Aum Bhadrayai Namaha!

29

Maha Maya

Srishti sthiti vinashanam,

Shaktibhute sanathane,

Gunashraye gunamaye

Narayani namosthute!

Salutations to thee, O Narayani, the eternal,

Who is the power behind creation, maintenance, and destruction,

Who consists of and abides in the three qualities of primordial matter.

Maya is the external garb of the universe. She is like a well-dressed, heavily made-up woman who appears beautiful and enticing. It is only when you remove her makeup that you discover her real form. The green color and sour taste of a fruit are not its permanent state; soon it will become yellow, ripe, and sweet. The green state is an impermanent one. So it is the case with maya. Her external garb is made up of the three gunas or esssential qualities of primordial matter. It is only when you strip her of these adjuncts that you see her beauteous form as Maha Devi.

She is also known as Shakti, since her projection of this universe is dynamic. Shakti is the energy that emanates spontaneously from the supreme. Pure energy in any form is dangerous if not controlled. In Tantric philosophy it is Shiva who controls and conditions Shakti. He is the male aspect of the supreme Brahman. He is depicted as having three eyes. Maya is his Shakti and contains the essence of duality, which is space, time, and causation. As long as Shiva keeps his third eye closed, Maya can have full play. Shiva’s two eyes, like ours, see only duality, and when he keeps them open the world exists. However, with his third eye, the eye of transcendent wisdom, he can see only unity. So when he opens his third eye, the cosmos, which can exist only in duality, will return to the plenum from which it was projected. As long as Shiva’s third eye is opened, nothing can exist. There is only pralaya or dissolution, the undifferentiated consciousness of absolute reality. When he closes his third eye, Shiva becomes subject to duality once again, and Maha Maya appears in the forefront and the cosmos rises up.

The special sect of Tantra known as Aghora belongs to the Vama Marga, the left-hand path mentioned in the previous chapter. In Hindu tradition the left hand is used for performing inauspicious actions like cleaning the lower orifices. Shakti controls the left side of our body. A man’s wife is always seated on his left when they perform rituals together. In Tantra the supreme deity is the Divine Mother, and she stands always on the left side of the devotee to help him, so Aghora is indeed the left-hand path in more ways than one.

The word aghora means “deeper than the deepest” or “filled with light.” The aim of Aghora and Tantra is laya, or dissolution of the individual consciousness, which is a return to the state of undifferentiated consciousness. It gives many methods of achieving this laya, or the union of the individual with the supreme. In this, it is not at variance with the rest of Hindu religion, which also aims at the union of the jivatman with the Paramatman. The difference lies only in the methodology and words used to describe this union. In Tantra this union is described by sexual metaphors. The personalized ego is considered to be feminine and the absolute to be male.

Due to the use of sex in its rituals, there is a lot of misunderstanding about Aghora. But actually it is only under special circumstances that a sexual ritual is employed to hasten spiritual progress. Even this has to be under the strict supervision of an enlightened Tantric practitioner or guru. Aghoric practices include not just sex but also necromancy, intoxicants, and other dangerous types of rites. This has given Aghora a bad reputation. The truth is that Aghoris try to overcome all mental differentiations between auspicious and inauspicious events and actions and deliberately perform actions that might be considered inauspicious by most people. Everything is favorable to the Aghori, since everything comes from the Divine Mother. Sincere Aghoris depend totally on the power of the goddess to protect them. This protection is given only if the practitioners have developed absolute internal purity, take up the practice only for the sake of spiritual progress, and shun every other type of power or siddhi that might come to them. Those who take to this way without the necessary purification of mind and body (tattva shuddhi) and without renouncing all sensory gratification are bound to suffer tremendous repercussions, which might lead to madness or even death.

Commercialization of the siddhis or special powers that might come to a practitioner as a result of these practices will lead to his downfall. Hence you find that even in India there are very few true Aghoris, for most people are incapable of making the incredible physical and mental sacrifices that the cult demands. It is truly a most dangerous path for the unwary—the razor’s edge. Due to the difficulties on the course most people are quite frightened to take it up. So thankfully it cannot be commercialized like so many other paths in the Hindu religion.

