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AGHORA: A BRIEF HISTORY
It is not always easy to sort out the various traditions that constitute the Hindu pantheon; nonetheless, a look at the cosmological structure of divinities in Hindu theology helps to place a particular tradition in its larger philosophical and historical context. In the Hindu under standing there exits the formless Brahma or Brahman a single entity from which the creation emanated, and into which it all dissolves ultimately. The desire of Brahman to create the world brought forth its creative energy, conceptualized as a feminine energy, which led to the emergence of the Hindu trinity Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the preserver; and Shiva, the one who destroys so that the world can be created afresh. These three are the primary gods of whom only two are worshipped by most Hindus, but it is also understood that their powers are animated by the feminine creative principle, the goddess, who is worshipped either on her own or as a consort of each one of these gods in her various forms and with various attributes.
The two gods of the trinity most worshipped by Hindus are Vishnu, and Shiva. The worshippers of Vishnu are vaishnavas, and the worshippers of Shiva are shaiva. The worshippers of the Goddess are Shakta, although elements of Shaktism can be found in both Vaishnava as well as shaiva traditions; the degree of its prevalence depends upon the proclivities of the particulates sub tradition of these two primary streams. Brahma’s worship is not so widely prevalent; in fact, there exists only major active temple to Brahma in all of India, at pushkar in the state of Rajasthan. Historically, the worship of Vishnu is a result of the primacy attained by the brahmanical Vedic religion after the Aryan advent into India, while shaiva Shakta traditions are generally regarded as being prearyan, indigenous to the land, representing traditions which have greatly influenced other streams of worship within Hinduism, and which have themselves become modified with the passage of the centuries. Yet, one of the primary gods described in the Vedas is Rudra, considered by many to be a prearyan deity, also regarded as an earlier conception of the God shiva of the Hindu Trinity.

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THE SHAIVA SHAKTA TRADITION
Aghora represents a tradition which, in the present day, can be placed within the Shiva Shakti school of thought. Without going into the debates about the finer nature of its myriad streams, we will take a broad look at the Shaiva Shakti tradition as enunciated by scholars based on the writing sources derived from derived from various scriptural texts consisting of the Vedas, the Upanishads and the puranas that describe the number of shiva and his relation to Shakti. For example, the rig vada (approximately 1200 BCE) describes a fiery and terrifying God named Rudra, a god who is fierce but who provides blessings and rules benevolently over herbs. The rudradhyaya chapter of the yajur Veda describes rudra’s auspicious form, which is innately united with his feminine power, and is called Shiva (shiva). Within this description, shiva is embellished with the adjective Aghora. According followers of the tradition, the illustration implies that Rudra is shiva and shiva is aghora, a Sanskrit word which is known as ‘Aughar’ in the present times. Another name for Rudra Shiva in the rig Veda is pashupati, a god who protects the sheep, cows and horses. Agama and Tantra scriptures consider Shiva and Shakti to be inseparable. The illustration mentioned above from the yajur Veda leads to the conclusion that Rudra is Shiva only because he is inseparably joined with the feminine Shakti, Aghora. A huge cornucopia of Tantra literature has been composed to expand upon Rudra’s Shiva /Aghora from. It can be said that worshippers of Rudra’s Shiva or Aghora from are, interestingly, Shakti worshippers. Aughars, observers of the Shiva Shakti tradition, therefore, are regarded as a personified embodiment of Rudra, auspicious form, which is in constant union with his feminine power Shiva other scriptures mention several names for Rudra, namely Sadashiva, Ishana, Tatpurusha, Aghora, Vamdeva, Sadyojata, Harparvatirupa, Neelkanth, Ardhanarishwar pashupati, Neelagreeva, and chadeshwar. Quite commonly Shiva is attributed with five faces namely sadyojata, vamadeva, Aghora, Tatpursh with air and Ishana. Each one of these faces, according to the vishnudharmottara puruna, is associated with one of the five constituent elements of the cosmos. Sadyojata is associated with the earth element, vamadeva with water, Aghora with fire, Tatpursh and air and Ishana with space. When these five faces of Shiva are thought of in conjunction with these five constituent elements of the cosmos, then emerge the five name of shiva which are widely known today, namely Mahadeva which represent the earth, Bhairava which represents fire, Nandi representing air, Uma, for water and sadashiva, space.
Based on the specific doctrinal inclinations of practitioners, in the context of the various forms of shiva, ancient scriptures delineate four major shaiva sects named, pashupati, kapadaman and kapalika, or pashupati, Shaiva kalamukh, and kapalika. 6 The major literature of these four shaiva sects is known collectively as shaivagam. This literature, though, is sometimes further locally subdivided in the regions where they became popular, such as pashupata though, propounded by nakulish or lakulish, popular in Gujarat and the rajputana in the 3rd or 2nd century B.C., Shaiva siddhanta, revered in the Tamil region of south India, vir shaiva thought known in the Karnataka region of south India, and the prettyabhigya thought, which was centred in Kashmir and which is said to have been propounded primarily by the son of Rishi durwasa a sage by the name of Tryambak. All these name of Shiva and the various sects associated with them mentioned in the Vedic, tantric and puranic literature point to the fact that the populace worshipped rudra or shiva in various forms though a large part of India over the centuries, leading too many different traditions of Shiva Shakti worship. One amongst these was that of Aghora.

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The Aghora Tradition
Followers of the aghora tradition in the city of Banaras believe that this tradition was started by the god Shiva himself, and was propounded further by jagadguru Dattatreya (a historical figure who may have lived about 4000 years ago by some estimates, also mentioned in the epic Ramayana as the son of Rishi Atri and his wife Anusuya, Baba kaluram (during king Harishchandra’s time in ancient India), and by baba Kinaram since the 17th century. Chaturvedi, in fact, mentions several well known personalities from Hindu scriptures as having been a part of the Aghora tradition. These include, until the 10th century C.E., vishwamitra (said to be the mantra seer in the Kaushika Sutra of the Atharva Veda), Vamadeva, (a propounder of the left handed path of tantra and an important personality in the epic Ramayana), vashishtha (the guru of the Raghu lineage in the Ramayana), vashishtha (the guru of the Raghu lineage in the Ramayana, and regarded to be a worshipper of goddess Tara), Queen churala (wife of king shividhwaj mentioned in the Yogavashishtha), emperor vikramaditya (a popular king whose stories are still widely read in the Sanskrit text vetala panchavinshati), Aghoracharya (mentioned as having lived 1300 years ago, a personality popular with the Buddhist lamas in Tibet), Bhairavacharya (said to be the guru of king pushpabhuti, mentioned in Banabhatta’s Harsharita), and Abhinavagupta (the chief propounder of the Kashmir group of agamas said to have lived around the 10th century C.E. ).8 Chaturvedi also mentions sarvanand Thakur (born about 600 years ago in Mehar village of Tripura), Avadhut nagalingappa (born in the Nizam kingdom in 1860), and Aghoracharya of tarapeeth, Bamakhepa.

