Man is a weak-minded creature and has always been a superstitious one. At the earliest stages, man was surprised to see the power of nature such as cloud, seas, fire, trees, mountains, the sun, the moon, the planets, the stars etc.
He was afraid of lightning, flood, the burning quality of fire, etc. So, he regarded all the elements and powerful and mysterious objects of nature as gods and goddesses. As time passed, man began to probe deep into his own mind and tried to establish the place of man and the earth in nature.
Man reached the conclusion that there must be some super-all pervading, omnipotent, omniscient power that created the universe and was controlling it. He named this power as God. Belief in God and various gods and goddesses still prevails among people of the world, particularly the illiterate and poor people as in India.
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Not only poor but many rich people also believe in them. Many people believe in the presence of soul in all animate objects. Some believe that it is there even in inanimate objects. Many people believed and some still believe in magic, amulets etc.
There are several kinds of superstitions in which the people commonly believe such as meeting of a Brahmin in the morning, crossing of one’s path by a cat, sneezing, twitching of limbs, etc. Some superstitions are considered good such as itching of man’s right or woman’s left palm, meeting of sweeper early in the morning, etc.