Draft:Aghoreshvar Bhagavan Ram

Aghoreshwar Baghavan Ram (born Bahgavan Singh 12 September 1937 – 28 November 1992), also known as “Sarkar Baba,” was an {Aghori saint}, social reformer, and major leader of the Kina Ram lineage, headquartered in Banaras, India. For centuries, Aghori ascetics were feared by many people because of their unorthodox ritual practices and association with death and the cremation grounds. Sarkar Baba sought to change these attitudes by shifting Aghor sadhana (practice) toward healing, education, and social services, particularly among India’s poor and socially marginalized communities. In the process, he founded over 150 ashrams throughout India, attracted the interest of mainstream and higher status Indian communities, as well as western followers in North America and Europe. Sarkar Baba is largely credited for the reformation and renaissance of the Aghor tradition in the late Twentieth Century.

Aghoreshwar Bhagavan Ram (a.k.a. Sarkar Baba)

Childhood and Early Life

Bhagavan Singh was born on 12 September, 1937 in the village of Gundi, eight kilometers north of the town of Arrah in the Indian state of Bihar.  His family were of high ritual status but modest economic means, belonging to the Rajput jati of the Kshatrya (warrior) caste.  Baghvan Singh’s grandfather, Babu Hridaya Prasad Singh, was a major landowner {zamindar} of Gundi village.  He was the only child of Babu Baijinath Singh, a businessman, and Lakraji Devi.  According to the hagiography (devotional history) of his disciples, his parents struggled to have a child and his mother became pregnant only after a holy man visited the home and gave his parents a blessing in the form of a mango after they performed a ‘child ceremony. Considering their son to be a divine gift, they named him Bhagavan, which is one of the Hindi names for God.

Early in his childhood, Bhagavan Singh acquired a reputation for spiritual devotion and ascetic tendencies, which further intensified after the death of his father at five years of age. Shortly thereafter, he became known as Bhagavan Das (disciple of God) by local villagers, who often sought after him for religious healing and solving family problems. By the time he was nine, Bhagavan Das was travelling on foot throughout northern India and meeting with other ascetics and saints.  Over the next five years, he was initiated into a Vaishanava tradition, underwent austerities in the holy town of Gaya, and had a direct glimpse of the divine (darshan) in Jagannathpuri, after which he shaved his head as a mark of his commitment to a life of asceticism. Baghavan Das is believed to have attained enlightenment while attending a major gathering of Ramanuja devotees in Patna.

Initiation into the Aghor Tradition'

Baghavan Das was 14 years old when first arrived in the holy city of Banaras (a.k.a. Varanasi or Kashi) in July of 1951. An oft-recounted story tells of his encounter with an apparition in the form of an old woman wearing a red-bordered silk sari, who guided him to several temples, and eventually pointed him in the direction of the cremation grounds of Harishchandra Ghat and the nearby Kina Ram Ashram, named for the 18th Century Aghori saint and founding ascetic of the lineage. The ashram is famous for two key features: 1) Krim Kund, a sacred bathing tank believed to have powerful healing properties; and, 2) the dhuni (sacred fire) that has been perpetually burning since the time of Baba Kina Ram using leftover wood from the cremation pyres. It was there that Bhagavan Das met his guru, Baba Rajeshwar Ram (Burhau Baba), the 11th head of the Kina Ram lineage.

Bhagavan Das as a young ascetic.

In many ways, Buhrau Baba’s ritual practices and outward behavior epitomized the old-style Aghori traditions that many outsiders have misunderstood and feared over the centuries. These practices included meditation on the cremation grounds and the ingestion of forbidden substances, to include, cannabis, liquor, meat, and in certain historical instances, human waste and human flesh. Yet despite the highly unorthodox nature of these practices, the underlying reasons for them were based on principles of non-attachment shared by many mainstream Indian religious traditions. The term A ghor literally means “non-terrible,” and the primary aim of the Aghori is to achieve a psychological and spiritual state of non-discrimination in which the practioner no longer has hatred or disgust of anyone or anything. Engaging in these practices was a means of overcoming these forms of discrimination, which the Aghori believe to be largely driven by misguided socialization and a core fear of death.

As a disciple of Burhau Baba, Baghavan Das spent a great deal of time on the cremation grounds, and along with performing many austere and difficult tasks, he ingested some liquor and cannabis as well. However, he noticed that many other disciples and hangers-on were overly attached to these substances, so he banned them from his own ashram after becoming a baba himself. Sarkar Baba taught his own disciples to embrace discarded people instead of forbidden substances through education, healing, and social service. In the process, he brought Aghor out of the cremation grounds and into mainstream communities, both in India and around the world.

Reformation and Expansion

After further travels and teaching throughout India, Sarkar Baba established his own ashram in Parao, a town located directly across the Ganges River from Banaras. There, he also established a hospital and out-patient clinic for people with leprosy and other skin diseases that provided free Ayurvedic medicines that he personally modified based on his own knowledge and insights. Since the time that Baba Kina Ram first healed a woman with leprosy at Krin Kund, the Aghori were commonly believed to have the power to heal these and other conditions. The reputation of the Parao Ashram clinic grew to the point that it was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for seeing the largest number of leprosy patients annually. During this same period, Sarkar Baba established a schools for poor children and taught his disciples to eschew casteism and treat the women in their families as embodiments of the divine goddess.

Baba Harihar Ram providing teaching and guidance to a group of students.

Sarkar Baba’s teachings were widely and well-received throughout many Indian communities and there were numerous accounts of miracles by people who sought healing and solutions to difficult life problems.  As a result, his ashrams multiplied and he attracted thousands of followers.  After Buhrau Baba’s passing, he oversaw the upbringing and training of the current head of the lineage, Baba Gautama Ram.  He also trained several other gurus (ascetic teachers) in the lineage, who in turn, went on to establish their own ashrams.  One of these Aghor gurus, Baba Harihar Ram, established the Sonoma Yoga Ashram in the United States as well as the Bal Ashram in Banaras, which includes an eye clinic, a school for poor children, trade skill training for women, and a residential program for the development of boys and young men.

Aghor Ashrams in India and the United States

Krin-Kund, Baba Kinaram Sthal. Headquarters of the lineage in Varanasi, India

Shri Sarveshwari Samooh Devasthanam.  Major ashram with leprosy treatment center in Parao  (near Varanasi), India: Aghoreshwar –  Sri Sarveshwari Samooh

Aghor Gurupeeth Trust, Banora, Raigarh, Chhattisgarh. Center for many Ashrams, schools, and clinics in Central India: Aghor Gurupeeth Banora - Sarveshwari Samooh (aghorsevakendra.org)

Sonoma Ashram, California, USA – Sonoma Ashram –  Home of Aghor Yoga in the United States