Mumbai priests perform Yajna to appease rain gods

New Delhi, Aug. 26 (ANI): Immersed in bust deep water, priests of Mumbai's Sri Sankara Mattham temple chanted mantras and performed Yajna to appease rain Gods.

The 'Yajna' was conducted in the Vedic manner to particularly appease Varuna, the rain God.

A.N Seshan, president, Sri Sankara Mattham, said that the ritual was performed to seek divine intervention in resolving people's woes in the face of a poor monsoon.

"Today's programme of the 'Praganya Shanti', a Vedic ritual, is performed by this institution to propitiate the God 'Varuna' rain god, who is the 'Adhipati' of the rain. We are all aware that we are not getting enough monsoon this year and we are facing a very high shortage, so we need water, which is the life of everybody," he said.

The temple reverberated with rhythmic chants of mantras and shlokas recited by ten priests who also performed 'Yajna' in Vedic manner.

"For getting rain we have selected 10 Vedic pundits standing in waist deep water for getting rain in Mumbai," said Venkatraman, manager of Sankara Mattham.

The country this year has had to face a poor monsoon feared to effect farm produce and general well being.

The monsoon rains have been 29 percent below average between June 1 and August 11. (ANI)