Various faces of superstitions

"Oh Lord let your thunder strike into the prison of false religion."

First important thing is, what is superstition? According to the oxford concise dictionary, it is credulity regarding the supernatural, irrational fear of the unknown or mysterious. In other words superstitious are unreasonable and irrational beliefs of people. When people naturally or scientifically cannot explain certain things or events, they assign suggestions and applicable reasons for them. Superstitious were most prevalent in old times. But, even in modern times, they have not completely disappeared. The chief causes of superstitious are ignorance, credulity, lack of scientific knowledge, and want of a firm belief in god. There are some superstitious which are common in all countries and religions. If a cat crosses your way or somebody sneezes when you are about to begin your work, it is regarded as a bad omen. If you are going somewhere and a person with an empty pitcher meets you, your journey will be failure. If a lizard falls from the ceiling or wall on the left side of your body, it is regarded s auspicious. If the right eyelid of a man or left eyelid of women is subject to temporary tremors, it is a lucky sign .There are certain people who do not go on a journey in a certain directions on certain days. Thus they do not go eastward on Monday and Saturdays, northward on Tuesday and Wednesday and so on. Some students believe that when they are going to sit for their examination and ink is split on their clothes, it is regarded as a good sign of success. Englishmen regard 13 as an inauspicious and many Indians considers 3 as an ominous number. Player usually believes that they can play good in one particular pair of dress or with one specific bat or hockey. One major superstitious is belief in ghosts and witchcraft. People everywhere believe that there are evil spirits, which possess living men, women and children and give them all sorts of trouble. To ward off the distress caused by them they wear amulets round their neck, waists or arms. It they believe that an evil has actually possessed a person, they go to priests or sorcerers who perform certain rites and offer prayer to free them from the evil spirits. This was also prevalent in past, thus the English believed that Joan of Arc was a witch and burnt her alive. In ancient Egypt, when king, queen, prince or princess died, they were buried in the chambers of the pyramids. Gold pieces, ornaments and precious stones were buried alive with them because it was believed that they them because that they would serve dead members of the family sometimes. The Egyptians drowned young living maids as offerings to the crocodile, goes of Nile. Even wise men, as Socrates and Plato believed in ‘Oracle' and thought that it could correctly predict the future. Some primitive's men in India elsewhere believed and still believe that Gods are pleased when goat, sheep, cow or buffalo is sacrificed to them. Some ignorant men go to the extent of sacrificing their own children or grandchildren to please their deities. In times of drought, people perform certain sacrifices and organize ‘Havan" to please lord Indra. Countless people have firm belief in astrology. They think that their actions and fortunes are governed by certain stars and planets. Some of these are auspicious while others are regarded as inauspicious. Saturn in particular is considered to be inauspicious and certain rites are performed to get rid of its evil influences. Now the latest is "Ashtagraha" It was said that eight planets had lined up together and as a result of it, all sorts of disasters were predicted. There is no doubt that even the modern generation tend to adopt some or the other superstitious. It is not the belief in them but the over dependence on them these that sometimes imbalances the humanity. still it can be seen that there is a gradual drifting away from many of the illogical superstitious beliefs and whole credit goes to the education, that acts as an eye-opener.