Aghora: At the Left Hand of God

Of Svoboda's Aghora trilogy, the reviews accurately reflect that this is by far the one most worth reading, and the only place to start. The Vimalanda personage (person? character? it matters not) is a wonderful, brilliant, iconoclastic and amusing teacher.The books are filled with anecdotes, sometimes stories from ancient literature, sometimes his own experience, sometimes the experiences of others. To summarize it, this is the path of the vira (hero, warrior), not the pashu (see Julius Evola's Yoga of Power for some background on these terms). And that path is so easily misunderstood, appealing, naturally, to ambitious male practitioners who want to prove their fearlessness and (for example) spend the night in a burial ground (if you think that sounds easy, read the book), a kind of vision quest (to borrow from another tradition), with the pitfalls always the same -- an inflated ego which is the opposite of what should have been the intended result, and a kind of all-male yangness that, as we learn right from the the first parts of this book, is all wrong.This is a path of Goddess worship. The Goddess has many guises. If we're lucky we can choose which one(s) to follow. This goes back to the beginnings of history and far beyond. The Goddess is lover, mother or terrifying one, the Celtic triple Goddess, the thrice three muses that have inspired (mostly) male devotees for all time, and every Goddess from every tradition from all over the world. If it all sounds sexist, it is. I'm not making it up. It is the nature of the spiritual world for those who have somehow escaped the life-stifling patriarchal ideas of male god and bloated rationality.At any rate, of the three books, this is the only one that I come back to. If I wasn't being lazy, I'd give (only) four stars to the second book and three for the third. The second book is about Kundalini, which, when you look for it, seems to be everywhere (for example, the stories of Ovid are full of it), so we don't need to go to India to find it and it certainly doesn't have to be thought of as exotic -- if I can digress for a moment (I don't think Vimalandna would mind), our most famous guide to "Kundalini syndrome" is Gopi Krishna, who had all those terrible symptoms not because Kundalini is so harsh but because Kundalini is feminine, and, being a product of one of our male-dominant societies, used the excuse of his debility to treat his wife like a slave for many years. It's (obviously) a huge mistake to try to use the power of the Goddess to subjugate women.The third book, about karma, a very literal, pedestrian kind of karma, was of little interest to me if not for V's gift for telling a story. Maybe I just don't want to take too seriously the claims about the karmic effects of gambling, having done plenty of that in the past. Basically, according to him, I'm screwed.Any book that teaches us so much about the Goddess is well worth reading. She is certainly not the passive or any other stereotype we may associate with being female. It has all gotten so perverted in our male-dominated world that even our best scholars on the thought of the east associate "yin" with "female" and "passive." It's just sexist stereotyping and subjugation. The female is dynamic, changing, active, she is the earth and the physical world around us. All the male can do is surrender to her or, if he is master enough, to control her and guide her dynamism in such a way the he recognizes that the power itself comes from Her, not from him. Just my opinion.

Written by one of today's Western experts in all things Vedic, Dr. Svoboda is highly respected. He spent eight years with an Aghora yogi and writes about the man's life experiences and thoughts on the Aghora's tantric practices. The Preface and Introduction gives a lot of crucial information about Vedic thought and Dr. Svoboda's reasoning and approach to writing this book, as well as the nature of his relationship with the aghori, Vimalananda.People who are a little familiar with Vedic philosophy, either Ayurveda, Joyotish or Yoga, will get the most out of this book as familiar terms will be expanded upon in a different light. Dr. Svoboda writes about Vimalanda's experiences as if the reader was experiencing Vimalanda as he did, a student and friend so you get this kind of personal storytelling experience where you have to decide how much to "believe" or not in terms of bending reality. I mean some of the ways Vimalananda lived his life are what I imagine a schizophrenic experiences and yet the man had a firm grip on reality as well. The book gives tremendous insight into a practice Westerners can't really imagine or at least for me (a middle-aged Midwestern woman). The thrust with Tantra is embracing and working with all the ideas and practices most people shun on their journey to enlightenment; the Aghori almost exploits them to reach the same outcome.I've been learning about Buddhism (which has roots in Tantra) and Ayurveda as well as Yoga and Joyotish. I found this book fascinating and very thought-provoking. On a superficial level, it was entertaining. Vimalananda is at the least, an extraordinary character, colorful and enjoyable but also challenging to his students and mystifying. I'm sure this could be a most encouraging book for many people who are sensitive, who have insights into the spirit world, who may have some psychosis or schizophrenic themselves or someone they know as this book dispels the fear and terror that many Westerners reserve for the supernatural or unexplained, unacceptable tendencies we all have or experience to some degree.I plan on re-reading this book for its depth of wisdom and to grasp more of what Vimalananda is trying to teach. I hope this was a helpful review.

Get closer to God/dess

For those of us who grew up in India during the days prior to influence of western pop culture (60's and 70's), "Aghora" may sound familiar, even plausible! AGHORA, At the Left Hand of God is a book for those who are ready for this kind of spirituality. It can shock and repulse a reader who is unaware. I was disturbed by some of the contents of this book and suspected exaggeration - mainly because I too had put the ideas down to ancient Indian folklore and stuff for movies of the black and white era; but a lot of it finally makes sense if one reads other books on the subject (I admit that I still have many nagging questions). This book explores several aspects of Trantric Hinduism and explodes popular myths. It makes good reading while providing in-depth views of concepts like Rnanubandhana , time etc. Robert E Svoboda has done a great service in narrating this story of his Master.

This book was my first introduction to tantra and it absolutely, positively changed my perspective of tantra. The concept of devotion is so very intriguing and real. I am really happy that I decided to buy this book. As soon as I started reading there was just no stopping, not to mention the language and flow of the way its written is really very apt. Almost knows what will be the next question arising in your mind and goes on to answer that in the following pages or chapters. A highly recommended must read, especially for spiritual aspirants.