Aghori

The Aghori or Aghora (Sanskrit; Devanagari: अघोर) are a Hindu sect believed to have split off from the Kapalika order (which dates from 1000 AD) in the fourteenth century AD. Many mainstream Hindus condemn them as non-Hindu because of their taboo violation of orthodox practices. Aghoris or Aughads command extreme reverence from rural populations as they are supposed to possess powers to heal and relieve pain gained due to their intense practices. Aghori are denizens of the charnel ground.

Doctrines

Aghori ascetics, while being devotees of the Hindu God Shiva in his form as Lord Bhairava, are monists who adhere to the common Hindu belief in liberation (moksha) from the cycle of reincarnation (samsara). This liberation is a realization of the self's identity with the absolute. Because of this monistic doctrine, the Aghoris maintain that all opposites are ultimately illusory. The purpose of embracing pollution through various practices is the realization of non-duality through transcending social taboos, and seeing the illusory nature of all conventional categories. The Aghoris are not to be confused with the shivnetras, who are also ardent devotees of Shiva but do not indulge in extreme ritual worship practices known to some extent as Tamasic (rituals involving some or all of the following; meat eating, alcohol drinking, consumption of beverages and foods with opiates, hallucinogens and cannabis products as key ingredients, cannibalism, residing in cremation grounds, and Tantric sexual rituals). Although they enjoy close ties with the shivnetras, netras are a complete opposite of the aghoris and are purely Sattvic in nature and worship.

Aghoris base their beliefs on two principles, that Shiva is perfect and that Shiva is responsible for everything. Shiva is thought to be responsible for every rock, tree, animal, and thought. Consequently, everything that exists must be perfect, and to deny the perfection of anything would be to deny the sacredness of all life in its full manifestation, as well as deny God/Goddess and the demigods' perfection.

History

Although akin to the Kapalika ascetics of medieval Kashmir, as well as the Kalamukhas, with whom there may be a historical connection, the Aghoris trace their origin to Kina Ram, an ascetic who is said to have lived 150 years, dying during the second half of the eighteenth century. Dattatreya the avadhuta, to whom has been attributed the esteemed nondual medieval song, the Avadhuta Gita, was a founding adi guru of the Aghor tradition according to Barrett (2008: p. 33):

"...Lord Dattatreya, an antinomian form of Shiva closely associated with the cremation ground, who appeared to Baba Keenaram atop Girnar Mountain in Gujarat. Considered to be the adi guru (ancient spiritual teacher) and founding deity of Aghor, Lord Dattatreya offered his own flesh to the young ascetic as prasād (a kind of blessing), conferring upon him the power of clairvoyance and establishing a guru-disciple relationship between them."

Baba Keenaram was held to be an incarnation of Shiva, as have been each of his successors. Aghoris also hold sacred the Hindu deity Dattatreya as a predecessor to the Aghori Tantric tradition. Dattatreya was believed to be an incarnation of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva united in the same singular physical body. Dattatreya is revered in all schools of Tantrism, which is the philosophy followed by the Aghora tradition, and he is often depicted in Hindu artwork and its holy scriptures of folk narratives, the Puranas, indulging in Aghori "left-hand" Tantric worship as his prime practice.

Aghoris go in search of powers through which they can avoid the punarjanma (rebirth) in this life.. An aghori believes in getting into total darkness by all means, and then getting into light or self realizing. Though this is a different approach from other Hindu sects, they believe it to be effective. They are infamously known for their rituals that include such as sava samskara (ritual worship incorporating the use of a corpse as the altar) to invoke the mother goddess in her form as Smashan Tara (Tara of the Cremation Grounds). In Hindu iconography, Tara, like Kali, is one of the ten Mahavidyas and once invoked can bless the Aghori with supernatural powers. A little known fact is that the most popular of the ten Mahavidyas who are worshiped by Aghoris are Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, and Bhairavi. The male Hindu deities primarily worshiped by Aghoris for supernatural powers are epithets of Shiva. The forms of Shiva that are worshiped by aghoris include Mahakala, Bhairava, Virabhadra, Avadhooti, and others.

