When I look at someone I don’t see them as they are now; I see them as they will be. Then I can try to change them if there is something in them I think I can change. If I love skin and bones how will I be able to help them? Skin and bones will only decay, but the individual will continue to exist even after death. That is why I can say that I love people not for their present value but for their future value; not for what they are but for what they will become, or for what they have the potential to become. This is an Aghori’s love.
THE TRUE AND THE REAL
I have never believed in religion. Religions are all limited because they concentrate only on one aspect of truth. That is why they are always fighting amongst one another, because they all think they are in sole possession of the truth. But I say there is no end to knowledge, so there is no use of trying to confine it to one scripture or one holy book or one experience. This is why I say when people ask what religion I follow, “I don’t believe in Sampradaya (sect), I believe in Sampradaha (incineration).” Burn down everything which is getting in the way of your perception of truth.
I also often say that I belong to the Vedic religion. But there are problems in that also. For example, the Vedantins. Vedanta means the end of the Veda, and the Vedantins try to distill the essence of the Veda away from the minute rituals. But sometimes they make a mess of it.
For example, the philosophers of Advaita (absolute nondual) Vedanta say, “Brahman sat, jagan mithya,” meaning that the Universal Soul or Atma exists in reality but that the world, the manifested universe, does not. An Aghori believes, “Brahman sat, jagan sat”: Both the Atma and the Samsara (the world of manifestation) are real and existent because the Samsara manifests itself directly from the Supreme Soul. If the product is impure and the process is efficient then must not the raw material be impure? But we know the Atma is pure. If all is part of a harmonious whole then all must be accepted as real. The world may not be true, no doubt. The world is in fact full of falsehood. But it is real, at least as real as you and I are. And you cannot deny your own reality, because when you do you enter a logical paradox: If you are unreal then you cannot comment on the reality or lack of it in your existence. This is all such a waste, a labyrinth of words, which does no good to anyone, and will not get you to where you want to go: to God.
Advaita Vedanta suggests in fact that nothing exists except the individual; that each of us has our own individual realities which are real only for us. That being the case, how can you communicate your experiences? It is impossible. That is why the Vedic religion, which is one of the two eternal religions, gives the same advice to everyone: “Carve out your own niche.” There is no such thing as sin; we have invented sin, along with heaven and hell. You must work at your own rate of speed toward your own goal; no one is required to do anything else. You will achieve, after some time. There is nothing to worry about.
The scriptures talk about enlightenment, not because when you are enlightened you are supposed to see some clear white light, but because you have been “lightened” of your heavy burden of karmas and rnanubandhanas thanks to your own penances and to the grace of your guru. And, because you have developed the “light” of perception so that you can “see” truth directly, without any interpreters. Vedic religion is the religion of light, the light of lights, the light of the sun, and modern scientists put the lifetime of the sun at about 10 billion years. Isn’t that almost eternal, as far as you and I are concerned? So, if you are in no hurry you can afford to wait.
Very few can worship according to the rules of the other eternal religion; Aghora is too rigorous for almost everyone. Is there any limit to darkness? None. In Aghora, you embrace darkness and make it work for you. Does it sound easy? Only the senior-most Rishis can master both the Veda and Aghora.
The Upanishads have a nice little prayer: “Lead me from untruth into truth; lead me from darkness into light; lead me from mortality into immortality.” What is untruth? The world, which is composed of an aggregate of limited forms. Whatever is limited cannot be true. The true is that which is beyond every limit. What is darkness? The darkness of a mind clouded by ignorance. The light is your own inner light, which is your true self. The Veda teaches you to achieve immortality without renouncing the world, but the procedures of its rituals must be rigorously adhered to. We do things differently in Aghora.
Aghora teaches you to embrace the world, embrace impurity, embrace darkness, and push through forcibly into light. You must catch Shakti by the hair and drag Her to you.
There is no life without Shakti. But everyone is afraid of Shakti: “Beware of Maya, my son” is what our present-day religions teach us. Do they realize that every individual creates his or her own Maya? It has to be this way. Maya is just the projection of Shakti into the outside world. Because you get yourself entangled in your own Shakti, you scuttle yourself. And that is why everyone fears Maya, simply because they know they can’t control Her.