Westerners brought up in the conservative tradition of Christianity who first came to India condemned Aghora as a sect steeped in sinful indulgence. They cannot be blamed for this, for their denunciation was based on ignorance. Aghora is far from being a type of indulgence. On the contrary, strict renunciation is the prerequisite for initiation. Only when personal purity is perfect is the aspirant allowed to perform rituals that to the ignorant observer might appear hedonistic or sinful. Aghora is not a path of indulgence but a forcible transformation of the darkness of the individual consciousness to the luminescence of the absolute. Renunciation is itself renounced when you reach the absolute state of perfection, for there nothing remains to be renounced. Before they reach this luminescence Aghoris are expected to plunge into the worst types of darkness that the human mind can conceive of. Only then can they shake off the darkness and emerge into the sunlight of a supramental consciousness.

Aghoris are not content to sip the wine of the sweetness of life. They are determined to explore the very dregs of this cup. The Aghori is like the lotus flower that revels in the mud in which it was born, but when the time for blossoming comes, it shakes off the mud and raises its beautiful visage to the golden orb of the morning sun. Why dabble in such unsavory things when Hinduism offers such sublime paths to the same goal? The answer given by Aghoris is that it is the fastest path to liberation—as well as to destruction!

The popular picture of an Aghori is that of a wild-eyed ascetic with long matted hair, smeared with ashes from the burning ghats, skulking in cremation grounds, fighting with jackals over human carcasses. But the fact of the matter is that the true Aghori may well look like an ordinary person. His practices are kept strictly private and his internal purity is unbelievable, but such a one will not be interested in exposing himself to the curious gaze of the public. He practices in secret, at the dead of night in cremation grounds where none dare approach.

One of the immutable tenets of Aghora is that death is to be personified and deified. Shiva is known as Mahakaala, or death in the form of time. It is not physical death that the Aghoris crave but the destruction of all human limitations. Once he sets out to undertake the difficult rituals of the sect, the Aghori is prepared either to succeed or to die in the attempt. There is no middle course and no retreat. One who fears death should not embark on this path. It is meant only for those who have totally given up all fears, especially the fear of death.

Many Aghori rituals are conducted at midnight in burning ghats and cemeteries. These rites are done in a state of intoxication, next to a blazing funeral pyre, with flames shooting up into the blackness of the night. Most of the rites will remain incomprehensible to the normal mind brought up with the prudish ideas of a conservative religious background. But lack of understanding should not make us condemn the practice.

Western philosophers once experimented with the science of alchemy, by which they sought to change the dross of base metals into gold. Aghora has a similar pursuit, but the base metal it seeks to change is the animal-born mind of the human being. Aghora is one of the great discoveries of the Hindu religion. It has dared to explore every facet of the human mind and find out methods of transmuting every aspect, even the basest, into the gold of enlightenment. It is one of the highest spiritual sciences that India has produced. Aghora is a mysterious practice and only those who are capable of laying aside their cultural clothing and plunging deep into the depths of their psyche will be able to discover the pearls within. It is not a path for the cowardly who want easy and safe methods of enlightenment. It is meant only for those who can leave the standard paths, which have few pitfalls, and take to the path of the razor’s edge, who dare to renounce their very lives if necessary, to find the jewel of enlightenment. Hinduism offers many safe paths to enlightenment in which the practitioner can lift himself up if he falls and restart his journey. But in Aghora it is “do or die.” If you fail, you fall into the deepest pits of hell; if you succeed, you are the master of the universe. Nothing can harm you. You can roam about as you like, eating anything you like, drinking anything you like, for you are a walking corpse. Why should a corpse care what it eats or drinks? Nothing can harm it. The cosmic Shakti is in possession of your body and you are like a yantra. She plays through you and with you and allows you to enjoy the bliss. But of course this is the final stage, and the Aghori has to pass through many treacherous and highly dangerous disciplines before reaching it.

