Superstitions From My Childhood

One day, in free moments I was remembering my childhood days. My heart was full of emotions when I was remembering those golden days. I never came to know when my childhood passed so quickly as sand passes from our hands. In the thought process, I started thinking about the superstitions I used to have in those innocent days.

    

I was just five years old, when my classmate who was my neighbour too, told me that, God holds a jug in his hands; when he reverts it, rainfall occurs. I always tried to search that jug whenever I observe the sky. She told me that, accidentally salt had fallen in the seawater, that's why seawater is saline. I started calculating how many numbers of salt sacks had accidentally fallen into the sea? Whether the whole salt factory got vanished in the sea?? Never imagined that the whole world eats salt which is produced in the sea; we humans just extract it from seawater.

      

One day she told me, whenever she misbehaves or plays a prank, her mother will return her to the doctor's hospital. I asked her, why she was talking like that?? She answered that her parents purchased her from a reputed gynaecologist belonging to Nagpur and if she misbehaves or plays a prank they will return her to doctor. When she was saying that fear can be clearly seen on her face. I really don't understand why highly qualified parents sow such baseless fear in their children's minds just to discourage them from misbehaving?? Now my friend and her husband both are gynaecologists. The question arises whether they tell such unscientific things to their children after becoming parents? God knows!

     

Once in school, during off lecture, I was talking to my bench partner. During our conversation, she told me that once her brother was travelling by road and he saw a red light called chakwa, he suddenly forgot the route. When I asked her what is chakwa, she answered, chakwa is an unknown force which makes a human being to walk over miles. If he thinks about water even in his mind, chakwa throws him in well. I asked her if human think about cold drink what chakwa does? She answered, then it throws him in a well of cold drink. In spite of watching cold drink advertisement on TV, I never imagined in that age that cold drinks are manufactured in a factory not extracted from well. I always felt afraid whenever I saw a red light at night in my childhood days. As I grew up, all those misconceptions flew away from my mind. This all happened due to the expansion of my scientific information and view.

      

In 2010 during Diwali vacations, due to my relatives' request, I went to the ashram of a sage at Madhya Pradesh located on the bank of Narmada river. I saw many luxurious ashramas there. Followers of sage were highly qualified and belonged to a rich society. His followers told us that sage can read the future. Many of his followers were filling the water used in washing the sage's in bottles and taking it to their homes as charantirtha. A follower gave me that charantirtha on my palms. I was like yak...eahh. When it was about to flow down from my hands a follower reacted as if a cloud had burst on his head.

    

On the next day, the sage organized a Narmada parikrama yatra for his followers. We walked about two to three kilometres. Sage got tired. Followers made the sage to sit on a chair which was loaded on a metadoor which came with the followers There was a flock of cows passing from the road. Suddenly a cow from the flock ran towards the sage, hurt him with its horns. Followers ran towards sage to save him. When it was confirmed that sage is fine, only then followers became normal. They never thought for a meanwhile that if sage can read the future, then how he doesn't come to know that cow will hit him??

    

Three years ago that future reader sage died in a road accident. I read that news in a newspaper. Still, his followers go to his tombstone for worshipping him. His successor is running the ashrama. Ashrama is expanded from the two crore rupee donations given by his followers. All such superstitions can be vanished only by keeping our minds alert and testing everything on basis of science.