True meaning of Aghora sadhana

Baba Harihar Ram Ji

Question: In the West Aghor tradition is known from Robert Svoboda's books mainly. Does he present this tradition correctly? What is the main difference between Aghor tradition and other Hindu teachings? What is the main objective of spiritual practice in your tradition?

Aghori Harihar Ramji: Svoboda tells about what he has learnt from being in a company of the one he names his teacher. But my understanding of Aghor is the following. In the word “Aghor” or “A Ghor” “a” means “not” and “ghor” means “awful, difficult”. All what is not difficult and not awful is Aghor. Aghor is simple. This is a natural and spontaneous state of Consciousness. Aghor is a state of Reality. It is not a tradition, a cult or a religion. It is a state of reality you can experience in any tradition and ideology. When you enter into the state of absence of preferences, you are in the state of Aghor. My school accepts no bounds. Be boundless. Because any bounds that we create, limit us, and contain big supply of potential energy. It is necessary to release the energy that creates borders around us and to feel the higher essence again - and this is what practice consists of. For example, the main practice in ours ashrams consists in embracing the outcast; we embrace those who are scorn. 

You’ve read about Aghori who went to cremation spots and ate raw flesh or other repulsive things, but in fact, they were trying to overcome the feeling of disgust. Sitting at a cremation place, they work trying to surpass the fear of death. If you feel disgust for something and say it is repulsive, it limits you. Therefore the concept of death bears a great amount of energy. How to free this energy? How to dissolve these borders? You have to come closer to it. If you are afraid of something, come closer to the source of your fear. If you look inside your mind it becomes clear, that fear is just an idea (a concept). If you come closer to it and study it, it becomes obvious, that fear is not real. That is why if we are afraid of something or we detest something, we just need to come closer to it, with open arms ready to embrace and then the force that kept us at a distance becomes our ally. This is my understanding of Aghor. In our ashrams in India we work with lepers. Leprosy causes fear and disgust in the majority of people. When Baba, my teacher, was meeting a leper, he embraced him and took to the hospital, to the ashram, and was not afraid of touching him with hands. He embraced something that raised fear and disgust in the most of the people. It is the same philosophy. Someone sits at cremation spots and eats raw flesh to overcome fears and disgust, but Baba did it in another way. It took into his arms the people that others denied with disgust. The principle is the same, but its realization is different.