Blessings of the forefathers

The exposure to the supernatural came to me quite early. Our family had been talking to spirits since the time I was a student of primary school.

The spirits of family member of my father's previous birth used to visit our house. They were the father, elder brother, younger sister and two younger brothers. They were from present Bangla Desh and were killed by sea pirates. Since it was an apamrutyu ( untimely death or accidental death), they were to remain in the spirit stage for quite some time. Dr Laxmi Narayan Dixit ( a homoeopath) from a place called Bamra , about 150 km from my native place of Bargarh in Orissa used to visit us and call them.

The way they came in contact with Dr Dixit and subsequently with my father (current birth) is very interesting.

Dr Dixit had gone  to Guwahati to visit Kamakhya temple. After visiting the temple, he was sleeping under a tree. He had put his bag under the head as a pillow. He saw a dream that few spirits are talking to him. They are telling him that they are prepared to go with him and would like to help people through him and earn punya (good karma ). They have placed a rudrakshya mala under the bag and he can call them through the same. There was a condition that he should not try to misuse the power. When he woke up, he found the mala and became sure about the truth of the dream.

The meeting of my father with them is more interesting. My father (Bharat Chandra Hota) was an MLA and President of Orissa State Co-operative Bank at that time. One day he came home in the afternoon and told my mother that he would be going somewhere on tour and would come back next day. On enquiry, he simply told my mother that he was going with Gopala (Bank's driver)in Bank's jeep. Initially, he asked Gopala to drive to Sambalpur. After reaching Sambalpur, he asked him to drive to Bamra. They reached Bamra in the late evening. It was raining and there was no power. Bamra at that time was a small village known for forest produce. Gopala was advised to stop  the vehicle near a small road side restaurant of thatched roof. My father went inside and ordered a cup of tea. He was wondering why he had decided to come to Bamra without any specific reason. At that time a gentleman with white clothes walked in and sat beside him. He enquired from my father as to whether he was Bharat Chandra Hota. On receiving the reply in affirmative, he introduced himself as Dr Laxmi Narayan Dixit of Bamra and set out to explain the reason of my father's visit to Bamra that day. He explained that a family of spirits have caused him to come to Bamra and they have sent him ( Dr Dixit) to invite him to his house , so that they can discuss certain things. Now , one can understand the predicament of my father. If he agrees to go, God knows what will happen. If he refuses, the spirits will certainly cause him harm. If they could pull him up to Bamra , they can do anything. In fact, there was no choice. My father got up to accompany Dr Dixit to his house.

He was led in to a room which was dark. The voice of a lady informed him that they were the relatives of my father from the prevoius birth and they wanted to take his help for attaining mokshya (liberation). They wanted to help people and earn punya, which would help them in their goal. However, they made it clear that my father should not try to misuse the trust or should not try to get undue favour from them

Subsequently, they used to come to our house.. They used to be offered a glass of milk and a banana each. They used to help people in many ways. I can not give the details here for fear of violating their trust. They also used to advise my father about problems being faced by various people and how they can be helped. On their coming my parents used to talk to them about serious matters but we, the small kids, had our own set of expectations from them. Sometime we used to ask them about a lost pencil or some time we used to ask them for protection from the teacher for not doing homework. But they were ever obliging. They also used to save our family from committing mistakes. Once there was a complaint against a co-operative society about misappropriation. My father went there, questioned the people and suspended an official of the society. As it was to be, the same evening, Dr Dixit came and the spirits were called. Immediately upon arrival, they started with an angry note and told my father that he has suspended the wrong man and that the official is a god fearing man and the family is in grief. The fraud has been committed by another employee and my father was asked to go immediately and deliver justice before the sun rises. He did do that.

People with physical ailment and host of other problems used to ask for help through my father. Sometime, they were asked to attend the session for direct communication. Others were informed about the solutions

Their blessings were there always. Once my father was going to Bhubaneswar in a jeep with some other persons. The jeep met with accident near Angul and my father was thrown about 20 feet in to an agricultural land covered with water. He escaped without any injury. All others were seriously injured. My father got up, stopped a passing vehicle and sent all the injured to Angul Hospital. Immediately, Piusi maa woke up my mother and shouted at her that my father has met with an accident and she is sleeping a sound sleep. My mother was puzzled. Then Piusi Maa advised her to call a jeep form the Bank and go there immediately. My mother called the jeep from the Bank and started for Angul with me in tow. She was always asking the driver to drive speedily. On the way, police   tried to stop us but the driver sped away. After some distance, the police had put a road block. The police inspector was baffled when she told him about the accident. He enquired how she got the news so quickly. My mother chose not to answer. I will not narrate about some other incidents concerning us brothers because of privacy issues.