But an Aghori never gets entangled in his Maya. He self-identifies himself so perfectly with Shiva that he pulls the Shakti forcibly back to him. Shiva is unborn and undying, and, therefore, permanent. He is also that which is to be known, the permanent reality. From the untruth of limitations the Aghori goes to the truth of Shiva; from the mortality of earthly existence he propitiates the Destroyer and becomes immortal; and by harnessing his Shakti he floods his consciousness with light. Doesn’t a lamp give light to all? The oil burns, but the lamp is not consumed. This is the Aghori: illuminating everyone with the light of his own incineration, fueled by his Shakti.
Nothing is inauspicious to an Aghori. He can do Sattvic sadhana very easily, because he develops obsessive love for his deity. But Sattvic people have a hard time with Aghora sadhanas because they find Tamas very difficult to control. That is why everyone says “Aghora is extremely dangerous; you may fall and ruin yourself.” It’s all wrong. If you’re naked you possess nothing, which means you have nothing to lose. Let any thief come; what can he take? All other paths to knowledge have traps: Once you learn a little it goes to your head, and you remain just on the outside of the truth, never making the final renunciation. The ego of knowledge is the worst trap of all. But there is no such danger in Aghora because you throw everything away in the beginning. Then there is no impediment to your perfect enlightenment. There is only one requirement: Your mind must be absolutely firm.
There, of course, lies the problem. To maintain a firm mind while a beautiful female spirit dances lasciviously on top of your body is the test of a real man. You have to die while still alive; then you can succeed at Aghora. Then let the ghouls throw live coals onto your flesh, and watch your skin char without flinching: You’ve given up your body as well, you have nothing to lose. As long as you hold onto that determination you are perfectly safe.
To die while still alive means to relinquish all attachments to your possessions, including especially your body. Everyone can do it to some extent. An Aghori goes all out to do it. Every morning when I wake up the first thing I do is look at my body. I see skin, muscle, and bone, and then I think to myself, “This will go. This will all go and only my consciousness will remain.” In this way I inoculate myself against being attached to my own existence.
RESTRICTIONS
If you want to die while you are still alive you have to restrict the three things which most bind us down to the body: food, sleep, and sex. The Naths (a tribe of immortal Aghoris) have a prescription for spiritual advancement: “Break up your sleep, and cut down your food.” No matter how far your mind may soar into the astral regions while you are awake, once you go to sleep you erase all the benefit. Sleep is very much like death, just less permanent. It is the overcoming of the mind by a blanket of dullness.
Food makes you sleepy by filling you up; sex exhausts you, it makes you sleepy by draining you. Aghoris cannot afford the luxury of relaxation; they have to be sharp at all times. They work all night long in the smashan, where drowsiness makes them much more susceptible to attack from spirits.
Food and sex also both make you more conscious of your bodily processes. In fact, in the case of all three — food, sleep, and sex — the more you get of them the more you want. Other desires can be eliminated by gratifying them, but these three desires have to be carefully regulated. If you eat an entire chicken today does that mean you won’t be hungry tomorrow? No, you’ll be hungrier. If you sleep nine hours today you’re likely to sleep ten hours tomorrow. And it is the same way with sex: The more you get of it, the more you want of it. Until you begin to at least curb these desires you will never make any permanent spiritual progress. Write it down; it is impossible. All your gains will be continuously wiped out by your indulgences. And worse, if you ever permit yourself to be tempted in the smashan, you’ve had it.
Consider this indulgence: Sadhus and other spiritual aspirants are forbidden to drink alcohol; some are not even allowed to take medicine which contains alcohol. Aghoris, however, drink; but only because they can master the intoxication. You must drink the drink; you must not let the drink drink you, lest you become its slave and be lost. You must always retain your control.
What is the use of drinking and becoming drunk? You slobber all over yourself while you run off at the mouth to whoever will listen, buying them drinks if necessary so they’ll listen. Then you gorge yourself on a big meal, and probably vomit it back up. Eventually you get into a fight, make a pass at somebody else’s wife, or pass out.
