SUPERSTITION

Superstition!
It is present in every culture and society. It appears in varying forms and sizes. It affects all ages and generations. It scares, it captures. It frightens, rules and dictates many a lives.
What is it really?

Number thirteen is absent from the row of buttons in many elevators in America. Does that mean that changing the label from thirteen to fourteen takes away it's superstition? And all this time while Americans are shying away from thirteen, Chinese are betting good luck on it and fearing fourteen instead!

Now who in the world would think of fearing a front door entrance? Chinese, of course! They believe the front door entrance to the garden of Ming tombs is the entrance to the other world, the abode of the dead. So what do they do? They enter from side doors! Does that mean that they are not in that other world just by using another means of entrance?

While people in India go back seven steps if a black cat crosses their path, my friends in Europe adopt black kittens as pets. Does that mean that Europeans are buying bad luck on purpose or are they out of their minds?

One of my friends freaks out if a glass breaks and goes hysterical about seven years bad luck while another coolly states that it is a good omen to ward off evil. While rest of the world is content on merely saying "good bye" or "have a safe journey", my one friend goes pale if "...and safe return" is not added at the end, because to her, it implies bad omen as if saying a final farewell.

What is it that makes one thing okay for some and fearful for others? I ask myself!

Like the majority, I always turn to my own self whenever reflecting upon human behavior. I notice that if I'm not careful, it is very easy for me to be influenced by the talk of superstition and omens. For example, when my babies cried and someone said, "oh, the baby got a bad eye", At first I felt like believing it, but then I realized that it was an easy way out. Babies cry for a reason. They cry when they are sick, disturbed or need something. Instead of finding out the cause, it is very easy to quickly blame it on the bad eye. But there's got to be SOME truth in it if so many believe in it. After all, old wisdom always has some deep roots in truth, one might argue.

I think it is all about perceptions. If let loose, it becomes a psychological trap. Once a person starts believing in superstition, his/her mind starts taking him/ her in that direction and invent logic and reasonings to explain quite natural phenomena.

By now, you must have deducted that I, personally, don't believe in superstition, although, I don't object to others indulging in it as it's their personal views and beliefs. The basic reason why I don't believe in superstition is my faith. I believe in one Omnipotent God. I have complete faith in His powers, His decisions and His love. Nothing is above and beyond Him. Everything follows His command and nothing takes place against His will. He has written my destiny and He owns my life. Once I have this complete faith, then there is no room left for giving power to a mere number or the color of an animal to change my fate. If a happiness comes my way, it's His blessing and if, God forbid, a hardship befalls me, it's a trial from Him to test my faith.

A mirror was invented to see the reflections of things in the present, not of future. Salt wasn't refined to be thrown over the shoulder to ward off evil but to be used for consumption. Doors are constructed to be entered, not to be avoided. A crow makes a call because it's a bird, not because someone's going to visit. An eye twitches as a sign of stress or a weak nerve, not because something bad is going to happen.

The thing is that when someone has a fear of a superstition as a bad omen, their fear leads them to act nervously and in that state they might make certain mistakes, the outcome of which furthers their belief. In their condition, they fail to see the link between their own action and reaction and blame the superstition. Such is the nature of us humans that we want to avoid taking responsibility for our own actions that bring misfortunes. We are always willing to get the credit for success and achievements but are always looking for an escape goat for our failures, and superstitions are a ready made, easy solutions at hand.

Some believe in lucky charms. Again, it's the placebo affect at hand that sometimes lead to positive happenings on receiving a lucky charm or good omen. It's the weakness of faith that leads to putting trust in other objects. The person starts relating the good feelings or happy endings with signs or objects and falls in the trap of superstition, from which it is extremely difficult to escape, unless the person consciously makes an effort. Uncountable number of people have been conned by an equally competing number who trapped the gullible souls by introducing them to that "feel good" or "feel lucky" state of mind. The charms industry thrives on the superstition of customers who buy from precious gem stones to horse shoes to penniless stones, in the name of good luck.

Life is a combination of ups and downs. Things happen, things that are out of our control. The belief in superstition is also an attempt at controlling and altering the natural phenomena. Human desire to control every phenomena has led to weird practices. People have invented cults, worshipped all sorts of objects and made horrendous sacrifices under such influences. Only education, wisdom and a conscious effort can help one get out of the talons of superstition.