499. A Cat for a Stop Signal…….

http://www.speakingtree.in/public/spiritual-blogs/seekers/self-improvement/a-cat-for-a-stop-signal

Today morning I was driving to my factory and the early cold morning had less traffic on the road. There was a slight mist with weather being chill I enjoyed the ride. All of a sudden a young man wearing a leather jacket on a two wheeler zoomed past my vehicle. With less traffic on the road at that hour I thought the youngster might be having thrill putting the machine to the extreme assault. Soon I heard screeching sound accompanied by burning smell of rubber. I noticed the young man had stopped his vehicle as he had seen a cat crossing the road. He then looked back and waited for my vehicle to pass.

I looked at him and as I went past his bike and drove on. Again he overtook my vehicle, and then at the signal junction he jumped the signal light though the red light was on. I wondered how this young man could stop his vehicle when he saw a cat cross the road but did not have the traffic sense to stop when he had to at the flash of red light at a signal. Is superstition gripping him MORE than the traffic rules I was wondering???  

Superstitions have had never been base of our rural culture. We have of course accepted Shakuna Shastra (omenology) by Sage Garga which is a science about knowing what might happen from the indications provided by nature logically. Just as we have modern meteorological department which predicts the variations in environment. The cat crossing the path might have been one such indication which was in practice long back where a person was warned not to venture into the area where a cat crossed his path. He was cautioned about plague, the deadly disease which was spread by rats. The traveler would avoid entering such a locality if he found a cat crossing his path as the rats were the favorite food of cats.

Now we have cats reared in the house as pets and there is no fear of plague also. Yet this old superstition is followed and the vehicles are stopped for a while at the sight of a cat crossing the path while traffic signals are jumped. This is the irony …………what say??????    

Swami Vivekananda says

“I would rather have every one of you be rank atheists than superstitious fools. There is no mystery in religion. Mystery mongering and superstition are always signs of weakness. These are always signs of degradation and of death. Therefore beware of them; be strong, and stand on your own feet.”