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THE F0UR SHAIVA SECTS
Let us consider the aforementioned four shaivite traditions to trace, very briefly, how scholars have shown their development. Mishra writes that shrikanth propounded the Shaiva School of thought where the living being is regarded as a pashu, a bound animal, who can realized it’s shiva nature by transcending the limits set by illusion. Here shiva is Brahma, the ultimate cosmic reality that can be found by meditation and other ascetic practice. Regarding the Pashupata School. U. p. Shah. Notes that some sources such as the epic Mahabharata, the shiva purana and the tantraloka ascribe this school to shrikantha (seen as an incarnation of shiva), while others consider it to have been established by Lakulisha or Nakulisha. He writes that lakulisha was the twenty eight and last incarnation of shiva, born into a Brshman family at kayavarohana (modern karvan) in the Baroda district of Gujarat. Images of lakulisha holding a staff in his left hand, a vase in the right hand and a bull looking up at him have been found from Ujjain dating back to the third or second BCE. He also states that the Lakulisha sect spread as far as to Kashmir, Nepal, Assam and Orissa. The reason for its popularity could have been that both celibates and householders could join it; there were no caste restrictions on who could be a member, some of their meditative practices included laughter, dance and music. Shah writes:
The Lakulisa pasupatas maintained their individuality by dress, by philosophy, and by mode of worship. Like other Saiva ascetics, they smeared their bodies with ashes wore a loincloth, kept matted hair, and wore the sacred thread. They used yogapatta, rosary beads, neck ormaments, armlets and bracelets or unlike other monks, the ascetics of the Lakulisa sect black dress....
David Lorenzen mentions that the pashupatas were the predecessors of the kalamukhas, and hold lakulisha in high esteem. They also smear ashes on their body and carry a staff. The kalamukhas seem to have been a part of the shaiva scenario from the 11th to the 13th centuries in the Karnataka region of south India. He cites sources that mention pashupatas and kalamukhas to have originated in Kashmir and then to have migrated to the Karnataka region. They had a very strong presence in this region and were divided into two main sub groups, the Shakti parishad and the simha parishad.
Regarding the kapalikas lorenzen writes that they seem to have originated in the Deccan or south India somewhere around the 5th or 6th century but became extinct by the 14th century. Most probably, they were assimilated into other shaiva tantric traditions such as the kanphatas and the Aghoris. The kapalikas are understood to have followed a socially transgressive, left hand path based on tantra, which included use of panchamakaras. As compared to the staff carried by the kalamukhas, the kalamukhas, he states, carried a trident. The kapalika worship also included eating from a skull bowl and offering of wine to the gods. They too eschewed caste principles and regarded mere initiation as sufficient to start one off right on the spiritual path. Lorenzen notes the description of Bhairavacharya, a kapalika ascetic, from the harsha charita of Banabhatta: Bhairavacharya, the saint who befriended Hara’s ancestor pushpabhuti, was also from south India (daksinatya) and also performed a tantric ritual appropriate for a kapalika. One of his three disciples, karnatala, was a dravida, and another, Titibha, carried a skull begging bowl (Bhairava, the form of the kapalika) in a box made of kharjura wood. Bhairavachya’s name indicates that he worshipped shiva as Bhairava, the form of the god held in especial esteem by tantric groups such as the kapalikas. Bana introduces him as the great Saiva saint named Bhairavacharya, almost a second over thrower of Daksa’s sacrifice, who belonged to the Deccan, but whose powers, made famous by his excellence in multifarious sciences, were like his many thousands of disciples, spread abroad over the whole spehere of humanity.
Lorenzen further explains that in the legend of the Dakshya’s sacrifice ceremony had been disrupted by shiva himself, and that shiva kapalin or kapaleshwara is the divine archetype of the kapalika ascetic. It is doubtful if kapalikas were ever so organized as to have lived in large, organized groups; rather, they are thought to have been individual ascetics roaming the countryside practicing their unorthodox religion. Dr. Dharmendra Brahmachari shastri points to the Rudrayamala Tantra story of how the sage vashishtha tried hard to attain enlightenment following the path propounded in the vedas, but did not succeed. He was then directed by the goddess to follow the path propounded in the Atharva Veda, and the one followed by the Buddhists, to realize the knowledge of kula (the kundalini energy). Followers of the Aghora tradition consider this to be a very important story because, as Shakta tradition consider this to be a very important story because, as Shastri writes, the main sources of this tradition can be traced back to the Atharva Veda and Brahmans, sutras and Upanishads associated with it, but that their practice are influenced and modified by Shakta Tantra and Buddhist Sahajayan schools of thought. These have found a place in the Aghora tradition in a highly transmuted form. Historically, the most important centres of aghora teaching have been mount Abu in Rajasthan and Girnar in Gujarat in western India Bodhgaya in Bihar and in many parts of Assam in eastern India, kashi in north India which has a large temple to kapaleshwar and at Hingalaj in sindh.
Today there are two main streams of Aughar saints namely Himali and Girnali. Since Himalayas are and regarded as an abode of God Shiva, the himali stream believes the Aghor tradition to have originated in the Himalayas and is say to have been propounded by gorakhnath. The second stream, Girnali, regards Dattatreya, the son of Rishi Atri and his wife Anusuya, as the propounder of the tradition. At Girnar is the most holy pilgrimage place for aghoris, called Datta paduka and Kathmandalu Tirth. Baba Kinaram, the founder of the Kinaram Sthal in Banaras, to have been initiated into the Aghor tradition by Dattatreya at Girnar.
While it is certainly difficult to pinpoint any single source for the preponderance and continuation of an ancient stream of philosophy and practice such as that of Aghora, especially since followers of this tradition, consider that God Shiva was the founder of this tradition it is worthwhile to look briefly at the two traditions which do seem to have carried it forwords. As mentioned, one can be said to be the jagadguru Dattatreya tradition, the other, that of Guru Gorakhnath.

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Dattatreya
There are many stories about the birth of Dattatreya. One tale found in the Markandeya purana tells that there was a Brahmin named kaushika who had fallen from his sacred path. His pious wife, Shandili, still loved and venerated him. Kaushika used to frequent a prostitute, and one day, when kaushika did not have any more money, she killed him out of her house. The heartbroken kaushika came home and his wife tried to make him happy. He asked her to take her to the prostitute’s house. As Shandili was doing so, though a set of accidental circumstances, her husband was cursed by Rishi Mandavya to die at sunrise. Shandili, who had great spiritual power due to her piety, stopped the sun in its tracks. That led to the whole business of the world come to a screeching halt. The gods went to Vishnu for advice in this matter and were directed to seek help from Anusuya, the wife of Rishi Atri. Anusuya persuaded shandili to let the sun progress on its course, thus returning life back to the world, while at the same time saving Shandili’s husband from death. The gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva were so pleased with Anusuya that they asked her to request a boon. She asked that the tree gods be born from her womb as her children. The gods agreed in time she had son’s soma, an incarnation of Brahma Datta, an incarnation of Vishnu, and Durwasa, an incarnation of shiva. Datta renounced all attachment and took refuge inside a lake, but his followers waited for him outside for a 100 celestial years. To dissuade them datta came out of the lake with a beautiful lady. His followers were not dissuaded. Datta then proceeded to drink wine with the woman. Even that did not help. Finally, datta was pleased with their devotion and gave them the knowledge of the absolute.
The Bhavisyat purana narrates the story differently. The wives of the three gods are envious of Anusuya’s piety and ask their husbands to test her. The gods go to her ashram and demand that she serve them food while nude. Anusuya sprinkles holy water on them and turns them into babies, and proceeds to serve them in her Lap. When the three gods do not return, their wives then go to her and beseech her to give their husbands back. In return, Anusuya asks them to be born as children from her womb. Later on, the tradition of Dattatreya developed to include worshippers from both the Vaishnava and the shaiva traditions. As joshi write:
In the bhagavata purana, Dattatreya is considered to be Yogapatta. His school is not a stereotype, is still developing. The idea of trinity has developed fully into the form of Dattatreya, in the present form, is worshipped as an incarnation of all the three principle gods of the Hindu pantheon, viz. Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra. His triple nature is shown either by three heads or six hands. This school has always stressed the idea of equilibrium the idea of synthesizing the two opposites very effectively and positively...The need of the times becomes, as it were, the main problem before the school and their promulgators though the side is never forgotten. In Shree Guru Datta upasana, the paduka pooja been given main importance. ‘Shree Guru Charitra’ is originally written by Avadhoot Guru Dattatreya himself and one shouldn’t have any doubts as regards this.
As is evident from the passage above, it is in Dattatreya that all of the trinity can be perceived. He is a figure worshipped equally by the vaishnavas, the shivas and shaktas, for he is also said to have developed all the schools of tantra that exist.

