Are Omens Real or Symbolic?
Question
Sister, I have one more question — though it’s an old one, we’ve discussed it many times, and perhaps it never gets a fully satisfying answer.
In the Ramayan, there are so many mentions of inauspicious omens — when the fourteen thousand soldiers march, so many bad omens are described. We read a few of them today too.
So what’s the basis for all these omens?
Were such beliefs common and accepted at the time when Sage Valmiki wrote the Ramayan?
Or do these omens have some symbolic meaning?
If the entire story is symbolic, then should we understand these omens also as symbolic, or just as an added part of the story’s expansion?
Answer
No, they are symbolic.
The story is told in the form of history, but we are trying to understand it on the spiritual level, as the story that unfolds within us.
Now, here the subject of omens comes up.
In the physical world, omens are indeed common — they are part of worldly belief.
When a person lives in ignorance, they remain under the influence of such omens.
But when one becomes established in knowledge, those omens — just like Shurpanakha — become powerless.
Before going deeper, let’s understand the word Shakun (omen) itself.
Shakun comes from two parts:
Shak — a Sanskrit root meaning power or ability,
Na — meaning not.
So Shakun literally means “without power” or “lacking real strength.”
This means:
When a person lives in ignorance, they lack the power of understanding — and so they become influenced by omens.
But when a person lives in awareness and knowledge, then those omens have no power or influence over them.
In other words, omens themselves have no real ability to change anything.
It is our state of mind that gives them power.
If someone believes that one bird sitting is a bad sign and two birds sitting is good, then that belief starts to control them — but only because of their own thinking.
Nature itself is always neutral — tatastha.
Whether it is trees, plants, birds, animals — all of nature is neutral.
Nature does not affect us; it is our thoughts that affect us.
For example:
There is a rose blooming in a garden.
I step outside, see the flower, and feel, “How beautiful this rose is!”
But the flower doesn’t say, “I am beautiful.”
It simply is.
My mind was joyful, so I saw beauty there.
Another person, whose mind is sad, comes to the same garden and sees the same rose.
They may think, “The color isn’t that nice,” or “It hasn’t fully bloomed yet,” or “It’ll soon wither and fall.”
Each mind creates its own thoughts, and that thought decides how we see things.
So what we see is not in the object — it is in our mind.
Let me share a real example:
A friend of mine, a teacher, once saw two birds chirping together before going to his college class. His lecture that day went wonderfully — the students were calm and attentive.
The next time, he saw only one bird chirping, and that day the students disturbed the class.
So he formed a belief:
“When I see two birds, my class goes well; when I see one bird, it doesn’t.”
Now his life began to run on that belief.
When he saw two birds, he created a positive thought: “Today my class will be good.”
And indeed, everything followed that thought.
Everything happens according to our thinking.
Nature remains neutral — it does not create or send omens.
We interpret it through our mind and give it meaning.
So, in conclusion:
Omens and inauspicious signs are nothing but the play of our thoughts.
There is really no such thing as a good or bad omen.
Let me give another example:
Once I was sitting in a car. A cat crossed the road in front of us.
The driver said, “This is a bad omen.”
I told him, “Brother, let’s not get into these beliefs — just drive.”
He slowed down, waited a bit, and then we went ahead — nothing bad happened.
So you see, it’s all the game of our mind and our thinking.
Our entire life runs according to the nature of our own thoughts — not by omens, not by luck, not by signs.