How to ward off the Evil Eye

In some parts of the world, particularly the less developed and tribal parts, there is a belief that harm can come to one from the evil eye. Such a belief still exists in parts of Africa, India and Arab countries, especially rural areas, particularly amongst the superstitious and less educated. To ward of such evils many antidotes are prescribed such as throwing salt and red pepper over and around the heads of the affected, putting black dots on bodies, an assortment of amulets, hanging of lemons and chilies on a thread outside homes etc. all depending on local customs. In primitive cultures, including Europe some centuries ago, they even used to burn witches and women suspected of an evil eye. They still do in some parts.

From a modern educated, even post modern point of view, a human needs to answer two questions in this regard,

1. Is there any such thing as an evil eye at all? Is it at all possible?

2. If it is possible, what is the best way to ward it off.

It may easily be deduced that less evolved or mature a person, the less likely one is to assume responsibility for what happens to one in life, especially the bad things, and more likely it is for one to find some external agency for blame  It is therefore easy for one to blame a neighborhood witch rather than one's own carelessness or seek to eliminate a source of infection, when one falls sick. As regards the good that comes into our lives, we are entirely responsible, because we are so important and great! :) especially the more foolish and stupid one is, the greater we are. How dare anyone else claim credit for the good that happens to us! As King Solomon of lore said "A fool is to the extent wise that he knows that he is a fool, but the one who does not know it is indeed a fool" :) The wise person lives with a sense of humility at his smallness in this vast infinite universe instead.

One might easily say that the concept of an evil eye is just plain and simple rubbish and it is for this reason that as societies become evolved they give up on such nonsense. However,  just for the sake of argument let us assume for a moment, that there might be some truth in the concept, because to reject a belief outright without deliberation, howsoever absurd it sounds, is to harbor a closed mind, just as believing in the evil eye may be blind faith. Moreover, the belief has been widespread in ancient human cultures. Even today in a country like India, even educated persons have to battle with such beliefs because even though they may not believe in it, a close relative might. This author has faced this kind of problem personally and that is the reason for writing this post.

It is best to examine the issue with an open mind using common sense and logic. Absence of scientific evidence is not proof of the absence of a phenomenon. Science is still discovering new phenomenon every day.  Only with an open mind shall one learn of the truth of the evil eye and also of the most powerful antidote to ward off that trouble, once and for all from one’s life so that one can forget about it.

It is possible, indeed it does seem so, that all consciousness is connected and that it is not just actions, but also good wishes of others that bring goodness into our lives while evil or bad wishes of others bring bad or harm to us. This is something that science has not understood fully yet. If such a thing  exists as it might to some degree,  it may be regarded as something metaphysical or supernatural. Why not protect ourselves from it if it can be done with ease? One has often seen that life prospers in loving happy surroundings, whereas it suffers in the opposite atmosphere and therefore it is something every human can do is to minimize interaction with ill intentioned persons. But what about the supernatural or magical dimension of the problem, if any, because that might act from a distance too?

Before we learn of the antidote to the evil eye, the first important thing to realize is that if supernatural evil influences that harm, exist, then supernatural good influences that protect must exist too.  While the devil is the symbolic apex of evil, God is that of goodness. Therefore, invoking the help of God is the best and most powerful way to fight off evil, better than any lemons, black dots, lime, chilies, magic rings that are nothing but primitive methods with no logic or basis for their efficacy,  just a way for fraud magicians to make money out of the gullible, to increase their misery further.

When  persons are protected, the evil directed at them must return to its source i.e reflected back, through the workings of the principle of Karma, actuated instantly through the action of protection. An arrow once released must end up somewhere. Karma can not be avoided, both good and bad,  but it might be possible to move around its timing. The person with an evil eye generates his or her share of bad karma, the moment the evil eye or bad thoughts are turned on.

What is required for protection is belief in God and trust that He shall protect one from any undeserved evil. Whenever there is trouble that seems unexpected or unexplained, pray to God, thank Him for what he grants unasked and ask Him to protect oneself or loved ones from trouble and evil. There is no other, more powerful antidote than that.  

One must sympathize with persons from impoverished societies because their lives are filled with hardship. Member of such societies remain more busy in troubling each other rather than in positive work. It has been seen that when times are hard, even the educated tend to become superstitious. Yet superstition must be discouraged because then one makes less of the real effort that is required to improve lives and wastes time on mumbo-jumbo instead. Those who believe in doing good and being good or at least try to do so, can easily adopt the protection of the Lord as available in abundance for all life as suggested here.They may believe in God in whatever form they choose or appeals to them, even as a formless presence rooted in Infinite love that pervades the universe.

The Great Buddha advocated while teaching people to move away from superstition and a plethora of complex and fruitless beliefs that rather than help them evolve, held them back. However, those who easily adopt lies and cheating, lack compassion, who are driven by greed, lust sans love, anger, jealousy etc.can not have any stable faith in God. For such latter persons there is no choice but to resort to quacks and suffer even more.

What of children who can not pray for themselves? All it requires is a loving elder or any other well meaning person to do it for them and there are many such who send such blessings their way, especially infants the moment they see them, even a photo, or even just  mention of them because they are so fragile and pure. That is all that infants require. The angels of the Lord watch over them, that is why it is said that children have their guardian angels. To me infants, because of their innocence are charged with the power of God just as a mother nursing one is charged with divine love. To think that this power of God can be harmed by a wicked magician or bad eye is to belittle God the Almighty whose extent is Infinity and whose love and power are beyond limit. To belittle our Universal father is  reason enough for misery but to blame it on a witch or dark evil eye somewhere is to compound that misery. Perhaps this fact is known to the British Royal family because of their secret mystic knowledge and perhaps that is why whenever Prince George appears in public he is dressed in white or is within the frames of a white window.  They do not require black dots to scare away evil but if any color is fortunate for them then, they may seek a protection in white, because it is the favorite color of their guardian angels

A thinking mind cannot fail to note that in a country like India where use of amulets for infants is widespread, the infant mortality rate is one of the highest in the world too, whereas in a country like UK where in the main such amulets are not used the infant mortality rate one of the lowest. Nothing can replace good common sense and care and if a protection is needed against anything supernatural nothing excels the name of the Lord. The queen of England should know this, that is why she permitted the public and international media display of a day old Prince George to the world.

It is true that suffering is a part of life and there is a post on Karma that explains that in this blog. When suffering is great, even the educated tend to become superstitious, but all one can say to such is that if you do want to go in for superstition, why not go for the most powerful and sensible one of all in the Universe, the protection of the Almighty Himself? That is what evolved humans do.

When at peace try and understand the causes of it all through common sense, logic and reflection. As the great saint Kabir advised in his old Hindi couplet,

Dukh main simran sab kare, Sukh main kare na koi

Sukh main simran jo kare, dukh kahe ko hoi

That translates as, all reflect on the Almighty when in trouble but had they done so when at peace the trouble would not have arrived.

NOTE: for those who would like to delve deeper into this and similar spiritual subjects,  may I recommend my new book, The Babaji Affair-  available at amazon and mentioned in the previous post.