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Gorakhnath
Regarding the influence of Gorakhnath’s tradition on the Aughars, George Weston Briggs writes:
Aughars are followers of Gorakhnath who have not undergone the final ceremony of having their ears split. A legend is current, which serves to justify them in not completing initiation. Once two Siddhas (perfect yogis) tried to split the ear of a candidate who had been at Hing Laj; but they found that the slits closed as fast as they were made. So they gave up the attempt. Since then Aughars have dispensed with the custom. Briggs lists several legends of gorakhnath. One story says that formless creator, produced gorakhnath from the sweat of his own breast. Another legend from Nepal states that shiva recited the yoga doctrine to parvati once while they were at the seashore. Matsyendranath, the future guru of gorakhnath, was a fish in the sea at that time and heard the teachings. At that time he gave a woman something to eat with the promise that she will bear a son. The woman something to eat with the promise that she will bear a son. The woman did not eat the substance but cast it upon a dung hill instead. Twelve years later Matsyendra passed by the same spot and asked to see the child. When he heard what the woman had done they searched in the dung heap and discovered a boy of twelve years. That boy was named gorakhnath and Matsyendranath became his spiritual master. Briggs cites another version of this story from the tahqiqat I chishthi, where a devotee of shiva desirous of off spring received ashes from Shiva’s sacred fire. The devotee’s wife was to swallow the ashes but she, instead, threw it upon a dung hill. Eventually a child was found there who was named Gorakhnath by shiva.
Gorakhnath is supposed to be a true siddha, a perfect yogi with power over his own body and mind, over people as well as over gods. In fact, there is even a legend where Dattatreya and Gorakhnath are portrayed as playing at power. Briggs cities from Dabistan: the record of a contest of power between gorakhnath and a sannyasi, datateri, in which Gorakhnath disappeared in the water in the shape of a frog. But the sannyasi was able to find him and bring him forth. Then Datateri concealed himself in the water and Gorakhnath in spite of all his searching could not discover him, for he had become water, “and water cannot distinguished from water”.
Many attempts have been made by scholars to find the exact dates when gorakhnath existed. Some relate him to kabir, some with madhusudan saraswati, and some with jnana Deva:
The age of Gorakhnath or of his Guru Matsyendra is not known with certainty. The tradition connecting him with kabir (1500AD.) and with Madhusadana saraswati (1700AD.) is not probably of any historical value. But jnana Natha, alias jnana Deva, who is usually assigned to the thirteenth century, mentions his own spiritual pedigree in his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita in which Gorakh Natha appears as his third predecessor thus: Adinatha, Matsyendra Natha, Gorakh Natha, Gahini Natha, Nivrtti Natha and jnana Natha. This would place Gorakh in the beginning of the 12th century AD. This date agrees with the tradition which makes Gorakh and Dharmanatha contemporaries and Dharmanatha is generally assigned to the 12th century A.D. But there are other views according to which Goraksa lived in 500 .A.D. or 700 A.D. 100 A.D.
However, Briggs even cites source that dates him back to 78 C.E. It is significant to note here that legends of Gorakhnath place him as hailing from Punjab, Bengal, and even Nepal(Gorkha the name of the place where he blessed the king of Gorkha who became the king(Prithivi narayan Shah) of Nepal. His Guru Matsyendranath(who resided in Nepal) is believed to be the Buddhist yogi Avalokiteshwara or padmasambhava, and their stories form substantial part of the Buddhist tantric lore. Shastri is of the opinion that aghora and sarbhanga traditions have sprung from the prevedic streams of thought are supported by Vedic tents, and are mediated by the tantra scriptures and Buddhist tantric principles. The philosophical tenets of the Buddhist Siddhas, such as the concepts of shunya (void) shunyalok (the world of nothingness), sahaj (natural easy), and khasam (husband), moon, sun, samras (‘constant flavour’), and so on, are found in ample evidence in the Aghora and sarbhanga literature as well. The tendency to contradict fossilized social traditions of Hindus as well as of Muslims, seen among Aghora and sarbhanga ascetics, is also found amongst the Buddhist Siddhas. The tendency towards infinite faith in guru, and non reliance, Buddhist siddha tradition, and the Aghora Sarbhanga traditions. The use of panchamakaras is found amongst Buddhist Siddhas as well as Aghorasarbhang ascetics. In the Buddhist tradition, pragya is a form of Shakti and Shakti is the primary goal of worship in tantra. Within the Buddhist traditions three exits a unique sub stream of tantric Buddhists whose philosophy and literature are very similar to the shaiva Shakta tantric literature. Thus, it appears that the Agamas and tantras influenced Buddhism, and the tradition of Buddhist Siddhas influenced the Aghora and sarbhanga traditions.
Like shastri, scholars like Mishra find ample evidence of the fundamental building blocks of Aghor philosophy and practice not only in the vedas, Upanishads and the puranas, but also into tantras of the shaiva Shakta tradition, as well as in the Buddhist tradition. He considers Aghora to be a ‘unique’ tradition, which cannot be subscribed exclusively to either the Dattatreya or the Gorakhnath tradition. In his opinion it is an ancient and valuable link not only between the Dattatreya and the Gorakhnath traditions, but also an important link between the tantra practices and philosophies of the Hindu and the Buddhist streams.
Since Aughar seekers have elements of tantra in their practice, and as their dress, appearance and behavior resemble that of the ascetic shiva, they are also called Avadhut, ascetics who wear necklaces of bones, live naked, and apply either ashes from the cremation ground or the paste of red sandalwood on their body, carry a staff, or deerskin or shiva’s hourglass drum in their hands. In fact, the words Aughar, Avadhut and Aghora are often used interchangeably for the same kind of Shakti worshipper. Some even think that it is impossible to be an Avadhut without being an Aughar. Seekers of the kinarami tradition use clay utensils and live a seek imposed life of poverty. They wear white, saffron or khaki clothes. They also wear a red loincloth, a jhool (a one piece long shirt made from rags) and a lungi, while some also go about without clothes. Shastri explains that Baba Kinaram and his followers regard a true saint to be an Avadhut. Etymologically this word implies ‘one who is discarded’. But followers of this tradition do not use it as this adjective, but as an adverb, which implies ‘one who controls his senses and desires, and discards this illusory world’. In a sense, an avadhuta acts as discarded by the world, which is to say that his life and behaviour are unique: they are of this own making. The word can call him names; criticize him, but all that matters not to him. He lives in the world, but he is not of it.

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BABA KINARAM
The biography of Baba Kinaram, founder of the kinaram Sthal in Banaras, gives important clues to the lifestyle, practices, and powers of Aughar saints. Baba kinaram was born in the ramgarh village near Banaras in a year 1620 according to the vikrami calendar (approximately 1563 CE). He is regarded as a spiritually enlightened person who had taken a physical form to complete what he did not finish in his last life. According to the custom of that time, despite his resistance he was married when he was just twelve years old. However three years later, a day before he had to go and bring his wife to her married home, he insisted on eating a dish of boiled rice and milk, a dish considered particularly on such occasions because this dish is used only in death rituals. The next day his family got the news that his wife had died the night before. This made the people wonder about how he came to know of his wife’s death in advance. He neither enjoyed the chores of the home nor was his heart into getting educated. One day, disenchanted with home life, he set out to wander and reached karo village in Gazipur district, where saint’s shivaram of the Ramanuja sect lived. Kinaram devoted himself to his guru’s service and was later initiated by him.
Shivaram Ji was a householder saint and when his wife died he decided to marry again. Kinaram did not like this and told him, “Maharaj if you bring another wife, I will find another guru”. Shivaram asked him to leave and kinaram walked away. He reached the village Naidih where he saw an old woman sitting alone, crying. On asking the reason for her sorrow she told him her son had been taken away by the zamindar’s henchmen because he couldn’t pay the taxes due. Baba kinaram went to the zamindar’s place and asked him release the boy. The zamindar find, if you can pay me the amount that is due, you can pay me the amount that is due, you can free the boy. Baba kinaram asked the landlord to dig the ground where the boy had been standing, when did so, they find a whole treasure-trove of money. The zamindar not only frees the old woman’s son but also paid his respects to baba. The old woman was so impressed by this deed of kinaram that she insisted he keep her son with him. Kinaram had no option, and he started his journey towards Girnar with his companion, the boy named Bijaram.
At Girnar, kinaram went alone to the top of the to meditate, and it is said he not only met with guru Dattatreya there and received divine knowledge from him, he was also initiated into the Aghor tradition by him. He wrote the essence of that knowledge in a book called the viveksar. Baba kinaram came down from the mountain and went to junagadh with Bijaram. It was the year 1724 by the vikram calendar (approximately 1668 CE) and something very interesting happened when Bijaram went out seeking alms according to his ascetic practice. He was caught and imprisoned by the Muslim ruler of junagadh. Bijaram saw that the jail was full of ascetics and seekers who were all made to grind grain on hand mills. There were 981 hand mills in the jail and Bijaram also got one. When Bijaram did not return, Baba kinaram, in his meditative state, discovered the reason for, it and thus himself went begging for alms in the city; he too was caught and put in jail. He looked at the hand mills gives to him in the jail and asked it to move. Nothing happened. Then he struck the hand mill with his staff and all the 981 mills began to move by themselves. When the ruler got to know of it, Baba kinaram was bought before him with his disciple Bijaram. The ruler showed his respect to kinaram and presented him with some gems as a gift. Baba kinaram popped two or three of them in his mouth and then spat them out saying, “These are nether sweet nor sour”, implying, of what use were these to him. The ruler asked Baba kinaram to give him another chance to serve him. Baba kinaram said okay, if that is what you want then give two pounds of flour in my name to even ascetic and seeker who comes into your town. The ruler agreed and by Baba kinaram’s blessing he got children to continue his lineage.
From junagadh baba kinaram went into the Himalayas where, after a long time spends ascetic practices, he came to the city of kashi and reached the cremation ground at Harishchandra Ghat. An Aughar saint by the name of Baba kaluram used to live there. His particular trait was to converse with and to feed chick peas to the skulls of the corpses waiting to be cremated. Baba kinaram was amazed to seeing this, but using but his own yogic power his prevented the skulls from answering Baba kaluram. Baba kaluram found out what had happened through his divine vision and Baba kinaram asked him to stop playing and go to his designated place. Baba kaluram said he was very hungry; could kinaram feed him some fish? Baba kinaram look at the river Ganges and said, “Ganga, give me a fish”. He said and this, and big fish jumped out of the water onto the river bank. Baba kinaram roasted it and the three of them had a meal. As they moved forward Baba kaluram pointed to a corpse floating in the river and said, look, that corpse is coming our way”. “Baba kaluram said “sir, that is not corpse, it is alive”. Baba kaluram challenged him saying “if it is alive, call it here”. Baba kinaram yelled out to the corpse from the river bank. The corpse floated to the bank and then stood up. Kinaram asked him to go home. When the mother of the corpse who had been brought alive heard of this miracle she came to kinaram and said, “Maharaj, you give him a new life, from today he belongs to you”. Baba kinaram took that man with him and named him Ramjiyawanram. This incident is supposed to have happened around 1754 vikram samvat (approximately 1698 CE). After seeing all that baba kinaram had done, baba kaluram revealed his divine form to him and took him to Krin kund at shivala in kashi, and told him this was Girnar, and that all places of pilgrimage were present here. One belief is that Baba kaluram initiated him at krin kund with the Aghor mantra, the other belief being that he was already initiated into the Aghor tradition by Guru Dattatreya at gimar. From that time onwards, Baba kinaram begin to live at krin kund. He established four Vaishnava ashrams in the name of his first guru, and four more Aghor ashrams in the name of his second guru. He is said to have relinquished his mortal frame in 1771 (1714 CE) at the age of 151 years.
Gupta mentions several other stories related the life of Baba Kinaram. One story relates an episode from the life of a barren Brahman woman who used to serve an old saint. She asked the saint for children but the saint told her that children were not destined in her fate. One day she met Baba kinaram and when she asked him to be blessed with children; he hit her with his stick four times. In due course she gave birth to four children. Another story Gupta mentions narrates an episode that took place in Darbhanga with the Maithila Brahmans. Kinaram, with a cat on his shoulder, riding a donkey reached Darbhanga and asked the Maithila Brahmans to give up their food restrictions. The Brahmans, naturally, were curious and asked him to show his authority by bringing their dead elephant back to life. Baba kinaram threw his cat on the elephant and made his donkey kick the dead elephant. The elephant stood up and the Maithila Brahmans began to eat meat and fish from that day on. Yet another story takes kinaram to Surat in Gujarat:
Kina Ram was also a defender of women. One day in Surat, Kina Ram found out that the people of the village were planning to throw a young widow and her illegitimate child into the sea. Kina Ram forbade them to do it but they insisted, saying that she was a corrupt woman. Kina Ram said, “Okay, but only if you throw the father of the child along with her. Just give me the word and I will name him for he is here and is one of you.” All of the men walked away with heads bent in same. Kina Ram ordered the woman to live near the tomb of Nar Singh. Later on, a tornado destroyed Surat city, and to this day it is said that the people there fear the name of Kina Ram. The theme of Kina Ram as the protector of fallen women persists in Banaras as well, where he has been looked upon as the patron saint of prostitutes. Even as recently as the 1950’s the prostitutes and nautch girls used to make offerings the sthala once a year.
Another story tells of Baba Kina Ram’s arrival at a religious feast organized by Baba Lotadas of Banaras, to which all saints of the city but kinaram had been invited. Kinaram went to the venue anyway and the vegetarian dishes on the plates of the guests turned into fish, while water in their cups turned into wine. Lotadas came out to investigate and found kinaram sitting outside. He invited to come inside and with the use of a mantra; kinaram turned the food back to its original state. Lotadas began to serve baba kinaram but all the food that he poured from his sacred magical pot into Baba kinaram’s skull bowl disappeared instantaneously. Lotadas apologized to Baba Kinaram and everyone feasted well. Gupta narrates another interesting story dealing with Raja Chet Singh of Banaras and Baba Kinaram:
One day Raja Chet Singh was sitting in his place when Kina Ram passed by wearing one wooden sandal with a dancing bell attached to it. The Raja, who loved music and dance, taunted Kina Ram by saying “What does a sadhu have to do with dancing bells?” Kina Ram replied “What do you have to do with rulership?” He then cursed Chet Singh that his lineage would be barren and that before long he would have to abandon his beautiful palace; nothing would be left except shitting pigeons. A few years later warren Hastings drove Chet Singh across the river and until 30 years ago, no heir was born to the family. Today it is said that the present Maharaja of Banaras had to ask the forgiveness of Avadhut Bhagwan ram in order to break the curse and obtain his son.

