Faith or Fear ???
11 PM on a particular date soon after I had joined for my post graduation, loud chanting kept me awake. “As though someone was summoning the Voodoo Gods”, is how I jokingly mentioned the incident to my senior in passing, the next day. It was some Kali Puja of sorts, a few meters away on the same street. Something of the kind I had never before heard. It didn’t disturb me all night, but was eerie to say the least.
I recently heard a podcast where the supernatural and the occult were discussed. One in which people spoke about Bhoot, Pret, Pishach, Rakshasas, Asuras. If you are wondering what they mean in English, well it is something like a hierarchy in the Jinn Kingdom in the order of scariness. Very engrossing indeed. Did it disturb me? Heck No!
Even if something did disturb me, I would not attribute it to an occult entity. May be because I am a bit of an agnostic. I need a scientific explanation for stuff. The supernatural though very enticing, I don’t take it all that seriously. Or may be I am not educated enough in the subject, hence the dismissal.
I know of people who sleep with the lights on when alone, as though the 60 Watt bulb would ward the evil away. I, on the other hand when forced to do so, only end up wondering of it’s effects on my melatonin levels. One of my sis-in -laws does try to scare me with stories of the occult. If anything, I find it amusing. It’s like watching one of those ‘intended to be scary’ movies where the emotion extracted out of the viewer turns out to be more startle than fear. The abruptness with which the ghostly characters appear on screen or the ear shattering background noise accompanying it. Less scary, more annoying.
My dad always told us something growing up. Do not be scared of ghosts. People are more likely to harm other people instead. My maternal Grandma imbibed the same values in my mother and all of them in turn passed it down to us. Hence the dial on our fear-o-meter pretty much can be found swinging towards the negative.
I know that the Dark Arts and the Occult do exist and that there are people who diligently practice it. When I do hear of examples of black magic and many such other worldly practices, I honestly begin to wonder if people are off their rockers. Or may be it is a pastime for ones who have nothing better to do. I rather not step into that zone.
There was this particular incident in the state of Kerala which went viral. A lady was approached over social media for a potential job and was later used for the purposes of black magic instead. She was tortured in the most brutal way imaginable, the sort you see in dark movies. Something like that amongst a civil society was unthinkable. It was supposedly done for more prosperity. Well, the perpetrators are languishing in prison. By that logic, he is definitely saving on expenses. Some prosperity it is.
I mean, you could take an interest in the occult without indulging in criminal behavior like the man above. Also, I think such things affect your psyche if you excessively believe in it. I agree, you could have a foul mood or have something go wrong in your life, but I always attribute it to either science or human behavior.
I know, it is good to have faith. It keeps one grounded and it is indeed humbling to acknowledge that there could be a power beyond your realm, one which cannot always be defined by science. It helps one relinquish control with the reminder that all your achievements cannot be attributed to you alone and all your failures are not yours to own either.
However, when people start believing in the occult excessively, they start attributing all of their life incidents to the aforementioned powers. Undue conformism to such practices seems only ridiculous to me. Now, that is not faith or humility, it is just succumbing to fear. When people say, “Be God fearing”, I would say, “Be God loving” instead. For where there is fear, there is no love. What you do out of fear is compulsion. What you do out of love is true respect.
