Aghori: Human-Flesh Eating Monks
The Aghoris are members of a Hindu sect who worship Shiva (a major Hindu god and one aspect of Trimurti – the Hindu trinity), whom they see as the supreme god. Because they believe that Shiva created everything they consider nothing to be bad. For this reason they engage in a variety of sexual practices (for example they perform a secret Tantric ritual involving sex with a lower caste, menstruating woman during which the Aghori becomes Shiva and his partner Shiva’s female energy), they drink alcohol, take drugs, and eat meat. Nothing is considered taboo. But the thing that makes their ancient traditions bizarre is that they are also practicing cannibals and their temples are cremation grounds.
Aghori Practices
An aghori lives in the cremation ground and is able to support himself there – his clothing comes from the dead, his firewood comes from the funeral pyres, and food from the river. When a person is cremated, an aghori will coat himself in the ashes of the body and meditate on the dead. Aghoris survive by begging with a bowl made from a human skull. The most shocking aspect of the Aghori life is their cannibalism. Dead bodies that are found floating in the river are gathered up and meditated on. The limbs are then removed by the Aghori and eaten raw.
The corpses, which may be either pulled from a river (including the Ganges) or obtained from cremation grounds, are consumed both raw and cooked on open flame, as the Aghoris believe that what others consider a “dead man” is, in fact, nothing but a natural matter devoid of the life force it once contained. Therefore while for ordinary folks cannibalism may be seen as primitive, barbaric as well as unclean, for aghori’s it’s being both resourceful and subverting the common stereotypes placed on such taboos into a spiritual ascertainment that indeed nothing is profane nor separate from God, who is hailed to be all and in all. In fact, the Aghoris see it as a scientific approach in trying to discover how matter converts from one form to another.
There are many aghoris walking the streets of northern India with their skull cups. These aghoris eat anything, including rotten food, food from the dumps, animal feces, animal urine, etc. They regularly perform rituals to attain the highest level in enlightenment. Many aghoris walk around completely naked.
An American Aghori
A typical American kid from a typical if affluent family, Gary Stevenson’s life first veered off the normal path when he was stricken with polio as a child. A troubled youth and rebellious adolescence coincided with the Age of Aquarius and Gary set off on a spiritual path that took him to San Francisco, Hawaii, and finally into India and Nepal in an ever-deeper slide into the extreme. Along the way he shed his identity, legally changing his name to Giridas Rama Sitanatha as he sought a magical path to immortality and enlightenment. Eventually, he turned to Aghor and its dark tantric rites.
As he studied and excelled at his new religion, his guru christened him “Kapal Nath,” and he became lost in a lifestyle of grave robbing and cannibalizing the bodies to consume the Shakti (life energy) of the dead. [Source]
More Information
If you are interested in watching another fascinating documentary on the Aghoris, you can watch an excellent one here in full. If you want to watch an extremely gruesome video of the aghoris, you can do that here. Be warned, however, it contains video footage of cannibalism.
The aghori featured on the Listverse Another 10 Bizarre Traditions.
Filed under: Bizarre | 35 Comments
Loving the new site, Jamie. This particular item is one I did a little more research on after seeing it on LV. Creepy and yet intriguing. If only I had waited for you to do all the work.
Cheeshygirl: thanks
This was a topic I found especially interesting. It was a real struggle to keep the entry on the top 10 list to only two paragraphs. Finally I have been able to expand on it!
Actually many Hindu sadhu’s walk naked
. these aghora’s are usually covered with the ashes of the dead body. that wats scary about them. skull scalps ??? i havent personally seen that but its possible.
actually these guys are imitating God Shiva.
Sites like yours fascinate me! There’s so many strange things out there that I didn’t know could even exist (I’m still amazed at the “most bizarre relationship ever”). Your writing’s great and the only problem with that is I want to read more! Great topics. Thanks for posting them.
Alberto: thanks
I love these topics as well – which is why I get so much pleasure out of writing them.
I have so much pleasure reading them. Keep on writing!
I’m loving this new site. <3
So, I think there’s one question in particular just begging to be asked:
How long do the Aghoris typically live?
To flesh it out (pun definitely intended), when do the Aghoris start eating all this “garbage” that most of the rest of the world would consider disease-ridden, unsanitary, and completely unsafe to eat? I’m guessing the Aghoris don’t live that long, and perhaps the reason they look old in these pictures is because either they age quickly or don’t start this type of eating until their later years. But this is all speculation. As someone who doesn’t even like to let someone else drink from his cup, I’m curious to know how long someone can go on eating raw human flesh from a decomposing corpse floating down the river.