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The many streams of the aghora tradition
The Aghora tradition is also related indistinguishably with the sarbhang sect, mostly found in Bihar. Shastri enumerates six streams of this tradition started by six different preceptors, namely, kinaram of kashi (Varanasi); Bhinakram, Bhinakram, Tekmanram, sadanand Baba and Balkhandi Baba of champaran district in Bihar, and lashmisakhi.
The Aghora tradition is also related indistinguishably with the sarbhang sect, mostly found in Bihar. Shastri enumerates six streams of this tradition started by six different preceptors, namely, kinaram of Kashi (Varanasi); Bhinakharam, bhinakharam, tekmanram, sadanand Baba and Balkhandi baba of champaran district in Bihar. By enumerating these names separately it does not imply that they these traditions are totally different or exclusive from each other. At most, Baba kinaram’s tradition can be regarded as different from rest of the five traditions because it is widely prevalent and influential. Within the sarbhang sect, the tradition started by Baba Bhikhamram is old and popular. Baba Bhikhamram was born in champaran district of Bihar and one of his disciples, tekmanram is very well known. These sarbhang ascetics are said to perform their penance in the cremation grounds whereby they begin to control various kinds of ghosts and spirits, and become endowed with many kinds of miraculous powers. Those Aughar or sarbhanga ascetics who have obtained these powers are called siddha (the realized ones) and the populace expects them to help in curing many kinds of physical and non physical ailments. In the Atharva Veda, rudra has been portrayed as a great ‘doctor’ who is sought after to cure troubles caused by ghosts. Dogs are regarded as his companions. This representation of rudra translates into the persona of the present day sarbhang or Aughar saint.
Aughars can be further divided into two categories, Nirnavi (nirvana) and Gharbari. While the Nirvani stress renunciation and lone practices in places like the cremation ground, the Gharbari can be married householder ascetics who continue their practices in the tantric way at home. Baba kinaram and Baba Bhinakram belonged to the Nirnavi category, while the tradition started by Bhinakram had householders in it.

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Aghora philosophy
Of the five faces of Shiva, Aghora, the fiery one, has generally thought of as being a terrifying form of shiva, especially for those who look at it from outside the tradition. For those who follow the tradition, however, aghora in the simplest, most direct route to unity with the divine. Often, it is said that the Sanskrit word ‘Ghora’ means ‘that which is terrible or very different’. As opposed to that, adding the negative prefix ‘a’ turns s ‘that which is these words into ‘Aghora’ which means ‘that which is simple and easy’. True to its nature, Aghora reveals a direct path to the divine, one which becomes very easy as soon as one relinquishes the fetters of the mind, but one which becomes difficult if one tries to follow it while still clinging to the desires and aspirations fuelled by the senses, shaped by the mind, and sanctioned by enculturation. It is a tradition of the Avadhutas that transcends all physical limitations to reach the state of union with the divine. An Aughar is called an Avadhut because such a seeker transcends all category distinctions, all prescriptions and of all ‘normal’ social structure. He remains constantly imbued with the ‘Mother’ vision; therefore, whatever he sees in the outside word appears to him as beautiful as the Mother.
In the vedas, the aghora form of shiva is mentioned on the one hand as beneficent, and on the other it is juxtaposed with his terrifying form called ‘Ghora’ in the mantra ‘Aghorebhyothgorebhyo, ghoraghoratrarebhyaha’. Such a vision of aghora is understood to be a non dual, formless form, a nirgun form. In its formless form, as baba kinaram mentions in viveksar, the living being (Jivatma), the God (paramatma) and the created words all are one and the same; there is no distinction between them. This ultimate reality, nirgun brahm, is free of the three fundamental qualities, or traits that form this word sattva, rajas and tamas. This formless god pervades all things and beings just as the sky or space pervade the cosmos. However, when nirgun brahm is looked at from the point of view of bhakti, the tradition of devotion, the same nirgun bhakti, the tradition of devotion, the same nirgun Brahm becomes divided into separate categories of devotee and devoted, worshipper and worshipped.
At this point the Jivatma is called hansa (the swan), while paramatma, God, is called paramhans (the great swan). When a Jivatma, a swan, attains complete liberation, it transcends to the category of the Great Swan. The distinction between jiva and paramatma or brahm arises because of the intervention of avidya. Avidya is the act of imagined characteristic on the innate or natural character of something. One of the most popular examples is the difference between a rope and a snake. The nature and character of a rope is very different from the nature and character of a snake, but when, in the dim light of dusk, a rope is perceived by the mind to be a snake imposition of an imagined characteristic on the true nature of the rope is avidya. Another name for avidya is Maya, or illusion. Baba Kinaram mentions that the five pranas (‘life force’) and their 25 characteristics (five characters for each pran), as well as the sense of jiva and Ishwar (God), are all so perceived because of Maya, illusion. To be in a state of illusion is regarded as a shackled state called upadhi. To become free of this state and to perceive one’s true nature as god is Samadhi. Thus Avidya, Maya and upadhi are regarded as synonyms. The contrary state of Samadhi is reached by dissociation the mind from the illusion of Maya and allowing the jiva to realize its true nature, the brahm nature.
The word generated by illusion is extremely nascent; it is ephemeral. Even human body is ephemeral. The body has five knowledge instruments or organs the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin; and five actions instruments or organs the hands, feet, anus, genitals and mouth; and finally there is the last constituent, the antahkaran, variously translated as the soul, the heart, the consciousness or the inner self. This inner self is further divided into four subcategories of mind, intellect, conscience / desire, and ego. According to Baba Kinaram in the mind exists the desire, which motivates the senses? The mind is supported by pran, life force; the pran is supported by breath, breath is supported by shabdbrahm (or Brahm conceptualized as the primal vibration), and shabdbrahm is supported by its own natural state. While brahm is ever existent and indestructible, the body is ephemeral and mortal. All our relations, emotions, desires end with the body there force, keeping the ephemeral nature of the body in mind, one should not be proud of one’s form and beauty, nor get into egotistical involvements because of it. Controlling one’s mind, then, to wean it away ego identification with the body, and to inspire it towards one’s Brahm form, is the goal of ascetic practice.
This illusory distinction between jiva and brahm is a product of the process of creation itself. Baba Kinaram describes the process of creation beginning was the formless, nameless primal being, Satpurush. With its own desire, a word exploded from that Satpurush (Nad Brahm or pranav) which gave birth to the trinity of the three male gods Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh (Shiva) and a female power. With these emerged the five fundamental elements that constitute the cosmos the sky, the water, the fire, the air and the space or ether. The process of creation of the cosmos came into being. The female power Adi Shakti took the form of creative action and arranged for the creation, nurturing and destruction of the created world, with the help of the five fundamental elements and the three traits, (the gunas, that is, sattva being light and knowledge, rajas, as action and motivation and tamas as illusion and attachment), and with the support of the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. Since everything is created by these primal elements, what exits outside in the world also exists within every being. The jiva and its soul, the atma, is perceived to be limited and fettered only so long as the senses motivate it to remain engrossed in the perceived world which is ever changing and ever dissolving. With the practice of sadhana, yogis dissociate their senses from the outside world and focus it to look inside, where they find the constant world of the everlasting brahm. It is this ability, then, which makes the yogis omniscient and omnipotent.
Such a realization comes from true love for one’s divine entity. Love here implies faith, devotion, practice and discipline. The knowledge of enlightenment, vidya (as opposed to Avidya), then, is a practical matter; it is a matter of experience. Such knowledge is not incumbent upon reading the scriptures but, in fact, is dependent upon experiencing the divine within one’s own self. To inculcate the practice and love for a union with oneself, one should continuously remember the name, the mantra given by the guru. This process deepens the love of the seeker for his divine, and focuses him inwards. Baba kinaram has mentioned that ‘So Ham’ is a mantra that is very easy to remember and focus continuously upon since it vibrates naturally with each inhalation and exhalation performed. This name remembrance can be of two kinds, spoken and unspoken. The unspoken method is called ajapajap, which happens silently within the seeker.

