{"id":5787,"date":"2025-07-06T15:05:48","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T15:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/?p=5787"},"modified":"2025-07-06T15:05:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T15:05:48","slug":"aghori-sadhana-the-cremation-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/?p=5787","title":{"rendered":"Aghori Sadhana (The Cremation Ground)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/aghori13.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-5788\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/aghori13-300x213.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"516\" height=\"367\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/aghori13-300x213.png 300w, https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/aghori13.png 557w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 516px) 100vw, 516px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>By Mariam Gergis (Shay\u1e6d\u0101nata, <\/em><em>\u0634\u064a\u0637\u0627\u0646\u0629<\/em><em>)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Beside the burning pyres<\/p>\n<p>Where Varanasi&#8217;s dead find peace,<\/p>\n<p>The Aghori sits in meditation<\/p>\n<p>On what never finds release.<\/p>\n<p>Ash smeared across dark skin,<\/p>\n<p>A necklace carved from bone,<\/p>\n<p>He contemplates the teaching<\/p>\n<p>That we die as we have grown.<\/p>\n<p>His bowl: a human skull,<\/p>\n<p>His blanket: shroud of the deceased,<\/p>\n<p>Each shocking implement sermon on what&#8217;s least<\/p>\n<p>Acceptable to minds that cling<\/p>\n<p>To comfort and to form\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Yet in this grim surrounding<\/p>\n<p>Wisdom weathers every storm.<\/p>\n<p>He eats what others will not touch,<\/p>\n<p>Sleeps where fear would wake,<\/p>\n<p>Not from madness but from seeing<\/p>\n<p>Through illusion&#8217;s false display.<\/p>\n<p>The corpse beside him teaches<\/p>\n<p>What the living will not hear:<\/p>\n<p>That beauty, ugliness,<\/p>\n<p>Pure and foul disappear<\/p>\n<p>When consciousness expands beyond<\/p>\n<p>The boundaries of taste\u2014<\/p>\n<p>In the democracy of ashes,<\/p>\n<p>Nothing goes to waste.<\/p>\n<p>The western mind recoils,<\/p>\n<p>Calls this practice dark,<\/p>\n<p>Yet the Aghori smiles<\/p>\n<p>At each judgmental mark.<\/p>\n<p>For he has learned the secret<\/p>\n<p>That makes all pathways one:<\/p>\n<p>What we resist persists<\/p>\n<p>Until resistance is undone.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mariam Gergis (Shay\u1e6d\u0101nata, \u0634\u064a\u0637\u0627\u0646\u0629)\u00a0 &nbsp; Beside the burning pyres Where Varanasi&#8217;s dead find peace, The Aghori sits in meditation On what never finds release. Ash smeared across dark skin, A necklace carved from bone, He contemplates the teaching That we die as we have grown. His bowl: a human skull, His blanket: shroud of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7BLIO-1vl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5787"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5790,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5787\/revisions\/5790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesectofthehornedgod.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}