Fear of the Unknown

[rgra...@gmail.com]

FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN!
SOMU a.k.a. R.G.RAO
Email: rgra...@gmail.com
Let’s first examine whether any person can really cure any illness
with his supernatural power or so called mantra shakti. (This includes
so called Godman, faith healers, gunias. mantriks, ghadi, bhagats
etc.) Investigation done so far proves beyond doubts that no person on
this planet can perform miracles, black magic or cure people from any
sickness with mantra shakti. In fact rationalists have time and again
challenged mantriks to prove their so called mantra shakti by using it
on them (rationalists) and making them suffer. This challenge is yet
to be accepted.
We must consciously try to remove the baseless fear from our minds
that some people may possess so-called-miraculous power of curing us
of illness or making us ill. We must stop watching T.V. serials,
movies, novels, religious scriptures etc. which promotes this type of
irrational beliefs and behaviour. When young children of an
impressionable age are exposed to such literature and movies, it
results in harmful conditioning of their minds and it will make them
behave irrationally at the later stage in their life. Remember ISRO
scientists taking replica of satellite for Tirupathy Balajis blessings
before launching it. This may be the result of childhood conditioning
with irrational thoughts.
It is also important to understand the reasons behind our tendency to
believe in the so called power of Mantrics, Bhagats, Ghadi etc. One
reason is that human beings have always held fascination for the
supernatural, imaginary, occult etc and the very idea that someone
might have this power makes him happy. This belief is not only born
out of illiteracy but also because of our ignorance about nature as
well as functions of our body (Anatomy and physiology).
We say that we have made tremendous progress. Yes, we have progressed!
But our claim of progress is restricted to constructing mega housing
projects, moving around in big cars, etc. etc. This car which is the
gift of science and technology is used by people to visit swami,
bhagat, mantric etc. to do rituals which are most unscientific in
nature with his family. We have studied medicine to be Doctors,
similarly we have become Engineers, Teachers but the question is have
we become truly rational human beings. Hard to find! We have degrees
in science, we claim to be scientific minded but when it comes to so
called mysterious things, supernatural things we follow the herd
mentality and try to be the first one to prostrate before it.
Few days back I saw a teacher wearing a Taviz. Now imagine teachers
who are suppose to teach students scientific things believing that
wearing a taviz around his neck is good or will bring him prosperity
and good luck etc which I am sure he must have received from mantrik
after prostrating before him and donating money. What type of
education can you expect from this type of teachers other than
polluting the minds of young students with irrational ideas? We should
not be surprised if the same students when they grow up start visiting
the so called people possessing mantrashakti.
It is also due to our ignorance and belief that we rush to ghadi,
bhagat when dog or snake bites us. . Many times when the patient
becomes all right.the ghadi or bhagat gets the credit. But the reality
is that it is solely due to snake being non poisonous or the dog being
non-rabid. If the snake was poisonous or the dog infected with rabbis
than surely the person would have died but in this case the bhagat or
ghadi never gets the blame, the blame is on the person’s destiny.
Another thing I realised while travelling in some areas of U.P. and
M.P (This does not excludes other States.) is lack of proper health
care facilities. Even where there are medical practitioners, they
either lack experience or there is shortage of medicines. So what
happens there is after taking treatment for some time and when Doctor
realizes that the patient does not respond either due to wrong
diagnosis or lack of proper medicines he straight away suggests to the
family of the patient to take him for further treatment. That is he
only suggests that the patients should be taken to bhagat / Gunia for
further treatment
Most of the time we do feel cured after visiting bhagat , mantrik,
drinking holy(?) water, applying holy(?) ash, etc. Here we should keep
in mind that most of our illnesses are Psychosomatic in origin and due
to our childhood conditioning about the miraculous power of mantriks,
holy(?) man etc any suggestion given by them is accepted by our brain
and we feel cured.
Sometime due to many reasons such as stress or other Psychological
reasons there is sudden change in behavior in person. If we don’t know
the scientific reason we tend to attribute this to black magic
( Karni) etc and instead of visiting the Psychiatrist we visit bhagat.
(Even today we think that only mad people are treated by a
Psychiatrist ,so going to mantrik is Socially acceptable. No stigma
attached)
Only inculcating scientific attitude as a way of life in our day to
day life will help us in getting rid of this fear of the unknown. We
must heed the lines of Rabindranath Tagore
“where the mind is without fear…”