Alcohol makes you extroverted, but this extroversion must be firmly controlled. Most people permit the drink to drink them: They allow their conscious minds to be overcome by all the little yeast cells crushed after the fermentation process is completed. Yeast cells undergo such agony during the crushing operations that a great current of Tamas is created by their unvoiced screams in the resultant alcohol.
When I want to drink I always allow a drop of the drink to fall on the ground before I begin, as an offering to Mother Earth. I am asking Her to redeem all the wretched little yeast cells. When She does, each cell becomes filled with the transcendental wisdom and blessing of the Mother, and by my consuming them, I do too! When I offer that drop I repeat a certain mantra and then say “Prajvalita!” because both the yeast cells and I should have our intellects become prajvalita (enkindled). By doing this the alcohol enkindles my Bhuta Agni and enables me to soar into the astral regions. Anyone else who drinks will enkindle his Jathara Agni which will increase his appetite and drag him further and further down into physical consciousness. Jathara Agni is the fire which digests our food; it is the body’s power of digestion. Bhuta Agni is associated with the subtle body; it enkindles and inflames Jathara Agni. When the mind is disturbed the Bhuta Agni is weakened, which weakens the Jathara Agni. This results in indigestion, which causes disease.
The Bhuta Agni acts as the digestive fire for the subtle body, except that the subtle body does not live on food; its food is Japa (recitation of mantras). If you want to become spiritual you must preserve and protect the power of Bhuta Agni so your spiritual practices will be properly digested by your mind. So many Western seekers have ruined themselves physically or mentally by overdoing mantras or pranayama or whatever before they were strong enough to digest, to properly make use of, the energy they were creating. Because the Bhuta Agni gives energy to the Jathara Agni, when one is strong the other must necessarily be weak.
If you want to enjoy mundane life to its fullest you will need a strong, well-nourished body, for which you must keep your Jathara Agni well inflamed. And, the best way to increase the power of your Bhuta Agni, your “spiritual digestion,” is to do exactly the opposite: eat less. As your physical hunger decreases you will find an increased mental hunger for knowledge, and as you find you can only digest smaller quantities of food you will find that you can digest many more new things mentally, and vice versa. Sleep and sex will generally dull both Jathara Agni and Bhuta Agni. No, there is no escape, to make permanent spiritual progress you must make your Bhuta Agni predominant.
INTOXICANTS
In an ordinary person the consumption of alcohol will lead to an enkindling of the Jathara Agni. Ayurveda recognizes this and prescribes medicinal wines when there is a need to increase the appetite and promote digestion.
An Aghori, though, is not an ordinary person. Aghoris do not live to eat. An Aghori who drinks must drink not to lose his consciousness and become more enmeshed in the world’s Maya, but rather to dilate certain brain cells to increase, not decrease, the awareness. Alcohol should sharpen your mind so much that a problem which might take hours to think out in the normal state can be done instantaneously. It’s the same with every other type of intoxication also: if you can’t control it, don’t do it; you’re sure to scuttle yourself.
When an Aghori takes a lot of intoxicants he feels like going to the smashan and being alone with his thoughts. He becomes more introverted; he feels like telling everyone he meets “Leave me alone!” And if he covers himself with ashes and remains naked and shouts obscenities, no one is likely to come near, and he can be in his mood all day long. This is one of the reasons why Aghoris act the way they do. I used to do it myself.
Aghoris are thrill seekersi that’s it in a nutshell. When I went to the U.S.A. in 1981, what was the thing I most enjoyed? The roller coasters! Especially “Space Mountain” at Disneyworld and the old wooden roller coaster at Circusworld. I could stay on a roller coaster all day! That rush of speed, that excitement! Most people just scream and forget it, just as most people who drink get drunk and pass out, and most people who indulge in sex have an orgasm and go to sleep. But what is the use in that? That is mere bodily indulgence. To be an Aghori you must go beyond all limitations, and the biggest limitation is the limitation of the body. When we Aghoris use thrills, intoxicants, and sex we use them to go beyond the body. It is the same way with music. Maybe if I use music as an example you’ll understand what I mean about intoxicants and sex. Music is vibration, just like mantra. You can use it to benefit your sadhana. Any music will work, if it has a nice melody and a good rhythm. I love Jim Reeves because he has both melody and a good rhythm, and also pathos. I enjoy Spanish and Caribbean tunes, and I will even listen to some rock music, though much of it is too violent for my purposes. Some of our bigoted Indians say, “Only Indian music can make your mind more meditative,” but that is all bull. It is true that our Indian rhythms are far more advanced in complexity than are the Western ones, and our tunes are much more intricate, but there is something about Western music which makes it particularly useful for getting into certain frames of mind.
