Editor’s Note: Narendra Nayak will be writing a series of articles on Bhanamathi, a popular ‘black magic” superstition in the Hyderabad-Karnataka area. The following article, originally published in Mangalore Today, is a primer for the upcoming series.

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If you think that sin and the Indian Railways have nothing in common, please stand corrected. The most recent entrants into the field of sinning are our railways! While Indian Railways is not exactly known for it’s secular image, of recent, it has been advocating a Hindutva line which could put many of our saffron brotherhood to shame. While we have the typical things like people wanting to enter Puttaparthi have to pass below the pictures of the “lotus feet” of the local thug turned prestidigitator turned god-man who goes by the name of Satya Sai Baba, people visiting the Bangalore railway station have to put up with the pearls of wisdom of one Pt. Sri Rama Sharma Acharya who has an affinity for sin that could put a Roman Catholic priest to shame. He says that sin brings along disease, grief and down fall too! All the science text books and those of medicine have to be thrown into the nearest dustbin as we have a brand new theory for the cause of disease- sin!! Read the full story

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I see hordes of modern and educated Indians succumb to numerous blind rituals and religious schemes in India with more vigor than ever before. More and more Indians, especially those coming from the upcoming middle-class families and have studied at the premier institutes of India, are turning to ritualistic religion and its superstitions, joining cults, and wearing their dogma proudly as a badge for everyone to see.  I often wonder how come these globe-trotting, blackberry-typing, gadget-swinging Indians shut off all their mental faculties when it comes to certain superstitions and beliefs.

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Report by Sumitra Padmanabhan and Anindyasundar

Consider the situation in the 21st century in Medinipur, a district in the communist-ruled state of West Bengal.

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Rational thinkers have been pointing out superstitions and irrational concepts since the beginning of recorded history, but these ideas still abound.

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Religion and Medicine

I recently came across an article about a gentleman named Naresh, who lost both his legs in an accident at a very young age, and later studied at IIT and now works at Google. The article, titled “From banks of Godavari to Google on wheel chair“, is a very inspiring story of the triumph of human spirit against several odds. Hats off to Naresh.

One of the things that struck me as odd about Naresh is his superstitious nature. The fact that he has made it into IIT is proof of his capacity for rational thinking and scientific background. I have personally met several scientific minded people who are very smart, yet they are superstitious. I’ve read statistics which say that around 95% of the top scientists are atheists, where as 95% of the general public are believers. I have always been bewildered by how scientific minded people can be superstitious. I think I have figured out one possible reason and would like to describe it in this article.

cc:Suwaif

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Golu

My two school going daughters are now learning more about Indian mythology — in their schools, comic books, TV shows and cartoon movies. The fresh perspective they bring in when they are learning Indian mythology is very interesting. I’d like to share some examples here.

cc: Ravages

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Solar Eclipse

Are we a nation of gullible people? This rhetorical question needs no answer. The month of August, 2008 was a period when gullibility ran riot. Thanks to a solar and a lunar eclipse and the magical date of 08/08/08!                                        cc : Pandiyan

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