Okay, one of the most favorite sections of mine on my blog is the astrology one – Star Trek. That sure means I believe in stars and planetary influences and stuff, right.. but you know, how do you draw the line between a belief and a superstition? This thought suddenly popped up in my mind and I thought, well lets discuss it with you guys..
In case you haven’t figured this out about me yet, I’m a hugely imaginative person. I mean that, I love to believe that there are people in the world who look just really normal but who have powers.. I mean real powers. For instance, making things move with thoughts, or maybe exactly figuring out what the other person is thinking, or you know other spooky to hear but not too hard to believe kind of powers. Thats one of the reasons I love watching television series like ‘Heroes’ and movies like X-Men.. I know I’m wierd!!
Anyways, so as I was saying, it is important to draw a line. So lets pick up a really simple natural phenomenon for our first discussion in this regard. The moon coming between the sun and th earth – Solar Eclipse. Now, scientifically, it really is a very obvious thing to happen considering the planets and stars move in a circular orbit and are bound to cross each other’s line of view one a while, but you in our country, the solar eclipse or even lunar eclipse for that matter is considered a grave matter… something to be scared of or be careful of.
People all over our country don’t eat during the eclipse time, in fact, some people believe that people shouldn’t do anything during those few hours when it is clearly visible. Do nothing, as in, simply lying down or maybe keep praying and not finishing off household chores such as cooking or cleaning. According to Indian mythology, the people who need to be the most careful are pregnant women.
I have heard so many stories about how the newly born child had one limb less, or maybe a tail (extended backbone) because the mother when pregnant was cutting some vegetable during the time of a solar eclipse or accidentaly cut a lizard’s tail while cleaning duringa a solar exlipse. I know, sounds funny, but its real.. people actually believe that. I’m not saying that its wrong to believe in it, I mean I would do anything, literally anything, to have a perfectly normal baby. I mean, I wouldn’t want something like a not correctly followed ritual cause any affect on the life I’m about to bring into the world. Not that it could happen, but you know, what if it did. Even if it was a scientific co-incident in such a case, I would be compelled to think it was because of the eclipse. God forbid!
Anyways, you know, there was a solar eclipse observed in India yesterday from 11:00am to 3:00 pm. People at my office kept on recieving calls from their families advising them not to eat anything during those 4 hours. Now, I couldn’t find a point in not eating during that time. You know, as far as I can think of an explanation, people in earlier times had houses which contained open tanks for storing water and maybe something similar for food, and the sun’s rays during the eclipse aren’t good for exposed food and water. It makes it unhealthy and stuff.
So thats why people didn’t eat during such a happening. But considering that we were spending our regular office day inside a 5 floored building where the canteen is at the second floor and theres no way for sun light to reach us directly through the thick glass non-openable windows of the centrally air-conditioned office let alone sun’s harmful rays, I couldn’t actually find a point in staying hungry for 4 hours till the moon decided to move out of the line.
But I guess, some traditions and rituals are best left un-questioned. After all, it was our fore-fathers and earlier generations who made these rituals, and they actually were the people who descended from the time when God actually took birth in the form of humans. They sure must have had strong reasons for formulating these traditions, and if not because of our belief system in them, I think if its not too much trouble, we should keep things just as they are supposed to be if only to give the ancient rituals some respect.
Eclipses could mean new beginnings, too
What you sustain and send out will be what you’d get. It all starts here *pointing to the head*
I believe this is just another one of those topics that you can categorize as bordering between belief and superstition. Its all a matter of your perspective. But yes, even I’ve heard of significant events that have taken place in people’s lives at the time of eclipses. Whether they are mere co-incidences or some kind of universal happening, no one can tell.
Its quite a debatable topic. I do think that some of such things could happen, but can’t say that I believe in eclipses!