Introduction to Aghori Saints

AGHORI's are called cannibals by some, while some view them as dirty sect which destroys the image of Hinduism in the world. They are believed to be devotees of ‘Lord Shiva’. According to the Aghori's every human is a ‘shava’(dead body) with emotions and they should try to become ‘Shiva’ by denying the human pleasures and involving in the Aghori rituals. It is believed that they possess miraculous healing power, and some even heal the person by cursing him. ‘If an ‘Aghori Baba’ curses you, that means your problems will end soon!’ – claim some people who are believers and followers of such sadhus.

Life of Aghori Sadhu

The life of an Aghori Sadhu is not easy, to become like them one has to meditate about twelve years and complete certain rituals under the guidance of an Aghori guru in order to enhance one spiritual strength. Aghoris use woods from pyre, clothes from dead bodies, and ash of burnt bodies for the various rituals. There are certain rules one must follow to become an Aghori. Firstly an Aghori must find a teacher and do what the teacher tells him to do. And Aghori must find a human skull known as “kappala”. And use only this as a ritual tool before initiation. An Aghori must apply pyre on his body to symbolically show the nature of the Lord Shiva.

Aghori culture

The Aghori culture is quite strange and frightening for an ordinary people. They practice meditation and they usually stay in forest or by the riverside. The most frightening fact about them is they enjoy cannibalism. They eat human flesh digging the dead body from the crematory places or from the grave yards. They consider it as a Bhakti (religion). They usually live near the grave yards or crematoriums and start to dig the ground or search the flesh after the cremation process is done. They also collect the woods and logs usually left over from the crematory areas and they cook their foods from the same woods. 

  

There are large number of Aghori community in India and many of them throng to Pashupati Nath during Maha Shivatri. They have pretty much a nomadic lifestyle. They stay in community and share their culture with each other. They justify their act of eating human flesh as holy. As per their logic when a person dies he just becomes a useless body of flesh his soul simply escapes from the body. And same things happen with the other animals so there is no difference between eating a dead chicken or other animal or a dead human being.

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Aghori's not only eat dead people but they also eat other animals like goat or chicken but they never eat cows. They also drink alcohol and smoke cannabis(weed,hashish).The ritual practices of the AGHORI are symbols of their non-dualistic beliefs.

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The corpse upon which they meditate is a symbol of their own body and transcendence of the lower self and realization of the Supreme Self.They are far beyond the human civilization and they do not bother to care whats happening in the outside world.. they have their own world and style of living have their own world living in between normal human beings likes us.