Aghora is the path of no return, a highly personal creed that stakes all on the love of the Divine Mother. The true Aghori is prepared to relinquish every earthly pleasure for the sake of her love. He or she is not bound by the worldly bonds in which maya binds the ordinary mortal. He or she is intoxicated with love for Maha Maya. The devotee’s own identity is totally merged in hers so that he or she, as the personalized ego, no longer exists. Mantra, yantra, and Tantra are used to create the form of the deity in the aspirant’s consciousness. After this the devotee and the goddess are expected to keep strictly to the type of relationship that suits him or her best: mother/son, lover/beloved, child/mother, or just friends. This melting of the devotee’s personality into that of the deity is known as tanmayata. The devotee has to continue his or her worship in this fashion until the relationship is fully stabilized. Eventually all traces of the devotee’s original personality will be effaced and only the deity’s personality will remain. This is known as tadrupata, or attaining the same form.

The Aghoris also practice the panchamakara ritual, which is basic to all Tantric rites. A couple who wants to practice this ritual correctly must first perfect the shiva lata mudra, or mystical gesture in which all traces of animal desire are completely eliminated. The male identifies himself with Shiva and the female with Shakti. Aghoris say, “Only one who has become Shiva will be able to worship Shiva.” Thus the couple should attain tanmayata with these deities before starting the ritual.

In the shiva lata mudra, the man places his wife on his left thigh and cups her left breast with his left palm. The woman holds his penis with her right palm and clings to him like a creeper (lata). They practice japa (repetition of mantras) with the appropriate mantras. The man holds the mala or rosary with his right hand, and the woman holds it with her left. Soon they are so immersed in the repetition of the mantra that they both forget their individual personalities. She sees him as Lord Shiva and he worships her as the cosmic Shakti. They should be able to retain this attitude for at least three hours without any sexual excitement. There should be neither erection nor dilation! This can happen only when self-identification with the deities (tadrupata) is complete. Their concentration must be intense and the identification absolute. In fact, the couple will soon go into a state of bhava samadhi (superconsciousness), in which they forget the mundane world and identify themselves wholly with Shiva and Shakti.

Only couples who have successfully practiced the shiva lata mudra many times can successfully perform the panchamakara ritual in its purest form. Of course this is not always the case, and many half-baked yogis perform the ritual and bring ruin on themselves and a bad reputation for the practice.

As we have seen in the previous chapter, the word panchamakara denotes the five types of offerings that are used in the panchamakara ritual, all of which start with the Sanskrit letter ma. These are matsya, mamsa, mudra, madhu, and mithuna, which stand for fish, meat, parched grain and certain hand postures, wine, and the sexual act. To the couple that has become adept in the shiva lata mudra, the partaking of these articles is no longer an act of indulgence but a sacrament. Since they have attained tadrupata with the deities (their physical bodies have attained total identification with these divine beings), the deities are the ones performing the rite and directly partaking of the offerings. Ordinary sex is for the gratification of the lust of the couple concerned, but in this Tantric rite the partners have totally submerged their personalities with that of their chosen deities and offer themselves for the gratification of these gods alone. Tantric rituals are sacrificial rites like the Vedic yajnas (fire sacrifices). In this ritual the female is the fire into which the male offers his semen, just as ghee is offered into the yajna kund (sacrificial pit) in orthodox methods of fire worship.

Aghoris also use herbs, minerals like mercury, and sometimes even animals as offerings. But it must be remembered that these are secondary to the true offering of one’s limited self into the sacrificial fire of penance. It is a very difficult path to pursue, and the chances of a fall are legion. This is one of the reasons that Tantra has always been such a closely guarded secret.

