In this twentieth century, in India, if rains are not coming, then all over the country jagnas — fire worship — is arranged. Millions of dollars are wasted to feed the brahmins, to pay their fees, because by their ritual… which is absurd — throwing into the fire valuable food, in a poor country which is starving, and repeating mantras from ten thousand-year-old Vedas.
Nobody understands what those mantras mean. Brahmins have been insisting that they should not be written in any language other than the original Sanskrit, because once they are translated you will laugh; they are stupid. And they have no connection with rain. They cannot persuade the clouds to come; there is no relationship at all.
There are mantras in the VEDAS…. A brahmin is praying to God, “This year let your clouds rain only in my field, avoid the fields of my neighbors.” They are praying to God, “My cows should give more milk, and the cow of my enemy should not give any milk.” Great prayers! But in ancient Sanskrit, which is not understood, which has never been used as a language by people…. People have not been allowed to use it. It has never been a living language; it has been the monopoly of the priest.

http://nnbobby.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/07/monopoly-of-the-priest.htm