Life Is Death, Death Is Life

Death is separation of the soul from the physical body. Death becomes the starting point of a new life. Death merely opens the door to a higher and fuller form of life. Birth and death are jugglery of maya. He who is born begins to die. He who dies begins to live. Life is death and death is life. No one comes, no one goes. Brahmn or the eternal alone exists.
Just as you move from one house to another, the soul passes from one body to another to gain experience. Just as a man casting off worn-out garments takes new ones, so the dweller in this body, casting off wornout bodies, enters into others which are new.
Life is a continuum. Death is necessary for further evolution. Dissolution of the body is no more than sleep. Birth is like waking up. Death brings new life. A man of discrimination is not afraid of death. Death unlocks the door to a wider existence. The soul is a circle whose circumference is nowhere but its centre is in the body. Death means the change of this centre from one body to another.
The supreme soul or paramatman is deathless, decayless, timeless, causeless and spaceless. It is the source and substratum for body, mind and world. There is death for the physical body, a compound of five elements. The eternal soul is beyond time, space and causation.
To free yourself from birth and death, you must become body-less. Body is the result of karmas or actions. If you free yourself from raga-dvesha, or likes and dislikes, you will be free from karma. If you annihilate ignorance through knowledge of the imperishable, you can annihilate the ego. The root cause for this body is ignorance. He who realises the eternal soul, which is formless and attributeless, infinite and unchanging, frees himself from death.
The individual souls or jivas build various bodies to display their activities and gain experience from this world. They enter the bodies and leave them. The process goes on. This is known as transmigration of souls. The entrance of a soul into a body is called birth. The soul’s departure from the body is death.
Man has always tried to know what happens after the death of an individual. Science has been struggling to unravel the mystery of what lies beyond death.Experiments have yielded many interesting facts. Natural death, it is said, is unknown to unicellular organisation. When life on earth consisted of these creatures, death was unknown. The phenomenon appeared only when from unicellular the multicellular evolved.
Laboratory experiments have shown that whole organs such as thyroid glands, the ovary, suprarenal gland, the spleen, heart and kidneys isolated from the body of a cat or a fowl, can be kept alive in vitro to show increase in size or weight due to the appearance of new cells or tissues.
It is also known that after the cessation of an individual parts of the organisation can continue to function. The white corpuscles of the blood, if cared for, can live for months after the body from which they were withdrawn has been cremated. Death is not the end of life. It is merely cessation of an individuality. Life flows on to achieve the universal till it merges in the eternal.

I wanna walk with ya ;
and not run.
u wanna skip ;
i wont let u fall.
I wanna look ;
at the horizon ,
And don wanna see,
a building standing tall .
I wanna be the only one;
For miles and miles.
Except for maybe you;
And your simple smile.
Oh it sounds good to me ;
Yes it sounds so good to me.
I wanna take u away.
Fly with u as high as i can.
nto the wild blue ;
plz set me free..
ohh i pray..
closer to heaven above ;
nd closer to you..
hey..i wanna get closer to u.!!

Near death experience explained

The previous post about aghori sadhus was posted in a social network and one person (I am really thankful to him) proposed a theory that they might be consuming human brain because it contains DMT. I really never had this point, DMT is a psychedelic drug and is found in human body and in plants as well.

DMT stands for Di methyl triptamine is a psychedelic drug much like the LSD already discussed in previous posts. A psychedelic drug is capable of producing distorted sensory perceptions and feelings or altered states of awareness. So when someone takes a toke of the psychedelic drug or go on a “trip” as is usually said they might have very strong spiritual, sexual, frightening experience based on their belief and state of mind(some times also depends on the mood of the set).

The DMT like many other psychedelic drugs finds its place in rituals mostly shamanic. When inhaled the drug can give a trip of about 15 minutes and other modes of intake can have varying time effect and intensity.

DMT comes in the picture because human body is said to produce DMT during what we call spiritual events like death, birth, possessions etc. so during the death of a person, the pineal gland produces excess of DMT and the aghoris might be consuming the brain and mistake it to some spiritual experience. This is one of the best rational explanation for why the aghoris should eat human brain.

