SUPERSTITIONS IN INDIAN

SOCIETY
The Indian Society as a whole is beset with innumerable slovenly and unscientific
concepts like-fatalism, fate or luck, the cycle of birth and death, Karmasiddhanta
(present suffering or good fortune is the fruit of deeds in the previous births), astrology,
destiny, miracles, concept of being auspicious or inauspicious, vows, observances and
what not. To match with this innumerable orthodox senseless traditions and rituals are
blindly followed by most of the Indians. In fact, the whole edifice of the Indian society
and its culture is founded on these constructs. The psyche of the people does not allow
them to examine any custom or tradition or happening and verify its utility, validity and
legitimacy. For them, the age old customs, rituals and traditions, started by their wise
forefathers are sacrosanct and beyond any criticism, leave alone any change.

It's not that only the poor, ignorant people alone are plagued by this psyche; even the
highly educated, science graduates fall prey to this slavish mentality. As a result, for all
the advances that science is making, science will still be perceived only as a means of
getting good marks to secure a job or enter some profession and earn a comfortable
livelihood, as long as, the study of science does not inculcate scientific outlook and
scientific method of thinking. Science affirms that no miracle is possible in this world.
Whatever happens in this world has some scientific cause. Things don't happen
because of somebody's blessings, by the grace of some deity, miraculously or of their
own accord without any cause. But people at large are so enamoured of miracles that
for them being able to perform miracles is a god given gift, His blessings. Any petty
Baba or Maharaj who displays an equally petty miracle can create admiration with awe
for him in people's mind. The Baba then can easily trap these people in his pretenses to
exploit and ruin them; all this despite the avowal of science that no miracle is possible.

Author Yadnyeshwar Nigale, in his book-“Superstition-A Rational Discourse” mentions

about the futality and evil consequences of some of these blind beliefs. A superstition is
simply a wrong belief about something like believing that seeing a widow could bring
bad luck. Untested, and unchallenged, such beliefs can have real and serious
consequences: for thousands of years, in India, widows were forced to remain out of
sight, and were banished to a miserable life of isolation.

Superstition rarely confines itself to the personal sphere and is bound to impact public
policy, thereby weakening the very foundations of democracy. Even in this century of
space flights and satellite communications, many, including several practicing scientists,
hold a schizophrenic allegiance to geocentric astrology and flat earth geomancy. Social
progress means that people should align their beliefs and behaviour to new knowledge
and understanding of nature and society. By this measure, we are experiencing a
serious regress.