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AGHORA PRACTICE
Typically, followers of the Aghora path try to cultivate a state of mind and social practice which is totally non discriminatory, just as fire does not discriminate whether something put into it is pure or impure. It is the nature of fire to either burn or purify, and Aghora does the task of absolute purification for the seeker, making his mind and spirit so clean that he is able to see a glimpse of the divine within him, and then extends it to the divinity resident in all beings of this creation. Once the seeker begins to see the same divine element in all beings, even the thought of such mentally and socially generated constructs as high and low, purity and pollution, pure and impure, or male and female, do not taint his mind or modify his behaviour.
Since Lord Shiva is thought of as an itinerant ascetic inhabiting cremation grounds, indulging in intoxicants, ruling over spirits, ghosts, and every other class of terrifying spirit, Aghora seekers also try to mould themselves on the imagined behaviour of their deity. They live in cremation grounds, they are ascribed power over all kinds of ghosts and spirits, and they are supposed to use (and, indeed, to be immune to the effects of) intoxicants. Chaturvedi cites some common practices recommended for Aughar seekers, such as touching the earth as soon as one wakes up in the morning, because the earth is treated as mother, and this action allows her energy to infuse the seeker; to mumble mantras on sitting up in bed; to meditate on nothing, but to repeat one’s mantra as much as possible; and to strive for nothing, yet to not remain inactive. To attain an absolute focus onto their own spirit, Aughars can perform a special mode of meditation called ‘the meditation of the cremation ground’. Five kinds of cremation grounds are enumerated a peepal tree (ficus religiosa) outside the village, a cot made of moonj string, a prostitute’s bed, one’s own wife’s bed, and the cremation ground. On special occasions, Aughars also use panchamakar in their meditations. Normally, the seekers wear a red loincloth because it signifies the feminine creative energy. During their penance period they wear blue or black clothes because it protects them from many troublesome forces. On transcending the period of penance, the Aughar seeker is advised to wear white clothes because it represents a pure and clean consciousness.
As will be evident from out discussion, Aghora is known to be an ancient tradition for seeking enlightenment, one that has been influenced by many other streams of spiritual thought from within Hinduism as well as from Buddhism. What is socially important is that Aghora tradition believes in interacting in a noon discriminatory manner with all beings and things; in more recent times, the demand of social service from realized Aughar saints has been given a new and comprehensive form through Baba Aghoreshwar Bhagwan Ram. This new turn to the Aghora tradition makes it much more accessible and useful for the common people to interact with (and to identify with) Aughar seekers, and derive physical as well as spiritual benefits from their actions. Before Baba Bhagwan Ram relinquished his body, he established Baba Siddhartha Gautam Ram as the abbot of kinaram Sthal, the temple where he himself had received initiation in 1951. Readers will recall that it was to this place that Baba Kinaram was led by his guru Baba Kaluram, the place where a sacred fire lit from the wood brought from cremation grounds has been burning constantly for more than 400 years. The society for social service named Shri Sarveshwari Samooh, founded by Baba Bhagwan Ram, still carries on social work under Baba Gurupad sambhav Ram. Baba’s other disciples have opened ashrams in other parts of to continue social work, such as Baba priyadarshi Ram’s ashram at Banora (chhatisgarh), and Kapaleshwar Baba Singha Shawak Ram (1st disciple of Aghoreshwar Bhagwan Ram who has been named ‘Shudharma’ by him) His Ashram at Mussoorie, Uttaranchal and many other places of India and in Nepal where he has send his favourite disciple our Gurudevajee Avadhoot Mangaldhan Ram Baba. . Some of Baba Bhagwan Ram’s disciples have started ashrams internationally as well, such as Baba Harihar Ram’s ashram in Sonoma, California, and Guru Baba’s ashram in Mezzago, in Milano (Italy).
Baba Bhagwan Ram is credited to have changed the place that Aughar ascetics occupy society. While earlier they were regarded as being, literally, on the social fringe, inhabiting cremation grounds, today they have become a part of the mainstream of religious life in Banaras and elsewhere, using the powers of their spiritual practices for social benefit.

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AGHORESHWAR MAHAPRABHU
Aghoreshwar Bhagwan Ram is credited to have changed the place that Aughar ascetics occupy in society.
A Brief Biography

Village of Gundi
(Birth place of Aghoreshwar Bhagwan Ram)
There is a badly potholed road that starts from the Ara railway station in the Bhojpuri district of Bihar and heads northeast into the countryside, meandering for eight miles through rice fields and fruit orchards. It turns into a dusty bullock cart track halfway along, before if leads into the large village of Gundi. Even today, Gundi is a beautiful village abundant with groves of mango, guava, peepal, neem and banyan trees, and lush green field with the distant sounds of water flowing through irrigation channels and a serenity in the atmosphere that seems to still the mind and make the senses strain to hear the whispers of nature. Walking through the lanes of the village brings into view a temple to lord Ranganathan, a form of God Vishnu, and an ancient Shiva temple with its tall, sculpted silhouette against a line of trees, its walks crumbling with roots poking through the hallowed stones, reminding the visitor of the classic British lithographs portraying eternal India. But the most famous temple here is known as the yagyawatar temple, a Vishnu temple where people say many enlightened saints have stayed and worked for the benefit of the community. In fact, residents of this approximately 30,000 strong community believe that their village has been a blessed seeding ground for many spiritual seekers who have started their arduous and often perilous journey, from the thatched huts set in its fields.

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About the family
Aghoreshwar Mahaprabhu Baba Bhagwan Ram Ji was born on Sunday, the 12th of September 1937 to Babu Bajinath Singh and his wife Lakshraji Devi. Theirs was a prosperous, landowning family with enough spare time from work for Babu Bajinath Singh to indulge in his passion for wrestling. The story of his son’s birth, as narrated by the villagers, makes fascimating reading. Babu Bajinath Singh always wanted a boy, but even after eighteen years of marriage he did not have one. Given to the rhythms of agricultural life in rural India, he would get up well before the crack of dawn and go for a morning dip in the holy river Ganga, about three miles north of the village. To most Indians, Ganga is a sacred river with wish granting powers, and he too world pray to her for the bless of her son. One day in the dim predawn light on the riverbank, he met a sadhu (an ascetic) with matted locks, a long beard, and ashes on his body. The saint blessed him and gives him a fruit to share with his wife with the intention of having a son. Babu Bajinath Singh did as he was instructed and after nine months, a son was indeed born to them. The couple was ecstatic with joy. Since their son had been born after long years of prayers and by the blessing of a saint, they named the child ‘Bhagwan’, ‘literally, God. But their Bhagwan was an unusual child. Their son had a long lock of hair on his hand which led the village children to nickname him ‘Jautuli’, literally, one with a yogi’s matted locks.

