Celebrating water, the magical molecule of life

Jalatarpanam, the unique ritual of offering water, consists of standing in waist-deep water while facing the sun, filling the hands with water and allowing it to fall back. The Ganga is revered as Mother Goddess, where devotees immerse themselves in as well carry home its water. The Indic tradition holds water not only as a source of survival but as a medium of psycho-spiritual cleansing.

Noticing the purity of springs in Tibet, Buddhist master Atisha proposed that water alone to be used as an offering. Bhutanese Yonchap made the daily offering of seven bowls of water a common practice, symbolising mental purification from afflictions, resulting in clarity and calmness.

Water in Mithraism is revered as a living element that nourished everything, and it was guarded by Goddess Anahita, Ava, and associated with fertility, healing and wisdom. Prophet Zoroaster received his revelation at a river bank and made regular offerings to water. He considered this to be the most meritorious of actions. Since no fire temple can function without water, that is used in all higher liturgical ceremonies, this has led some to suggest that Zoroastrians could be justly also called ‘water-worshippers.’

Ablution, as a purificatory ritual in many cultures, is meant not only to remove physical impurities but to cleanse unvirtuous intentions or actions. Islamic wudhu, as well as the washing of the deceased is one. Baptism is a symbolic death of the old self and resurrection into a new life in Christ.

Tao is referred to as the watercourse way. Water’s pliability and ‘allowingness’ suggests humility, a sign of true intelligence and wisdom. Lao Tzu writes: Water is the softest and most yielding substance. Yet nothing is better than water for overcoming the hard and rigid, because nothing can compete with it.

The Rig Ved hails water as the reservoir of all curative medicines. Water is one of the five mahabhutas, great elements, and its association with health is due to its function as a healing and regenerating agent. It moistens tissues in the eyes, nose, and throat, carries nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and balances body temperature. Seventy per cent of the adult body, 85 per cent of adult brain is water, slight dehydration could lead to fatigue, and a host of other instabilities.

Our language abounds with water metaphors. Since flow is the key, inert or stagnant water is likened to staleness, or being rigid. The unimpeded flow of water, while facing obstacles, has become a metaphor for resilience and freedom. This quality of yielding fluidity is adopted as a principle in the effortless movements of martial arts, Qigong, and Tai Chi. Water, though seemingly fluid and weak, is capable of wielding great power.

Stretching the metaphor further, writer Mehmet Murat Idlan considers the hidden message in every waterfall to be, “if you are flexible, falling will not hurt you.” For Rabindranath Tagore, “The small wisdom is like water in a glass; clear, transparent, pure. The great wisdom is like water in the sea: dark, mysterious, impenetrable.”

In psycho-mythological literature, water is regarded as the symbol of the unconscious and is connected to the moon. It is often depicted as an inverted triangle. Water in the Chinese tradition is yin, feminine, its flow is downward and its energy is one of stillness and conserving.

Water’s virtue lies in its deep nurturance of all things and beings. Using this quality, ancient sages advised virtuous people in a leading position to be nurturing, gentle and accommodating.

Water evocations are felt beside others, in the fresh smell after the rain, and in the tranquillity of the murmuring river. And as the playfulness of children’s immediate response, either by jumping into puddles or splashing water. As for adults, there is no better proof than from the Gene Kelly film ‘Singin’ in the Rain’.

March 22 is World Water Day