The Aghoris

India is home to some of the most fascinating practices, shocking traditions and sensational lifestyles of the world. Of all such practices, traditions and lifestyles found in India, the most unique are probably those of the Aghori Sadhus. These ascetic Shaivites, who are easily recognizable by their long matted hair, the cremation ash smeared across their bodies and their constant smoking of marijuana, may be found across Nepal and the northern parts of India, especially around cremation grounds and temples dedicated to Lord Shiva.         

An Aghori Sadhu aims at transforming himself into a deity of Bhairava (a fierce incarnation of Lord Shiva) and by doing so, escaping his cyclic existence, the never ending cycle of birth and rebirth that an ordinary man is entitled to unless he learns to accept the illusory nature of his Self and his worldly experience. In so escaping his cyclic existence, an Aghori Sadhu hopes to attain moksha, to become one with the universe and to leave his physical life behind.

Bhairava - the incarnation of Lord Shiva associated with total destruction

It is quite a curious and taboo lifestyle that these people lead, especially with their penchant for cannibalism, macabre practices and symbols, decadent and vile sexual practices, lack of proper hygiene as well as their self-sanctioned dependency on ganja, charas and alcohol.

An Aghori Sadhu smoking either ganja or charas out of a chillum 

When asked why he would want to do some of the sickening things he does, an Aghori Sadhu would claim that he finds purity in even the filthiest of actions or objects. Everything, according to the Aghori doctrine of beliefs, will ultimately be destroyed by Lord Shiva when the time comes, regardless of whether ordinary people view it in a positive or negative light. The universe is a non-dualistic experience and no distinction exists between pure and impure. Everything belongs to Lord Shiva, and is therefore, pure. An Aghori Sadhu holds that society is an illusion that is perpetuated, generation after generation, by individuals who are either too blind or too unwilling to take the anarchic path to moksha, or final release. In his view, it is the society that does not belong to the universe, not him. He has already projected himself onto every component of the universe, and has long left our world of maya, or illusions, far, far behind. He lives in a mystical, drug induced world inside his head, free to roam through the infinite combination of space and time that is the universe, no longer shackled by the chains of memory.

The process of initiation into the Aghori sect is a rather painstaking effort that may last up to twelve years. Nobody is born with an Aghori view of life. Every Aghori Sadhu was once a normal person who had familial considerations, spent his time hanging out with his friends, experienced the petty emotions of jealousy, greed and disgust that plague humans and, in many cases, even held jobs!

A person who has decided to leave the world of maya behind and join the Aghori sect would have to approach an existing, experienced member of the sect and request him to accept them as their student. Under their guidance, the individual is put through several physically and mentally agonizing experiences which aim to sever his ties with the world he once knew. In order to enhance his spiritual powers, the student begins to meditate for several hours a day accompanied by regularly smoking copious amounts of marijuana as an entheogen to heighten his spiritual experiences. He is also required to find a human skull from the cremation ground, called the kapala, which he must keep with him at all times, for use as a bowl for food and drink. The student must also change his diet completely. An Aghori Sadhu in the making is required to eat whatever is available. It should not matter to him if he is consuming decomposing garbage, feces, urine or the bloated carcasses of humans and animals – the more tolerance to the emotions of disgust and repugnance  he shows, the closer he is to becoming an Aghori Sadhu and attaining moksha. During the more advance levels of meditation, the Sadhu is required to find a corpse and use it as his seat of meditation. The corpse symbolizes the shava, or the body of the Aghori Sadhu, and is ultimately consumed by the Sadhu as a way of removing it from the world of maya. Despite such cannibalistic and other abnormal activities, an Aghori Sadhu is rarely, if ever, violent towards other people. Their way of life dictates that they must live a life of peace and never harbor feelings of hate or fear towards anything that belongs to Lord Shiva, which is practically everything around them, including humans and animals.  

An Aghori Sadhu drinking out of his kapala

After roughly twelve years, the Sadhu emerges as a being that has transcended all the rules of humanity, choosing to live the way he pleases and striving to stay outside the ranks of the society. But as a student of psychology, I can’t help but wonder how these Aghori Sadhus are affected by all the harsh treatment they subject their own bodies to. The alcohol, the marijuana, the unhygienic living conditions and diet – won’t all these things catch up to the human bodies and psyches concealed somewhere behind all the projected mysticism? Or have they been right all along in claiming that it is we who do not recognize the world around us to be full of illusions. Their philosophy of a simple and uninhibited life and of being completely and ecstatically overwhelmed with just devotion to God makes for a good reason that the Aghori sect today, is not a dying one.

According to the Aghori Sadhus, the decision to join the Aghori sect is the very last one a soul makes in its time in this world. The soul that makes such a decision has had enough of this life, which to it is only an illusion. The soul seeks to attain moksha, and for that purpose, even suicide is not a viable option. The only exit route that the soul finds to escape its cyclic existence in maya therefore, is a slow and steady loss of sense of reality, which is exactly what is offered by the Aghori way of life.  

By Rtvik B.M