I always wondered how superstitions were formed and where they originated from. As children we pick up superstitions from our parents, friends and people around us and blindly follow them without thinking. I always had a problem with abiding by superstitions especially if I didn't understand them. I always asked questions and wanted to know the rationale but most often I wouldn't get an answer and was told that I should just accept what was told.
Today early in the morning suddenly I got up from my sleep and I remembered an anecdote from my childhood and it was like a brain wave on the genesis of superstitions and how we subconsciously take them forward from one life to another.
The anecdote I remembered was about my brother and I in the swimming pool. My brother who is younger than me was about 4 years old and we were swimming and suddenly he was struggling and gasping for breath and the life guard had to jump in and pull him out. After that day he swam but he never wore his swimming trunks with the red color on the outside because when he almost drowned he was wearing his swimming trunks with the red color on the outside. Nobody told him to do so but on his own he made his own superstition even though he was only 4 years old. What struck me this morning about this anecdote was that obviously as children we subconsciously adhere to our belief systems borrowed from our subconscious memories built over our various past lives. This I believe is a plausible explanation.
Thinking about various beliefs and superstitions made me realize that these are nothing but age old accepted patterns of behavior or nature of things. As times change and our living environment changes the nature of things and accepted norms of behavior should also change to adapt to the changing environment. However most often most people just follow beliefs, norms and superstitions blindly without understanding or questioning their rationale or relevance.
If by following a particular pattern something positive or good happened for a lot of people it becomes a good practice. If by following certain practices or doing certain things a lot of people had bad or negative experiences then those practices got labeled as bad or unlucky practices.
Hence each individual has a set of beliefs and superstitions that are borrowed from soul experiences that comes from the subconscious mind, another set that is dictated by the country, the state, the society, the religious group, the school, college, work place, friend circle and family he/she belongs to.
Each one of us is weighed down by this big collection of beliefs and superstitions and it is up to each one of us to reduce our burden of compliance and conformance by understanding and removing the beliefs and superstitions that are not relevant anymore. Spiritual maturity I think is what will really help an individual to reach a state of being without any burden and be really free.
