Inside Aghora

An aghori is a practitioner of the spiritual discipline known as aghora which can be interpreted as ‘deeper than deep’ or ‘the left-hand path.’ Aghora is part of what Hindus call Tantra. I think for my purpose the best way to define Tantra is Hindu mysticism. which may be a simplification but that’s the best definition I can come up with. Tantrics’ are to Hinduism what Sufis are to Islam, mystics attempting a more direct or personal experience with God.

Ganga the boatman uses his shawl as a sail and Rakesh looks for a corpse

Ritualized necrophilia, ritualized ophiophagy or the consumption of human flesh, excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs are all part of the aghori way if you will. The Aghories have no dietary or sexual restrictions. Attempting to understand this kind of behavior entails a certain leap of faith. By this I don’t mean buying into it, but simply opening our minds to their understanding of what they are doing. According to one aghori, ‘Only those who can lay aside all their cultural clothing and plunge into it naked can dive into its depths.’

I heard about the aghoris from a very persistent person named Akash who called me
for many months before i decided to believe him and pitch the story to make a film.

The extreme offensiveness of what they do in their different rituals is purposeful, and intended to break all cultural taboos. The aghoris seem to me to be “anti Brahmin” or at least a lot of what they do goes against what a God fearing Brahmin is supposed to practice. Sex with women of lower caste during their menstrual periods, eating dead bodies i.e. what’s considered most unclean to a Brahmin; no food taboos are all what aghoris practice. Typically these taboos are so ingrained that we’re likely to find it very difficult to accept the meaning behind what the aghoris are doing. That’s the fascination of being with the aghoris and the challenge it presents as well. It’s also what makes the path the aghoris have chosen strenuous and complicated.

Ramshankar

There are estimated to be around 3 thousand aghoris in India. The aghoris’ spiritual path has been practiced and somewhat organized into various sects for at least a thousand years though I do not have any documentary evidence to support the same and this assumption is based on hearsay from the aghoris themselves.

Tantra has been divided into Right-Hand and Left-Hand paths. The Right-Hand path equally involves a search for or communion with God. This path would emphasize personal purity in the ascetic sense. Here you would avoid all taboos (for whatever historic or social reason) no sex, no drugs, no meat, conforming to the orthodox ideals of religious discipline. The Left-Hand path, as you can imagine, is just the opposite.

Mock sacrifice

The popular image of the aghori is that of an ‘ash-swathed ascetic with long matted hair who walks through life wild-eyed, skulking about in charnel grounds, wrestling with jackals for human carcasses'. Of course there’s more to Aghora than this caricaturist impression. Aghoris or more specifically what Aghoris do would frighten the vast majority of people but that’s because most people cannot fully comprehend what Aghora is all about and the understanding of the aghori is cloaked in fear and revulsion.

The aghoris at a "shau" puja

Ohmnath and family with their hot dog lunch (note whats in the pot)

This is without a doubt a true cultural practice, with a legitimate history and lineage if you will. The Left-Hand path relies on its practitioner’s absolute internal purity to protect them while they practice rituals, which may involve necromancy, intoxicants, sex, ritualized cannibalism and other "forbidden’ practices. It is considered to be the most dangerous path possible, and its practices are ‘truly treacherous for the unwary.’ Just as Jewish mysticism or Kabala is not really for the spiritual dilettante to mess about with, so is Aghora, a path with potential for danger.

Ganga (seated) Rakesh (standing)

‘Only when purity is perfected is the aspirant assigned rituals, which to the untutored observer, might seem hedonistic or sinful'. Aghora is not considered an indulgence but the forcible transformation of darkness into light. Essentially, the aghori realizes that God is in everything, taboo or otherwise. There is no good and evil, there is only one ultimate reality or God. Therefore all paths lead to that God. ‘Renunciation disappearsonce you arrive at the Absolute because then nothing remains to renounce. An aghori goes so deeply into darkness, into all things un-dreamable to ordinary mortals that he comes out into light". So as the bible says, into the valley of darkness he walks and fears no evil.

The aghoris in India like many Tantrics and Sufis seem somewhat beyond the law. There is a very healthy respect here for religious observances of all kinds and the authorities do not interfere with any but the most criminal i.e. human sacrifice, which still occurs across India. This is somewhat analogous to the way say the US condones the use of certain narcotics like Peyote within the context of particular American Indian religious ceremonies. In India, for example, public nudity is against the law, but ascetics of all types walk about naked with no fear of prosecution. It’s unlikely that the authorities would interfere with an aghori ritual. For that matter what they do usually happens late at night in cemeteries and cremation grounds, places deemed taboo by most Indians.

The aghoris at night perform rituals in a cremation ground

In my best Star Wars analogy, the aghori is so pure and self-confident in belief that he purposely chooses to embrace the dark side because he knows that therereally is no dark side and thus emerges pure and good in the end. Most people would get confused on this path and find themselves corrupted by these taboos, but the aghori is supposedly trained to see through the illusion of taboos. He breaks them and conquers them and remains pure. An aghori is supposed to never harm another person and is never supposed to be intentionally malicious. As with all religions and philosophies, while the philosophy/ ideals sound interesting, its practice and followers appear even more so.

Ram Shanker is now in prison for rape, Ohmnath begs and scares people outside a temple in interior Uttar Pradesh and has numerous children who live under a plastic tarpaulin in a field, Jamogi still wanders small towns living off cremation ghats, Rakesh got jaundice from drinking too much Ganges water, almost died, was hospitalized at the local government hospital, survived that and now works in a carpet factory owned by his hated uncle, the prince (a disenfnchised son of a local ex-ruler) is probably still pissed off and wandering the streets of UP. Akash writes me regularly and I have done other film work with him. Eric got onto a plane and headed back to Arizona. I dusted the human ash off my clothes and returned to Bangalore.

Ohmnath in a "possessed" state with son Barsat sacrificing a pig to Smashan Kali in a cremation ground at midnight

Posing Aghori (Ohmnath)

 Real aghori (Ohmnath and his son Barsat)




Ramshankar in an apparent "possessed" state


Ohmnath screams during a puja



JamogiBaba

Aghori Samadhi - where an aghori voluntarily buried himself alive with help from his disciples. A Banyan tree grows over his "samadhi"

Credits   :   
Phrases in quotes above are from the book "Aghora- at the left hand of God".