OK, so I thought of something different this time. I asked my colleagues/friends to write down something like a guest post for me, on a common topic. And I chose the topic *Superstition* because I thought we were bound to get different opinions. I even didn’t let them see each other’s post, so their own views doesn’t get influenced. I gotta say, I wasn’t disappointed! Indulge:

IMPORTANT: To really enjoy this post, go to comment section and post your own “uninfluenced” views on Superstition BEFORE reading this. Do you believe it works, or doesn’t? Or there is nothing like superstition at all? We all will be happy to hear more about this topic.

Katy Pandey

My definition:
Superstition to me is more of a mental state of comfort than just a word which has often been used in the negative sense. When I say that, I mean to say we all are superstitious at some level; it’s just that the degree of superstition varies from person to person. To me there is a very thin line between superstition and faith or should I put it this way? Superstition is just a manifestation of faith. The more blind faith gets, the more superstitious we become but hasn’t faith been always blind?

Few personal observations:
Superstition has no logic. It roots from within, the feeling that gives us this hope that things will work once we tread the path guided by it. Gut feeling, intuition, and sixth sense whatever you call it doesn’t make a difference. I have these small superstitions of my own and I would love to put them here because they have in a way given me belief which at times was defied by logic. For example, I never enter into my exam hall first (I let the others to lead). I make sure I wear the same shirt for all my exams (my deo proves to be real help in these times ;)) also; I use same pen and pencil throughout the exams. In daily life, I’ve this feeling that my Fridays tend to go bad as compared to other days and mind you, it has happened quite a number of times. Well, there are many more such small but interesting observations but I think they are too personal to share on a public forum. ;)

How to differentiate between faith and superstition?
Here comes the most important question. As I’ve said before, there is a very thin line between the two and I’ve my own way of differentiation. As long as your superstitions don’t interfere with the personal space of another person, as long as they don’t affect others directly or indirectly, as long as they remain within secure and safe they give us strength, belief and confidence, they remain within boundaries of faith. I read somewhere; our karma is tied with our intuition.

Just follow this mantra. Whatever gives us hope should be followed but within boundaries.

Conclusion:
Friends, ignorance should not be confused with faith. What I’ve tried here is to present a new dimension to this topic. In a nutshell whether u call it faith or superstition, they are two sides of the same coin.

path3ticblogg3r

Everybody has an idea of the textbook definition of superstition. But as we all have our own perspective towards things, I’ll tell my viewpoint. Well, when I think of it I come up with a couple of different things in my mind. But before that I want to tell that I am NOT superstitious at all. I think:

1. Superstition is the unjustified fear : 

When you say someone to behave in some particular way for example one should not let a shoe or a ‘chappal’ lie flipped over, s/he will probably say “What? pfft.. Why? Is that a new law?”. At this time s/he is behaving rational because it makes no sense. But if you say that one should not let’em flipped over because some “ghost” won’t like it or you’ll get failed in your exam, s/he will look for every flipped flip-flop to fix that. All the thinking gets crushed under the “shoe” (pun intended) and intellect disappears like a ghost (not intended this time) because of the fear factor. Sparingly people will think how a shoe can flip (intended again) the exam prospect.

2. Superstition is an excuse for the failures and unexplained happenings:

Well this is quite self explaining; if somebody fails s/he says that is because somebody sneezed or everybody’s all time favorite “nazar lag gayi”. Same goes for most of the unexplained incidents and coincidences.

I think this is ridiculous. It is not that I never had superstitions but as we grow we no longer blindly believe EVERYTHING we hear/see because we develop our own conscience and beliefs. One can get rid of them easily if one really wants to, eliminate the fear and take responsibility of your failures.

PS: I also fix the flipped over shoes, but that because the bottom part looks dirty. J

RavS

Superstition like God has been a fascinating (and confusing) topic for me. Because I believe it doesn’t  usually work, but I still do have a few superstitions of my own. Now, that can be called intelligence (entertaining 2 conflicting thoughts together and still be able to work) or hypocrisy.  To me again it’s more or less a matter of convenience. When I need it (like when in trouble) I believe in it. Other times I try and be rational about it (like while writing a blog post!).

So, why do I require superstitions? Well sometimes they just become habit (wearing left sock before right), sometimes they teach good manners (seeking blessing from elders before starting something good) while at other times they just give you confidence (taking God’s name before writing roll number on the question paper). And I think all of these reasons are pretty good excuses to have a few superstitions.

And how do I know they don’t work? Well, if a superstition is so much effective, it gotta work every time to your advantage. For what I have found, it doesn’t. And having blind faith and superstition always causes more harm than good.

So I think having superstitions isn’t bad as long as we know how to manage them.

SJain

superstiiton

Ø      I think Its yield of immature  part of our mind.

Ø      If it is not harming us and ppl around  what’s wrong in having some.

Ø      It should not turned into full fledged black magic or slaughtering  which illiterate part of our society accustomed to.

