The Greatest Enemy Of India Is Superstitious Belief - Eastern Mirror
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Op-Ed

The greatest enemy of India is superstitious belief

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By EMN Updated: Sep 11, 2013 9:17 pm

Rev. L Suohie Mhasi

ACCORDING to Chamber dictionary, superstition is a false worship of religion; an ignorant and irrational belief in supernatural agency, a deep rooted but unfounded general belief.
I was born and brought up from a family whose religion was animism. The people in the forefathers’ religion did not speak about the Creator of the heavens and the earth. They believed that there were gods which can either protect them or destroy them. So they offered sacrifices in various forms to stones, trees, ponds and rocks which were believed to be haunted by gods to make peace with them or to invoke protection from them. Fear gripped the people all the time. I too was a victim till I became a believer of Christ.Why do I say superstitious belief is the greatest enemy of India? According to record, 80 percent of the population of India is Hindus and the Hindus have caste system among themselves which is deeply rooted in superstitious belief. The Creator of the heavens and the earth is holy, righteous, just, perfect, loving kind and is no respecter of persons. He created human beings after His own image.
Human beings have diversity of races, colours, languages and statures but there is no classification of body, soul and spirit. Among the living creatures on the earth, humankind is a family and all human beings are of human family and the Creator is the Father of the family. Before God the flesh and blood of all human beings is equally precious. No flesh and blood is higher or lower. Conceiving the idea of higher caste and lower caste is far from knowing the true God because knowing God makes man and woman humble and gentle. “I am a sinner, I am unworthy” is the characteristics of the one who really knows the true God. Nearer to God, more humble one becomes. “I belong to higher caste and you belong to lower caste; I am holier than thou” is not the voice of humanity but of Lucifer.
There is no superlative degree of human class. If certain human beings are untouchable lest to be defiled by the touch, such persons are lower than animals such as snakes, monkeys, rates etc. which are worshipped as sacred animals. Any human being is higher than all living creatures in the world. If we accept one another as human being, we accept the Lord. If we deny any human being, we deny his or her Lord. In denying the Dalits, the Creator is being denied.
According to Nagaland Post August 29. 2013 “ Adalit was killed. His house was destroyed and his family including a 10 year old was ,thrown out. The upper caste members did not like his audacity to hoist the national flag on the Independence Day at a disputed property which they appropriated forcibly.
The discrimination is the bane of India where the caste prejudiced Hindus constitute 80 percent of the population. The story of the dalit came to light because one TV channel highlighted it. Otherwise thousands of dalits undergo similar rigours every day. They face the arrogance and zulum of upper caste. And there is not light at the end of the tunnel.”
There may be many men and women among the so called caste persons who realize the evil of casteism but they will be afraid of being outcast by their own caste if they speak out against caste discrimination. The M.Ps and M.L.As are aware that speaking out against racial segregation in the country will be at the expense of their popularity. So they are bound to be in soft corner. All of the Hindu leaders belong to this or that caste, so how can they speak out against casteism or caste discrimination?
Having faith in an imaginary power other than God almighty is called superstitious belief which gave birth to the caste system and caste system classified the people into different sects of caste which is a shackle to them. So despite the constitution beautifully provides freedom of life for all of the citizens, the people are slaves to casteism and the country cannot avoid war footing condition at grass root level. The actual fact is that the root cause of the imbroglio of casteism is out of a belief of deviation from God and giving loyalty to too many gods. The solution is giving loyalty to the Creator alone. He alone can deliver the people from sinking into the mire of confusion.
Honour killing for intercaste marriage known to all speaks of the fanaticism in their superstitious belief. It is a known fact that casteism is totally out of the true way of humanity and is an act of Godlessness. The universe is not created by thousand of gods but by the Almighty God alone. So instead of throwing selves into confusion by believing in thousand of gods, realistically examine what the superstitious belief is, realize the wrong and turn to the Creator of the heavens and the earth and get delivered from the centuries’ old bondage of superstitious belief so that real free life may prevail in the country! All sober and wise men and women in India should spontaneously rise up and launch a war footing revolution to root out the superstitious belief which has been destroying the fabric of unity and essence of human societies in the country so that darkness may be dispelled and light may usher in.
The hated dowry system in India is also a by-product of Godlessness. In international level there is democracy and peace but at the grass root level, there is war because it is learnt that a woman dies dowry related death every hour in India. Indian Christians also accept dowry because those who accept dowry do not really know the love of God.
It is said that big Bridge cannot be stable unless human sacrifice is offered. Offering human sacrifice is proved to be true because when a Bridge was under construction, two sons in the area disappeared and never found out. It is out superstitious belief. Practices of self-torture of self-immolation in search of peace is also out of superstitious belief.
I know what superstitious belief is because I have experienced it. Through Christ I was delivered and I came to know who the Creator really is and I have experienced His peace, His joy, His love, His power by His Spirit which the natural world does not know. By the Holy Spirit, the pain and sorrow of all fellow human beings are my pain and sorrow and the joy of all is my joy. So out of spontaneity and own volition I give my best for peace and justice as far as God enables me without any reserved motive.

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By EMN Updated: Sep 11, 2013 9:17:39 pm
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