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Miracles
True to his name, Bhagwan had an overwhelming spiritual quest ever since his infancy. Many believe he was not an ordinary soul because miracles kept happened around him throughout his childhood. He had a definite, perceptible healing ability that sometimes cured a sick villager, sometimes a buffalo having difficulty in birthing its calf. On many occasions baby Bhagwan would disappear from between his mother and grandmother in and would be discovered elsewhere long. There is an especially interesting story of an event that happened on the sixth day after his Bath. In the afternoon at around twelve or one o’clock, a strong dust storm began to blow everything around the family courtyard. Lakshraji Bagman’s mother got up and went out to pick up the clothes that were drying out in the sun lest they be blown away. When she came back with the clothes in her arms she saw that the door to go into her room had slammed shut in the strong wind. She tried to open the door but it did not budge. It seemed as if someone had latched it shut from the inside. She peeked through the crack in the door and saw that her baby was not on the bed. Instead she saw a boy of about ten or twelve years sitting on the floor in the lotus position, meditating. She panicked with the thought that someone had stolen her baby and began to scream. But no sounds came from her mouth. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the door opened with a bang and she rushed inside. That meditating boy said to her, ‘‘I am the very same, mother, don’t worry’’. She blinked and looked again; she saw he was again her newborn baby.
For those who took care of him, such stories of unusual sightings and visions were common throughout Bhagwan’s childhood. There use to happen many true miracle for the villagers and they began to have a special respect for Babu Bajinath Singh’s little son Bhagwan .Bhagwan lost his father when he was just five years old. He was raised by his mother and his maternal grandparents, all of whom began to be neglected by their extended family and the larger community, especially since some members of the family may have had their eye on their landed property. All this made no difference to little Bhagwan, who spiritual quest not only began to manifest will full force but also began to break the bounds of acceptable family life. The first evidence of this was his absolute reluctance to study or attend school.
He would regularly run away from school and sit in a mango grove to meditate or play at performing rituals. Often, he would gather his little classmates under a huge banyan tree to sing bhajans devotional songs in praise of the gods. The second was his characteristic tendency not to live at home. He would walk out of his family’s house and spend the night under a tree in a grove, or in a field on the out skirts of the village, and not return home for days. While other children were afraid of the dark and of ghosts little Bhagwan knew no fear. In this time, he once lived for several days under a huge banyan tree in a grove that the village thought to be hunted. It made no difference to Bhagwan, but his mother got very upset and he was forcibly brought back home only to run away again. During religious festivals, especially during the nine day long sacred period called Navaratri; he would fast and seek the company of ascetics and monks who came though the village. Such a regimen of physical abstinence and devotion was not only unusual; it was decidedly difficult for a boy of his age.
Another story mentions an incident that happened with his mother. In quest for solitude, Bhagwan has made his home in a guava grove, under the afore mentioned haunted banyan tree. He began to conduct his worship there without food and water. When his mother heard of this, she found it intolerable. If her son would not eat, then neither would she; but on the third day, when his mother could not stand the pangs of hunger any longer, she made a pot of halwa (an Indian sweet made usually with flour, sugar and milk), put it in a plate, covered it with a cloth, and look it to him in the garden. She asked him to eat but Bhagwan refused, insisting that she should eat it herself. His mother explained to him that she had not performed her daily worship yet, and that she would eat after she had finished her worship. With that thought, she served out most of the halwa for Bhagwan onto another plate, saving a little for herself as Prasad (holy food) and covered it with the same cloth under which she had brought out the food for her son. He asked her to take her share away but when she picked up the plate she felt something crawing on her hand; she again removed the cloth from the plate and found a cobra sitting there. There are small incidents with cobras, but later in his life there were other snake filled incidents which, together with his recognized spiritual powers, made people know Bhagwan to be Shiva incarnated. In the Hindu imagination, Shiva lives as an ascetic wanders in cremation grounds and is friendly to every creature, whether poisonous or not. In fact, one would almost certainly expect to see such dangerous creatures in places associated with Shiva, for they are, in a sense, his companions.

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Shadhana
While Bhagwan was searching for solitude to conduct his meditations in peace. Little Bhagwan’s spiritual absorption was such that nothing else mattered to him. His mother, understandably, did not approve of his continuous wanderings and his habit of seeking solitude outside the house. Perhaps because his association with the wandering sadhu had convinced him that he needed a guru (a spiritual master)to find what he was seeking that the little boy Bhagwan took initiation in the Vishnu tradition from the village’s holy man and teacher, Shrikant Maharaja. Vaisnav initiates are worshippers of God Vishnu, and true to that tradition they must maintain a strict vegetarian diet. After initiation his teacher renamed him Bhagwan Das. Shrikant Maharaj, also called paramhans Ji by most villagers, helped Bhagwan with his ever growing spiritual thirst. He was barely nine years old when, one day, Bhagwan became totally disenchanted with domesticity and started walking towards the town of Gaya (a distance of about 120 kilometres).It was the winter season, and he did not know the way; he would spend most of his night in fields of arhar lentils. One evening, weary from walking, he reached a village after night had already felled. He went to the village temple looking fora place to stay for the night. It was late and everyone had already gone to sleep. He managed to rouse someone who gave him a piece of burlap to cover himself for the night, but there was no food for him. Bhagwan spent the night cold and hungry, but set out again in the morning. Although he was used to fasting, the rigors of this journey on foot made him ravenously hungry. When his hunger pangs became intolerable he entered a field and plucked some peas before he was chased away. He felt life and strength return to him for his journey on ward.
On reaching Gaya Bhagwan visited all the holy places, but the folk from his village were searching for him; they found him and forcibly brought him back home. A few days later he runs away again, this time on a trip to jagannath puri, a holy town in the eastern state of Orissa. Once again people from home went out in search him and tracked him down to an ashram of Ramanuja Vaisnava sadhus. This time when he was brought back he insisted he would not return to his parental home. He came back to the village but lived outside the house in various gardens and temples. Little Bhagwan Das had become initiated as a Vaisnav, but his true path was waiting for him in the holy city of kashi, also known as Banaras or Varanasi. When he left his spiritual quest was not being fulfilled in the village of Gundi, Bhagwan decided to go to kashi on the advice of Shrishna Maharaj. At that time his age was 14 years, the years was 1951, the month was Shawan (June July) Hindu lunar calendar, and the day was the eighth of the lunar month. Bhagwan left his village alone at night, went to Ara station and jumped onto a train. He alit at the Banaras Chhawani station at o’clock in the morning. The rest of this trip, which proved to be a turning point in this life, is described very well in the book Aughar Bhagwan Ram:
Coming out of the station, he asked the way to the Vishwanath temple. Leaving the station behind he came to chetganj. It was a rainy night and street dogs made his journey forward very difficult. So he lay down there on an empty cart by the side of the road and spent rest of the night. In the Brahma muhurta (divine hour of the morning) when people began to go to the river Ganga for their morning ablutions, he also started in the same direction. He followed the straight road to Dashashwamedha Ghat, but stopped near the Dershi Bridge.
While he was standing there in awe of the city, a stately old women, wearing a silk sari with a red border came to him and asked with affection ‘‘Where do you want to go?’’ he said that he want to have a darshan (a sacred glimpse) of Shri Vishwanath Ji (God Shiva as he is known in Banaras).The old woman asked him if he had taked his barth.
When he said he had not, she indicated to him to go take his bath in the river Ganga flowing nearby. He went a little ways forwords and took his bath at Ghora Ghat. While taking his bath he was wearing his loincloth and dhoti? A thought came into his mind and he let his dhoti float down the river. After his bath he came back wearing only his loincloth, to the old woman. He found the old woman standing at the place where he had left her, carrying all the puja materials in a plate. The old woman walked forward and he followed her to have a glimpse of Vishwanath Ji. On reaching the Vishwanath temple he left very happy and amazed, and he left drawn to the place. If he could stay in kashi he would come to have a glimpse of Vishwanath Ji every day [he thought]. The old woman helped him perfrom the puja Vishwanath Ji with great affection. At that time, he did not asked for anything but that God’s glory and its continuous prenence should always remain. After the darshna and worship of Vishwanath Ji he went towards the temple of Goddess Annapurna with the old woman. Even as he watched, the old woman disappeared inside the temple. He waited outside for sometime thinking that this was a rich person’s house, and since he was in a very poor condition. Finally he moved away and come to Drthsi Bridge again he saw the old woman standing there! He was surised because so for he had been thinking that the old women asked him affectionately, ‘‘what is your purpose in coming to kashi?’’ when he told her his purpose, she advised him to go towards Assi Ghat. ‘‘On the way there is a monastery of paramhans seekers. Your desire will be fulfilled there.” Before he could say anything more, the old woman disappeared! He began to wonder ‘‘who was that kind woman?’’ Before he could think more then thought came to him that he should walk on the path indicated by the woman. Having made this decision he walked towards Harishchandra Ghat.

