Friday, 26 December 2014
Contemporary Consciousness Studies
Aghoraa Tantrism deliberately overturns the mainstream Hindu approach to God-realization, and champions a radically separatist version of the central Hindu notion of bodily 'purity'. In this sense, the Aghori adopts a renegade stance. Yet his approach is not a faddish or cultish one, for its roots go back to the scriptural texts. Aghoraa is a branch of Hindu Tantrism. The name is derived from one of the five 'murtis' of Shiva as recorded in the Tantras: Sadyojata, Vamadeva, Aghoraa, Tatpurusa, and Isana. They are defined as earth, water, fire, air, and ether respectively. In terms of the five major types of Hindu Tantrism - Sakta, Saiva, Saura, Ganapatya and Vaishnava - the Aghoris are held to be successors of the Kapalikas, an ancient Shaivite sect. Svoboda defines Aghoraa as "'deeper than deep,' or as 'gentle,' or 'filled with light, illumined'. The apotheosis of Tantra, the Indian religion whose Supreme Deity is the Mother Goddess". Also called by some the "Left-Hand Path", Aghoraa demands the complete internal purification of the aspirant as contrasted with the bodily abstinence-purity view of by the Right-Hand paths of Hinduism. 'Purity' as an Aghoraa quality may seem paradoxical given the corporeal image of the Aghori as an ash-smeared, matted-haired necromancer. But an Aghori is considered pure in that he has, through extreme techniques and rituals, purified himself of the snares of life. He has rid himself of the Eight Snares of Existence: lust, anger, greed, delusion, envy, shame, disgust and fear that bind all beings. This purity is believed to 'protect' the practitioner as he performs the forbidden practices of necromancy, the consumption of intoxicants, and ritual sex. The true Aghoraa renunciate, according to Svoboda, never takes his corporeal practices as hedonistic indulgence but as 'sadhana' leading to transcendence. As a means of achieving "the forcible transformation of darkness into light, of the opacity of the limited individual personality into the luminescence of the Absolute".
Comprehension and acceptance of reality in all its forms is one of the foundational bases of Aghoraa. It is believed that submission to reality, to "what is", is the only path to immortality. And, according to Vimalaananda, a compassionate understanding of and complete surrender to Nature would solve one's problems. With this view of reality is also woven the Law of Karma or cause-and-effect: "… the essence of living with reality is to continually surrender to what is. You have already created your own personal universe with your karmas and now you must live in it…. The Law of Karma, the unimaginable complexity of which has cowed the greatest of scholars, loses some of its ability to dismay when viewed through the prism of surrender". This apparently simplistic view of karma-and-reality keeps the Aghori from what he would consider as useless scholarly indulgence. The aim is to make his "personal choreography" in this cosmic dance as simple as possible so that all karmic debts are paid. The karmic relationship - not just among humans but extending to all kinds and levels of living beings - is given the term "Rnanubandhana" by Vimalaananda. Like the Sankhya school of Hindu thought, the Aghori believes in karma as actual transformation or 'parinama' and not as an appearance of transformation or 'vivarta'. Karma and non-duality are the uncontestable axioms of Aghoraa and the one inheres in the other. This forms the central spiritual pivot of Karma, the third volume of the trilogy.
It may be argued by some that the Tantric path in general entails an alternative understanding and means to God-realization. Though Aghoraa shares with its parent branch certain ontological bases -- the law of karma or causation, the possibility of matter/energy transformation, of the feminine principle being the manifest Shakti of the unmanifest male principle Shiva -- certain characteristics inhere in it that distinguish it from the source. Among these are the importance given to the Mother principle and her more 'fierce' deities like Smashan Tara, the complete annihilation of duality in the practitioner through radical rituals, and the deliberate use of the corporeal body and matter to help one progress on the path to complete union with the Absolute. As one of the ten wisdom goddesses of Hindu Tantrism, Taaraa is the 'deliverer' (Sanskrit root "tri" means "to take across") in the form of wisdom or knowledge that 'saves' or redeems the worshipper. According to David Frawley, she is considered the first transformation of the goddess Kali in that she possesses the power of sound, hence that of the word or speech. This makes her the goddess of the Divine Word and of wisdom. In the form of Smashaan Taaraa (roughly translated as "the goddess of the funeral ground") the Mother becomes "the possessor of Gyaana" loving whom guarantees the total annihilation of suffering from one's life and the reward of cosmic union.
