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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
