Aghoras or aghori...hmmm..pretty confused with this word?Well,it's an unknown mysterious link in the vast and diverse Indian culture.It represents a group of people who believes themselves to be the selected representatives of Lord Shiva,the powerful destructive God in Hindu mythology.
Well,I came to know this after watching a wonderful,highly explosive movie named "NAAN KADAVUL" in which the director Bala of Pithamahan fame showed his extra ordinary talent as a director and also some blistering acting from Arya and Pooja.
Though the movie was not able to gain a mass audience attention,this movie proved as an excellent creation from an Indian director.The movie tried to show a group of people who considers themselves as the representative of god and hence considers themselves as God ,as the movie title suggests.
Well am not gonna make a review about the movie.After watching the movie I was quite impressed with the life of Aghoris as they provides a mysterious dark light into their life.
Aghoris are believed to be a group from Hindu religion who was washed out from the mainstream of life.They are considered to be cannibals due to their rituals which even considers eating dead bodies as their part of life.In North India,among the rural people they are supposed to be the ones with high powers and considers to provide heal to the pains of people,as they are the selected ones to do so due to the command of God.They are even considered as the ones who could provide death,when a person considers it as a blessing in his/her life.
Their extreme practices are believed to be included cannibalism,powdering themselves with the ashes of dead bodies,taking ganjas,possessing Nirvana and many others which the common people considers to be culture less.They are believed to be eating human dead bodies and drinks in human skulls.They believe that every creation of the Lord is perfect and nothing is made to be useless.So they considers corpses as a normal thing and even meditates on it
They base their life on two principles,
1)Shiva is the ultimate power
2)Shiva is responsible for everything,even every thought.
They wants everything to be the perfect and which stands away from it deny God's will.Aghoris go in search of the powers and they gain it by all means and they again go in search for the next bigger power than the gained one.
So they believe that by gaining more and more powers they can avoid the punarjanma(rebirth) in this life. An aghori believes in getting into total darkness by all means and then getting into light or self realizing.It is a different approach but they believe it to be effective.They also are known for their rituals like shava samskara to invoke the mother smashan tara.
Tara like Kaali is one of the nine mahavidays and once invoked can bless the Aghori with supernatural powers.
They follows the life of the ultimate :"SHIVA",who bears his name in every form of life making them to attain the ultimate part of life called MOKSHA or as we call as death.
The Aghori ascetic is himself a symbol of the God Shiva. He goes naked or wears the shroud of a corpse, he covers himself in the ashes of the cremation ground. The corpse upon which he meditates is a symbol of his own body and the corpse devouring ritual is a symbol of the transcendence of his lower self and a realisation of the greater, all pervading self.
They are believed to have done secret tantric sex with menstruating lady in which the male is considers as Shiva and the lady as Shakthi.But they dont have any sex inhibition.They mediates at night and smears their body with ashes of corpse.
The Aghoris are one of the principal Indian traditions and the most extreme and fascinating form of the Tantra. Dattatreya, a divinity that includes the Trimurti Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, are considered to be the founder of this school.Among the people, the word Aghori always arouses a mixture between respect and suspect; anyway they also have many devotees among the various religion present in India.Together with Aghoris,we could find people of different religions.
The death's theme, so recurrent among the Aghoris, constantly remembers us our mortality but it is also a challenge to transcend the duality between life and death. Breaking every mental scheme, going over every taboo makes aware of the illusion of this world and becomes a path toward the liberation (moksha), the realization of the itself with the absolute one. Also the conventional distinction Hindu among pure and impure for the Aghoris is an illusion.
The site proposes to spread and to let know the Aghori culture too often misunderstood and stigmatized as one dark "sect".
Well,don't think that I happened to be with these group of people.In fact I am living in a society which consists of people who are eating humans alive.So they are always considered as the uncultured fellows of Indian culture.
Well,the one important Aghori known to the world outside is a man called Kina Ram who is believed to have lived for 150 years and the followers of this sect considers him as the avathara of Shiva.
These people are trying to find the reality of life in an extremely different way and they believes that their main aim of life is to provide moksha to the sinners(the common people).
So they believe that the way one live his life makes him to considered eligible to be attained Moksha and paves path for punarjanma in a more blessed life.While the sinners to reborn as the lowest ranking in the life forms and thus giving it chances to attain moksha.
Well,their life and principles are quite difficult for us to understand and while studying about them for a week,I was really confused with my life.Oh! really these group of people are really mysterious.
I can just say this after having a study about the devotees of Shiva
"SIVAYA NAMAH OHM"