Aghoris defend the 'terrifying' and 'dark' bodily form of Taaraa. It is easy to love and worship the benign and conventionally beautiful forms of goddesses. For the Aghori, in his journey towards non-duality the fierce form of the Mother with her garland of human heads and her lolling tongue becomes a veritable reminder of the need to annihilate the difference between binaries like benign/fierce, loving/punishing and beautiful/hideous, as well as a symbol of corporeal transcendence. Though Svoboda gives us Vimalaananda's interpretations of the various attributes and meanings of the external form of the goddess, the 'soteriological' implications seem to be more readily acceptable. Once the Aghori is able to pierce through duality, Smashaan Taaraa, shorn of any distinguishing 'aspect' of her own, reveals to him the Undifferentiated Reality. This is possible once the practitioner is freed of the eight snares and the burden of ages of karma. In other words, when he has reached his 'purest' non-dual state.
Comprehension and acceptance of reality in all its forms is one of the foundational bases of Aghoraa. It is believed that submission to reality, to "what is", is the only path to immortality. And, according to Vimalaananda, a compassionate understanding of and complete surrender to Nature would solve one's problems. With this view of reality is also woven the Law of Karma or cause-and-effect: "… the essence of living with reality is to continually surrender to what is. You have already created your own personal universe with your karmas and now you must live in it…. The Law of Karma, the unimaginable complexity of which has cowed the greatest of scholars, loses some of its ability to dismay when viewed through the prism of surrender". This apparently simplistic view of karma-and-reality keeps the Aghori from what he would consider as useless scholarly indulgence. The aim is to make his "personal choreography" in this cosmic dance as simple as possible so that all karmic debts are paid. The karmic relationship - not just among humans but extending to all kinds and levels of living beings - is given the term "Rnanubandhana" by Vimalaananda. Like the Sankhya school of Hindu thought, the Aghori believes in karma as actual transformation or 'parinama' and not as an appearance of transformation or 'vivarta'. Karma and non-duality are the uncontestable axioms of Aghoraa and the one inheres in the other. This forms the central spiritual pivot of Karma, the third volume of the trilogy.
It may be argued by some that the Tantric path in general entails an alternative understanding and means to God-realization. Though Aghoraa shares with its parent branch certain ontological bases -- the law of karma or causation, the possibility of matter/energy transformation, of the feminine principle being the manifest Shakti of the unmanifest male principle Shiva -- certain characteristics inhere in it that distinguish it from the source. Among these are the importance given to the Mother principle and her more 'fierce' deities like Smashan Tara, the complete annihilation of duality in the practitioner through radical rituals, and the deliberate use of the corporeal body and matter to help one progress on the path to complete union with the Absolute. As one of the ten wisdom goddesses of Hindu Tantrism, Taaraa is the 'deliverer' (Sanskrit root "tri" means "to take across") in the form of wisdom or knowledge that 'saves' or redeems the worshipper. According to David Frawley, she is considered the first transformation of the goddess Kali in that she possesses the power of sound, hence that of the word or speech. This makes her the goddess of the Divine Word and of wisdom. In the form of Smashaan Taaraa (roughly translated as "the goddess of the funeral ground") the Mother becomes "the possessor of Gyaana" loving whom guarantees the total annihilation of suffering from one's life and the reward of cosmic union.
Aghoris defend the 'terrifying' and 'dark' bodily form of Taaraa. It is easy to love and worship the benign and conventionally beautiful forms of goddesses. For the Aghori, in his journey towards non-duality the fierce form of the Mother with her garland of human heads and her lolling tongue becomes a veritable reminder of the need to annihilate the difference between binaries like benign/fierce, loving/punishing and beautiful/hideous, as well as a symbol of corporeal transcendence. Though Svoboda gives us Vimalaananda's interpretations of the various attributes and meanings of the external form of the goddess, the 'soteriological' implications seem to be more readily acceptable. Once the Aghori is able to pierce through duality, Smashaan Taaraa, shorn of any distinguishing 'aspect' of her own, reveals to him the Undifferentiated Reality. This is possible once the practitioner is freed of the eight snares and the burden of ages of karma. In other words, when he has reached his 'purest' non-dual state.
Wednesday, 10 December 2014
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