While most people take to sipping coolers and taking multiple showers to beat the heat, priests at a Karnataka temple have gone one step deeper in their efforts to bring some respite from the scorching sun.

The priests in Someshwara temple in Halasuru conducted a special puja in honour of the rain god. The idea was that pleased with the puja, the god would show mercy in the form of cooling showers, thus bringing the much awaited monsoon season to India.

While praying to rain gods is not unheard of in India, there was, however, something different about this particular Puja. In photos that went viral on social media, three priests can from the temple can be seen. One of them is conducting hawan. But in another image, two more priests appeared to be sitting inside huge patilas filled with water. To further add to the cryptic image, the priests seemed to be holding what looked like smartphones while immersed in the water.

Bengaluru: Pooja performed at Someshwara temple in Halasuru yesterday for better monsoon. #Karnataka pic.twitter.com/Pe8Fo91MMU

— ANI (@ANI) June 7, 2019

According to the ANI post, the incident occurred on June 6.

The images were shared by news agency ANI on Twitter and have garnered many laughs from monsoon-craving Indians who have been reeling under unbearable temperatures across the country. Many on social media joked that the two priests were sitting inside the tubs, playing PUBG. Yet others found the image relatable to their own tendency to carry their phones everywhere, even inside the shower.

In fact, netizens even ran a caption contest for the image.

Caption contest. pic.twitter.com/SX38nqXgEP

— PKR | প্রশান্ত | پرشانتو (@prasanto) June 7, 2019

*When you cant stop using your phone even while you're taking a bath* https://t.co/c3Y6WXAsVY

— siddhant thakur (@siddthakur2) June 7, 2019

Paani me baithke Pubg khelne se monsson acha nhi hoga.

— Ravi Mishra (@G33kBoyRavi) June 7, 2019

Are those two pandit checking weather app already?!!

— Axit Darji (@IMaxit97) June 7, 2019

Pujaris connecting to iCloud https://t.co/Vfw77k0NGV

— ankit upadhyay (@sunny_shine1991) June 7, 2019

Some netizens tried to point out the irony of wasting water in parched times while others joked that this was the best way to use the phone in summer time.

And they wasted two drums of water. Irony just died

— Anant Iyer (@AnantIyer3) June 7, 2019

Put some wood under those utensils.

— Yeti Ji (@DefeatNazis) June 7, 2019

Apparently the bizarre sitting inside the tubs was part of the puja rituals. Some saner netizens surmised that the priests were probably reading their "mantras" on their phones, though not all were impressed by the tech-saviness.

Reading Manttas

— Pratham Nayak (@PrathamNayak) June 7, 2019

They should have a book to read mantras. This is not the way.

— Prince Pandey (@princepandey_) June 7, 2019

After a delay of a week, monsoon hit the Kerala coast on Saturday, marking the official commencement of the four-month rainfall season in the country. Whatever the Karnataka priests' strategy to please the rain gods was, looks like it worked!