Natural potential for spiritual development becomes valuable only by careful cultivation. All spiritual practices are sadhanas, but all sadhanas are not created equal. Vimalananda explains:
“The Rishis, India’s Seers, have understood our plight, and in their great magnanimity have created sadhanas by which we can extricate ourselves from our limitations and make progress. The Rishis have created many dif ferent sadhanas because there are so many different types of people, each of whom have special requirements. We Aghoris believe in using fast, terrifying methods of sadhana because we ache to return to God immediately; we cannot bear being separated from Him."
An Aghori meditates on burning corpses to force the consciousness beyond all limitations of the personality. The hardest concretions of identity are the most resistant, and steel-wool penances are needed to scour them away. Aghoris take no chances with potential ego-inflations; Aghora sadhanas destroy everything down to the ground of consciousness and rebuild from the bottom up. Then there is nothing to fear, because the new personality is engineered to be totally surrendered to the Will of God. Khanda Manda Yoga is a good illustration of Aghora’s approach to personality development. Vimalananda described it thus:
[113]
AGHORA II: Kundalini
“One of the most terrifying and difficult of all Aghora sadhanas is Khanda Manda Yoga. The practitioner of Khanda Manda Yoga cuts off his own arms and legs with a sharp cleaver, and throws them into a roaring fire. After twelve hours these limbs reemerge from the fire and rejoin his body. Some sadhus can do Eka Khanda Yoga, the cutting of one part of a single limb, like a foot; a few like Tailang Swami could do Tri Khanda Yoga, involving three parts, like the foot, the lower leg, and the thigh. But very, very few-per haps only one or two up to now–can do Nava Khanda Yoga, using nine body parts, including the head.
“And beyond even Nava Khanda Yoga is Agni Khanda Yoga, in which a guru heats his firetongs white-hot, and then inserts them under his disci ple’s skin at the nape of the neck, running them down parallel to the spinal cord. A yogi who is really solid in his being will not even flinch when this happens.
“This is the physical Khanda Manda Yoga, and its benefits are many, including imperviousness to any weapon, and even physical immortality. It is really a wonderful sadhana, though I suspect you might faint at the sight of all the blood if you ever saw anyone perform it. Most people are very attached to their bodies, and don’t like even the hint that some part of that body might be chopped off. Obviously you can only perform Khanda Manda Yoga once you have developed a certain objectivity about your body. But this is not so easy, you know; it is only possible once you have complete control over your Kundalini Shakti.
“The mental Khanda Manda Yoga is somewhat different; it has to do with thought. Did you know that mandana (creation) and khandana (destruction) of thoughts are going on continuously within you? For instance, if your lady love is not with you, you will emit from your heart incessant wishes to see her, be with her, embrace her, and so on. You continue to project these desires until you see the girl and fulfill your desires, at which point the pro jected forms are destroyed. This is a form of khandana, but it is imperfect. You will be rid of the desire only for a short time before it begins again because you are only projecting an image of how you want her to be, for your gratification. This image will always change because your desires are always changing, and because she is always changing.
“Most people never realize that these thoughts are simply temporary manifestations. They try to cling to them or avoid them, depending on whether they give pleasure or pain to the mind. True khandana would destroy that desire utterly. The true khandana is absolute and permanent destruction of your false personality, which is composed of all the desires,
[114]
SADHANA
tastes, aversions, and what-not which have accumulated over millions of births. Only when all the imperfect projections are eliminated will you be able to see what is real. The other side of khandana is mandana, and the true mandana is projection of a permanent form, construction of a true per sonality. Mental khandana and mandana make up the real Khanda Manda Yoga.
“There are only two ways to perform khandana and mandana, just as there are only two types of medicine: external and internal. Either you get a doctor to treat you, or you cure yourself with your own force of will; there is no third way. Likewise, khandana can be external, by complete satiation of desire, or it can be internal, by complete control of desire. Suppression of desire will not work. Like a coiled spring a suppressed desire remains immo bile only so long as it is pressed down. When the pressure eases up it will bounce with extra strength. The true mandana can only occur after your desire for limited, impermanent forms has dropped away, either through gratification or control.”
After drilling the idea of niyama into my head, Vimalananda began his long-term lesson on sadhana, which was a sort of mental Khanda Manda for me, on a juvenile scale. After demolishing one of my preformed concepts about spiritual practices he would offer me little pieces of information, here and there, from which I was expected to synthesize a new concept. He would then test me periodically, without warning, to ensure that I had understood, for he believed that “the key to testing someone is to test them when they least expect it and are least prepared for it. Then you have an accurate idea of how much they really know.” Only after he was convinced that I had learned something would he proceed to the next step.