Piusi maa was very fond of my mother and used to play pranks with her, the sister-in-law that she was.

Spirits

Here I am using the term spirits in a general term and it includes ghosts, bhut, prêt etc. When a person dies, the spirit of the person remains in a confused state unless the person was an enlightened one or had been expecting death for some time and was mentally prepared for the same. The spirit suddenly gets freedom from the body. However, still it has some attachment to the body which was hosting it for so long and continues hovering around it. It still thinks of the body as its own but gets confused by its inability to control the body. It tries to communicate with the people close to him but it cannot do so. Finally when the body is consigned to flame or buried, as is the religious custom, the confusion aggravates because its own body is being destroyed and it cannot do anything about it. Suddenly it feels that all the relatives and friends are alienated. In the confused state, it cannot differentiate between relatives and friends on the one hand and other general people on the other. It stays put in the smashana or the burial ground as the case may be, for some time. That is why smashanas (graveyard) are such a fearful place. Many of the spirits living there have died recently and are confused and they may attack any living being that disturbs them. The spirit may also prefer to come back to the house where the person died. The spirit, in many cases, turns against close relatives because it wants to communicate with them and it feels abandoned by them. That is why, generally, the person conducting the last rites faces many difficulties for some time. This is one of the reasons for the Hindu custom of keeping the person, who conducted the last rites, confined to house for some time.

Gradually, the spirit retires to a secluded place, may be a forest, abandoned house, a mountain, and remains there bidding its time for the next birth. Gradually, it loses the attachment to near and dear living persons and becomes disinterested in their living conditions. Only in exceptional circumstances, may be for a cause, they come near their relatives or friends of the previous birth. They normally avoid human contact and are afraid of humans because some have the power to enslave them. Many people enslave spirits and do black magic through them or use them for their own purpose. The stories of Vikram and Betal are the famous examples. The nature of the spirits depends on the nature and circumstances of its death and the accumulated Karma. Ante mati, sah gati. If a person has died of old age or some disease of prolonged nature, the will to live has died before the physical death and the spirit retires to a lonely place very soon. He has already lost the earthly attachments. However, in case of apamrutyu, or sudden death, like accident, the spirit suddenly becomes free and remains unsatisfied. It still tries to gratify its senses and being unable to do so, adopts an antagonistic attitude to all living beings. Most of them do not retire to secluded place and given an opportunity, try to do harm to living beings. So also people, who are dis satisfied at the time of death. Some spirits seem to be benevolent and try to help people. Many village Gods, in fact, are spirits of this nature.

There is one type of spirits of lower order. They take delight in misplacing your belongings. You might have kept something somewhere; the spirit will move the thing somewhere else. You will not be able locate it. This creates problem and you start suspecting servants. The bigger problem is when the spirit moves the objects to the neighbour’s house or vice versa. A spirit may bring something from your neighbours house and keep it in your house, without your knowledge. When the neighbour detects this, he may accuse you of theft. Some persons use these types of spirits to enrich themselves. They also cause scratches on your skin. You may find a long scratch mark on your skin as if caused by a nail. Apart from this nuisance, they are harmless


People believe that spirits do not come near iron or they cannot cross a railway line or if you recite Hanuman Chalisa, they will be scared away. This is far from truth. If you have been initiated by a sadguru and you recite the guru mantra, you can inflict pain or harm to the spirit and they stay away from such people. For a mantra to be effective, you have to have siddhi of the mantra. But there are people, who have accumulated power may be in the previous birth, who cannot be attacked by the spirits. It is also true that people with passion are not scared by spirits. You will find the example in many smashans of the cities where young couple visit in the evening for a moment of privacy.

The spirits generally feel incomplete and tormented since they cannot fulfil their wishes. They yarn to take rebirth for fulfilment. However, the rebirth cannot come as per their wish. It has to follow a higher design. The enlightened ones spend this time in tapashya or penance to gain liberation or move to the next higher plane. It may be borne in mind that all the papa punya or consequences of good and bad deeds are carried forward to the next life. You do not start afresh in the next life. If you have attained a certain spiritual position in this life, you will continue from that position in the next life. If you have passed fifth standard in this life, you will start from sixth standard in the next life. For most of the penance, a human life is required. A spirit cannot do that completely. However, it may do a limited penance or take the help of a living being. The spirits who have done penance in the previous life go to a higher plane where they do not feel tormented and where rebirth is not compulsory. There is a general belief that if you do some good deeds in this life, you will get salvation, that is, your spirit will stay with the Supreme Being. That is far from truth. Rarely any spirit attains that state immediately. This depends on the accumulated Karma.
The spirits are not to be believed. They are known to fake identity of some other people. A spirit may come to you and say that he is the spirit of one of your relative. Don’t believe this. When you see a shade or a light or something, don’t jump to the conclusion that it has something to do with God or benevolent spirit. It need not necessarily be. The spirits are not in self control in Amabashya and are in distress in Poonam. So don’t try invoking a spirit in Amabashya, the night of new moon, if you are not a master of the game. This is not to suggest that other days are harmless. Likewise, even benevolent spirits will not communicate with you on full moon night, since they are in distress.