Barrett (2008: p. 161) discusses the 'charnel ground sadhana' (Sanskrit: shmashān sādhanā) of the 'Aghora' (Sanskrit; Devanagari: अघोर) in both its left and right-handed proclivites and identifies it as principally cutting through attachments and aversion and foregrounding primordiality, a view uncultured, undomesticated:

"The gurus and disciples of Aghor believe their state to be primordial and universal. They believe that all human beings are natural-born Aghori. Hari Baba has said on several occasions that human babies of all societies are without discrimination, that they will play as much in their own filth as with the toys around them. Children become progressively discriminating as they grow older and learn the culturally specific attachments and aversions of their parents. Children become increasingly aware of their mortality as they bump their heads and fall to the ground. They come to fear their mortality and then palliate this fear by finding ways to deny it altogether. In this sense, Aghor sādhanā is a process of unlearning deeply internalized cultural models. When this sādhanā takes the form of shmashān sādhanā, the Aghori faces death as a very young child, simultaneously meditating on the totality of life at its two extremes. This ideal example serves as a prototype for other Aghor practices, both left and right, in ritual and in daily life."

Symbols

The Aghori ascetic is himself a symbol of the God Shiva in Shiva's form as Bhairava. The main symbol which makes him distinct from other sadhus is the skull cup he uses as a begging bowl. He goes naked or wears the shroud of a corpse, covers himself in the ashes of the cremation ground and always has his hair disheveled or in matted dreadlocks. If an aghori uses a corpse as part of his ritual worship, the corpse upon which he meditates, it is a symbol of his own body and the corpse-devouring ritual is a symbol of the transcendence of his lower self and a realization of the greater, all pervading Self that is universal consciousness. Another symbol of the aghori, which ties him to the affiliation of Bhairava and links aghoris together with other Saiva and Sakta traditions, is the trident. The three pronged trident staff in Tantric Hinduism, which aghoris follow, is a symbol representing the three constituents of which Shiva and/or Shakti first creates the universe: iccha shakti (power of will/desire/intention), jnana shakti (power of knowledge - the preconceived architectural design of the universe), and kriya shakti (the power of action). The staff part of a trident in Hinduism represents the human spinal cord, of which the sushumna nadi runs along. The sushumna nadi is the main nerve current, or meridian, in the human body which is the track that the kundalini energy rises up, bringing the aghori or yogi, or meditation practitioner into full spiritual enlightenment, nirvana, or more precisely nirvikalpa samadhi.

Adherents

Though Aghoris are prevalent in cremation grounds across India, Nepal, and even sparsely across cremation grounds in South East Asia, the secrecy of this religious sect leaves no desire for practitioners to aspire for social recognition and notoriety. Therefore, no official figures are available. In Sonoma, California exists the Aghori 'Sonoma Ashram' that tends to spread the teachings of the Aghoras in the west.

Headquarters

Hinglaj Mata is kul-devi ( Chief Goddess) of aghories. The main centre (Pilgrim) of Aghoris is Kina Ram's hermitage or ashram in Ravindrapuri, Varanasi. Full name of this place is Baba Keenaram Sthal, Krim-Kund. Here, Kina Ram is buried in a tomb or samadhi which is a centre of pilgrimage for Aghoris and Aghori devotees. Present Head (Abbot), Since 1978, of Baba Keenaram Sthal is Baba Siddharth Gautam Ram. According to Devotees , Baba Siddharth Gautam Ram is reincarnation of Baba Keenaram himself . Apart from this, any cremation ground would be a holy place for an Aghori ascetic. The cremation grounds near the yoni pithas, 51 holy centers for worship of the Hindu Mother Goddess scattered across South Asia and the Himalayan terrain, are key locations preferred for performing sadhana by the Aghoris. They are also known to meditate and perform sadhana in haunted houses.

