What are Indian’s superstitions and why Indians blindly believe in such superstitious notion? Well, this article will describe you briefly about this condition.
Superstitions are nothing but lack of knowledge and education. More than 278 million people in India are illiterate. Hence, the superstitious notion in such a country is susceptible. Let’s get acquainted with the situation with help of few examples.
If a black cat crosses your path, it brings misfortune
According to Indian mythology, when you are walking down a street and a black cat crosses your way, it brings devil’s luck in your life. This is a great urban myth in India. Cats and black cats, in particular, are equated with evil and hardship in our country. The genesis of this superstition in India is from Egypt. According to Egyptian psychology, black cats are similar to “witches” and are evil in the skin of a cat. This superstition also left its influence on America and Europe but this belief is flipped on its head in Japan.
Flickering of the eye
The connotations of this myth vary in different religions and cultures. In India, to be particular, it is symbolized as a mishap. Here, twitching of left eye is considered as bad luck. But that is not all; it also varies from gender to gender. Twitching of men’s left eye signifies as bad luck and on the other hand, for a woman it indicates fortune. Practically, there can be many biological grounds behind twitching of the eye such as strain, stress, and dry eye.
The evil eye
This is probably the most common myth you get to hear in India. Nowadays, not only Indians but also the people across the world started believing it. In India, evil eye is familiar with the nuance of a human look believed to anguish someone. This is considered to be a supernatural harm which may come in the form of minor illness or any misfortune. Here, children are bedecked with Kala tika (a black substance) to ward off the evil eye.
Broken glass/mirror
This superstition also varies in different cultures. Somewhere it implicates as good omen, but in India, broken mirror or glass is a symbol of bad luck and it is also a manifestation that a mirror not only reflects your appearance but also the soul. It assumes to be inauspicious to see the reflection of the soul and body in a broken mirror. We all have seen dramatic Bollywood movies in which broken glass signifies as a misfortune. It is a belief that broken glass brings negative energy to home and causes quarrels and antagonism between family and friends. Logically saying, it could be unsafe to have broken glass around, owing to the fact that it might hurt someone.
Lemon and chillies to keep away malicious spirits
You may have noticed a thread of lemon and chillies stitched together and embellishing in front of houses, workplaces or even on vehicles. Indians are of the opinion that one lemon and seven green chillies sewn in together stave off the evil spirit. Not only that, if you see the sewn lemon and chillies lying on road, you are warned to not step over them. Doing so will let the evil follow you. This ideology can help one to be optimistic about life in general but it has no valid reason scientifically.
Sneezing as bad omen
Someone sneezed when you were leaving for an interview or for any indispensable event and folks told you not to step out of the home. Have you ever experienced that? This is one of the many superstitions associated with sneezing. Anachronistic Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians assumed that sneeze warns about someone’s good or bad luck. Scientifically, it is totally beyond people’s control. Do you think it is just a foolish way of patronizing old beliefs?
The Peepal/Papaya tree
Horrifying stories of the devil and unsatisfied spirits around Peepal trees are mundane. Therefore, people are advised not to be around Peepal trees after evening as to stay off from evil spirits. But the truth is absolutely different from these gibberish stories. Apparently, Peepal tree emits a high amount of harmful gases after evening. So, therefore, to keep people off the Peepal tree at night, dreadful stories were spread around.
As a conclusion, superstitions are nothing but delusion. Such hallucination only leads to fear and this can best be overcome through awareness.