The Hidden Forces

Nothing we think or do is void or vain;
Each is an energy loosed and holds its course.
The shadowy keepers of our deathless past
Have made our fate the child of our own acts,
And from the furrows laboured by our will
We reap the fruit of our forgotten deeds
But since unseen the tree that bore this fruit
And we live in a present born from an unknown past,
They seem but parts of a mechanic Force,
To a mechanic mind tied by earth’s laws;
Yet are they instruments of a Will supreme,
Watched by a still all-seeing Eye above.
A prescient architect of Fate and Chance
Who builds our lives on a foreseen design
The meaning knows and consequence of each step
And watches the inferior stumbling power

Sri Aurobindo
Savitri, Book Four

Journey

Having spent six years in the sadhana of Maa Kamakhya, I am shifting base to Ahmedabad, on transfer. I hope the destiny is taking me there for the next leg of enlightenment.

The journey began quite early in the life. Since child hood, our family members had been talking to spirits, who were the family members of my father in his last life.

After completing my studies, I took up a job which facilitated my journey by transferring me to many places Some people were trying to kill me and my wife through tantra. As luck would have it I visited the tantrik at about 2 o clock in the night on some other job. The next day he was to perform the Puja. I did not know it. But he immediately recognised me and apologised. I began getting attracted to many sadhus. Sankaracharya called me once and gave me a mantra whose importance I could not comprehend then. I met so many monks who taught me so many things. I met a baba in the deep forest of Western Orissa, who cut the flesh of my biceps, put some herbs inside and again repaired the cut, all with out using any earthly material. I learned the Siddha vidya from Guru Hardas Baba of Pune.

I had heard of a very famous baba whom the Prime Ministers used to visit and who occasionally stays in Sogda, a place near Jashpur of Chhattisgarh. He was Aghoreswar Shri Bhagwan Ramji, I tried to meet him thrice .Once there was heavy rains after I reached Jashpur flooding the road to Sogda. The next time there was a land slide blocking the Jashpur road. The last time, after reaching Jashpur, I came to know that he has left for Benaras. I was destined to receive his blessings through his successor, Baba Sambhav Ramji ( Gurupad Baba). Destiny used to stop me at Jashpur. Eventually, I was initiated in to the Aghori order by Pujya Gurupad Baba at Jashpur. This transformed my whole existence.

I had planned 5 times for visiting Guwahati ( Kamrup ) and seek the blessings of Maa Kamakhya, but could not succeed. Twice, I had to cancel the tickets. Eventually, I was posted to Guwahati and reached Guwahati on the day of Ambugachhi. Kamakhya gave me maturity and calmness

Some time I will post the the details of all these.

It is said that Girnar mountain is the abode of Dattatrey, the original Avdhoot. The Aghories originated from Gujurat. Let me see, if I can learn something

Tantra and risks of Sadhana

We often hear that Sakti or Devi devours the devotee, if tantrik rites are not performed perfectly.It is not so. Tantra is the simplest path to attain God.But, you should have a proper Guru and proceed as per his advise.

Long back, when I had not been admitted to the Aghori sect, I asked this to an Aghori Baba. I enquired whether a person can fearlessly persue the Tantra. He replied that a mother would never kill its own child. But at the same time, a person can not attain siddhi unless the proper time comes. All the dangers are in the nature of illusions and one should have firm belief on the Guru and the God. But it’s easier said than done. He narrated one episode of Aghoreswar Baba Bhagwan Ram ( Sarkar Baba). Later on, I read the same thing in Aghore Gathri, a biography of Fokabir Baba.