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Aghor Initation:-
On going a little further he reached Shri Kinaram Temple at Kring kund at about 7:30 in the morning. At that time the current abbot of the monastery, Shri Rajeshwar Ram Baba Ji was sleeping. He sat down in the courtyard’’ Bhagwan had reached Kring kund monastery, also known as Baba kina ram’s temple, on a Saturday in the Hindu month of Shawan (June July), 1951. The aghora practices of this Vaisnava initiated seeker started from here. After Bhagwan was initiated into the Aghora tradition by Baba Shree Aghor Rajeshwar Ramjee, Ashu Baba, the assistant or at the temple, gave him rice mixed with fish from the food that had been cook at the temple. Since Bhagwan was a Vaisnava vegetarian who used to consecrate his vegetarian food with effort he ate a little and put the rest in the kund ( the in house pond which gives this temple its name), but then he decided that if he was to become an aghora, he would have to stop being disgusted by eating meat. During his initiation ceremony he had tasted wine for the first time in his life. Wine is an important element in aghora rituals and he learnt to use it properly. With his initiation into the aghora tradition Bhagwan became a tonsured ascetic, a sarbhanga, a monk with a shaved head, a celibate renunciant. At the time of initiation his name was changed to Bhagwan Ram, according to the tradition among the aghora saints of the Kinaram lineage in Banaras. According to the custom India, he also began to be addressed simply as Baba, an epithet used for sadhus of all traditions in India. Bhagwan Das of Gundi village had now become Baba Aughar Bhagwan Ram.
Baba would get up every day in the divine hour of the morning (an hour and a half before sunrise), and sing bhajans, devotional songs. Having become a novice disciple, he began to practional with faith and sincerity the mantra given to him by his Aghora Guru Baba Rajeshwar Ram, and he also served his guru while sharing the chores around the ashram. This included going to the cremation ground and fetching the wood from there for firewood at the temple. It used to be difficult to carry back the heavy load of wood from the cremation ground and true to ways of the Aghora tradition, Baba was treated with strictness lest he fall prey to the worldly illusions. Of course, there was no such danger in Baba’s mind for his spiritual quest did not allow him to think of anything else. The rigors of a monk’s celibacy came to Baba naturally. A story is told of how, while sitting with several people at the pond in the ashram one day, he suddenly called out to a person working in the nearby field to get him a chilli pepper. When the chilli was brought to him Baba crushed it with his own fingers and put it in both his eyes. Those present couldn’t believe their eyes! They rushed to him saying hey what are you doing? Baba reply was very simple “Nothing much. My gaze had fallen on something inappropriate for me. ” people looked around to discover a woman bathing in the pond who Baba had inadvertently gazed upon while carrying on his conversation. Baba was atoning for it by cleansing his eyes with the chilli pepper! Baba had a powerful spiritual experience in his early days at the Kinaram ashram. This experience further reassured him that he was, indeed, walking on the right path: One day he was lying half asleep near the dhuni (sacred fire). He felt as if a divine man wearing wooden sandals came and stood next to him. That divine person put his foot with the wooden sandals he was wearing on his chest and spoke some mantras in a clear voice. Because of an inner inspiration he repeated it and remembered it thereafter. From that day till, today, he has been meditating on that mantra. By his guru’s grace another incident 0ccurred after a few days, which reinforced his faith in the afore mentioned mantra. He was sweeping the area around Baba kina ram’s Samadhi. While doing so when he went to the south of it, he heard that same mantra clearly, and with mantra.
As Baba practiced his mantra his talents blessed out for everyone to see. Although he was a novice disciple hundreds would go to seek the blessings of this new initiate. During his devotions, Baba would take a harmonium or a table, both musical instruments, and sing bhajans for long periods. The abbot, his guru, did not approve of all this. Or, one could say, in keeping with the Aughar tradition he began to treat his disciple severely. One day an incident cured which made Baba leave the monastery. It was the month of the key of Sawan. His guru had gone somewhere putting Baba in charge of the key to the storage room. While completing his chores at the ashram, Baba forgot where he had put the key. When the abbot came back he asked for the key, but Baba could not find it. He said he had forgotten where he put it, but he would find it within the day. The abbot became suspicious. He scolded Baba and said that he wanted the key back immediately. When Baba could not find any way out, he touched the storage room lock in front of everyone. The lock opened by itself. The abbot went in and reassured himself that every things inside was in its right place. But this incident made the abbot very suspicious about whether his disciple had another guru beside him. He asked Baba t leave the ashram.
Although this incident portrays Baba Rajeshwan Ram, Aughar Bhagwan Ram’s guru as a harsh and into learnt administrator, there is more to this story than meets the eye. Baba Rajeshwan Ram was himself a spiritually enlightened saint, and he knew very well that for Bhagwan Ram to achieve his full potential he would have to leave the physical confines of the Kinaram monastery and venture out into the world. Since Aughar Bhagwan Ram was devoted to his guru, this was Baba Rajeshwan Ram’s way of sitting him free to discover his destiny.

mangaldhanram

Aghoreshwar Baba’s destiny
After leaving the Aswan Baba remained in Banaras for some time at Ishwargangi at the place chhedi Baba who was regarded as a good saint in Banaras Baba began to live in the gymnasium near Ishwargangi and began his ascetic practice. From Ishwargangi he used to go to the Dhumavati temple everyday for a vision of deity. However Baba was like the flowing wind; he never stayed at one place. Three more place within the city of Banaras becomes his regular ‘camping sites’ the garden of Poona Estate near Nati, Imli, the garden of Rai panarudas, and Dhelwariya, which is a beautiful monastery north of the railway is station at chaukaghat. From Rai Panarudas’ garden, devotee both faithful and curious began to come to Baba. They would play music and sing folk songs called chaita for him, but never anything that would be considered inappropriate. Hidden within that song and dance would be both bhajankirtan and devotion.
However, to continue on his path in solitude, Baba began to wander alongside the sacred river Ganga, begging for food in the many villages and hamlets that lined its banks. As a part of his Aghora practice he would never stay in a single place for too long, but would go out into village to ask for food only once a day at noon, and would never beg for food from the same house twice. At about ten or eleven in the morning Baba would go into the village and cry out, “Ma give me roti (bread)”. If anyone put dal (lentils), roti or jiggery in his bowl, he would eat it while he walked, also feeding the group of eight or ten dogs that would follow him through the village. He would often repose during the day in the hot, dry bed of a village pond under the direct hot sun, covered only with a thin cotton sheet, and would perform his rituals in the evening. He would live in cremation grounds, writing his mantra over the ashes of the dead, over and over again. He did not own anything nor did he owe anything. His practice led him to harsh seclusion where he avoided human company for years, living in the forests and caves around the river, with only the light of the sun and the starts to illuminate his world. He was positively emaciated; all the bones of his skeleton could easily be counted.
This was the period of Baba’s most ascetic practices. Wandering and meditating in this way in 1954 Baba’s walked along the banks of the river Ganga from Banaras to the Kumbh Mela at prayag (Allahabad), a distance of about 90 miles. The Kumbh Mela is an ideal place to meet with saints and seekers of other variegated spiritual traditions in India. On this journey he would eat only if someone give him food; otherwise he would just drink Ganga water. When he reached prayag sometime later, he hadn’t eaten food for many days. He thought of asking for alms and almost immediately an old woman appeared before him, took him affectionately to her hut, fed him and gave him clothes.
He used to spend nights at the Mela sitting around a dhuni (sacred fire of the Yogis). A famous naked awadhutin a female seeker of the Shakti tradition) who used to wear a hibiscus flower in her yoni (vagina) began to come and sit around his dhuni. Although it was not a distraction to him, it certainly was not a part of his practice. One day she stopped coming to his dhuni. Baba felt at that point that he did not have any other emotion in his heart for her but the one that a child has for his mother. As Baba said later, “A child always gains strength from the mother. Those who keep other sentiment, lose their strength from the mother.” After spending a month at the Mela meeting with sadhus from all over India, he returned to kashi, where his worldly guru was going to have surgery. He spent a few days looking after him. Then, the desire to be alone became very strong in him again.
Baba spent another long period of time just wandering along the banks of Ganga. He would eat the food that shepherds would give him and wore the delicate muslin cloth left in the cremation ground from the shrouds of the corpses. For some time he lived in a cave on the banks of the Ganga near sharper village. Then he walked up to the town of Buxar, a distance of 62 miles. Wandering this way he reached his own village Gundi in his full Aughar regalia on the festival day of colours and gaiety. Baba had decided to free himself from the ties of human bonds, and so entered the village in his true Aghora form. On his body was only a meter long shroud cloth. He had the corpse of a dog in one hand and a bottle of liquor in the other. He looked terrifying. He was successful in his attempt; most of his family decided he was no longer fit to be included back into village society. Baba spent the festival day of holi at Ganga again in the Middle of the night. From there Baba travelled by foot to the mahraura cremation ground near Banaras.
One day as he was wandering on the back of the river Ganges at the Mahraura cremation ground, he attained enlightenment. This is how he described that experience.
One time I remained absorbed in meditation for three days and three nights. I became achyut I became urdhvagmi. Sitting at the back of the Ganga at Mahraura cremation ground I became one with my mantra. All my senses dissolved unto themselves. A circle arose in front of my eyes. In that circle I saw green, red, yellow, white, purple, blue and orange colours. Those eight coloured concentric circle turned into an eightpetalled lotus. I saw my life force arisen within my consciousness. My voice, all my limbs, my deep vision, they all gained a lot within themselves. People of Mahraura, kanwar, Manihara began to look at me with respect from that time on; they began to give me all that I needed. I would think of something, and before the thought was finished it would materialize in front of me. I would think I should see a particular thing, and before the thought was finished that thing would become visible to me. I would think something should come out from under the ground. Soon as I would remove the dirt, that thing would emerge. I would think I should remain standing next to the village people but they should not be able to see me it used to happen. I would think I should do some good for someone and my spoken words would do so. I would think I should touch tree leaf vegetation and give it to someone for his benefit, and it would become beneficial for him. This is the effect of that circle. All this happened when I became urdhvareta. I had heard the stories of the Siddhas, Sudharma.At that time my age was fourteen fifteen years old. (Aghoreshwar Smriti Sarveshwari Samooh, 1981, p 57). [Author’s translation].
Even after achieving enlightenment, true to his aghora tradition, Baba kept wandering from place to place. Sometimes he would live in a cave in the Vindhyachal Mountains (in Uttar Pradesh state) near the temple of the Goddess ashtabhuja; sometimes he would travel to the state of Madhya Pradesh and live in the hamlets there. Sometimes he would take off, barefoot, for western state of Gujarat and the Girnar mountain complex there. His life was now as free as the sun and the wind; his actions were unorthodox and unconventional, there was no difference for him between a Jungle and a home, and the presence of the divine was always with him like a shadow. Little happenings revealed this presence to those who had the good fortune of spending time with him. There is one story that chhote Babu of Banaras, a devotee of Baba, tells of the time when took him to the vindhyachal Mountains for a darshan of the Devi the goddess.
Baba took the car towards the Durga cave in the vindhyachal range. At that time one had to leave the car at the foot of the hill and walk for some distance to get to the cave. On doing so, Baba asked chhote Babu to take the rear seat out of the car and carry it with them. He put the seat on his shoulder and they began to climb up the mountain. All around them was the dense, desolate jungle. Occasionally they would come across small ruins of old structures that were so dilapidated they looked haunted. They crossed an old, weed choked pond whose boundary walls had crumbled. The jungle spread for miles around them. Far away, on some hill, was a little ruined building. Half of its roof had caved in and the rest looked like it would collapse at any moment. Weeds and vines had taked over the structure completely. Dislodged bricks and stones were strewn all around. On the one side were a few broken stairs which Baba climbed to the rooftop. He asked chhote Babu to put the car seat down on the floor as a bed, and they went to sleep. In the morning, Baba took him for a darshan of the mother Goddess. Chhote Babu had slung Baba’s kurta over his shoulder; before doing so he had checked its pockets to make sure there was nothing in them would fall out. Since there was nothing in them he felt reassured and began to wander with Baba. They went around the temple complex of the mountain and had a darshan of the Mother. After all this walking when they came back to the car and sat down Baba asked him, “say, you came for a darshan of the Mother, did you not take any Prasad, sacred food offering, from her?”
Chhote Babu had, of course, been quite oblivious to the Prasad factor. He said, “Baba, you did not ask me before, so I did not take Prasad”. Baba said, “Look at him!
Anyway, “look in the pocket of my kurta”.
Chhote Babu knew there was nothing in Baba’s kurta pockets. But since Baba had asked him to, he put his hand inside one pocket. There was freshly made sweet wrapped in a leaf inside the pocked, as if someone had just made it and put it there! He took it out, opened the leaf package, and they had a little Prasad. Then they returned bank to Banaras.
As Baba travelled and continued his practice, more and more people came contact with him and realized that he was not an ordinary boy of fifteen, wandering like a bigger on the river bank. Slowly people of the villages around Varanasi became cognizant of Baba’s true nature and his spiritual powers. They began to gather around him in ever increasing numbers.