This excessive production of DMT can also explain for why we humans have visions after death, yes humans have visions after death. Talk to a person who had Near Death Experience, they will tell you of their traveling through a cave and hearing voices of god and also bliss. All this explanation matches the effects caused by DMT. Lately alien abduction is also attributed to this drug.

The brain is a highly sensitive organ that does not like receiving toxins. The blood-brain barrier helps keep toxins and drugs out of the brain. The barrier is basically impenetrable. However, the brain seems to hunger for DMT as if it were brain food. It actively transports it across the blood-brain barrier right into its tissues. It is almost as if our brain needs DMT, like glucose, in order to function properly. There is no known drug that the brain takes into itself as with DMT. This is a great difference between DMT and any other psychedelic chemical.

There has long been an established agreement about a person having a subconscious 3rd eyefor centuries. This 3rd eye is known as the pineal gland. It lies right in the center of the brain. It, however, was not always in the middle of the brain, or part of it. Forty-nine days after conception, the pineal gland becomes visible in the roof of the fetus mouth. This is also when a person's gender becomes established. From there, it moves out of the mouth roof and into the direct center of the brain. Its positioning is strategic, to say the least, because of its close proximity to crucial emotional and sensory brain centers.

There are a few times in a person's life when they hallucinate without the use of psychedelic drugs. These include: when a person is born, when a person is in REM sleep, astral projection, during near-death experiences, during psychosis, and when a person dies. Of course, there is something that triggers these hallucinations. It is believed now that DMT causes a person to hallucinate during these times in a person's life.

DMT does an enormous amount to our consciousness. There are three types of experiences a person can have after taking DMT. The three categories are: personal, invisible and transpersonal. Personal experiences stay within a person's body and mind. These experiences include body-based feelings and mind-based thoughts. In this category, a person can resolve difficult personal problems. It can be thought of as a state in dealing with personal growth and understanding, just as dreams are. The invisible category is an encounter with seemingly solid and freestanding realities coexisting with this one. The happenings in this category are both unusual and difficult to understand. Basically, in this category, a person makes contact with beings from a different dimension or parallel world-anywhere but earth. However, test subjects, as a whole, report the same scenarios. The interesting thing to note is that only with DMT do people have contact with beings from a nonmaterial world. Finally, there are interpersonal experiences. These are perhaps the most bizarre experiences. These involved near-death and spiritual-mystical experiences. Near death experience includes the sensation of rapid travel through a tunnel, sometimes called Hyperspace. Sometimes, a person is accompanied by music, voices songs. There is also the presence of other being, such as relatives, friends and spirits, such as angels. Feelings of great peace and clam are usually associated with this experience. These experiences take place in the Fifth dimension which is the lowest of the spiritual dimensions since Time, the fourth dimension, is in Space, the third dimension. The realization that a person is not ready to die comes upon them and they feel commanded to return to life. During the spiritual-mystical experiences, a person feels a greater appreciation for life and less fear of death. A person usually goes on more spiritual pursuits after such an experience. In this third category, people feel as if they have a contact with an unchanging, unborn, undying, and uncreated reality.

As some one rightly said that spiritual consciousness is equivalent to a million orgasm. This explains why humans trying to reach nirvana, this state should also induce the excessive release of DMT in humans and thus provide us with a special experience personal to us. Since the DMT is released by pineal gland which is the third eye this provides us with logical reason for why we should meditate on the third eye and what effect it will provide.

Blessed be and meditate

Aghori Sadhus

What kind of feelings does the word cannibalism arouses? Well most of us would get disgusted, but there are people who follow cannibalism in India even now.

India land of oldest society, oldest civilization, but all this time in the Indian history there was a sect dedicated to Shiva was involved in cannibalism and other very crude animal behavior. The aghori or aghouri sect has its origin in ancient Vedic system, even though these people don’t follow the main stream Vedic system but the root is the same. The word aghori in Sanskrit means non terrifying, ‘a’-‘ghori’ most of the Hindi speaking people would have heard the phrase ghor kaliyug, ghor paap, etc.. it is the same ghor, theoretically these people don’t attach themselves to anything mortal. They do things which a common man finds to be terrifying, so they overcome this terror by going through it, since they do it regularly it is a common thing for them.