Meat is also an intoxicant, by the way. It is just as intoxicating as music, alcohol, marijuana, or sex. But it involves killing a sentient being, which I don’t like; I am fond of animals. Besides, when you eat meat you must be in a position to ensure that the animal gets a higher rebirth, if you don’t want to be stained by karma. So it is better to avoid it.
There are three important reasons why Aghoris love to take intoxicants. First, it is a question of challenge and response. It is a contest between the Aghori and the drug: Who is stronger? Will the drug be able to overcome the Aghori’s will and drown his consciousness or will the Aghori be able to control the drug’s effect and bend it to his will? The exhilaration of such a duel is a sublime intoxication in itself.
Second, if the Aghori is able to master the intoxication, the force of the intoxicant magnifies the force of his concentration, since the mind is a chemical phenomenon. As the concentration is strengthened, the image of the deity which is being continually formed in the subtle body is made firmer and clearer, and this brings success at worship all the closer.
Third, Aghoris always worship Shiva, Who loves intoxicants. This has a dual-purpose effect. Not only does the Aghori please Shiva by offering Him the intoxicant, but the very act of taking the intoxicant helps the Aghori self-identify with Shiva, since permanent intoxication is one facet of Shiva’s personality. Shiva is intoxicated with Samadhi-consciousness: We have to work up to His level gradually.
Most people never realize that the purpose of intoxication is to sharpen the mind. They take marijuana, then eat heavily, then enjoy sex. They will enjoy penetration for one minute and think that they are copulating for years because of the drug’s distortion of the sense of time. It’s all such a waste.
Aghoris take all sorts of intoxicants, some much worse than these. It is a part of the sadhana. I used to keep a cobra and let him bite me on the tongue every hour, just for that peculiar thrill. To feed him I had to put a small hole in an egg and then forcibly pour the contents down his throat. The idea that cobras drink milk is ridiculous. I had several cobras, including one albino who had three lines on his hood: the symbol of Shiva. I kept a king cobra also. Its poison is much deadlier than that of other cobras because its diet is nothing but other cobras. I used to keep white arsenic also, and lick one of the crystals every hour or two. For my marijuana and hashish I had a special pipe made from a particular type of clay into which I had mixed arsenic, aconite, Datura seeds, opium, and whatnot. It was a chillum, about a foot long. Beautiful! I used to drink twentyfour hours a day sometimes, and go through cases and cases of Scotch. I drank it neat, straight from the bottle. But after a while I began to think “What is the use?” I have stopped most of my intoxicants, though I sometimes still drink alcohol or use bhang.
One of the big disadvantages of intoxicants is their side effects. Smoke chillum after chillum of marijuana or hashish and you are bound to develop a terrible cough, and probably chronic bronchitis. Drink bottle after bottle of whisky and your liver must suffer. Drink bhang and become chronically constipated. And long-term use of arsenic or mercury? Don’t even ask about it. But all these substances have their own special advantages, which is why Aghoris put up with all the disadvantages.
Most people think tobacco has nothing but disadvantages. They are so wrong. Tobacco is really a marvelous plant. Nowadays it is being misused by everyone because very few know how to use it properly, and that is why there are so many side effects. Poor tobacco is blamed, instead of the stupidity of the user. If it is properly employed it can work wonders. It has 100 important uses in Ayurveda. Do you think that the American Indians were fools to worship it? Never! They knew what it could do.