Sarkar Baba was doing sadhana in the smashan (cremation ground) of Tara Peeth ( Near Rampur haat of West Bengal) One young person of a nearby village used to come and bring flowers etc. After a few days he started cleaning the place around him regularly and loiter around for some time every day. After a few more days, he started staying there with him all the time and attend to him. Baba was very pleased with the boy. After completion of Sadhana, Baba called the boy and thanked him and asked him whether he needs any help. The boy immediately replied that he wants to do sadhana of Maa Tara and wanted Baba to give him necessary instructions. Baba told him that his time had not come and he has to wait for the proper time. But the boy felt hurt and told Baba that he never asked for anything and it was Baba who had volunteered to help him The boy said he would not mind even if Baba does not help him in doing Tara sadhana. Bound by the word given to the boy, baba did not have any choice.He gave him instructions on attaining the siddhi, but told him to be careful. He told the boy that he should not get afraid. He may see danger but all these are illusions and they will go away as they come. He should not leave his seat before completion of the sadhana, otherwise he will face problems. So long he is seating in his seat, no danger can beset him. The boy replied that he he is not afraid of anything. Does not the Baba know that he was staying with him in the smashana. Baba left the place wishing him good luck.

Confident of himself, the boy started sadhana. But he knew danger may come. So he was keeping one eye half closed. Just in case something happens, though he was sure nothing is going to happen. After some time , he saw a snake coming towards hiom leisurely. He caught hold of a stick which was lying near by and was ready to strike the snake when it comes near by.However, the snake vanished suddenly and the boy laughed to himself that he’s not afraid of anything . All knowingly, he congratulated himself that he knew the snake would not come near him. The Boy continued reciting Mantra

After some time, he saw a white bull coming towards him at a great speed from a distance. The Boy was perplexed. It may be maya . but it can also be true . The bull may be real. It may be too late by the time the bull comes nearby. He was at a loss about what to do. He was sitting in a posture half prepared to run away if the bull proves to be real. When the animal came nearby, he was almost ready to flee from the scene, However, fortunately the bull also vanished. The boy was sweating by this time. He thanked his stars and baba for sparing his life. Now he started wondering whether he can continue doing the sadhana . But this is also true that he cannot abandon the sadhana midway. Now he realized he was in a problem. He also repented the obstinacy. Somehow, he gathered all his courage and continued the sadhana. But he was troubled also and he kept the eyes open for any danger to come. Nothing happened for some time. The boy kept on assuring himself that the dangers are over and nothing more will happen. He also appreciated the advice of baba that no danger will come to him so long he does not leave the seat.

After a few days, he saw a nomad type man coming to the cremation ground with his wife, son, camel and a goat. Our boy was happy that now, at least for some time, there will be company. When they came near, they stopped near a tree. The man told his wife that he would go for a bath and asked the wife to slaughter the goat and prepare food. He also told her that they will spend the rest of the day there. Having said this, the man went to the nearby river to take bath. The woman took out a big utensil from the back of the camel, killed the goat, lit the fire and started preparing food. Our boy was happy having company and was also curious about their activity. After some time, the man came back to the place where the food was cooking. He inspected the cooking utensil and told his wife that the quantity of food was very less and it will not satisfy his hunger. He told his wife that he was going to kill the camel also. He killed the camel and asked he’s wife to prepare the camel meat also. He told his wife that he is going to take the rest under the nearby tree and she should wake him up once the food is ready. With that he proceeded to the tree to take a nap.Our boy was a bit \disturbed by this. After some time the men came back, inspected the cooking utensil and got angry. He shouted at his wife and said the food is too little. How can he satisfy his hunger with so little food. He told his wife that he is going to kill the son and add the flesh to the meat being cooked. With that he killed his son, cut into pieces and add the flesh to the meat already being prepared. Then he went to the tree to take rest. Now our boy was really disturbed. Earlier he was only listening to the going on but when he heard about killing of the boy he was very much disturbed and kept his eyes open. When he saw the child being killed, he could not believe himself. But he still continued sitting there.

Again after some time the man came back, inspected the cooking and this time became wild. He shouted at his wife and asked her where all the food has gone. He told his wife he cannot satisfy his hunger with such little amount of meat. Then he told his wife that he’s going to kill her and eat her also. And the brutal man went on to do that really. After cutting her into pieces and putting her into cooking he spoke to himself aloud that he is going to get some rest and will now eat the entire food alone. Now this was something beyond tolerance for anybody, more particularly for our boy. But he was at a loss as to what to do. He continued sitting there for some time perhaps thinking that now that the entire things are going to be over the man will go away and the nightmare will come to an end.

