The Sunday Guardian | August 09, 2015

The American president, Ronald Reagan, according to an official of the Republican party of the U.S.A., kept a golden ferrule in his pocket all the time. This ferrule was presented to him by one of his friends five years before he was elected president. Ronald Reagan held that it was the powers of this amulet which saved him from the attempt made on his life, as well as from many other misfortunes.

He could not entertain the idea of parting with it. Once when he was asked by a government official whether he still kept it in his pocket, he replied: "I sure do." Then he took the ring out of his pocket and showed to him.

This is no doubt a form of superstition. The events which make the life of a man are often mysterious and puzzling; man seeks to explain them through reason, but fails in his attempt.

Some unknown forces seem to be at work which appear to be responsible for his success or failure. He, therefore, tends to attribute them to purely material factors. Once I asked a successful businessman the secret of success. He thought for a while, then replied 'Luck'. Then he said if there were three reasons for it, he would say, "first, luck, second, luck and third, luck!"

This mysteriousness which pervades our life is due to there being an invisible God behind the scenes. Since man is unable to trace him, so he substitutes a visible God for an invisible one, be it in the form of a ring or any other object. But attaching importance to material ob-jects is utterly irrelevant to God's will.

This habit is a substitute for God but does not bring one closer either to material success or to the love and blessings of God.