But there are even better intoxicants. The Rishis used to take soma, which is a type of leafless creeper. Some people today think soma was the poisonous mushroom Amanita muscaria, but that was also merely a substitute for the real thing. Only the Rishis know what the true soma is, because only they can see it. It is invisible to everyone else. Before taking the plant the Rishis would first worship it on an auspicious day and take its permission. If the plant refused its permission it was left alone. If it said “Yes,” if it was willing, then they would make sure the plant would take birth as an animal after its demise. Then they would gather it with the appropriate mantras.
If you want to use an intoxicating plant and can’t collect it yourself with mantras, you have to add a mantra afterward if you want it to have the proper effect on you, and if you want to avoid the karma involved. Taking an intoxicant without its appropriate mantra is certain to ruin your Bhuta Agni, and your mind.
Sometimes some of my “children” have started using alcohol or marijuana, thinking they could imitate me. But they have all landed in trouble, because without knowing the method you just can’t fool around with these things. Even those of my “children” who I allow the occasional use of intoxicants have gone beyond their limits sometimes, and I have had to be strict with them.
One boy I am very fond of started thinking he was a great Aghori because I would permit him to take intoxicants with me. I decided he should be taught a lesson for his own good to prevent him from going overboard before he was able to gain complete control.
Someone had given me some charas, and this boy was anxious to try it out. You know, charas is not the same thing as hashish. Hashish is the pollen and resin of the cannabis plant. Charas is prepared by taking the fresh fleece from a slaughtered sheep, stuffing it full of this resin, and burying it in the ground for a month. The fat from the sheep and the lanolin from the fleece mix with the resin and liquify it, and the liquid drips into a little pot. After a month the pot is removed, and there you have charas.
I prepared this charas for the boy personally, mixing it with tobacco and rubbing it with my hand in a little water, and I warned him; “Don’t inhale too hard. This sort of charas gets a firm grip on your head very easily. I know you’ve taken plenty of intoxicants in your life, but this one is different. Beware!” But he ignored my advice, as I knew he would, and he and I started puffing away.
Within five minutes — only five — he realized he had taken too much; but it was too late. He began to lose all his body consciousness. His prana (vital force) collected in his throat, which prevented him from wagging his tongue. He was game for it, though, I must admit. He started to try to make the prana go up to the Ajna Chakra (the energy center between the eyebrows) and then out through the Sahasrara (the energy center at the crown of the head) — gone for good! Had he succeeded he would have gone into Nirvikalpa Samadhi, a state in which he would have been permanently unable to self-identify with his body.
But I could not permit that to happen. After all, he still has plenty of rnanubandhanas to clear off yet, and if I prevent him from doing that, I become responsible for clearing them off myself. No thank you. So I told someone to give him some water. Drinking that glass of water kept his prana right there in his throat, unable to go up any farther. Of course the charas was still pushing from below. Now he was in the Trishanku state: unable either to go up or to come down. He was neither in the world nor out of it; he lay suspended between the world — the lower five Chakras — and the true Shunya (state of “spiritual vacuum”) of the Ajna Chakra. So that he would not forget his lesson I permitted him to remain like that for several hours, while I went to the stables to see my race horses. When I got back there he was, still hovering somewhere in between. When he was finally able to talk again I asked him what he had experienced. He told me, “I felt as if I was on the threshold of forgetting everything; as if just a little farther and it would have been only Thee and Me, and from there onward only Thee — or maybe only Me.”
“Wait, wait,” I told him laughing, “there is still time. Don’t be in a hurry. To go up fast is fine, but to come down too fast is fatal.” And since that day he has always taken his intoxicants according to his capacity without permitting them to overcome his conscious mind, even by Shunya. You must work very gradually with this intoxication business; Rome wasn’t built in a day, you know.
Now, obviously, when I prepared that charas for him I added a mantra to it. Otherwise do you think the charas would have sent him into Shunya? If that were so, all the charas addicts in the world should be enlightened by now.
One thing I always make sure to do is to take the antidote for whatever intoxicant I use. Ayurveda, our ancient Indian medical science, has provided us with methods to limit or eliminate the side effects on the body which these intoxicants cause, so that you get only the intoxication and none of the evil repercussions on your body, or almost none anyway.
