Overview

What exactly is Aghora and why does it invoke a strange reaction from even articulate Hindus? Before even going into an exploration of the fundamental values of this path, let us understand that the name Aghora - meaning non-terrifying - is one of the names of Lord Shiva. His southern face is called Aghora, south representing death and the cremation ground. Thus, the very first thing we learn is that Aghora has something to do with death. While scholars may say that this sect came into existence as a derivative of the ancient Kapalika and Pashupata sects, what makes an organized and non-superficial study of Aghora more difficult is the fact that we do not have any standard authoritative scriptures for the same. Most Aughar - the colloquial name in North India - practices are traditionally passed down from Guru to disciple and in a sense, can be broadly described as the Vamachari Tantric rituals taken to an extreme. It has a legendary fascination with the cremation ground because Aghora starts, in theory, with the acceptance of the one defining reality of human life: death. Irrespective of what one believes in, death is certain and it is indeed the greatest miracle of Nature or Maya that we live most of our life unmindful of this fact. What Yudhisthira told the Yaksha in the lake stands true even today. We know in theory that everyone dies but in practice, our minds are configured to believe that it is not going to happen to us and this is certainly one of the great deceptions of nature to help us survive. But Aghora in particular and spirituality, in general, is not about mere survival. It is an attempt to rearrange our perspectives about things so that we see the world as it is, not as we would like to see it. With that in mind, the Aghoris seek to break down their anesthetized worldview and thus try to become fully cognizant of the deeply unsettling pressure of personal mortality. When the realization strikes that death is certain, all of our selfish endeavors become meaningless. A strong desire sets in, an urgency to transcend the human condition and find the larger meaning and purpose for life, similar to what must have happened to Parikshit Maharaj when he got to know that he had only seven days to live. Smashan vairagya - a dispassion about life that sets in when a person visits a cremation ground - does not last long. In a few days, the mind gets back to normal and old habits re-emerge to take control of our lives. What an Aghori tries to do is make that dispassion permanent, by ensuring that we constantly remember the inevitable end of our lives so that we seek that which is changeless.

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