Aghori

Aghoris are Hindu devotees of Shiva manifested as Bhairava, and ascetics who seek liberation (mokṣa) from the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth (saṃsāra). This freedom is attained through the knowledge that the Self (ātman) is identical to the eternal and formless metaphysical Absolute called Brahman. Because of their monistic doctrine, the Aghoris maintain that all opposites are ultimately illusory. The purpose of embracing intoxicant substances, pollution, and physical degradation through various Tantric rituals and customs is the realisation of non-duality (advaita) transcending social taboos, attaining what is essentially an altered state of consciousness and perceiving the illusory nature of all conventional categories. Aghori rituals, which are performed precisely to oppose notions of purity commonplace in orthodox Hinduism, are typically macabre in nature. The practices of Aghoris vary Although contrary to mainstream Hinduism, these practices exemplify the Aghori philosophy of criticising commonplace social relations and fears through the use of culturally offensive acts. Another unusual Aghori belief is that they attribute spiritual and physical benefits, such as the prevention of ageing, to the consumption of human flesh. In 2006, an Indian TV crew witnessed one Aghori feasting on a corpse discovered floating in the Ganges ==History==

smoking hashish or cannabis from a chillum In his book Yoga: Immortality and Freedom (1958), the religion scholar Mircea Eliade remarks that the "Aghorīs are only the successors to a much older and widespread ascetic order, the Kāpālikas, or 'wearers of skulls'." Some of the Kāpālika Shaiva practices are found in Vajrayana Buddhism, Today, the Kāpālika tradition survives within its Shaivite offshoots: the Aghori order, Kaula, and Trika traditions. Dattatreya the avadhuta, to whom has been attributed the esteemed nondual medieval song, the Avadhuta Gita, was a founding adi guru of the Aghor tradition according to Barrett (2008: p. 33): and Shiva depicted as Kāpālika ascetics, sitting in a charnel ground. Painting by Payag from a 17th-century manuscript (), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Aghoris also hold sacred the Hindu deity Dattatreya as a predecessor to the Aghori tradition. Dattatreya was believed to be an incarnation of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva united in the same singular physical body. Dattatreya is revered in all schools of Tantra, which is the philosophy followed by the Aghora tradition, and he is often depicted in Hindu artwork and its holy scriptures of folk narratives, the Puranas, indulging in Aghori "left-hand" Tantric worship as his prime practice. Aghoris are known for controversial rituals such as shava samskara or shava sadhana (a worship ritual in which a corpse is used as altar) to invoke the mother goddess in her form as Smashan Tara (Tara of the Cremation Grounds). In Hindu iconography, Tara, like Kali, is one of the ten Mahavidyas (wisdom goddesses) and once invoked can bless the Aghori with supernatural powers. The most popular of the ten Mahavidyas who are worshiped by Aghoris are Dhumavati, Bagalamukhi, and Bhairavi. The male Hindu deities primarily worshiped by Aghoris for supernatural powers are manifestations of Shiva, including Mahākāla, Bhairava, Virabhadra, Avadhuta, and others. Barrett (2008: p. 161) discusses the "charnel ground sādhanā" of the Aghora in both its left and right-handed proclivities and identifies it as principally cutting through attachments and aversion and foregrounding primordiality; a view uncultured, undomesticated: ==See also==