Apparently the fact that they do live long time is seen as mystical to many Hindus.
its not like they are aging quickly, but usually the people who become aghora’s are usually from sects like naga sadhu’s. they live a normal life, they eat, drink, become high and follow there religious duties. i have seen an aghora in his late 60’s so i can tell these guys are not dying young.
one more thing, if one drinks water from ganges( after haridwar) there are high chances that he might die
Hm, seeing one person in his late 60s doesn’t really say much, considering the average life expectancy of the average male in India is 67 years, and elsewhere in the world it goes to as high as the upper 70s.
If drinking water from the Ganges is bad, I’d imagine eating the raw flesh from a corpse floating down the Ganges must also be somewhat bad, no?
Actually you are right about one thing, one cant generalize.I asked some Upper Caste Hindu Brahmins about them and I got to know that these people usually perform witchcraft and all sorts of things associated with Black Magic and stuff like that. Some of them join temporarily. To catch a glimpse of them one needs to head to Varanasi or Kasi. One more thing, I also learn t that consuming cow urine was part of several Hindu customs back in the old days and many common people in rural India do follow that custom till date ( Lucky me
). So maybe the consuming animal feces is not a special trait of these aghora’s.
Well one thing is for sure Ganges (the holy river) is probably the most polluted river in India. The stretch from Haridwar( in Uttar Pradesh State) to the Bay of Bengal is heavily polluted with all sorts of chemical contaminants apart from rotting corpses. Well in the upper stretches from Gangotri (Himachal Pradesh) to Rishikesh (Uttar Pradesh) is crystal clean.
Freaking dusgusting!!! It’s boggles my mind that there are still such primitive, savage communities out there in this day and age. I live in South Africa and when you are here you can get pretty used to squalor and a simple primitive frame of mind due to deep-set cultural beliefs and lack of education but for God’s sake, even the most desperate communities have their boundaries. These weirdo’s have definitely over-stepped the line.
dude this is a very very very small group of followers and live along the banks of the river ganges.
They are very religious people and treat a corpse exactly as we treat a dead chicken. and i have seen aghora’s when i went there and its not like they eat the whole body or anything. they eat only bits and pieces of flesh. they are not cannibals. and they dont attack or pounce on people. they are feared by the public because of there appearance and are usually not seen publicly interacting with many people.
They are eating human flesh! Whether or not its the whole body or bits and pieces is irrelevant, they are still cannibals. Also do you eat your chickens washed up from a river and raw? ‘Cause I certainly don’t! lol
Agreed. what they are doing is freaky to all. but again i saw that man cook his flesh on a bon-fire at the edge of the river.
Well do you exactly know where your chicken/pork/beef comes from and what it has been through before being put on your plate ??? Think again .
They no eat bodies anymore, or eat wine, they yes eat rotten food and such. Your sources of information are completely wrong. This sect follows many things from the old ways but not its cannibalistic past, closest thing they use human skull as cup. Thank for take my know.
Ne post pripomb o tem, kako lahko jaz ne, kako narediti dober urok
They are cannibals by definition. They eat human flesh. What they are not, is they are not murderers, criminals, or really in any way evil. Because they believe everything is sacred, nothing is taboo. The world in it’s completeness is very real, sacred and there for them. It is a path to enlightenment that is truly extreme and exceptionally difficult to follow.
While I could never follow this path myself, I do understand it. They try to experience the world at a very high level. The very immediacy of their experiences allows them to see the path of enlightenment.
Ok agreed !!! they are cannibals
i just checked the definition and they fit in perfectly. My BAD
I pretty much classify as one of these “monks”. well I bite my gums….
Hi JRafter,
Great site! Great work. So much knowledge! I dig your lists and work.. Since I am from India, I would like to add my 2 cents.
These are rumors, and from random readings and please feel free to add/delete.
Aghoris dont just pray to Shiva, they pray to the Rudra aspect of Shiva. So that is one big distinction. The main stream Hindus pray to a more mellowed Shiva or to Ardha Narishwara (Half Lady God) – which is half Shiva/half Parvati (Parvati is wife of Shiva). You can easily identify with prayers to Shiva – Songs, and cymbals, chanting, and lights – like rock music ? Rudra puja usually features more savage forms, which we have duly westernized. like large vats of saffron water (red colored water) instead of blood. and other fun stuff.
Shiva cut one of Brahma’s heads, because he told a lie. Now nobody escapes karma. In order to redeem himself, Shiva doused himself with ash, wandered cemeteries, carrying Brahma’s cut skull as his begging bowl and lead a life of an ascetic. Aghori principle starts here.