Finally the nomad got up from where he was lying, came back to the place of cooking and told himself that now he will have a full meal. When he went to remove the food from fire, he got wild. He started shouting how the quantity has again been reduced. He said how can he satisfy his hunger. Now he does not have the wife, child or the camel to add to the food. He has to search for something more. With this he looked around himself and saw our boy. He became very happy to see our boy and told himself that he will kill our boy and then the quantity would be OK. He took out his sword and came towards our boy. By this time, our boy was in all his senses and had already pressed the panic button. When he saw the man approaching him with the sword, he sprang to his feet and ran for his life towards his village all along shouting that the nomad is running after him to kill him. When he reached the village, people tried to stop him and tell him that in fact nobody’s running after him but, the boy was not prepared to believe anybody and kept running in the lanes of the village. After a few hours he collapsed and died of exhaustion.

This happens if you do not have a proper Guru or if you do not have complete faith on him.

In Defence of Aghor

In India we try to romanticize everything. On the other hand if we fail to understand anything, we over react and blame it squarely. May be, this is because, we Hindus, are supposed to be the ultimate abode of knowledge and still if something is beyond our comprehension, it must be ‘avidya’ or illusion and not knowledge. Likewise, Hinduism is supposed to be all encompassing and still if some order does not conform; it can’t be accepted and must be shunned.
We, the aghories are the target of such vilification. It is true that the aghories live at the outer fringe of the Hindu religion. You ask anybody about the aghories, he will make you sick with tales of flesh eating half mads; people who will kill anybody in a fit of rage, who cause harm to society rather help it and many other stories.
A-ghore literally means simple or not difficult. It derives it lineage from Shiva himself. Then came Aghor Bhairavacharya .Baba Kinaram was initiated in to the order when he got the darshan of Bhagwan Dattatrey in Girnar Mountain. The other shishya of Bhagwan Dattatrey was Baba Gorakhnath. Presently the followers of these two great saints form two sects of aghoris. For quite some time, both the sects were lying in a sleepy stage. Then came Baba Bhagwan Ramji ( 1937-1992) who passed on the gaddi to Baba Gurupad Sambhav Ram.
The Hindu saints follow broadly 2 paths. Some of them go in to hibernation in search of truth. For them the only goal in life is to attain unity with the God. After attaining God, they don’t come back to the society. In fact, they consider society as a hindrance to attaining truth. The other group of saints also seeks unity of with God. The difference is that after attaining truth, they come back to the society to spread the message of God and to alleviate the sufferings. The society repays by giving food etc. to the sadhu. Because of this tradition, whenever a sadhu comes to the village, people flock to him with tales of their real or perceived sufferings, little realizing that the sufferings may be due to their past karma and that it is also a cleansing process so that their soul may evolve to a higher self. Each birth for us is an opportunity to learn a lesson. We go on getting birth in to the same situation and circumstances until we have mastered the lesson. Then we move on to a different situation and circumstance. In the process, the soul goes on evolving to a higher plane until we have mastered all the lessons. After this stage rebirth is not compulsory. It is optional. The role of a sadhu in a society is not to show miracle. His role is to help in evolution of your spirit so that the process is accelerated. In that way he alleviates the sufferings. Since the time of Baba Kinaram, the Aghories have come back to the society for this.
All the sadhus need loneliness at some point of time in their tapashya. At this period, they avoid all contact with society so that there is no disturbance. They retire to seclusion, may be with a few faithfuls. Some go to Himalaya, some go to dense forest, some other go to shmasans. Normally Hindus consider Shmasan as untouchable(because of obsession with body purity) and believe that it is peopled by spirits. So they don’t go there. As a natural corollary, anybody who stays in the smasan is an abhorable creature. On the other hand, the aghories don’t consider anything as untouchable. Each and every matter has a latent life form in it and this represents the Aghoreswar, Lord Shiva Himself. Sri Aurobindo also supports this view. He says that the latent life form in so-called inanimate object evolves into life form in animate object in their progression. So there is no better place to do sadhana than the shmasan. Because of the secrecy of the Aghor order, I will not be able to narrate the details here. However for all people it may not be necessary to stay in a shmasan for the sadhak can perform most of the rites on the bed of a prostitute or in case of a married man, on the same bed he sleeps with his wife. This is not a new concept. You will find prostitute settlement near most of the ancient Shaivite sites. Baba Bhagwan Ramji further declared that most of these rites can also be performed by living among the leprosy patients. In fact the Ashram in Benaras established by him has cured more than 2.5 lakh patients and it finds an entry in the Guinness Book.
Of late the media has pulled the matter out of context and has placed it before the audience in a skewed manner in a fit of sensational journalism.
(The Author can be reached at hotaoriental@yahoo.com also)

Guru Sambhav Ram