The body of the Aghori must always be kept in a state of perfect health, since it is the yantra or vehicle that will enable him to reach his goal. His mind must be fearless and free of worries. He must be careful of what he eats and what he thinks while practicing these esoteric rites. The bhuta agni is the fire of austerity that enkindles the jatara agni or the fire of digestion. When the mind is weak and worried, the bhuta agni is weakened, which in turn weakens the jatara agni. This results in indigestion and disease. So the spiritual person must try to preserve his bhuta agni or spiritual digestion, which will give him both mental and physical health. The best way to do this is to eat less. This is why all religions insist on some type of fasting, which will improve health. As one’s bodily hunger decreases, one finds an increased hunger for spiritual things. Sleep and sex dull both the bhuta agni and the jatara agni.

Alcohol is generally considered to strengthen the fire of digestion, but it also has the effect of clouding the bhuta agni. Aghoris ingest alcohol and drugs only because they can keep their minds under control and use these intoxicants in the appropriate dosage needed to produce a heightened feeling of consciousness that will further their spiritual practices. If the intoxicant overcomes them, as it does most people, it is of no use and will end in downfall. Another reason why Aghoris use intoxicants is because Shiva is said to use them, and they think it will help them identify with the deity. It is only when they reach the height of their sadhana that they come to understand that Shiva is always in an intoxicated state of the bliss of the Brahman and not in the temporary state of euphoria produced by drugs and alcohol. The Aghori who wants to emulate Shiva’s example has to gingerly tread this path of fathomless pitfalls and hang on to his Shakti, depending only on her to support him and stop him from falling.

When Aghoris take intoxicants, they must do so in the proper way. They must invoke the proper mantra before ingesting any of them. Then the ingestion becomes a rite and is no longer an indulgence. Again, this is a very dangerous path since the mind has a thousand ways in which it can fool itself. Taking an intoxicant without the appropriate mantra will ruin the bhuta agni and consequently the mind. This is because a lot of karmas are involved in taking intoxicants. Intoxicants can be useful in sadhana or they can severely damage your psyche. It all depends on how you use them.

Even with all these precautions, the body will deteriorate with the constant use of intoxicants, because the mind becomes partially free from the constraints of the body. So in all ordinary forms of yoga you will find that the taking of any type of intoxicant is strictly forbidden. Even in Aghora there is the constant pitfall that the practitioner may become addicted to the intoxicant and unable to withdraw himself from it even after it has served its purpose.

Advaita Vedanta declares Brahma satyam, jagat mithya— “Brahman alone is real, the world is an illusion.” Aghoris claim that jagat or the world is equally real. The world is a direct expression of Maha Maya, who is an emanation from the Brahman, which is the absolute reality. So the world, which is a product of the creator Brahma’s Shakti, who is known as Saraswati, must also be real. The world and Brahman form parts of a harmonious whole; they are interdependent. The world may not be absolutely true, but it has its own reality that is based on the falsehood of impermanence. It is as real as we are. Enlightenment does not mean that you enter into some white light. It is not something that comes from the outside but the natural state of your mind. What enlightenment means is that you have lightened yourself of your burden of karmas and debts that you have been carrying for many births. This lightening process is done through sadhana and of course by the grace of your guru and the Divine Mother.

The Vedic religion is the religion of light—the light of all lights, the supreme light of consciousness by which even the sun is lit. Aghora, on the other hand, is the religion of darkness—utter, absolute, abysmal darkness. Can anyone define light or truth? Similarly, can anyone define darkness? All we can say is that it is an absence of light. The deepest darkness is the darkness of a mind shrouded in ignorance. The light is the light of one’s own consciousness. Aghora teaches you to embrace impurities, to embrace darkness, for it is the veil of Maha Maya. You have to catch her by the hair and drag her to you and force her to push you through the darkness to the light within. All normal people are dreadfully frightened of Maya because they are totally enmeshed in her web. Maya is the projection of the Shakti of Shiva into the outside world, and they fear her because they cannot control her. The Aghori, however, identifies himself with Shiva, the supreme within him, and thus controls Maya. From the mortality of earthly existence he propitiates the destroyer Mahakaala (Shiva) and thus becomes immortal. Having controlled Shakti, he becomes luminent like Shiva.

