Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Aghoris:The reliogionistic cannibals

Warning-The things that you are about to read are not for the weak hearted. It can be highly disturbing. Reader discretion is requested.

Aghoris, I first heard this word some months back from a video that I got as a forward. Aghoris are a sect of Hindu sannyasins who are mainly found in Varanasi around the banks of the sacred river Ganga. They call themselves as the worshippers of the 3rd eye of Lord Siva. What sets them apart from other religious sects is one horrible ritual which is an integral part of their belief system-eating corpses. Now, you know why that warning was put up there on top of this post. The sight of an Aghori itself can scare you no end. They cover themselves with the ashes that comes from the burning of dead bodies. The whole body of an aghori including the face will be covered with this ash and that gives them an eerie albino like whitish appearance. The hair and beard are grown to great lengths. The Aghori sect is very few in number but all the existing members are staunch followers who are prepared to carry out all the gory rituals required of an Aghori.

In Varanasi, many of the dead are not burned or cremated. Many of the poor people prefer to immerse the body in the Ganges. The water of this holy river is believed to have purifying powers which will remove all sins from the dead man and provide him moksha. These bodies which are immersed in water usually flow downstream. The Aghoris are settled in such places. They wait for days on end for a dead body to flow downstream. Once they spot one, they jump in to take hold of the body. Usually the Aghoris operate as single. The body is brought ashore. The items for an elaborate pooja are set. The divine lamp is shined. Now, the Aghori will proceed to sit on the stomach of the dead body. The chantings will start. After this elaborate ritual starts the gory part. The Aghori takes a knife and cuts the body parts one by one. Then he proceeds to bite off and eat it. In the video that I saw, an Aghori eating the hands of the dead body was shown clearly. It was so intolerable that I could hardly eat something peacefully for 2 days.
An aghori drinking water from a skull-another of their strage rituals

I was left wondering on what's the basis behind this ritual. The video didn't utter a single word regarding that. I did a short research on the net and checked out some old NGC videos too. From all those sources, I got the following reasons for their shocking rituals. The Aghoris don't have a concept of pure or impure. They believe in the oneness of things. So, they never distinguish anything as pure or impure. A rose in full bloom and a smelly corpse are given the same status by the Aghoris. One of these is not given a higher pedestal just because it appears beautiful or is pure than the other. So, to disprove the popular notions of purity, Aghoris accept such disgusting things like corpses and consume alcohol, behaviour which are considered unacceptable by normal people. They believe that since everything on the face of the earth is created by God, rejecting a particular creation of God is same as rejecting Him. Some members of this sect are even accused of practising necrophilia, the meaning of which am not writing here explicitly.

The American Aghori Kapalnath

Of the very few followers of this sect, a man named Kapalnath is the most famous. An American by birth, his original name is Gary Stevenson. He's popularly known as 'American Aghori' and there are many scary stories going on around about him, many of which he himself has denied. Whatever be the case, its a wonder that such things exist in the civilised society around us. A thing to note is Aghoris are found not only in India but at other parts of the world too. Many people are seen defending this sect by saying that they are not commiting any crime, they are just eating corpses. Not a crime by the books of law, but a crime in the true sense if the word called 'morality' still exists.

If you are not very weak hearted, do checkout one of the video clips here.

PS-Due to my recent researches on the Aghoris, my roomies have started calling me an Aghori :(

PPS-Forgot to mention about the upcoming Tamil move 'Naan Kadavul' being directed by Bala. It deals with Aghoris. Checkout the awesome soundtrack by Ilayaraja. Especially the song 'Om Siva Om' which captures the mood of the subject. The album is also lyrically excellent with some though provoking lines. My favourite lines are from the song 'Pichaipaathiram'. Waiting for the movie to do the rest of the research work.

Your crusader Praveen

22 comments:

Vinay Vijayakumar said...

hey... man...read stuff on them man.... lotsa stuff.... seen all the videos da!! too good but gross!!

Kartz said...

Oh yes! I have watched a documentary on those people. It was in Italian, though... The documentary was made by a friend's father and dubbed in Italian. Couldn't get the English/Hindi versions. :(

Chilling, must say. And you are spot on regarding necrophilia. The documentary (I just referred to) did mention a thing or two about the 'Aghori indulgence'. Well dude... I wouldn't talk about morality here. That sect has been here for ages! It is as if they are here for *that* A-gory purpose! My word, it's pretty despicable... But as they put it - the world is but *maya*. And to them a corpse something 'natural' (minus life)...

A strange world this... We know it.

Peace.

Unknown said...

Will have to watch the video later. :-D

But, this is PERVERSE.

Unknown said...

I learned about Aghori from the book Keep off the grass. Was very interested in doing some research, but I didnt think that the system administrators here would prefer someone reading up on cannibals during workhours. Excellent stuff. Thanks for the YouTube link. Gotta download and show it to my roomie. He seems to be an Aghori. Bites people!

silverine said...

I heard about this people from Discovery Channel. But the version they showed was much sterilized and from their research it seems that they take cooked human flesh from burning pyres without touching it with hands and eat a small bite only. It is supposed to help them attain Heaven. The American being here is so typical. Where else in the world can you excuse Necrophilia and Cannibalism in the name of religion but in India!

Anonymous said...

i am an aghori too.. hehe.. watch out for the tamil movie from bala (the driector os sethu,pithamagan) naan kadavul...

vimmuuu said...

Excellent post buddy. Infact the much awaited new Bala movie - Naan Kadavul(tamil) is based on these cannibals. This is one of the worst forms of human being. Isnt there a law in our country for all this?

I dont have the guts to view the video, I really cant.

V. Archana said...

hehehehe...
do u still have that long hair.. so do aghori's na? :P just kidding...