Even with all these precautions, however, your body will deteriorate when you take intoxicants, because your mind becomes partially free of the constraints of the body: That is the whole purpose of becoming intoxicated. Your mind works so fast that your body can’t keep up with it, and it becomes flaccid, loose. The less the mind self-identifies with the body the better for your sadhana, but the worse for your body; your physical health will give way to improved mental health. Or at the very least you will remain healthy but you will lose weight and fitness, because you are sitting all day long without exercise or food. But then you don’t care two hoots for your body because you find your mental play much more satisfactory.
Of course it is very good to possess a body when you take intoxicants; it acts as something like a sheet anchor when you want to retain your awareness. When you are ethereal you have nothing to hold onto, and other ethereal beings can play havoc with you if they catch you unaware; the possibilities are really frightening. But when you become really firm in your subtle body there is nothing to fear.
Until then, though, you need to have a strong, healthy body to withstand everything you will be going through. Don’t get me wrong; I was a wrestler myself, and I appreciate the benefits of a good physique. And this is another reason I discourage people from taking intoxicants: You have to be very healthy first and have done a lot of physical and mental cultivation before you can afford to get involved in this intoxicant business. Otherwise you’ll just make yourself toxic. And remember, the brain is a chemical matter, and each toxin produces a certain state of mind. So if you are not intrinsically healthy the intoxicant will not only not make your mind soar into the astral regions but it will create new brain toxins, which will overwhelm your mind with disturbing emotions, which will ruin your sadhana. So it is usually better to leave such things alone.
Aghoris believe in reducing sleep to the absolute minimum, because during sleep there is a possibility the mind may slip out of your control. All your careful precautions during waking will come to naught if you get caught up in a dream. Either you must suppress sleep absolutely or you must learn to control your dreams. There exists a plant for this purpose. Make a paste of it and apply it nightly to the soles of your feet. If you do it for thirty nights, or even forty nights, every night you’ll get the same dream. It is a type of intoxication; the toxins from the plant are affecting the same brains cells each time in the same way. This is necessary for the sadhana of Svapneshvari (Goddess of Dreams). Once you get Siddhi of Svapneshvari you can control your dreams or stop dreaming altogether. You can also control the dreams of other people, which can be very useful.
Once one of my friends had taken Aghori Baba’s stick for some work. When I asked him for it he refused to return it. I sent Svapneshvari to him. When she comes to someone she comes in a dream; her face can’t be seen. She warned him to return the stick or face the consequences; he ignored the warning. This was repeated three or four nights in a row. Then Svapneshvari came to him and told him, “This is your last warning. If you don’t return it, you’re heading for big trouble.” When he woke up in the morning, he found a handprint in blood on his pillow. He obstinately refused to return the stick even then. The next night Svapneshvari came to him and said, “Now you have gone too far; take your punishment.” The next morning he and everyone in his household woke up with high fevers, which would not go down; no medicine could cure them. He returned the stick, and then the fevers subsided.
There are plenty of other uses of Svapneshvari, but any way you look at it wakefulness is better than sleep. Intoxicants can be extremely useful in sadhanas, or they can ruin your consciousness. It all depends on how you use them, and to use them correctly you have to die first.
TO DIE WHILE STILL ALIVE
To die while still alive means to eliminate all involuntary stimulation of your senses. You cannot salivate when you see a nice roast. Do dead men feel hunger? You cannot become aroused, even mentally, when a stunning woman walks by. Can a dead man get an erection? And remember, once you get involved in this there is no limit to the amount of testing which will be performed on you. You will be tested to your limit.
To die while still alive means you must melt your bones. Why are some spirits depicted as skeletons? Because when the body dies and decomposes the bones still remain for them to self-identify with. To melt your bones means to lose the ability to perform any action with your own individual will as opposed to the cosmic or divine will of Nature.
Do you remember the story of Sagal Shah? The Aghori who was brought to Sagal Shah’s home had to be carried in a basket; he had so thoroughly given up action on his own that he was, in effect, boneless.