The Vedas say, “Lead us from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality!” This is also the goal of Aghora. But the difference is that Vedanta tells us to proceed from the semidarkness in which we exist and follow the path of self-inquiry into the nature of the “I” until we reach the light of the absolute. Aghora, however, tells us to find out the nature of our darkness first and investigate both aspects of duality, the negative and the positive, until we go beyond both into the state of nonduality.

Nothing is inauspicious to the Aghori, whose initiation has been in the burning ghat amid the corpses, ghosts, and spirits that roam there. The first fear that he is taught to conquer is the fear of death. He must totally give up attachment to the body. If he clings to the body and fears death, he cannot perfect even the preliminary lesson in Aghora. To be an Aghori he must go beyond all limitation, and the greatest limitation is that of the body. He must embrace death while alive. When he has given up attachment to the body, he has nothing to lose and nothing to fear, for the greatest fear is the loss of the body through death. His mind must be absolutely firm. Even if the most beautiful spirit comes to tempt him, he must remain firmly concentrated on Shiva. Ghosts and ghouls can throw hot coals on him in the cremation grounds, but he must be able to watch his skin burn with detachment and unconcern. It is only one who has controlled himself to this extreme extent who can succeed in Aghora.

Three things bind us firmly to the body: food, sleep, and sex. If you want to die while remaining in the body, you have to restrict all three. The more you get of these, the more you want. Gratifying them can eliminate other desires, but these three will keep increasing in intensity the more you give in to them. The more you eat, the more you want to eat; the more you sleep, the more you want to sleep; and the more you indulge in sex, the more you crave it. Unless you learn to curb these three, you can never make any true spiritual progress. Too much food makes you sleepy and sex exhausts you. Aghoris cannot afford to indulge in any type of relaxation. They have to be alert all the time. If you fall asleep in the cremation grounds while practicing some rite, you become psychically weak and any passing spirit will be able to enter your body and use it for its own purposes.

To die while remaining alive means that you have to eliminate all involuntary stimulation of the senses. You cannot salivate if you see a tempting dinner. You cannot become aroused if you see a beautiful man or woman passing by, not even if that person comes close and winds his or her arms around your neck. You cannot even dwell on such things in memory and get a vicarious pleasure from them. When you no longer react to this type of stimuli, you are as good as dead. Your body has dried up. The juicy thoughts that keep you bound to the body and perpetually produce desires no longer exist. Only such a person is fit to imbibe the real juice of life—the nectar of immortality. As such a person you may perform many things physically, but they will not affect you, since you are totally unaffected by them mentally. You no longer react to physical stimuli.

To die while still alive means to extinguish duality altogether. The absolute is one, not two, so all perception of duality has to be eliminated— pleasant and unpleasant, boring and exciting. A corpse does not care about any such distinctions. We are conditioned to think that corpses, skulls, menstrual blood, and feces are filthy and must be avoided at all cost. The very thought of using such things for rituals is nauseating to the common person. But the Aghori makes use of all these things and is prepared to eat even human flesh from the cremation grounds if it will help him or her gain a goal. Aghoris hang around cremation grounds and wait for the skull of a corpse to burst. They then swoop on the body, scoop the brain from within the skull before it is burned, and consume it. The brain is supposed to have special properties that will help them in their sadhana. The goal of sadhana is to be able to accept everything in the world, both enticing and disgusting, with equanimity, because everything in the world is part of Maha Maya. Genuine Tantra is therefore the nonrejection of all things and not the indulgence.