 The Sati Practice - Religious Luminaries' Scheming

Our religious luminaries (all males) had questioned Lord Bentinck's authority to
dabble with their cherished practice of Sati. Yet the British did outlaw the
inhuman practice. But now that the British have left and we have gained the
freedom to practice our own religion, our religious leading lights are reviving this
practice This is what happened, recently, in Madhya Pradesh, in a village named
Tamoli.A65 year old woman was forced to climb up the fiercely blazing pyre of
her dead husband. Thousands of people had gathered to witness the spectacle!
This practice, as said earlier was banned long ago during the British Raj. The
police who tried to stop the atrocious act were mobbed by the spectators and
driven away. The same old argument that was proffered at the time of Bentinck,
in the Allahabad High Court, is put forward today; 'who are you to stop the
woman from committing Sati? To decide whether to commit Sati is the right of
our pious religious faith.' Our Pundits accused Lord Bentinck of interfering with
their religious practices
Remarriage (of widows) was approved of in the Vedic period
The tenets of a pious religious system are founded in ethical values. It is
impossible that the inhuman and cruel custom like Sati is sanctioned by a
religious system. Let us, therefore trace, in what period and how did this cruel
custom come into existence. There are sufficient grounds to believe that this
custom is the result of the insecurity felt by the widowed women in the past. The
Hindu Pundits claim that the woman who burns herself alive with the dead body
of her husband on the pyre is considered most virtuous and pious by the Hindu
religion; but the fact is that in the Vedic Religion that is the mainspring of the
Hindu religion, there is no mention of any sanction given to any woman to so
burn herself.
Sly Politics, Self-seeking Economics
Many politicians have used the practice of Sati to advance their own political
interests; while in Bengal the land owners used it to enhance their own economic
condition. These incidents are the nadir of inhumanity. Ramdevray was the King
of Devgiri. When he died Shankardev ascended the throne. In order not to have
any rival to his throne, Shankardev compelled Ramadev's widow, the queen
Kamaais to commit Sati. When the queen was shoved on to the pyre against her
wish, she loudly cursed Shankardev, 'Chamunda will kill you at the hands of
someone and becoming childless the dynasty will soon extinguish.' Another
incident of political use of Sati: Balaji Bajirao Peshva, compelled queen
Sakvarbai, the widow of Shahu Maharaj to commit Sati by bringing pressure on
 her from her parents' Shirke family, because he wanted to install a king of his
own choice on the throne.
 Animal Sacrifice: Pandering Taste Buds
The same age old practice of sacrificing animals in the name of religious rites or
vows to deities is still in practice. In rural India people gather in the fairs in honour
of a deity on certain days. Animal sacrifice is part of the ritual of worship of the
deity in the village where the fair takes place. Cocks and goats are sacrificed in
large numbers, including at time even a he-buffalo. The meet is distributed
among the devotees as the deity's blessings. It is eaten with equal veneration for
the deity. In fact no deity asks any of its devotees for offerings of blood and flesh
of animals. But we conveniently believe that the deity can be appeased by
sacrificing some animal and resort to some readily available legendary stories to
justify our cruel violence. The gist of these Puranik Stories - legends traditionally
believed by the people from the surroundings- is the same; 'Sarifice a goat or a
buffalo in front of me. I shall not be appeased otherwise; so said the deity to
someone in his dream.'
 Ceremonial Milk Ablutions
With enhanced culture, Civilizations give up their older practices that become
meaningless. The practice of Yadnya, sacrificing animals in the Yadnya and
performing similar wasteful religious ceremonies too became obsolete as the
Vedic culture reached a higher level.
' In the 'Bhagvat' (one of the 18 Purans) it is said, 'offering leaves, flowers, fruits
and water with sincere devotion completes the ritual of worship'. In the present
times, however, we seem to have forgotten Shrikrishna's advice to Arjun and
what is said in the Bhagavat Puran. Reviving of the expensive and wasteful
Yadnya practice is in vogue now. Our politicians and religious luminaries,
Brahmins and non-Brahmins alike compete with each other in sacrificing
precious resources and treasures in Yadnyas. In addition to this a new pompous
religious ceremony of 'Milk Abhishek' has become an 'in thing' these days.
 Installing Idols
Swindlers' Business
A stranger used to visit us once a year to collect contributions to a fund for
building a temple. He came once again this morning and leisurely squatted on
the sofa. This was his fourth consecutive visit. Smiling like a thick acquaintance
of ours, he said, 'last night I had a divine appearance in my dream. Lord Krishna
came and told me that you will donate at least 200 rupees for this cause. So the
first thing in the morning, I prepared a receipt for that amount and hurried to visit
you. Here is the receipt.' Giving him tit for tat, I promptly replied, 'last night, I too
had a divine vision of Shriram in my dream. He told me, you must drive away the
first visitor who turns up to meet you tomorrow morning. Don't fail to do so, for
therein lies your good. Now despite Shri Ram Prabhu's command I will not drive
you away empty handed but give you a rupee and request you to leave
immediately.' And I put a rupee coin in his hand. He threw the coin away and left
immediately fretting and fuming, never to come back.
The Bluff of Divine Vision
Collecting contributions to raise funds in the name of installing an idol or building
a temple or some such thing has become a very profitable business these days.
Take the example of the gentleman in the above episode. This fellow from some
other town was a regular visitor to all of us in the colony. His intension, as he told
it, was to build a temple to Lord Shri Krishna in his own town. The amount that he
had so far collected was so small that he never would have been able to build the
said temple. Yet the appeal for donation that he had in print included names of
three very influential persons in bold letters. The receipt book too was quite
attractively printed on glazed paper! The fact was that he was fully aware of his
inability and in fact, had no intention whatsoever of building a temple in the first
place. He was fleecing gullible devout people to guarantee a leisurely life in fun
and frolic, for himself.

So, these were a few superstitions mentioned by the author that are still
prevalent in this developing country. We can find more of them in the book and a
link of its pdf is given below:

superstition-nigale.pdf
Same baseless things and their ill-consequences can be found in the book-
“Omens and superstitions in southern India” by author-Edgar Thurston and “The
Thugs or Phangisars of India” by author-Captain W. H. Sleeman. The links to the
pdf-files of the books are given below.
196174216674_10154282955246675.pdf