The Rainmaker – A Thank You Note

As soon as I finished Swamiji’s memoir, I picked up ‘Om Swami – As we know him.’ I loved it. I chuckled at the ‘sickly-sweet’ review of it. I might have thought the same had the authors not been so honest about themselves. They were. I believed everything in the book. To me, it was perfectly sweet.

Interestingly, I had ‘The Rainmaker’ already on the shelf. My introduction to Om Swamiji was through his book ‘When All Is Not Well.’ But even then, I didn’t know who he was. There was a small introduction in that book, but I felt I’d heard this ‘millionaire who renunciated’ thing before. Although the book introduction does him no justice, it was more due to me being cynical. I was not ready.

The first time I saw Om Swamiji was when I stumbled upon a video where he had a chat with Vidit Gujarathi. That was when I got The Rainmaker, but it remained on the shelf. I was busy worrying about the virus and my work unnecessarily. Recently, I was reintroduced through two brilliant people from Bengaluru who do a ‘self-awareness’ course. When I tried to order the book on Amazon recently, the website informed me I already had it. Nice!

I had my reasons to be cynical earlier. I have been looking for answers or at least some guidance, and it led me to some of the well-known temples in India. All I experienced from them was excessive greed, and although I was sure they knew something, their behavior was off-putting. When Babloo wrote: “the more sadhus I met, the less I liked my religion”, I could relate.

The whole Babloo chapter blew me away. While I share his bewilderment at Swamiji not mentioning those events in his memoir, it made me appreciate him more.

‘Lifeline’ is probably the sweetest chapter in the book. It gave an insight of swamiji before he renunciated, and it was clear that he was no ordinary person even then. It also has my favorite consolation line: ‘Ishvar ne tumhari nahin, meri suni hai’ 🙂

Each chapter was as good as the previous one. I had decided to wake up at 5 to meditate before going cycling. But I couldn’t put the book down and told myself: ‘It’s a weekend. I can start a bit late’. One of my favorite parts of the book was when Swamiji told Zack he had a beautiful soul. There can’t be a higher appraisal. I wondered if my soul was beautiful too (yeah right!)

Not long after I thought about that, I got a reality check in the chapter ‘My Master’ by Swami Vedanandaji. I re-read every line multiple times because they seemed aimed at me. Vedanandaji confesses his earlier faults in this chapter: entitlement, arrogance, and ego. I had them all. In many instances where Swamiji corrected the mistakes and explained the reasons, I remember doing a variation of the same ones. I tip just because it is a social norm. Often, I disconnect even without acknowledging the telemarketers when they are just doing their jobs. These weren’t the things people with beautiful souls did.

The chapter has beautiful messages on punctuality, respect, planning, mentoring, charity, and empathy. I am going to read this chapter once every month. Swami Vedanandaji, please do write a book 🙂 

My delusion about the beautiful soul got shattered, but I found a direction and learned a lot. I am very grateful to all the authors who shared their stories. Thank you for teaching me things I didn’t even know I had to learn.

It was past midnight when I finished the book. I knew that was no excuse. I woke up at 5 to meditate.