They say that three creatures have no bones: the earthworm, the madman, and the God-intoxicated man. To be an Aghori you must become just like an earthworm, completely boneless, so that you can be tied in knots and still not suffer. When a cyclone comes through, trees are uprooted, but the grass bends down and escapes.
To die while still alive means to dry up, to become desiccated. Dry herbs are usually more useful than are fresh ones; they gain in potency as they dry. It is the same with an Aghori. He or she dries up and loses all the juices which are necessary to maintain life. Physically it means your digestive juices dry up, your reproductive fluids diminish, your skin may even become harder and wrinkled, especially if you live in a smashan for months at a time.
But the mental effects are more important. Remember, the entire world is a smashan for an Aghori: Everyone is born with their death fixed, which means to an Aghori that they are all dead already; they are all already skeletons. The juices which must be dried up are all the juicy thoughts which keep you bound down to the world by perpetually producing desires. If you can dry these up mentally you can do whatever you please physically; if you can’t you will have to observe some preliminary discipline and restrictions. But only when these juices of desire have dried up can the real juice of life — the Amrita (nectar of immortality) — be obtained.
To die while still alive means to extinguish all thought of dualities. The Universal Soul is single, not dual, so you must eliminate all perceptions of duality: desirable and nondesirable, pleasant and painful, interesting and boring, and so on. Does a corpse care about anything? No, not a thing — and you must become a corpse, in the eyes of the world, if you want to succeed at Aghora.
THE LEFT-HAND PATH
Why do they call Aghora the Left-Hand Path? Look at the difference between the right and left hands, at least in Indian culture. The right hand takes the food and drink to the mouth, performs religious ceremonies, makes offerings, and does everything else auspicious. The left hand must perform all the inauspicious activities: cleaning the excretory orifices, even killing animals. And almost all the people in the world are naturally right-handed. Aghora is the mastery of all actions, inauspicious as well as auspicious. Left is always more intense than right, because the left side of the body is controlled by Shakti. This is why a man’s wife must sit at his left side when they perform rituals together. Left-handed people are really good in their chosen fields, especially music.
An Aghori forgets the meaning of “inauspicious.” Orthodox people think that corpses, skulls, and menstrual blood are filthy, and that anyone who would use them for worship is insane or worse. The very thought of eating human flesh nauseates them. But an Aghori finds these things extremely useful to him.
To become an Aghori is to accept everything in the universe as part of the Atma, but you don’t just jump to that stage directly, because you could never cope with it without a satisfactory preparatory period. You must do things stepwise, just as a child does his schooling. You don’t ask the child to take an examination in algebra on the day he learns addition, and in Aghora you always start with the basics and work up very slowly, unless, as in my case, you start at the top. But this is exceedingly rare.
An Aghori is awarded his diploma only after he becomes fearless. What should he fear? Not only spirits, ghouls, and whatnot, but the entire working of the Samsara. Do you have any idea how many murders occur every minute on the face of the globe? How many rapes, how many robberies, lootings, tortures, and other heinous crimes? How many times each second people are cheated, misled, duped, and made fools of? When you try to put it all into perspective, it’s too much; it will frighten you, when you think of the tremendous load of karmas. Once you have Jnana, and you know the consequences of each action, you will be so scared of karma you will think a thousand times before doing anything at all; so deep will be your fear.
But you must go beyond this fear and realize that it is all part of the whole, all moving according to Nature’s sublime plan. Every murder, every cruelty has its significance. You must love everything taking place in the Samsara. That doesn’t mean you should go out and murder, but you will realize that even murder is just part of the play of the Three Gunas, all due to the Law of Karma, and therefore a part of Nature.
A good test for an Aghori is this: When you can eat your own feces with real love for it, you have achieved a tiny bit. I don’t mean perversion; I am talking about true oneness with all existence. You have produced the feces; it is a part of you; you enjoyed eating the food which produced it, and the only thing between the food and the feces is you. Why should you find it so repugnant? Feces is just as much a part of the Atma as your body and your consciousness are; who is feeding what to whom? The Atma is feeding the Atma to the Atma: It is all the play of the Atma. When an Aghori reaches this stage, he eats whatever he finds: dead dogs, offal, slops from the gutter, his own flesh. He finds whatever he eats equivalent to the tastiest dishes, all because he does not falsely discriminate. He sees everything as One; no attraction or repulsion. When the body demands food, he eats whatever is available.
