AGHORA, At the Left Hand of God (Aghora) (v. I) [Paperback]

Robert E. Svoboda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1986 | Series: Aghora

The Aghora trilogy have been embraced world-wide for their frankness in broaching subjects generally avoided and their facility for making the 'unseen' real. We enter the world of Vimalananda who teaches by story and living example.

Product Details

• Paperback: 327 pages
• Publisher: Brotherhood of Life Books (November 15, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0914732218
• ISBN-13: 978-0914732211
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 16 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #287,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert E. Svoboda is the first Westerner ever to graduate from a college of Ayurveda (in 1980) and be licensed to practice Ayurveda in India. During and after his formal Ayurvedic training, his mentor, the Aghori Vimalananda, tutored him in Ayurveda, Yoga, Jyotish, Tantra and other forms of classical Indian lore. After moving to India in 1973, he lived there for more than a decade. Since 1985 he has traveled the world lecturing, consulting, teaching and writing. The author of more than a dozen books and audio works, he has served as Adjunct Faculty at the Ayurvedic Institute, Albuquerque, NM, and Bastyr University, Kenmore, WA. To read more about Dr. Svoboda and his travels, visit his website www.drsvoboda.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Left Hand Path to God, August 8, 2001

By 

Scott Snyder (Northern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: AGHORA, At the Left Hand of God (Aghora) (v. I) (Paperback)

This is an interesting book. It reminds me of Walt Whitman's line that its not the book but a piece of the man himself that you touch when you read it. The writing was very clear, accessible, and left me with the impression that I was in the actual presence of Vimalananda. I could smell him.

Having said that, this is the story of a Hindu shaman/sorcerer. Like a shaman he has powers, communes with spirits, is a healer and something of a joker too. Vimalanand has a great wit. And sometimes when he's in the middle of a serious story all I could think was, this guy's trying to pull my leg. You could almost see him winking at you in between the lines.

As an approach to God, this is not for me. It's a very dangerous path, physically, psychologically and spiritually. As a westerner, I just listened. I didn't get the urge to go out and try this stuff myself. There are enough warnings in the book to that effect as well.

The section on sexualtiy was very enlightening and surprisingly modern. However the practice of Vajroli is beyond credulity. I would have to see this with my own eyes to even begin to believe it's possible.

I was just getting to the chapter on spirits and thought "yeah, yeah. Right." One night I left the book in my car inside a cheap bookbag. The next morning I got into the car and found someone had broken into the car to steal the book. Nothing else was taken. I dont know if this was a synchronicity, bad luck or spirits, but it certainly made me wonder. I waited 3 months before buying another copy and finishing. True story.

Bottom line: I would take it all with a grain of salt and with a lot of caution. This book packs real power.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserves 10 stars, not 5!!!, October 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: AGHORA, At the Left Hand of God (Aghora) (v. I) (Paperback)

This is a most profound and sensational book I've ever read. It brings to light the "dark side" or the "left hand" and illumines us as to how this "dark side" is as valid a part of God and Creation as the "bright side" is. It describes the journeys of the Tantric adept Aghori Vimalananda through realms of existence far removed from the mundane world, and hidden from most of us. Reading this book (and the other two in this series) will cause a radical change in the concepts we've formed about the universe, God, life, death and everything.

Vimalananda is the pen-name of a great Aghori master (his real name is not revealed for good reasons). He had the privilege (or rather the grace obtained because of his past karma) to meet some of the greatest masters of all times and achieve phenomenal spiritual growth through the grace of Smashan Tara, the Great Goddess of the burning grounds.

The chapters on "Ma" and "Shakti" describe the motherhood of God so wonderfully that one cannot help but fall in love with the Divine Mother in spite of her frightening disposition. The chapter on Mentors describes the eternal Guru-disciple relationship and also some of the very devious ways adopted by Gurus to test their disciples. The chapter on Aghora llumines us as to how even the "forbidden" substances such as meat, alcohol, tobacco and drugs can be used to accelerate spiritual progress if used in a proper way along with the guidance of a Guru. The chapter on Avishkar is all about possessions, whether it's by a low-level spirit or by a high-level deity. After reading this chapter, you should no longer be misled by people claiming to be incarnations of deities, since the mechanics of possession will become clearer to you.

The chapter on spirits is sensational, to say the least. The astral world consists of many realms, and different types of spirits live in different realms based on their karmic qualification and level of evolution. Many people seem to think that they can extract work from the spirits and achieve whatever they want, without realizing that it can drag them into a dangerous trap, if they do not have an adept Guru to protect them. Considerable information is given on different types of spirits in the bright and dark realms. It's a very objective account that describes various types of spirit contact, along with their pros and cons. It also attempts to show how we can cultivate friendship with even the lowest forms of spirits and take advantage of it for attaining spiritual progress.

The chapter on sex is the longest and perhaps the most illuminating. I have no words to talk about it....you must read it for yourself....it brings to light some of the deepest mysteries of sex, relationships, marriage, love and attraction, that you might have never heard of before!

A word of caution though: If you are a purist with black-and-white standards, then you will find the information presented here to be very disturbing; so it might behoove you to stay clear from this book. But if you're a truth seeker who desires to discover the reality behind this mysterious cosmos, then this book will change your life for keeps!

This book packs real power and will cause a permanent change in your life and your very approach towards it.

May the Cosmic Mother bless you!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A journey into other realms., May 25, 2006

By 

Subhojit Dey "Traveller who has found" (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: AGHORA, At the Left Hand of God (Aghora) (v. I) (Paperback)

This wasn't the first book that I read. I picked up Aghora II one fine day because the picture on top of the book seemed interesting. It lay on my bookshelf for a few months when one day in the absence of anything better to do I started reading it. I had no inkling that my life was about to be transformed.

Before that I was another one of those "English-medium" taught disconnected Indian who had a passing idea of India's culture and traditions. Although I had heard all the rhetoric about the greatness of Indian culture, religion etc. etc. nothing had provided me an in depth vision of it at all. I took 2 years to read the three parts of Aghora. I read nothing else. I did not need to. Even now when I go back to them sometimes, I read something which prevents me from reading anything for weeks, such is the depth that has been addressed.

It won't be an overstatement if I would say that these books have changed my insight completely towards everything known or unknown.