An Evil Eye or an Evil Spell : a rationale

An Evil Eye or an Evil Spell : a rationale

Remedies or upaya based on the ‘karak’ objects of planets had been a part of Indian ethos for centuries and so has been the knowledge or the awareness about them. { karak object meaning : rice is a karak object of moon or turmeric is a karak object of Jupiter }
It was only in the late thirties {1939} that Pt Roop Chand Joshi formally incorporated them in the shape of a book known as Lal Kitab. These remedies are basically traditional folk remedies which we, for the sake of convenience, call Lal Kitab remedies. Behind every remedy there is a collective folk wisdom and experience.
I have been collecting , from the villages around my area , and studying many such folk remedies , not incorporated in the Lal Kitab , and have found them to be consistent with the ‘karak’ concepts. It shows that remedies are and have been a part of the Indian psyche all along and have followed a very logical system.

Now coming to the upaya I have suggested for Evil Eye & Evil Spell. None of them have been mentioned in the Lal Kitab. They are all traditional folk remedies and when analyzed they are found to be consistent with the logic of ‘karak’ object theory. Let me analyze for you, through the karak object theory of Lal Kitab, one upaya for Evil Spell and one for Evil Eye.

Let’s first see which planets and their combinations could cause evil eye or evil spell. Evil eye is normally associated with jealousy where as Evil spell is normally associated with ‘buri atma’ bad souls in the form of jin , bhoot-prêt etc.

[ 1 ] For the two forms of Mangal { mars } the book says ,

{ i } “ वह नज़र का मालिक तू नही मगर नज़र के असर का कारिश्मा इस का हिस्सा है / किसी को नज़र लग गयी; या नज़र से ही वहम बैठे हुए सैकारों मील की चीज़ें ख्याल की तरह देख आना उसकी ताक़त है” [ 52 urdu ed page 480 ]
‘Although not the ‘karak’ of sight but the effect of the sight falls under its domain. Whether an evil eye or an ability to see things hundreds of miles आवे {clairvoyance}, all come under its purview.’

Thus the mangal ashubh {malefic} causes evil eye as mangal shubh {benefic} gives the power of clairvoyance.

{ii } The presiding deity mentioned for Mangal ashubh are ‘ jin and bhoot’ [ Lal Kitab : table of things associated]



[ 2 ] Mercury :

{ i }Mercury has been associated with ‘ bhoot shakti , murda ruhen , mande wazood , bhoot-pret’ [ Lal Kitab : table of things associated ]

{ ii }Mercury is further defined as : “ kisi cheez ka saaya ya aqsa, agar asal cheez {jis ka saaya hai} ka pataa na lage ki vah kahan hai” [ 52 urdu ed : page 534 ]


[ 3 ] For Rahu the lal Kitab says,

“ mangal bad jo tahreer karave , us tahreer ki khyali safar ki taqat ka malik rahu khwab mein hi parh lega” [ 52 urdu ed : page 644 ]

“ jab budh aur rahu milen [ mande khano mein ] to agar jail khana nahi to hospital, pagal khana , kabristan ya veerana to zaroor milega kasoor ya beemari khwah na ho” [ 52 urdu ed : page 529 ]

Therefore three planets, or their combinations, signify evil eye or an evil spell : Ashubh mangal , ashubh budh and rahu.

{ A } Now lets see the ‘karak’ objects of the traditional folk upaya for evil spell .

‘On a Sunday, burn a little kachcha koyala {wood charcoal} along with dried droppings of either a camel or a deer {Camel dung or deer dung} in an earthen pot . When the charcoal and the camel / deer droppings get red, sprinkle a few mustard seeds and a little bat droppings over it and carry the smoking pot around the house, in every nook and corner. The best place you can collect the bat droppings from is the deserted old buildings where bats roost during the day. Repeat this process for at least 13 Sundays.’

Kachcha koyala = rahu
Camel / deer droppings = ashubh mangal
Earthen pot = budh
Mustard seeds = rahu
Bat droppings = ashubh budh

The same three planets as mentioned above which are being burnt assuming that the ‘buree atma’ is burned into smoke.

{ B } Now lets see the karak objects of the traditional folk upaya for an evil eye.

‘Either on a Tuesday or a Saturday, take the child to the Hanuman temple. Apply a tilak of sindoor on the fore head of the child. The sindoor should be taken from the right shoulder of the Hanuman idol.’

Hanuman ji = shubh mangal
{ bhoot pishach nikat nahi ave , mahaveer jab naam sunave ; nase rog hare sab peera , japat nitantar hanumat veera}
Sindoor = subh mangal
Right shoulder = subh mangal

Here the help of shubh mangal is being taken to counter act the effect of ashubh mangal [ buree nazar]
Thus we see that age old traditional folk remedies have a very logical basis.