mangaldhanram

Adi Ashram Hariharpur
In 1953, at the request of devoted people from the villages of Hariharpur and Tajpur near Banaras, Baba established his first ashram there and called it ‘Adi Ashram Hariharpur’. But this ashram did not spring up in just one day; first, Baba lived there and practiced very hard sadhana (ascetic practices). Then the villagers requested Baba to perform a Vishnu yagya, a grand ceremony for the god Vishnu. That yagya, was performed with great ceremony joy by the villagers and, at its culmination, the owner of the land where the yagya had been performed donated the land to Baba. The ashram was built there. People who participated in this yagya had many spiritual experiences. Around 1956, Baba had an underground cave built within the ashram. To perform his meditation Baba once closed himself in the absolute darkness of that cave for seven days without food and water and remained there in a state of Samadhi, spiritual union with the divine. Such meditative practices were very common for him.
Although he kept the habit of constant wandering, the hariharpur ashram turned into a place where he would spend some time whenever he returned to the Banaras area, and it was here that some amazing incidents occurred. Stories of Baba’s severe ascetic penance had begun to circulate in Banaras and its environs. Those in his company used to experience miracles around Baba as if they were natural, everyday events. Although Baba never favoured performing miracles, there are some events where one can clearly see that Baba forcible changed the laws of nature to help someone.
One such story is that of Upendra Singh. By chance Baba was in hariharpur at the time that Upendra Singh’s family in hariharpur was celebrating the wedding of his sister. A girls wedding in an India village! It was a very important occasion for the whole family. But with only a little time before the groom’s party was to arrive at the bride’s Family house, Upendra Singh died. It seems very odd when said like that, but it was true. Upendra Singh had left his body.
Now the whole house was in an uproar. Everyone in the house was stricken with grief; on hearing the news, his mother fainted. How could the girl be wedded now? A pall of grief hung over the wedded house. Everyone knew how complicated it was to get a girl properly in India; on this occasion, with the marriage party’s arrival so imminent, it seemed impossible to save this wedding, for if they found out that a death had, occurred in the house, they would certainly turn back without going through with the ceremony. But the elders of the house had not given up yet: one of them thought of going to Baba.
They got together and brought him all the traditional sweets; Baba welcomed them and asked the purpose of their visit. They joined their palms and told him about the death of the bride’s brother. How could she be married now? The boy’s mother was already half dead with grief. Baba looked at them with guileless eyes and asked how he could be of help. They requested him to do whatever he could to save wedding. Baba acquiesced, and told them to return, and to keep the body of the death youth alone in a room and continue as before with all the duties associated with the wedding. “I will come in a short while”, he promised. They listened to Baba and went back. When they reached back they found that the groom’s party was already there, curious about the delay in the proceedings. The situation had become very delicate.
Just then, people saw Baba, stick in hand, parting the crowd of the groom’s party. Walking briskly and with purpose, Baba went straight to the room where the dead boy’s body’s lay, although he had never been to this house before. The boy had now already been dead for almost four hours. Baba did not say a word as he came to the corpse. Not word. He went straight to the dead body’s room and smack, smack, smack! Hit him hard three times with his stick, saying “Idiot! Your sister is getting married and you are sleeping here! Baba said this as he hit the boy’s body, and the boy who had been dead for four hours, set up immediately, Baba turned and left the house. By the time anyone could say anything Baba had sped away, already for out of the courtyard.
The daughter of the family was properly married; the honour of her family had been saved. Baba come back to his hut and became engrossed in his self. Upendra Singh is alive even today and lived happily with his wife and children. Incidents like this and there were many others established Baba as a truly realized saint in the consciousness of the people in this region. They knew that, for Baba, nothing was impossible. Baba himself never claimed to perform miracles. Whenever someone would approach him with a plea, he would simply say “I will pray to the mother”. In fact of all his life he spoke against the pitfalls of performing miracles, as they drew people away from making an honest effort to achieve their goals. But in life and death situations, he had to act for the benefit of his devotees. Sometimes his efforts to remain anonymous and yet help someone with his unorthodox methods produced humorous results. Chaman munim, a long time devotee of Baba from his itinerant days in the city of Banaras, tells a funny story about an event that took place at the Haji Suleman’s garden Maruadih.
A washerman who used to work right next to the Maruadih garden had a son who was mute from birth. Someone told him to seek the Baba who lived in the Suleiman sahib’s gander. The washerman did not know Baba and so he came to Chaman munim for help. Chaman Munim informed him, “Baba wears a read loincloth and sits in the chair. Every morning when he wishes his face I sit on the ground and pour out the water for him. So come and greet him and tell him whatever you want.”
The next day, Baba sat down on the ground not on the chair. He also put on a lungi, as Chaman Munim used to wear. When Munim Ji began to pour water for him Baba said, “The muddy water is splashing on to your feet. Sit in the chair.”
Munimji sat down on the chair and begin to pour water. By then the washerman had arrived. Now, he could not make out who was Baba, because Baba had reversed the roles. He asked Munimji, “where is Baba?”
Baba gave Munimji stared a stern look and so, instead of replying to the washerman, Munimji stared at the washer man, dumb founded. Baba sent out Munimji on the pretext of fetching two eggs and then asked the washer man, “Who are you looking for? What is the matter?”
The washerman narrated that Munimji had asked him to come and meet with Baba to find a cure for his son’s inability to speak. Baba told him not to trust the Munim, who would (he said) work as an agent for a fee, but also told him an unconventional cure, “I have heard that a mute person was cured by this method once. Go outside and if you find a donkey, puts its mouth to your child’s and rubs them together. Your son will spoke. And don’t come here again. If the Baba finds out about this, he will ask you for a lot of money”. The washer man went out and right then rubbed his son’s face to that of a donkey, and his son, of course, began to speak. But from that day washerman stayed angry with Munimji for trying to trick him.
People soon realized that Baba was a true aghora saint. He did not discriminate on the basis of caste, colour or class. He gave no distinction to gender or age in his behaviour. Contrary to the customs of a caste based society he observed no restrictions of what he could eat or drink and what he could not. To him, there was no difference between a comfortable house and the open skies of a cremation ground. He had transcended all human limitations; he had become an Aghoreshwar, the highest of all spiritually realized saints in the Aghora tradition all spiritually realized saints in the Aghora tradition a walking, talking deity, Shiva incarnate. The state of being an Aghoreshwar is the same as being a paramhans in the Vaishnava tradition, or kaivalya in the Shakta tradition the state of being a free liberated, unfettered soul. Most importantly, people felt that Baba truly loved everyone who went to him. He was always there for him. He could be approached at every hour of the day and night. His life was no longer for his own self; he lived for those who came to him. It was this feeling that led Baba to be regarded as the Shiva incarnated within the Banaras hinterland. Hundreds of thousands of devotees from far flung villages would come for a glimpse of him on the occasion of Guru Purnima, a festival where Hindus express their respect for their guru. Over the course of one day he could be seen conversing with poor farmers from poor farmers from some inaccessible village or with visiting spiritual seekers of various other traditions from different parts on India, or meeting with government officials, politicians, and foreign dignitaries.