Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

or the opposite? Is the Aghori capable of bending the
drug to his will? Secondly, if he masters the intoxication,
his force by doing so magnifies his concentration, which
again is a question of mind controlling matter (the subtle
body). Finally, an Aghori is a devotee of Shiva who
loved intoxicants, and especially ganja (hashish/
marijuana). By taking intoxications the Aghoris please
Shiva by offering him these, and the devotee come
closer to their god and self-identify them with Him.
Viamalananda also used a king cobra to bite his tongue
since this is a much more poisonous intoxication, and he
even used arsenic, aconite and opium, until he eventually
stopped because of the negative side effects. Since the
Aghoris heavily use various intoxicants, many devotees
fall of the path, because without using the right mantras
the drugs will lead the devotee astray (ibid:173-176).
“Bhairava/Bhairavi” literary means “the Terrifier” – “A
name for Lord Shiva and for his consort. In sexual
Tantra the Bhairava is the male, who self-identifies with
Lord Shiva, and the Bhairavi, is the female, who selfidentifies
with Parvati, Shiva’s Grand Consort”
(Svoboda 199a3:323). Smashan Tara, the most terrifying
of all goddesses, also named Bhayankari – “the
terrifier”, is always depicted in the smashan near a
roaring funeral pyre, not because she is burning the
Aghoris’ physical body, but because she burns the causal
body. The causal body is like store house where the
billions of karmas houses, and by burning this causal
body Smashan Tara is freeing the devotee from further
obligations of being born in the world (ibid:82).
The first aim is to progress from the state of being a
donkey in human form where the only thing that matters
is eating and procreation (ibid:261). Spirits have no
mouth so they cannot eat physically, but only through
their sense of smell, and they love incense, which
therefore is very important in any rituals. By the use of
incense the spirits are fed (Svoboda 1993a:194). Most
spirits are not evil but only miserable. The Dakinis are
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spirits of women who died in childbirth, the Pretas are
spirits of people who had no relatives to perform their
obsequies and they were doomed to take the form of a
cobra, there are headless spirits of those who were
decapitated during life, and so on. Almost everyone who
dies a sudden death will become a spirit because there is
no time to select a new life, and this is the reason why a
peaceful death is so preferred and important (ibid.)
There is a difference between spirits and deities. Spirits
are bound in some ways and it is therefore they live on
cemeteries. There are numerous spirits, and the main aim
of Aghoris staying at cemeteries is to arrange that some
of these spirits can obtain wombs – with the help of
Shiva. Young girls might be married to the Shiva, and by
sitting on the linga her maiden will breake, and thus,
Shiva is her first husband. This paradox that the God of
Death is also the ideal husband has its logic in that Shiva
is the lord of all spirits, and it is through him a spirit can
be reborn on earth. For Aghoris, this means that by the
help of Shiva they can give a child to a childless couple.
When the spirit is blessed by Shiva the spirit waits until
intercourse takes place, and after ejaculation it picks a
sperms and actually drags it to meet the egg. After this,
fertilisation happens, and the spirit ensures that the
zygote is safely implanted into the wall of the uterus.
What happens then is a process of growing the Jiva – the
individual soul by rituals performed by Aghoris. Every
sperm has Jiva – an individual soul, but in this case the
Jivas will be weak and unable to grow on their own. The
child will have most of its attributes from the spirit and
very few from the Jiva because the spirit will overpower
the Jiva. As a consequence, the child will have few of
the father’s traits, and the future of the child may easily
be predicted. The spirit has little affinity for both the
father and the mother and will leave the family early. By
this way are three wishes fulfilled, the childless couples
get a child, the spirit gets a womb, and the Aghori
pleases Shiva (ibid:190-191).