They believe that since all paths lead to salvation, one can reach there by other route .. being extremely depraved. Point is one needs to become detached to practice depravity.
And the practice of meditating on top of a dead man is not trivial. Many a Aghori have gone mad, sitting on a corpse.
Well said puttar !!!!
I am from Hyd,AP and had the chance to see one in action at Kasi. Great info
creepy. how macabre.
“They perform a secret Tantric ritual involving sex with a lower caste, menstruating woman during which the Aghori becomes Shiva and his partner Shiva’s female energy ”
That is possibly the most disgusting thing I’ve read I think ever.YUCK !
Great list BTW
Oh sorry I’D read it wrong,still a great list
Wow,I had no idea. Ghoulish but fascinating.
fascinating.. and macabre.
Wow..Wow.. Wow…
All I can see is a bunch of chuckholes talking about practices and traditions of a country which they have never visited. These shitheads don’t even know how developed we are in terms of knowledge, culture and the list continues….
@ erickarthik : I would suggest you not to try and explain something which these MF will never be able to relate to in their holy freaking life…. They only know Lord Shiva because he glorified the use of MARIJUANA
Shivaranjan,,
Do some Reading on the Shiva God and the SHIVALINGAM,,,, LINGAM means male PENIS,,
SHIVA LINGAM means the penis of SHIVA ,,the symbol repersents a hard male genital copulated to a female vegina,, the milk you people put on the shivalinga is the reperesentative of semen coming out of the male genital and flowing into the female genital,,
do not respond with emotions,, put some fact together,,
Hi,
I have some things to add..
Aghora’s do the extreme yogic practises, which normal human’s can only imagine of…
for example having a fire pot on head while meditating…
hanging on a tree with head facing ground for many hours & probably days
…
worshiping skulls…
and many more..
and most important thing.. when they eat corpse on a day.. they don’t eat any thing for next few days… As you know, fasting is treated as biggest remedy & immunization factor even for big diseases..
Coz, they follow many other practises.. which we are not aware of..all i can say is what we know is a drop and unknown is an ocean.. bcoz no human can live long eating diseased. Only the Researches have to tell us about the secrets of their lliving…
but unfortunately, no researcher will unfold the truths to public as you know… they keep many things as secret or sell it to Rich or communities like ILLUMINATI…
Ab
Aghori: they are really psychos. They indulge in unhealthy habits like having heroin and marijuana and eat deadbodies and they give a great explanation that they become “God” by doing so.. Does not sound like crazy.?? They make their religion even low by doing so… hinduism is not a religion at all, its just a bunch of fabulous stories they follow and its slowly declining too.. These Aghori’s say their sins are blot out by eating dead bodies, its full of bullsh*t to hear. They actually follow the Satan’s way not the God’s way.They do all unlawful things in the name of Shiva (actually they are lakhs and lakhs of gods), which is not at all acceptable. Does God says to follow unlawful things? to eat deadbodies? The Religion itself is a bundle of falsehood.
This is symbolic not actual.
It is no different from weirdo catholics eating blood and flesh in the mass thing that they do.
The difference is that the catholic cannibals think they are eating gods flesh and blood so they are not only mental but blasfemmers as well.
The indian guys are deeply spiritual and really into the alternative lifestyle without nuclear power and gas guzzler cars or ice boxes destroying the planet.
We should learn a lesson from these cool dudes and be more like their holy gods.
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please send the video for aghori for my email
Guys, I was in Rishikesh/Hydwaar 3 days back,,
I have been reading about these aghoris for years,, and learnt abotu their practices from many priests across india.
Got a chance to meet a few of the hardcore aghoris,,,
now the fact remains, no matter what rationality ppl may put in this,, they are evil worshippers.
No sane person will eat feces, drink urin,,, have sex with dead female bodies,, sex with animals (goats, dogs etc.),, whores and drink their semen instead of letting it enter the woman’s body,,,
it is disguisting to read and know of their rituals,,
all such practices take them closer to the supreme evil power the Satan,, represented in the indain mythology as Shiva.
Beware of them,, the rural folks dread them since they possess evil powers,,
so they get food n water where ever they go begging,, nobody wants to face their wrath,,,
they are on drugs every moment of their life,, the moment the effect subsides, they take another shot,,,,
trust me this comes from authentic source and person interaction,, as recent as 3 days back,,
I find it interesting how many of you would dismiss a set of religious practices by deeming them evil using your religion as the only frame of reference. Also in regards to Shiva being “satan” you should probably read about Mara befoe you make that distinguishment.