Aghori Parampara - Lineage and Practices

The Lineage

Śiva has five faces and each has a name. Sadyojāta, Vāmadeva, Aghora, Tatpuruṣa, Īśāna. The dakśiṇa or south-ward looking face is called aghora. The essence of this knowledge was first passed down to guru Dattātreya. Dattātreya swāmi as he is popularly known divided this knowledge into two. The first is called yoga sampradāya. The second is called aghora sampradāya. Both these traditions together are called Nātha sampradāya (Shankar Maharaj ji, Sri M, Yogi Adityanath ji are few of the well known adherents of this order)

The first disciple to get initiated into the aghora sampradaya was guru Jalandhara Nāth. The person who popularized the aghora tradition is guru Khanifa Nāth. The first one to get initiated into the yoga sampradāya was guru Matsyendra Nāth. His disciple guru Gorakhnāth popularized this sampradāya. The current day Aghorī-s trace their lineage all the way back to guru Jalandhara Nāth. Many trace back their origin to the great guru Baba Kinaram too.

Kāpālika or Kālamukha

Kāpālika-s and Kālamukha-s are the two primary sects that emerged from within the Paśupatinātha sampradāya. Aghorī-s primarily belong to the kāpālika śaiva tradition, but there are a few sects that trace their lineage back to kālamukha-s as well.

Kāpālika-s primarily carry two types of skulls with them. One skull to use as part of their daily sādhanā, where the dhanañjaya śakti residing within the skull is used in certain rituals. This is called a muṇḍa. Depending on the phase that they are in, they may even do pañca muṇḍi, nava muṇḍi, ekādaśa muṇḍi, and śata muṇḍi sādhanā where they bury 5, 9, 11, or 100 skulls beneath the ground, sit on that very ground, and perform their sādhanā. They carry another skull that they call the mahāpātra. They perform kapāla mokṣa sādhanā to rid the skull of any subtle energies that might be lingering or inhabiting the skull and then use that skull to have at least one meal of their day in.

The few remaining sects that trace their lineage back to the Kālamukha-s do use skulls within their sādhanā but the pātra in which they get their bhikṣā is usually made out of a coconut shell, a dried pumpkin shell, or clay.

Sects originating from either tradition use as many as 324 different types of pātra-s made out of various different materials ranging from wood and metal, all the way to the human skull for various different rituals.

Śaiva-s or Śākteya-s?

The Aghorī-s are primarily a śaiva tradition, while some sects are śākteya in nature. The śaiva sects consider Kālabhairava to be their primary deity while the śakteya sects consider Sarveśvari to be their whole and sole. Devi-s at Kāmākhya and Hinglaj (now in Pakistan) were once the favourite śakti pīṭhā-s for aghorī-s. The śiva paramya or śakti paramya does not result in any conflict between the sects as śiva is always seen with śakti and vice versa, one is not seen without the other. The difference arises only when prakṛti is considered either as śiva or as śakti.

Within the śaiva sect, the primary three sub-sects are kinaram panthi, dakśina panthi, and vāma panthi. Each of them has their own approach to sādhanā, their specific lifestyle, and their special rituals. The common element between all three is their selfless and giving attitude towards society.

Within the śākteya sect, the primary four sub-sects are kāli kula, tārā kula, tripurā kula, and śrī kula. Each again is associated with different goddesses that originate from the Mahāvidya philosophy, of which there are primarily ten goddesses who are known as daśa Mahāvidya-s. Depending on location they are further subdivided into Kāśmīra, Gauda, Dakśiṇa, and Triliṅga sampradāya-s.

Journey

Every seeker on the Aghora path starts as a ‘paśu’, that is as an ‘animal’. At this stage, he is not yet civilized, he has not yet realized anything beyond this animal self. Then in the second stage, he becomes a vīra. Again this stage is further subdivided into suvīra, ativīra, mahāvīra, and paramavīra. These are different stages of the realization of his human self. Finally, he becomes a divya, realizing his divine self.

There are stages beyond divya for a sanyāsī where they return to their child-like innocence at the bāla stage, which is further divided into jaya bāla, ajita bāla, aparājita bāla, and paṭṭa bāla. Then he turns inward and delves deep into the darkness within, where he goes through unmatta (drunk), then piśāca (insane) stages to finally emerge as an avadhūta.

After a person reaches the avadhūta state of being, they go through various stages of being a haṃsa or a swan where according to the legend, swans of the Mānasasarovara swim in the lake but never get their wings wet, the Avadhūta too swims through the ocean of māya never getting attached to it. Here the journey is further subdivided into three stages of rājahaṃsa, brahmahaṃsa, and finally paramahaṃsa.

Once a person reaches the paramahaṃsa state of being, they are seen as jīvanamukta, sthitaprajña, and finally Īśvara itself. In the Aghora sampradāya, they are given the title of Aghoreśvara.

Svecchācāra and Pañca Makara

The sādhanā mārga of the Aghorī is known as vāmācāra. Vāma means left, and hence popularly described as the left-handed path to liberation. The best answer as to what this entails comes from the practitioners themselves, as always.