Ø      I think everybody has some including ppl with pragmatic and radical ideology

Ø      It should not effect our approach , decision or anything during course of particular action , better should be confined to pre-inception of any practice.

Ø      I have some (wont disclose) inherited or instilled by family and I do try to satisfy them before any big move .Actually assessed the outcome of situation done with and without satisfying superstition and realised  that in former case situation turned in favor of me .

Ø      So do have some , but don’t let it to take over your mind , have self believe ,execute your job and don’t get complacent by just satisfying some trivial superstition.

Skand

Superstition……!!!!

whatever it is……..???

I don give it a shit….!!!

If i’ll feed a statue Rs.100 prasad….

Then all my dreams or desires or goals will be fullfilled…

Crap like this…

doesn’t deserve even a shit from me..!!!

One can fullfill his own goals..

none else gonna do it for him…

so rather believing such things which even doesn’t exist,

one should believe in himself…

And if if he meets any obstruction in his way..

then…he should check how strongly…he wants his dreams or goals to be fulfilled..

actually this is something called as WILL POWER..

so if anything comes in way..then one’s WILL POWER has to be strong enough to counter all this obstructions..

and Not only will power will do anything…

actually..”Will Power” has to accompanied with “Self belief”..

and…

one last thing…..”NEVER GIVE UP”

..

If one lives his life with these three…

he wud never end up being suertious in life..

well for a peson’s growth suerstition is just a shit..he should get over with asap…..

Always live in reality…never forget about this nature…

go according to rules of nature…

you ‘ll be what you want to be….!!!

thank you…

XP-ME

Well, regarding superstition, i can say everyone use to cross from such situation in his LIFE. I am not saying that always. But whenever required ,a person talks to his soul and God ,to raise his bloody Luck so that he , one day, can rise n shine in his world. Similar to such person, i m too superstitious. Don’t be exclaimed !! I m guy who tends to such things.

I dun believe much in that but in some YES!!  Well that’s too because they have reasons behind. Like i never cross road when KITTY cross that damn road. I let other first cross it nd then move on. Once, I tried to ignore this and faced a very critical situation and also get scolded by my parents.

Similarly, I do only stuffs in which i get frightened up. Because, i know that i didn’t had worked hard in that thing. So, i leave that work on God and on my Luck. If it become successful, I become very happy and praise God for keeping faith in me. But when i fail, i curse  my bit- left Gud luck so much for not making me successful. Well, i believe that everyone do so. I mean this much. And i too know that wherever i haven’t worked hard, i can face 50-50% chance to get pass and fail. I know that if i would have worked hard scene would be something i expected. That’s why i never curse God , because its my mistake. Heheheh.

Anyways, i m also not in very much deep in such thing. As, u have seen me that i never wear Weird Necklaces, Bracelets, Rings and other stuff for such thing. I just keep believe in me and my GOD. I never pray to God before crossing road, i just look to the either sides and then cross. Its simple. I don’t think if i travel outside of my home, what will happen to me.

But there is another fact also, that i believe that i have sixeth sense which few think is also Superstitious thing. As, Science only believe in Facts not in Gifts from GOD.But believe is only thing that makes you strong and after God i believe in what i BELIEVE.

yogS

“omg that black cat crossed my way, now what am i going to do”

“damn it, you sneezed when i was about to get out for my office”

“this pen is lucky for me, it always gets me good marks”

Now in a slight different way……

“i met an accident because a black cat crossed my way”

“i got late because you sneezed when i went out for office”

“i didn’t get good marks coz i didnt have the lucky pen with me this time”

Call it blind faith, naive belief or popular notion, the old stories of ghosts and demons may have been replaced with the aforesaid comments but Superstition as we all know has irrationally and irrevocably survived in some form or other even as we have advanced from the stone age to the modern age.

The saddest part is that its not just our elder but our friends, siblings and even some people related to Science who have become superstitious. There ought to be some reason why so many of us consider it more important than anything else in our life.

I dont know the reason but here is what i believe.

“Our heart is very delicate, it gets afraid of even the trivial things when under pressure, and in such a situation we try to relax it by tricking it into believing Aal iz well.” 

This is where Superstition comes in handy. People use them to avoid the pressure situation and as an excuse for not being able to stand upto the expectations. We can always blame things that dont exist, doesnt matter even if it was our fault. The best part is that  we dont need to explain ourselves in front of anyone for something that was caused by a bad omen.

So next time you think of something superstitious better say Aal iz Well. It wont make things better but yeah it gives us the courage  and strength to face the situation ;)

I was wondering why I dont get high percentage in even semesters. Maybe they are unlucky for me. Damn!!! :D

…So, there you have it! Unedited (but minimally formatted) and conflicting/varying thoughts of people on the same topic. Thank you everyone for participating in this little experiment. It was fun!! Now do you have anything else to add to this?

Also, let me know if you liked it. So, we may do something like this in the future too! :)