The Bhagavad Gita declares that the enlightened soul is one that can see no difference between a clod, a stone, and a diamond. All are different forms of matter; the diamond should not have more appeal though it has greater material value. Similarly, to the perfect Aghori, a chocolate pudding, a clod, and a lump of feces should have the same value. All are different forms of matter and should be treated as such. The only truly valuable thing on earth is the supreme. Everything else is of equal value. It is the ignorant mind that places different values on different things. The man of wisdom does not accept these differences, even though he may be aware of them.

Have you ever paused to reflect on the number of murders, rapes, robberies, tortures, and other heinous crimes that are being committed every moment in some part of the world or other? Who is responsible for all this? No doubt it is each person’s karma that brings such things within his or her orbit, but even so, why cannot an omnipotent God stop such atrocities? As has been discussed before, the absolute Brahman does not concern itself with the running of the universe. Parashakti (Maha Maya) enacts both the stage and the drama of the world, and she forces each person to take full responsibility for his or her actions. Ignorant fools, without a thought of the dreadful consequences of their appalling deeds, continue to commit one crime after another. But she knows it all, and none can gainsay her! Can you imagine the amounts of karma people accumulate? No wonder that the jnanis (men of wisdom) who are aware of the consequences of each karma try to avoid actions altogether.

The Aghori recognizes the pitfalls of karma but forces himself to go beyond the fear and to see that everything is part of the whole. Everything moves according to Maha Maya’s divine plan. Every murder and every rape has its significance. You have to love everything that takes place in the universe if you want to go beyond duality and reach unity. When you see one in all and all in one, you lose all fear. Fear exists only in duality. When you see only the atman in everything and yourself as part and parcel of it, then who or what should you fear? Once you drop fear, the whole world is open to you because you have no demands. You have gone beyond anticipation and expectation. You anticipate nothing and expect nothing. You know only to give because you have so much and nothing that belongs only to you! You are the possessor of everything. The devotee sleeps like a baby in the lap of his Divine Mother, absolutely certain that everything will be be provided for him. When death ceases to have a hold over you, then both time and causality cease to hold any fears.

Now you will realize that Aghora is a path that is suitable only for a very special type of temperament. Not everyone can practice it. Not only does the Aghori strip off his clothes, but he also strips his mind of every preconceived notion that society, culture, and the environment have clothed him in. He plunges himself into every possible type of so-called sin known to man, knowing that he has the power to draw himself out of it. He does this by complete surrender to the Divine Mother. He is certain that she will draw him out after having purified him in the fire of his austerities. However, he is prepared to be tested at every moment, for that is part of her lila.

After having indulged in all types of intoxicants, after having eaten all types of flesh, including human flesh, offal, and feces, without the slightest trace of disgust, the Aghori comes to realize that the greatest narcotic, the greatest delicacy, the greatest bliss, is the name of God alone. He realizes that the best drama is being enacted on the stage of his body and he himself is the main actor dancing the macabre dance of death with the destroyer himself, to the tune called by the divine Shakti. What joy can the world offer him? All the eight siddhis (extraordinary powers) will be at his command. The Divine Mother can deny him nothing, but now he wants nothing but her. He clings to her like a child, and she in turn leads him to the supreme from which she has emanated. Such is the final state of the perfect Aghori, for whom the material world is but a toy that his Divine Mother has given him to play with. He cares not for such trifles, for his body is aflame with desire for the cosmic beloved and he knows no other bliss but that of union with her.

In his highest state the Aghori becomes the greatest devotee. He is prepared to sacrifice everything in order to attain union with his deity. He is prepared to go to any lengths to attain the goal of his sadhana. No ordinary devotee can be as intense as an Aghori. The Aghori burns the candle of his life at both ends. It might not last through the night, but while it does, it casts a lovely light!

Life became a sure approach to God,

Existence a divine experiment;

The world a conception and a birth,

Of Spirit in Matter, into living forms.

Nature bore the Immortal in her womb,

That she might climb through him to eternal life.

—SAVITRI BY SRI AUROBINDO

Thus ends the twenty-ninth chapter of Shakti, known as “Maha Maya,” which describes Aghora, the left-hand path of Tantra.

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