Akshaya Kamalnath said...

Ouch..terrible but I donno if I'd want to criminalise it .. wouldn't it amount to putting a stop to their rituals merely because it is not the accepted norm? Ultimately who decides what is correct? The majority? But yest I do get why one's first impulse is one of disgust.
and thanks for all the research...I dint know anything about this.

Usha Pisharody said...

Isn't there an old proverb that goes, One man's meat is another man's poison.

And with certain sects, who apparently have been around an age, they perhaps have their own reason, and season for the things they do, and believe in!

For us, "civilized" [???] beings, this would read as utter horror, and turn us, as always, judgemental.

However, I would agree entirely that I would find it very difficult to, in any way, find concurrence with the way they live :)

It's the first time I'm hearing of them, and to say the least, judgemental or not, it is rather shocking, and disgusting :) But then I remind myself of the proverb I have quoted above :) :)

Each to his own.

Praveen said...

@VV
gross to the core...nice to find another aghori researcher:P

@Kartz
loved that word split up..A-gori. Words like 'maya' are miused by them, I guess..

@Akhil
don't forget my warnings:D

@Rockus
heard abt the book 'keep off the grass' from my friends...good that u dint do much research from office..these r times when everythng is tracked in workplace

@silverine
discovery has to make documentaries palatable for a TV audience..so they've to cut out certain things..anyway wat u said abt the american in India is so true..

@chriz
u r an aghori???ewwww!!!!yeah, waiting for naan kadavul

@vimmu
I guess there are no laws against abusing a corpse...:(

@archana
hehee..yeah..I do have half of it:P

@akshaya and usha
I appreciate the point of view that you 2 shared with me. who are we to judge them? We kill each other, even our brothers and sisters..they are atleast eating only corpses... When I saw that video, I never thought about this view point. thanks for this perspective..

gypsy said...

intrstin...

Anonymous said...

The first pic is scary man! And i mean it!

Unknown said...

THANKS for enlightening me on these strange sect of ppl... its shocking to find out that these sects still exist...btw try to become un aghori asap...:)

broca's area said...

thanks for the info....:)
its so disgusting and inhuman...bestiality!!

Preeti said...

i have read about them many times ..seens documentaries too ... i too find it gross but not criminal ...its scary though to meet such a sect of people ...

nice research and there is small mention of aghoris in Raaz-2 , though i din find it of any relevance .

Ajith said...

I saw the video a few months back, and as u said its really a disturbing clip. How can such stupidity exist in this century . Why is no one making an effort to educate these 'saints' and put an end to these ridiculous rituals. The american baba looks like one who needs serious psychiatric help.

Unknown said...

Hi guys can any please send me the link of that italian video abt the aghori's, also can any1 please please send me the link for SANJAY SINGH 10min documentry "feeding the death" on aghori which is supposed to 1of the famous videos.

Unknown said...

I need the italian video & also the snajay singhs documentry on feeding the death video if any1 has the link please send it to manojh20@gmail.com thanks in advance

Felipe said...

They certainly do not commit any crime. Morality is a concept created by the human being and can be denied, as long as they don't hurt anybody.

psychedelic said...

it's about breaking out of the constant conditioning we have to go through throughout our lives. It's about shocking "normal" humans out of their conditioned responses. I know all you pseudo "intellectuals" would be quick to denounce this practise as "unnatural", "bizarre" etc etc; but i don't blame you, it's as i said the result of the endless bombardment of information that's manipultated purposely to make us think in a certain manner that makes the bulk of "modern" human beings so uninspirational. it is also clear to me that one of the greatest nemesis humanity faces today is that of people looking at everything through their shallow experiences, and the half baked "facts" being dished out to them. this is why human evolution has been a constant addition of zeroes, even the greeks were as advanced as us 3000 years ago.

If humanity really wants to come out of the current escalating crisis quickly, our only option is to get more informed (definitely not through mass media) and to start questioning the status quo tailor made to benefit a select few.

P.s- if u want to know more about conditioning reads some books, maybe Freud or nietsche.

Unknown said...

judging someone is not important.what counts is u should judge yourselves.morality is gettin worse.everyone will support this.but these people are from pre historic age(don read rubbish school hiSTORYs ,read true history).its becoz of the civilized that the morality is going down.consider this,if all of us are aghoris,then

1)no evil(as all is god)
2)no enemies
3)no need for money or valubles
4)so no need to desire
5)so no need to compete and grow hatred.
6)all are equal
7)so no caste,no creed,no religion,no race
8)so no riots,no rapes,no child molestations,no religious fights
9)when ganja(& others) becomes authorised,no smuggling also
10)then there will be no wars.

all that will change is we will be eatin corpses.so what,now we eat chicken,mutton,fish,all birds.

consider this,if ur parents used to give corpse meat from beginnin,and it happens for all of us,then we will eat that.

religions prevent this bcoz they want no one to know about materia prima,its power holding capacity,or powers of mind.all that a religion focuses is to make their gods strong.just praying for earthy deeds.ha ha ha......

start hisory from indus civilization,toba catastrophe,aryan invasion /indo(dravidian) aryan merging,mesopotomia,egypt,jews,moses,abrahamic religions,chirstianity,islam,kaballah,troy,rome,germanic
vatican church(belive it or not the roman vatican church is purely germanic),ever lastin quest to obtain new world(actually old world indian sub continent),the foolish evolutionary theory by darwin contardicting with truth,the crusades,jihads,mary magdalene,activities in moon,day break star venus,maya or illusion,vishnu and shri,lord skanda,way to enlightment,nataraja,destroyer of ego,microcosm,macrocosm,aliens........


think abt it