Number 13 is really harmful !!!
Fear of the number 13 goes by the fancy term “triskaidekaphobia”. Till recently I never paid attention to this as I belong to the Camp that is disdainful of this “irrational” fear. I had the privilege of hearing Satguru Jaggi Vasudev recently and he made this rather interesting observation that people choose to believe/disbelieve as it is so much more easier than “seeking”.
And so it is with the number 13, with people believing/not believing without “knowing”. Phew . However, notwithstanding this mind blowing statement of the Satguru, I would not have researched the number 13, except that a dear friend of mine fell victim to the dreaded “Triskaidekaphobia”. We are in the business of advising people on Real Estate and this friend of mine duly took mine. We zeroed in on an investment in India Bulls Greens, Panvel, Navi Mumbai . As luck would have it there was no availability of apartments on the lower floors and the lowest available floor was thirteen, followed by the seventeenth floor.
Now in Mumbai, developers have this practice of charging floor rise for every floor. As a consequence a flat on the seventeenth floor would cost this friend Rs 1,20,000 more as compared to the flat on the thirteenth floor. I tried in vain to reason with him, but to no avail. I was however not aware of the origin of the superstition and even less aware that there are cultures/ countries where the converse is true. Hard to believe, but it is true that some consider the number 13 very lucky. The most stirring story is about our own Guru Nanakji. The story is reproduced here for our common benefit.
Guru Nanak was born of humble parentage. His parents owned a store, and were ambitious for their son. They urged young Nanak to sit in the store and do some business. The young man started to count, Ek do teen (One, two ,three) ……Gyaara, Baarah, terah….(Eleven, twelve, thirteen)….The minute young Nanak said ‘terah’ meaning thirteen, he thought of ‘terah’ as ‘Tera’ which means ‘Yours’. Guru Nanak went into deep meditation, thinking that all that is, belongs to the Lord. Needless to say, Guru Nanak never became a merchant, rather he turned out to be a ‘Baadshah’ (King).
Also in Italy, the number 13 is considered lucky.
I rest my case and hope wiser counsel prevails when we take important financial decisions in our life