Cannibalism

The Aghoris distinguish themselves from other Hindu sects and priests by their alcoholic and cannibalistic rituals (see necro-cannibalism). The corpses, which may be either pulled from a river [including Ganges] or obtained from cremation grounds, are consumed both raw and cooked on open flame, as the Aghoris believe that what others consider a "dead man" is, in fact, nothing but a natural matter devoid of the life force it once contained. Therefore while for ordinary people cannibalism may be seen as primitive, barbaric as well as unclean, for aghoris it is being both resourceful and subverting the common stereotypes placed on such taboos into a spiritual ascertainment that indeed nothing is profane nor separate from God, who is hailed to be all and in all. In fact, the Aghoris see it as a scientific approach in trying to discover how matter converts from one form to another. An eyewitness account is offered by Swami Rama, who observed an Aghori baba transmute the flesh from a dead human body floating in the river into a vegetarian sweet - the Aghori maintained that he is actually purely vegetarian in diet, demonstrating that he actually transmutes the flesh into vegetarian meals. According to Swami Rama's account, the Aghori also demonstrated the ability to heal wounds instantly, to transmute a rock into a sugar cube, and sand into almonds and cashews.

In popular culture

In Tad Williams' Otherland series, the main member of the resistance group the Circle, Nandi Paradivash, spent several years as an Aghori ascetic while preparing for the final confrontation with the Brotherhood.

In 2006 a Greek documentary by the name of "Shiva's Flesh" shows a Varanasi Aghori by name Black Boom Boom Baba and the existing faith around Aghoris in Varanasi.

The television program Wildboyz starring Steve-O and Chris Pontius featured a segment in which the duo learned about the Aghori culture firsthand. Chris and Steve-O were given the ritualistic alcohol from a skull and were covered in remains of a corpse in the form of ashes. One Aghori also demonstrated the traditional drinking of urine.

Director Jeff Tremaine, responsible for the Wild Boyz, Jackass, etc. felt the bit on the Wild Boyz was so successful he wanted to re-shoot it for Jackass 2. This time they sent in Dave England, Chris Pontius, and Steve-O. When an Aghori started mutilating his own leg, and jumped at Dave England with the blood everyone decided it was far more than they had planned on, and wanted out. This 'bit' ended up in Jackass 2.5, as Johnny Knoxville foreshadows in the taping of the 'bit'.

On the Dirty Sanchez TV show, in a season called "Sanchez Get High," Welshmen Matthew Pritchard and Lee Dainton meet up with an Aghori ascetic, and shows Pritchard drinking alcohol from a skull.

In popular Finnish Television series Madventures protagonists Riku Rantala and Tuomas Milonoff encounter Aghoris at the beaches of Varanasi and indulge rituals with them. This segment can be seen in Season 3 of the show.

In the Tamil film Naan Kadavul by Bala, Arya essays the role of an Aghori.

In the Hindi film Raaz - The Mystery Continues by Mohit Suri, J. Brandon Hill plays the role of an American executive who becomes an Aghori .

In the block-buster Telugu film Arundhati, Sonu Sood, the antagonist is a converted Aghora.

A popular novel in Kannada Aghorigala naduve (Life with Agoris) was published in 1980. In that novel one of the popular sites for Aghoris in south India is near Chamundi Hills at Mysore, Karnataka state.

References

Aghor at a glance:-Written By- V.P.S.AshtHana & Krim Kund Katha:-Written By- V.P.S.Ashthana

Further reading

Vishwanath Prasad Singh Ashthana, Aghor at a glance

Vishwanath Prasad Singh Ashthan, Krim-kund Katha

External links

Official Website - Headquarter of the Aghora

Division of Religion and Philosophy St. Martin's College: Aghoris

Asiatick Researches, 1832

The Asiatic Journal, 1837

The Kinarami Aghoris' website

http://www.sonomaashram.org

http://www.indiadivine.org

http://magurunepal.blogspot.com/2010/06/aughad.htm

http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/hindu/devot/aghoris.html

http://www.shaktipeethas.org/varanasi-few-places-of-interest-t45.html

http://maamaitrayini.org

http://www.aghori.it

Category:Cannibalism Category:Hindu movements and organizations Category:Shaivism Category:Varanasi Category:Left-Hand Path