I would say Newton's third law was for sure an adaptation of certain Hindu philosophy and our ancestor's superstitions. If you want to call them procedures, well.. you may name it whatever way you want to. In fact certain superstitions are actually measures to nullify the reaction. I say 'certain' because I was able to guess the hidden meaning of a few of the superstitions only. Newton's third law says: Every action has an opposite and equal reaction. Now for example, there is a case where elders say: You plan to travel somewhere and at the time of your departure you hurt yourself. The superstition is that it is not a good sign and to nullify it, you should always drink water, sit for while and then leave the place. Ok. The only sane reason behind this could be that when you have hurt yourself, there are chances that you might feel dizzy and is always better to rest for a while, make the body feel at ease by drinking some water and then travel.

Here the action is hurting yourself. The reaction is that you might feel dizzy and prescribed action to be taken is that you drink water, rest for a while, to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling.

Another example is to wash or wet a coconut before you spilt it. In fact, I have been always been the kind to contradict my parents and ask them why I will have to do this before something else is done. Unfortunately, they would not have an answer to my incredible questions. I was just thinking about something else and managed to find an answer to this. Oh ok is this what they call Serendipity? Anyway, the conclusion that I came to is that, when a coconut is ripped off from its hard covering, the hair on the coconut still stays on its body. Generally, it is a practice that, when the coconut is split the water from it is saved in a container and then consumed. Now, what happens if the coconut is not wet? The strands of the hair fall into the coconut water and we will need to take trouble drinking it. Now, when the coconut is wet we wont have such a trouble.

Well, to tell you the truth, I should say I was able boost my confidence and categorize myself as an intelligent creature only after such occasions where I managed to find reasons behind such procedures.