Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

The best book I have read in my life ! First I would like to thank Svoboda for writing it ! Second, a word of advice:If you are not a true tantric and if you do not intend to be one,or if you do not know what tantra is,best to read something else on tantra first,because there are chances you will not like it so much if you read it first ! ( by the way,Tantra has actually very little to do with sex ) ...

Rather than talk about hidden realms rarely perceivable to 'humans', I should like to say that in terms of literary merit this book holds it's own and, of course, goes beyond the beyond in being one hell of an astonishing read. Aghora has been a book I have read and re-read over the years and each time my appreciation for it deepens, as does my amusement. Don't kid yerself, this book WAS meant to amuse. After, actually hearing Robert Svoboda give a public talk I could go back to the book and understand much more of the spirit in which this masterpiece was written. Dr. Svoboda is a lighthearted and humorous chap and Aghora is redolent with his personality, just as much as it is with JamMaster Vimalananda. What I truly enjoy is Dr. Svoboda's writing style which so affectively transmits the oral tradition that he has had the incredibly good fortune to be initiated into. I'm not one to get into the metaphysical speculations about entities, or such stuff, but Aghora simply by virtue of it's narrative and sensationalistic style provides enough wisdom and food for thought, and gobs of head thrown back laughing out loud so hard that my mouth broke in half, eye popping, snot producing, fists down on the table, pointing, grunting, and laughing,(O.K., I might be exagerating a little!) than one could hope for in an esoteric treatise. After reading this Tom Robbinsesque Left Handed tome, you may discover that it would not at all be necesarry to gallop into a charnel and wrestle with jackals over a corpse. You might instead discover that your personality has been entertained to death and you might also learn something in the process, for that is the method to this "madness"!!

My thanks to Robert Svoboda, for this precious offering.
For the casual browser of books the cover can be scary. But that fear dissolves and changes to admiration, once the last page of the book is turned.
I was new to this territory, and it took a lot of guts for me to finish this book, which I received as a gift. I guess one needs to read this book first before Part II and Part III, Since, the introduction on Vimalanda in the fist few chapters is key. I have purchased the Part II (Kundalini) book, and after that it will be Part III (Karma), to finish the trilogy.
Many questions that arose in my mind during the first half of the book were answered in the second half of the book. I took sevral monts to finish my 1st reading. My second reading of the book, was a better experience, and I was able to pick-up many more gems strewn by Vimalananda.
There is a beautiful write-up on the cover illustration on the internet somewhere - do a web-search.

"Aghora At the left hand of God" is a book I would surly recommend for anyone on the spiritual journey. I feel it is necessary to be open minded and trust divine intuition. The portrait of Aghori Vimalananda's life is very straight to the point, and may make one's lacking in faith a bit frightened. Or on the flip side, it may just be the divine spark needed to ignite the spirit of faith within you. If you trust, "that still small voice within", and your guru you will be able to gain great inspiration and perspective from this wonderful book. Anyone, who knows anything about eastern philosophy can relate and grow from Aghora. It will take you through realities not many were meant to know about, at least not until the moment of death maybe.

Jai Jai Sri Sri Mata Amritandamayi!

This book is truly outstanding. It is like Autobiography of a Yogi but goes far beyond what the beginning seeker needs to hear. It covers all facets of life and discusses spirits and many other celestial beings and their activities. Robert Svoboda has established his credibility with his intelligent and well written books on Ayurveda and Jyotish. I highly recommend this book to anyone fascinated by the spiritual realms.

This book cuts through all of the west's romanticized notions about what is Tantra, & what is not.
Full of humor,wit,& wisdom.
This is a rollercaoster ride through the wold of Tantra which reads like fiction, while being completely factual.

I am an American Roman-Catholic and I found this book absolutely fascinating. I bought it quite a while ago, the reason for which I do not even remember, put it on the shelf and forgot about it. However, I picked it up a few days ago and finished it this morning. I could not put it down. I think it is important to note that this book can and will be read at different levels by different readers. On one level we have a memoir of a very clever, witty, and interesting fellow. The book is worth reading simply for that alone. On a higher level we have a look into a spiritual world that most of us, certainly myself, have never encountered. The "theology", for lack of a better term, was perfectly consistent and logical throughout the book and allowed me to grasp some of the important ideas of Aghora in a very easy way, as the book is written in a style (to Svoboda's credit) that makes you feel as though Vimalananda is sitting next to you as a friend having a conversation. Though I was confronted on each page by words I could not pronounce, names I did not know, and concepts I was unfamiliar with it did not inhibit my comprehension. This struck me as quite odd, of course, but again is a testament to Svoboda's excellent writing and his guru's excellent explanations. The ideas introduced in this book were extremely thought provoking and I finished it with a feeling of mental cleanliness, emotional inspiration and a hightened awareness of spirituality that boosted my own religious beliefs, different though they may be. There are surely levels of this text that I was unable to access as others more familiar with Hinduism, Tantra and Aghora would be able to. Nevertheless, I would strongly suggest to anyone who was interested in this book enough to click on it on amazon to buy it, never mind what your religion is or your prejudices are or any aversion you may have to the ideas. As Vimalananda might say "I don't care." You may leave with the exact same beliefs as before you read it but it will challenge you, intrigue you, and make you more aware of your own spiritually.