“Last year we prayed for rains. This year we are offering pujas and special prayers to stop the rains.” This is how Sri Sri Ravishankar, Founder and Head of Art of Living Foundation, began addressing the press in the city on Saturday.

In his short interaction with the media, he brought to light that the Foundation had collected 500 tonnes of relief material, out of which 150 tonnes had already been dispatched to the flood hit regions. The rest would be sent in the next couple of days.

Taking stock of the current water logging in several areas due to the floods, Sri Sri Ravishankar spoke on the need for proper drainage and irrigation systems. He also added that the State of Tamil Nadu, which was a victim of exploitation by the sand mafia, faced a lot of trouble with water stagnation.

“Our cities need to be better planned. Our drainage and irrigation system need to be improved. These are the paramount lessons that we have to learn from the current crises,” Sri Sri said. He did not confirm visiting the flood hit areas.

To a question on what could be the possible reason(s) for the floods, he said that this could be Nature’s way of expressing its fury. “Nature has its own way of expression. What we are experiencing is just that.”

Sri Sri called for preventing such catastrophes by respecting Nature, avoiding use of plastic, and pesticides in fields.

“Disaster brings fellow humans together. Now is the time to help all those who are hit by disaster. I sincerely wish that politicians put their ego aside and make rehabilitation and damage control their priority,” Sri Sri Ravishankar said.

His message to the victims of the disaster was to stay strong and come to terms with the crisis. “After all, every dark cloud has a silver lining”.