Fear of Ghosts
By JIRARA
© JIRARA, April 2021
Published by JIRARA
on matrubharti.com
All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, for any commercial purposes without the prior permission of the author and/or publisher.
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Disclaimer: This is the work of fiction as far as all the characters, their names and the names of all the events are concerned and all these are imaginary and hence any resemblance to the persons (and their lives) dead or alive, and any places are coincidental. Even if a few events might look realistic/’real’, these are fictionalised and the associated names are changed in order to maintain their privacy, honour, and security. No intention whatsoever is meant to hurt any feelings of whosoever, irrespective of their personal/cultural beliefs, social or political inclinations, religion-orientations/practicing/philosophy, life styles, and work/business. The ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘me’, and ‘mine’ (if any used) do not necessarily mean the author of this book/story/article, and these and other such pronouns: her, hers, his, he, she, him, you, your, yours, ours, theirs…; are used for effective personification and dramatization, and the readers should not take these on their ‘own persons’.
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The readers should take these stories/verses/thoughts with/in good spirit. The presented ideas and material are based, where feasible, on readings and (thought-) analyses of scientific/other open literature (which seemed most profound and trustworthy), with as much care as possibly taken. The readers are requested to verify these notions on their own, and use their own discretion. However, these stories/verses/thoughts/ideas (mostly original) are expressed here with an intention of increasing awareness of the readers with a hope that in an overall sense, their (and ours) consciousness would be heightened (in all and multiple directions), so that we all can live our lives on this planet with true happiness, ever-lasting peace and real joy (irrespective of our orientations). The author and the publisher will not be responsible for any negative effects/situations arising as a result of reading these stories/verses and/or following the suggestions if any; and no discussions/dispute of any kind will be entertained at any time and in any way, manner, and/or forum; because the dictum is that if you like(-d) you read, otherwise ignore, what is the point in making a fuss about it?; anyway you are independent to judge the messages in the articles/stories and utilize for your benefits if found useful, since here the idea is in the direction of ‘consciousness raising’. JIRARA.
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Preamble: This is based on my personal feelings and observations, and hence my own opinion.
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Fear of Ghosts
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It is unfortunate that lot of people still believe in existence of ghosts. Even in the USA, the most advanced country of the world, there are believers of ghosts, however, this does not imply at all that we should also believe, or justify our present beliefs in ghosts. In my strong opinion there are no ghosts at all in this world, only if there are then these are in our minds, especially in the weaker ones.
It is my strong opinion and observations for several decades, that I have never seen a single ghost in any place I stayed or travelled, in India, and some countries abroad: Canada, Germany, Syria, USA, UK, China, South Africa, and Butan.
There and here, I had stayed in several cities, towns, villages (mostly in India), houses, rooming houses, hostels, guest houses, and hotels; and had slept on the terraces (sometimes on the metal-sheet roofs), and dormitory; nowhere I had seen any ghost.
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I had moved through various streets in my native place, and certain times in dark nights because seven decades ago there were no electricity and street lights.
Although being a young boy, I used to be scared of ghosts, but I had to go through these streets when my mother or father had sent me to see or meet some relatives who were staying in the neighbourhood houses and near some cross-streets. So, I wouldn't refuse them and go, and do whatever was told me to do, and return home, and it being the night I would directly go to bed, and keep awake for some time, fearing and thinking about these imaginary ghosts, which I had not seen while going and coming back through these streets.
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Ghost
Many believe in existence of ghost, even ‘see’ them,
describe them vividly often with fear.
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Yet, I have never seen any of them, except in films and pictures,
never ever even as a child have I seen any ghost,
nor in any darkness or otherwise,
even if I were moving or sleeping alone.
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The believers see them often,
the ‘seers’ so strongly believe in the existence of these ghosts,
that they practice and perform some bizarre rituals,
(more bizarre and weird ones, I cannot describe these here),
to ward off themselves, their children from,
the evil effects of these imaginary ghosts.
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The weakness of mind is our greatest ghost-enemy,
that does not allow us think rightly at the right time.
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At times, it is a physical weakness or even a medical problem,
or even an emotional intricacy, the mind becoming weak,
pushing us into the ghost belief - a psychological defence mechanism?
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There are a variety of other kinds of ghost-fears in this modern world:
examination fever-fear, job anxieties, lay-offs, depression, recession, terrorism,
sex scandals, communal riots, utter political lies, vandalism, and viruses.
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These ghosts kill some directly due to sudden shocks,
or destroy some implicitly acting as 'slow poisoning',
degrading and defaming the beautiful fabric of our society,
that fabric has taken decades of weaving,
into the the fine yarn - after longing for generations.
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The fear of ghost has been intentionally set in the minds of kids,
especially the small ones/babies to stop them crying,
And for some unknown reasons they do stop crying!
This is an enigma of the nature.
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When I used to walk through the dark streets of my native place, I used to hear some noises, as if I was walking through some jungles, but these were the noises made by small creatures that used to run around in search of their night meals in the thick walls of the high-grown-thorns on both the sides, and used to make some peculiar noises when they heard somebody’s footsteps. My main fear was to see that I do not get dashed with someone coming from the opposite side, since it was dark pitch night, and the overall illumination, if at all there, it was hardly one % from the streaks of light coming from nearby houses’ windows and doors, which were totally shut in the night for the fear of extraneous objects, small animals/insects, and the thieves. I was lucky to have not dashed even a single time in these streets which I traversed through in the nights for several years; this is amazing, but true, may be we knew how to unconsciously avoid the opposite person/s from the smell of his clothes/sweat, or the extra dark human like moving patch in the space of the paths. I used to shrink my whole body, and concentrate on walking straight in one line only, on the left side of the path, and keep the eyes watching in the straight line (of sight).
And after coming back I had never described my mental state at all to anybody.
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Once, my father took me to his sister’s village, which was more like a small town. First leg of the journey was by bus, and then for the second leg, when he inquired with the bus station, the answer was that no buses were running in the night after 9:00 p.m. on that route, so we had no other way but to walk, since no autos or taxis would be available. So, we set out on the second leg by foot journey, and it was dark night with freak light coming from the sky, and there were no street lights at all. And he used to keep talking to me about his sister, her status, her town, and in the process he also had told me that there were wild animals, especially tiger, in the mountains that were hardly 5 kms. from the path we were following to the town. This sent a wave of scare in my heart, but did not respond, and in my mind I wondered why he had not told this to me earlier. From far away a farmer was coming with a lantern in his hand, and when he came near to us, he greeted my father, and asked his welfare, it seemed he knew my father. But, my full attention was in the direction of the mountains, and watching in alertness if any animal like patch or its eyes were visible, and in the process we reached my aunt’s town, then only I got respite; and we made a return journey only during the day time. Next time whenever I had to go with him, I had said that we would go only by bus and not by walking; and of course it was really true that the tiger/s were in those mountains, since after reaching his sister’s house her children had confirmed that, and they had also seen them earlier in those mountains; and may be because of that their mansion had very high walls that were on the sides of the mountains.
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