In Hinduism, “there is no evil, everything is emanated from ‘Brahman’, so how could anything in this universe be impure”? this is the kind of philosophy the aghori babas follow. According to them anything in this universe is the manifestation of god itself, so everything is as pure as god and is god like, so abandoning anything is like abandoning god itself.

The aghori mainly worship lord Shiva, according to the sect every human is a ‘shava’(dead body) with emotions and they should try to become ‘Shiva’ by denying the human pleasures and involving in the aghori rituals.

Ghauri Shankar Mishra an aghori drinking liquor in a kapala(skull cup).

The root of aghoris are as old as Hinduism itself, but the sect in its present form has its origin in Kinaram, he was an aghori ascetic and lived for about 150yrs. He was believed to be the incarnation of lord Shiva. He attained many siddhis through tapas and rituals and then helped the people with his siddhis. There is a temple in Varanasi for this baba and is the most sacred for the aghoris. Some also trace the root to Dattatreya.

Bhola Giri Naga Baba blowing the Nagaphani.

The aghori is a human symbol of lord Shiva himself. The aghori lives in cemetery (shmashana), the living place for lord Shiva, this is the representation that the final abode for everyone is the cemetery. And many of the aghoris roam around naked, representing the true humans and their detachment from this world of mortals who live in the world of illusion. By this they transcend beyond human feelings of love, hatred, jealousy, pride etc..

There are many aghoris walking the streets of northern India with kapala(skull cup). These aghoris eat anything, when I said anything, it really meant anything like rotten food, food from the dumps, the animal faeces, animal urine.. etc they regularly perform rites(some are so crude that it cant be explained here) to attain the highest level in aghoratva, the enlightenment. The final part of the ritual requires a minimum of one eating of putrid human flesh, and also meditating on(sitting) the dead corpse. This is the symbolic of their rise from shava to Shiva. They follow the simple rule that the universe resides in them and they try to attain enlightenment by self realization.

As the ascetic advance in his search, he attains many siddhis. Slowly they gain control over the environment. They seem to posses powers to cause a rain or to stop one. This is disturbing but this is true, even though they possess this kind of powers they will not use it, for the basic rule of aghori itself is to deny human pleasure so the change in climate is an event which should happen on its own. Whatever the ascetic says happens, I have met people who have had direct relation with the ascetic, and I cannot question the veracity of the datas. It is also said that when he curses someone, every wish of the person comes true.

There have been many aghoris in the past. Some of them being Dattatreya, Kinaram, Tailanga swamy, Aghoreshwar Mahaprabhu Baba Bhagwan Ram.

Some stories

Tailanga swami

Tailanga Swami of Benaras was a very powerful Aghori, and perhaps the
only one who performed worship of Shiva at the Kashi Vishwanath
temple using his own filth. And Tailanga Swami could do so because he
had full realization that filth is as much a part of the Universal
Soul as roses, holy water etc. The priest who saw Tailanga Swami
doing such "dirty things" slapped him and ordered him out. But at the
same night, Shiva appeared in a dream to the king of Benaras and told
the king about his anger since someone insulted Tailanga Swami, who's
Shiva's very essence. The King then set out to find the priest and
punish him, but the priest was mysteriously found dead.

Dhuni wale baba

This refers to an incident which a man narrated to Ambar joshi about an Aghori Baba who lived in Burhanpur (near Khandwa,MP).This is what he narrated---There used to be an old Baba .People used to call him Dhuni wale baba. Now there is a samadhi of Dhune wale bab in Khandwa whre people still throng in large numbers to worship him.He used to stay ther and roamed the adjoining areas ,use to eat whatever came his way- rotten food or thrown away food .He used to utter obscenities if anyone talked to him or disturbed him even while he seemed to be doing nothing. He used to stare into the sky for hours and talk to himself. One day i saw a person come up to him and touch his feet and ask him to bless his daughter who had not been married in spite of their best efforts. The Baba uttered obscenities on him. Cursed his mother and family members and said that his daughter would go to hell. Then the man went away contented and after three days he came with some sweets and gave to the Baba who again uttered obscenities on him. I intercepted him on the way back and asked him why he respected a useless mad old man. The man remarked he is a great Baba and has cured many peoples problems. If he curses you then your problem is bound to get solved. Aghori Babas are like that he said and offered me a piece of burfi(An Indian sweet)which I gladly ate. Then I saw many other instances when the Baba uttered obscenities, people used to still go behind him even while he used to answer the call of nature. He used to throw his faeces all over people who came behind him and they used to collect it and take home as prasad.(holy).