Aghoris eat human flesh, but not because they have become cannibals. There is a ritual involved. I have eaten human flesh many times; even my son has eaten human flesh. I used to wait at a funeral pyre until the skull would burst — it bursts with a fine “pop” — and then I would rapidly, to avoid burning my fingers, pull out parts of the brain, which would be a gooey mass, partially roasted by then, and would eat it. It was nauseating, but at that moment you must forget your nausea and everything else: This is sadhana, not dinner at the Ritz. There was an Aghori in Girnar named Sevadas who had specialized in eating the human brain. But after some time he left it and became absolutely Sattvic, the sweetest, softest possible sadhu. That is the true test of an Aghori: From full-blown Tamas he must graduate to pure Sattva, love for all.
When you see One in All and All in One, there can be no fear; fear of what — of yourself? “Everywhere I see, everything is Me”: a little saying I once thought up. “Me” is capital “I,” the Atma, which conveys the whole sense of the experience. If a Zen Buddhist heard it I think he would experience satori. Can you fear yourself? No, you fear only the unknown; once anything is known, the fear drops away. Once you know yourself to be part and parcel of the Atma, what is there to fear?
The worst fear of all is the fear of death; once you go beyond the fear of death, you go beyond all fears because you go beyond expectation and anticipation, which are the causes of most karmas: “I must experience this enjoyment before I die,” or, “I must prevent that person from interfering with my enjoyments.” When death has no value for you, time loses its value, and then you don’t bother about anything. Then you say, “If I am meant to experience this enjoyment, I will experience it; why bother about it?”
Once you drop fear, the whole world is open to you, because you have nothing to take from anyone; you know only how to give because you have nothing to hold on to. What can you possess when “everything is You”? You already possess everything; it is really a superb feeling.
From your high school diploma, you go on to the first two years of college: temptation. All sorts of temptations will come your way: spirits offering you fame or riches, ghouls offering to slaughter or maim your enemies, Yakshinis offering you sexual favors, any possible whim you might want fulfilled. If you take any of them up on their offers you are finished. There is only one way to avoid it: refuse. If you are really sure you are part of the Universal Soul then how can they give you anything or do anything for you? You are being taken care of by Nature, you need not bother to accept any of these baits.
The college degree is awarded in Aghora only after the next examination: attack. When the hordes of ethereal beings find they can’t tempt you, they will try to drive you mad with their power of fright. But don’t bother; how can they harm you? You are part of the totality of existence, and your Mother is looking after you; what more do you want?
After your graduation, you are awarded your degree: clairaudience and clairvoyance. Then you go anywhere, eat anything, and you are carefree, because something is directing your every move. You become just like a Yantra. The cosmic Shakti plays through you, and you enjoy the bliss. But this is the final stage. You must start at the bottom and go through the grind. I hope you can understand by now that it takes a special temperament to become an Aghori; not everyone will be able to do it.
And doing it is just part of it; getting out of what you are doing is even more difficult than doing it in the first place. Suppose you get involved in strenuous penances with the use of intoxicants. You can’t just quit them once you feel you’ve had enough because your body won’t be able to take it. You have to reduce them gradually. And so many Aghoris forget why they have been taking the intoxicants, and even after years they may become simple addicts, unable to give them up, ruining their consciousness in the bargain.
You know the reason I quit using intoxicants? I used to use them all day long, twenty-four hours; but then I realized that the greatest intoxicant there is exists within me at all times. It is free, easy to use, harmless, and never gives me a hangover. It is the name of God. It gives the best concentration of mind. The effects of alcohol or marijuana or whatever will wear off by the next day, but the intoxication caused by God’s name just goes on increasing; there is no end to it. I use it all the time, and it always works for me. No matter what has been my problem, the holy name of God has always been my solution. This is true Aghora. Forget all the externals; only when your heart melts and is consumed in the flames of your desire for your Beloved will you ever come close to qualifying to learn the true Aghora.