In dakśiṇācāra tradition, or the more formal vaidika tradition, there usually exists a count as to how many times one must chant a particular mantra. It is not so within the vāmācāra path. One has the sveccha or freedom to practice depending on one’s anubhava or the lived-experience that one gets from chanting one’s guru-given mantra. In the same way, in dakshinachara meat and wine are replaced with anukalpa i.e appropriate substitutes but become vehicles of sādhanā within vāmācāra.

Whether the pañca makara-s have to be taken literally or metaphorically, has been a point of debate among scholars. The practitioners themselves take it as both with the metaphorical meaning of the pañca makaras:

1: madya – alcohol The nectar that flows, that which creates ultimate ecstasy within us, is madya.

2: māmsa – meat Just like a being has turned into meat and has become food for another being, the Aghorī have to be selfless and serve society and if need be, be ready to even give up their lives for others.

3: maithuna – intercourse When jīva-s get into a union with Īśvara, they are said to be in a state of maithuna, symbolizing the union of prakṛti and puruṣa. Hence the sexual act of the female principle with the male principle replicates the cosmic union.

4: matsya or mantra – special chants Just like fish cannot stay out of water even for a few minutes so too the Aghorī must have a deep longing for a union with Īśvara (in the form of one’s paramya deity/ iṣṭa devata).

5: mudra – finger postures Manifesting what we want from the universe by using the technology of holding certain postures with our fingers (called mudra). This symbolizes attunement to natural forces and laws.

Now, are these aspects literally in use within their sādhanā? Yes. A sādhaka who has risen from the animal state (of a paśu) and attained the state of vīra, starts realizing their true nature; whether that of Kālābhairava or Sarveśvari. Nothing is off-limits for these deities, hence nothing is off-limits for their sādhaka too, who is a vīra now.

Consumption of Human Meat

This has been the most debated topic when it comes to the aghora sampradāya. Do Aghorī-s consume human meat? The answer is yes and no.

Yes, because they do it in a very secretive ritual (that cannot be described in detail in an article such as this). The ritual itself is highly symbolic in nature, the symbolism again has many layers that needs unwrapping. At the very outset, it symbolizes the mindset of an aghorī where they showcase that they can survive by consuming a dead body if nothing else is available. At the second level it works within the framework of not considering anything scary or disgusting, not even a rotting corpse. At the final level, it symbolizes jīva consuming itself to be one with Īśvara. Since all reality is a circle, 360 and 0 are the same. So the extreme “good” and the extreme “macabre” are the same thing. Aghora-s engage in such extremes as part of the philosophy in action

No, because they are not cannibals. A rotting corpse floats to them when they need to go through this ritual. They do not go in search of it. They just wait on the bank of a river and everything falls into place!*

Nāga Sādhu vs. Aghorī

We keep hearing the phrase ‘Nāga Sādhus and Aghorī-s’ bandied about as though they belong to the one and the same tradition, which is far from the truth. Here are some of the differences between them:

Lineage

• Aghorī-s Starts from the guru Jalandhara Nāth
• Nāga Sādhu-s Starts from Adi Śankarācārya

Tradition

• Aghorī-s Primarily nātha sampradāya
• Nāga Sādhu-s Daśanāmi order established by Adi Śankarācārya

Primary Deities of Worship

• Aghorī-s Sarveśvari, Mahākāl, and Kālabhairava
• Nāga Sādhu-s Sadāśiva

Application of Holy Ash

• Aghorī-s They apply it all over their body only for specific rituals, else wearing it as tripuṇḍa (three horizontal lines) or ūrdhvadhara aekapaṅkita (a single horizontal line)
• Nāga Sādhu-s Apply it all over their body, all the time

Being naked

• Aghorī-s Almost never naked, covering themselves at the very least with a loin cloth, and mostly remaining fully clothed.
• Nāga Sādhu-s Loin cloth at the beginning of their journey and fully naked thereafter

Consumption of Marijuana

• Aghorī-s Rarely ever
• Nāga Sādhu-s As part of their sādhanā

Smoking and Drinking

• Aghorī-s As part of their rituals and sādhanā
• Nāga Sādhu-s Never

Consumption of Meat

• Aghorī-s As part of their sādhanā, being mindful of causing the least amount of pain and suffering to the living being killed for meat
• Nāga Sādhu-s Rarely ever. Primarily vegetarian

In the third article in this series as part of countering the audio-visual material that depicts an aghorī munching away on a human and many other such perverse acts, we will get into as much detail as possible as emic researchers without revealing those parts of the ritual that have been kept secret so as to not offend the sensibilities of the aghorī-s.

Endnotes

Swati, A Brief Introduction to the Wandering Ascetics – Aghora

Törzsök, J, The (un)dreadful goddess: Aghorī in early śākta Tantras

Svechchachari, In Defense of Aghora

Authored by Prabhav Paturi. Published by Brhat.