Aghora I - At the Left Hand of God - Robert E. Svoboda



From the time I came to know about the unimaginable lifestyle of Aghora’s, I was looking for a book to take a peek into their fascinating World! Most often books come to me intuitively, as like they know when I could really comprehend their contents. If they come to me before that destined moment, I may not be able to appreciate it so vigorously as I usually do.  And then what happened this time? The power of ethereal beings brought me not one, but three books on Aghora!

By the time I completed reading the first one, Aghora I – At the Left Hand of God, I was feeling overwhelmed by the manifold ways human psychology works within us and how diverse are its ways of working. Coming back to the book - Rober E. Svoboda caution us in the introduction itself - “Some of the events described in this book may well offend the reader’s sensitivities.” - and throughout the book, this has been a recurring feature. Reading through the many inconceivable events, we feel a sort of horrifying, sickening, scary, disgust. Naturally, this could be the case for all normal humans on reading this. But this is a book not about the so called normal humans! This book is about a world so strange that all those with limited personality are considered ill, all this world is considered as a graveyard (since those who are born are considered dead as death is imminent to all who are born!) and all the boundaries between purity and impurity, sane and insane are redrawn or completely erased! It is this kind of Aghori’s approach to the life which make it so fascinating, so stimulating – “this world is his playground, his temple as well.”

The book details the basic tenets of Aghori way of life and several anecdotes from the vast experiences of an incognito Aghori. It explains about Tantra, about Ma Tara, about Siva and Sakthi, about Rnanubandhana (Rna or primal debt), about the Law of Karma, about the Gurus of the Aghori, about the world of Spirits, about Avishkara, about Sex and what not.

However, the book repeatedly asserts that living a Aghora life is not for the mere curious one’s. It should never be practiced without the directions from a competent Guru. Keeping all these regulations in mind one could dive into this book – to know a little about the limitless world of Tantra, Aghora and their Vama Marga approach to spiritual purification. “Aghora teaches you to embrace the World, embrace impurity, embrace darkness and push through forcibly into light”. All the approaches to reach God or spiritual purification has its own traps. The path of Aghora is no different. Hence the Aghori, ensures he never gets entangled in the Maya. They keep their mind absolutely firm! They strictly adhere to their internal purity. For this they ensure they “die while they are still alive” – this means, they relinquish all attachments to their possessions, including their own body to the extreme level! In short, we could summarize it as hopelessly complex way to reach God – the book itself states “walking on swords or riding a tiger is a child’s play” when compared to taking the path of an Aghori!

While it is intensely thrilling to read through this subjective fascinating world, what is equally important is to read between the lines to catch that precious wisdom which makes sense to simple God seeking non-Aghori minds!

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