If looks could kill.....Nazar

My youngest brother was born when I was nine years of age. Since my mother was a working woman, looking after the new born, bathing and dressing him up used to be my responsibility. He was a sweet child. Whenever somebody came home, admire his cuteness and leave, there used to be distinct difference in his behaviour. He would be cranky, cry for no reason, disturbed during sleep and sometimes feverish. And when I lift him, he would be so much heavier than usual. Same thing used to happen when we would visit somebody’s house or go for a function and come back home.  

‘Nazar’ or ‘Evil eye’ has a remedy.

My mother, on seeing the child’s changed behaviour, said it was due to ‘Nazar’ or ‘Drishti’ and she had a remedy. She would take three unbroken long red chillies, some sea salt, mustard seeds, and some onion peels in a piece of paper, wrap it up and take it in her right palm. She would touch this on the baby’s head on the left side, left shoulder, elbow, palm, left knee, toes, continuing onto right toes, knee, palm, elbow, shoulder and right side of the head. This she would do three times, then make three circles around his head and put the paper with its contents onto fire outside the house in our compound. For making the fire we used coconut husks and dried leaves.

The moment it burnt off, the baby would feel light and I would be relieved because I had to carry him. So as a child, I had experienced its effect.

Principle behind the Nazar

If we know the concept of auras, it is easy to understand what is Evil eye. Aura is the electromagnetic field around our physical body. When we look at objects or people with positive aura, it energises us and we feel happy. A negative aura can sap our energy and make us sad and unhappy. It is possible to draw energy from positive objects/people and lose energy to negative aura objects/people. An evil eye, on the other hand, can cause us to lose our aura, feel drained and disempowered.

When someone looks very pretty in a party, or is giving an outstanding performance, how many in the party or audience will be looking at that person with longing eyes, or with envy? Any of us can possess an evil eye transiently. This follows envy, or even adoration, of something beautiful, like a child. Sometimes even a mother’s gaze can drain the child of positive aura. It is to protect from this that a black dot is put prominently on the child’s face.

Across the world

Through the ages, people have always feared the evil eye. When children fall sick for no apparent reason, when things suddenly start to go wrong or when hindrances come your way repeatedly, people say, the evil eye has struck. 

Belief in the evil eye is strongest in West Asia, Latin America, East and West Africa, Central America, South Asia, Central Asia, and Europe, especially the Mediterranean region; it has also spread to areas, including northern Europe, particularly in the Celtic regions.

Authentic practices of warding off the evil eye are also commonly practiced by Muslims: rather than directly expressing appreciation of, for example, a child's beauty, it is customary to say Masha'Allah, that is, "God has willed it", or invoking God's blessings upon the object or person that is being admired.

A number of beliefs about the evil eye are also found in folk religion, typically revolving around the use of amulets or talismans as a means of protection. In the Aegean Region and other areas where light-colored eyes are relatively rare, people with green eyes, and especially blue eyes, are thought to bestow the curse, intentionally or unintentionally.

Assyrians are also strong believers in the evil eye. They will usually wear a blue/turquoise bead necklace to be protected from the evil eye.

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook explained that the evil eye is "an example of how one soul may affect another through unseen connections between them. We are all influenced by our environment.... The evil eye is the venomous impact from malignant feelings of jealousy and envy of those around us."

In Mexico and Central America, infants are considered at special risk for the evil eye and are often given an amulet bracelet as protection, typically with an eye-like spot painted on the amulet.

Burning chillies

It is interesting that if we just burn a small chilli, we won’t be able to stand nearby as we start sneezing and coughing from the pungent fumes. But when three big chillies are burned to remove nazar, there will be absolutely no offensive smell, no sneezing and coughing.

When one is living in an apartment and can’t light a fire outside, we can line a kadai with aluminium foil, burn some shredded paper inside that and put the things to be burned in that. It is important to see that the chillies burn completely. When it cools down, the whole thing can be wrapped up in the foil and discarded.

A simpler method

If you don’t want to take so much trouble, just take one teaspoon of sea salt in your hand, take it clockwise around the head thrice, lightly spit on it thrice and discard it by flushing immediately in the sink. Salt attracts negative energy and breaks it down. So it is important to dispose the contaminated salt immediately.

Keep yourself protected

A simple way to keep yourself protected from evil eye is to always wear vibhooti in the third eye region.

Talismans that protect from Evil eye

Whereas the evil eye is a curse believed to be cast by a malevolent glare that can cause misfortune or injury, usually given to a person when they are unaware, talismans created to protect against the evil eye are also frequently called "evil eyes".

Attempts to ward off the curse of the evil eye have resulted in a number of talismans in many cultures. As a class, they are called "apotropaic" (Greek for "prophylactic" / or "protective", literally: "turns away") talismans, meaning that they turn away or turn back harm.

A blue or green eye can also be found on some forms of the Hamsa hand, an apotropaic hand-shaped talisman against the evil eye found in West Asia.

In Turkey, a typical Nazar (amulet) is made of handmade glass featuring concentric circles or teardrop shapes in dark blue, white, light blue and black, occasionally with a yellow/gold edge.