New Delhi, India - Barbara Rao, an American software designer of Indian descent, relies on reason in her job, but, like tens of thousands of other Hindus, is now seeking answers of a different nature.
"Hey man, this is faith," said the Santa Fe resident, as she offered milk to a statue of the deity Lord Shiva -- the 'destroyer' -- at a temple in New Delhi.
Rao is one of tens of thousands who have thronged temples across India this week following weekend reports that gods and goddesses were "drinking" proffered milk -- a phenomenon seen as a miracle by the country's Hindus.
People believe giving offerings "will appease their gods," Hindu priest Rishikesh Bhargav said this week as people continued to try to tempt the deities with milk.
The so-called milk "miracle" first surfaced in 1995 when temples in India, Britain and Canada were jammed by believers who asserted that the portly god of good fortune, Lord Ganesha, had switched to milk from his preferred candy.
Belief and worship hold an important place in the lives of most Indians, irrespective of their caste and economic status, and parts of the country are often swept by religious frenzies.
But the Indian Rationalist Association -- which frequently challenges Hindu "godmen" and exposes their "miracles" -- says it has no time for what it calls tricks better performed by magicians.
It attributes the latest milk-drinking "miracle" first reported in the northern town of Bareilly to "capillary action", through which milk is drawn into the statues by tiny pores on the surface of the stone.
Scientists echoed the group's explanation as the faithful rushed to buy milk. Milk-producing states such as Punjab reported a 30-percent jump in the price of milk when the news broke.
"Forget deities. I fed a cup of coffee to a statue of Jawaharlal Nehru (India's first prime minister) right before television cameras," Indian Rationalist Association president Sanal Edamaruku said in New Delhi.
"Even bricks are drinking milk and these are just the mechanics of a process called capillary action," he said.
His scepticism came under fire from well-known Hindu priest Mahant Surendra Nath.
"Why disbelieve when these things are happening right before our eyes?" said the priest, who is based in the Indian capital.
"If there's a scientific explanation for gods drinking milk, then it should happen every day," Nath added.
The deity milk-drinking frenzy in overwhelmingly Hindu India came just days after Muslims in the western Indian city of Mumbai swilled "sweet" seawater.
Tens of thousands of Mumbai residents sipped puce-colored seawater despite anxious health warnings from doctors who said it was full of city waste water.
Scientists said that the sea water's salinity had declined because of heavy rains which resulted in an overflow from nearby rivers.
"Very soon there will be a jaundice epidemic in Mumbai and its suburbs," said Pradeep Bijalwan, a medical practitioner.
But the faithful attributed the "miracle" liquid to a beach-front Islamic shrine.
Many saw it as a blessing from Makhdoom Ali Mahimi, a 13th century Sufi saint in whose honour a shrine is built in the city's Mahim area. Mahimi is revered by both Muslims and Hindus.
"The mass hysteria was simply ridiculous -- and lethal," said Edamaruku, president of the Indian Rationalist Association.
Swamy Agnivesh, a leader of the Arya Samaj, a political group that presses for the separation of religion from state, dismissed both "miracles".
"It's all pure and simple superstition," he said.
"Those who say Ganesha is drinking milk, then show me the deity eating a piece of sweet, which is supposed to be his favourite diet," he added.