{"id":3421,"date":"2012-07-22T20:44:35","date_gmt":"2012-07-22T15:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/?p=3421"},"modified":"2012-07-22T20:44:35","modified_gmt":"2012-07-22T15:14:35","slug":"its-so-easy-to-be-superstitious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2012\/personal\/its-so-easy-to-be-superstitious.html\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s so Easy to be Superstitious"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Superstition
Superstition is so easy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Superstition might seem like something harmless, but it can have dire consequences. In India, hundreds of people perform barbaric and cruel rituals for various supernatural or tantric reasons. Such as\u00a0child sacrifice<\/a>, branding people, burning them or making them do horrible things<\/a> for practicing “witchcraft”. Most of us know that it’s all bogus of course, but the other day while sitting outside on the steps of my house I realized how easy it is for the human mind to take to fantastical thinking.<\/p>\n

It was nighttime and about to rain. The wind was sporadic and sudden. It would ruffle the huge tree in front of me and make it shake spookily. I let my judgement slip away and imagined it to be a creepy sentient being. As if it had its own personality. I remembered that many trees in India are held in superstitious awe – like the peepal tree for example. Even as I think about my childhood, I recall the vague sense of dread I used to feel as I encountered the peepal tree at night…<\/p>\n

Then the wind itself. There was no predicting it. No judging its power. It had a will of its own. From there, it’s an easy stretch to think that maybe it was sentient. That there’s a guiding will behind its seemingly random patterns. Why does it choose to strike in one place and not another? The wind spirits or the wind god must be powerful too – \u00a0he can tear up trees and houses, stir the oceans, and listen to everything that happens in the world. And indeed, Vaayu is the most powerful of the Indian deities (barring the big three of course).<\/p>\n

Next, wind can be accompanied by rain and thunder which are so scary that the god controlling them<\/em> must be the\u00a0king<\/em> of gods! In both the Hindu and Greek cultures, the thunderbolt wielder is king. Zeus and Indra. In Norse mythology, Thor is the most physically powerful dude around.<\/p>\n

Then my rational self asserts itself after my mind’s brief and playful\u00a0sojourn\u00a0into fantasy. But superstition is the\u00a0natural<\/em> way that our minds work without formal training. And religion is just one step away from superstition.<\/p>\n

Is it any wonder that so much of the world is plunged into ignorance and confused thinking? Right up to my college days I believed in some kind of universal force. The logical step to atheism didn’t come until later. We’re powerfully superstitious beings. That grinds up against the image of man as a logical creatures, making the world his playground. But we gotta face realities no?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our minds are built to work in a superstitious and religious manner. Without training, so many of the daily things in life take on superstitious hues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal"],"yoast_head":"\nIt's so Easy to be Superstitious<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Our minds are built to work in a superstitious and religious manner. 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