Maldevata incident taken from ‘The Week’

Maldevta is a popular picnic spot near Dehra Dun. Thirst overtook us while trekking to Maldevta and we decided to ask for some water at a small thatched hut about a eight hundred scrubby hundred yards from the canal we were following. A dusky, well built man wearing a skimpy loin cloth emerged from the dark interior of the hut. Why, of course, we could have water, he answered. He didn't have that much left, just a couple of glasses, as he'd just finished cooking, but we were most welcome to it. Was this his permanent residence, we asked him conversationally? Oh no, he had no fixed place of stay. There was a cremation ground just a stone's thrown away, and he'd built this hut as he had been waiting for a lawaris body (homeless person's body which is generally cremated by a philanthropic organization or trust). As luck would have it, after waiting for some three months, such a body had arrived just yesterday, and he'd been able, in exchange for a good luck charm, to obtain the head of the dead man. In fact, he'd almost run out of water as he had used most of it for cooking the dead man's brain with some rice.

He brought out a blackened pot and showed us the contents. He'd already had one portion of it, and would have to space out eating the cooked brain and rice over the next three days. Repelled, chilled, yet curious, we asked him who he was. He was an aghori, he said, and Calcutta was his birthplace. After early initiation when he was just nine years old into Tantric Kali worship, he'd moved into other deeper sadhnas (disciplines), but always, it was with the forces of the dark. The rules and demands of the search for power in which he was now engaged ordained that he had to eat at least one human brain annually. Already, he had acquired the ability of divining the future. He could actually show us our future, in case we were interested. Why didn't we come in?

Fascinated yet afraid that at this isolated spot we might end up becoming his annual meal, we left somewhat hastily, forgetting all our lessons in politeness. Over the next few days, I couldn't get the aghori out of my mind. When a brigadier and his wife came to seek a reading from the cards as they were in deep trouble with a court martial looming on the horizon, it gave me the opportunity to go back to the aghori, with the anxious brigadier and his wife in tow. After all, he had said he could show one the future. What better way of testing the claim ? He was still there, at the peak of his powers, he informed us, as he'd recently consumed the human brain. This time, we entered his hut and our eyes soon became accustomed to the dimness. The aghori requested us to sit, and as we sat cross-legged on the earthern floor, placed a lota (container) of water before us. "Look into the water" he commanded. And in the water, we saw the brigadier, older, dressed in civilian clothes. After several sequences, we saw the brigadier with the Supreme Court clearly visible in the background, and he was wearing a dark blue suit and distributing sweets to a group of people who were with him.

Some months after this amazing incident, the brigadier wanted to take a friend to meet the aghori, but when we reached there we found the hut in a sad state : it was just a bundle of grass and straw and twigs strewn on the ground. Enquiries at the cremation ground revealed that the aghori had been driven away by irate residents of Raipur, a nearby suburb. Seven years passed with only occasional meetings with the brigadier, who was no longer in active service and was fighting his case in the civil courts. One day I received a message from him. The Supreme Court was to give the verdict on his case. And when I went on the appointed day, apart from other settings, there, outside the imposing Supreme Court building, was the Brigadier, dressed in a dark blue suit, distributing sweets just as he had been seven years ago in the lota of water the cannibal aghori had placed before us.

Philosophy behind this: Aghoris are indifferent to everything. For them there is nothing good ,ideal or bad. Everything that exists in this world is essentially made up of same thing. Hence they utter obscenities, may take liqour, eat Dead human flesh and do other things which might appear to be 'uncivilised' to us.

We should respect the way chosen by these people for enlightenment. After all lord shiva is also an aghori, yes it was his another name. Many people think that aghori babas kill humans for their rituals, but there is no strong evidence for this. Since this sect has most of its rites and rituals a secret, we don’t have exact number of aghoris present in India, but you can always find few aghoris in the Kinaram aghori temple in Varanasi.