuous like a bull in might,
Indra, eager for the fight,
Thrice drinking Soma; -- in his hand
Grasped the forked lightning brand!
He pierced the foremost rain-cloud in his might,
And poured the joyous waters, sparkling bright!

Mighty deva, and warrior proud!
You smote the serpent of the cloud,
You quelled his power, destroyed his wile,
And cleared the earth from darkness vile!
Bright was the sky again with ruddy dawn,
And joyful mortals hailed the rising sun!

In gloomy folds did Vritra proud
The earth and sky in darkness shroud;
But with lightning's fiery might
Great Indra pierced him in fight!
Like a tall pine by woodmen felled
Proud Vritra lies prostrate - by Indra killed!

Did not Vritra, proud, elate
Proudly challenge Indra great?
The mighty Indra, in his ire,
Has dealt on him his vengeance dire!
Splashing on the rivers Vritra fell,
How roar the whirling eddies! How they swell!

With severed limbs, in mighty rage
The combat still did Vritra wage,
But once more did lightning flashed its fire,
On Vritra's neck fell its ire!
The weak in vain will try the hero's might,
And vain was Vritra's war with Indra bright!

Glad waters over Vritra roll,
As rivers over banks that fall.
Erst strong in might and strong in gloom,
He kept the waters in his womb.
How lies that dragon, mighty in his fall!
Spurning the dead, gladly the waters flow along!

But darker clouds come in their might,
And Indra fights a fiercer fight!
Once more the forked lightnings fly,
Once more the clouds prostrated lie!
Low as a cow beside her calf is laid,
The mother rain-cloud lies with Vritra dead!

O'er the dead the waters hie,
Sparkling as they ceaseless fly!
Low lies the nameless shapeless dead,
Bright roll the streams by torrents fed!
Then sing great Indra's praise with mighty breath,
For Indra's foe now sleeps the sleep of death!

When light was prisoned by dark gloom,
'Twas Indra who won her from its womb!
When rain was prisoned by the cloud,
'Twas Indra who slew the dragon proud!
Then sing great Indra's praise in mighty strain,
For Indra gave us light and gave us rain.

Vain was Vritra's darts and blows,
For Indra shields himself from foes!
Vain was Serpent's wily art,
The cows were won from his fort.
Then sing great Indra's praise in mighty song,
He rolled the Seven Rivers fierce and strong.

The dark fires that the Dragon sent,
On Indra harmless all were spent;
And Vritra's thunder, gusts of rain,
Against the mighty deva were vain!
And vain were the Serpent's stratagems and arts,
For Indra rent them with his flashing darts!

Great Indra. In that dubious war
Didst thou own a secret fear?
Did thy arm, for conquest made,
Await some other warrior's aid?
Or did thou, like the swooping bird of prey
O'er ninety streams and nine plunged right away?

Lightning armed! Mighty king
Of living and of inert things!
The glorious monarch lives on high,
And sends us bright rain from the sky.
And as spokes are circled by the rim,
Great Indra holds the universe in Him!

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Rigveda I-32, 1700-1200 BCE

Rig Veda really requires to be translated into English by a proper poet. The wooden translations of the 19th century are horrible.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Rain in Vedas and Zoroastrian scriptures:

"Now we can also understand the part played by parvatas, or mountains, in the legend. It was the mountain Albûrz, or Hara Berezaiti; and as Vṛitra, by stretching his body across, closed all the apertures in his mountainous range, through which the sun and the waters came up, Indra had to uncover or open these passages by killing Vṛitra. Thus the Bundahish (V, 5) mentions 180 apertures in the east and 180 in the west through Albûrz; and the sun is said to come and go through them every day, and all the movements of the moon, the constellations and the planets are also said to be closely connected with these apertures. The same idea is also expressed in the later Sanskrit literature when the sun is said to rise above the mountain in the east and set below the mountain in the west.

The mountain on which Indra is said to have found Shambara (II, 12, 11), and the rock of Vala wherein the cows were said to have been imprisoned by the demon (IV, 3, 11; I, 71, 2) and which was burst open by Angirasas, also represent the same mountainous range, which separated the upper from the lower celestial hemisphere, or the bright from the dark ocean. This explanation of the Vṛitra legend may sound strange to many scholars, but it should be borne in mind that the co-relation between the flow of water and the rising of the dawn and the sun, here described, is not speculative. If the Vedic works do not express it in unambiguous terms, the deficiency is fully made up by the Zoroastrian scriptures. Thus in Khorshed Yasht (VI, 2 and 3,) we are told that - When the sun rises up, then the earth becomes clean, the running waters become clean .. Should the sun not rise up, then the Daevas would destroy all the things that are in the seven Karshvares."
"Arctic Home in Vedas", BG Tilak, Chapter - The Captive Waters