All the concepts of vedas highly emphasize on purity and on the satwic to the farther extent on the rajasic style of worships. Example of satwic worship is any simple hawans for peace etc and examples of rajasic forms can be rites, ashwametha. But most people in kali yuga find it difficult to associate with satwa guna completely. Pure rajasic forms is also difficult to be found. So most of us stay between rajasic and tamasic characteristics hence most of the times , people find it difficult to honor promises for a ritual at the deepest level and hence vedic rituals are not being performed as an anustana in its essential essence. Aghora is one of the most faster and refined form for the rajasic , tamasic forms of beings. but during ancient times , for a vedi to achieve rishihood, its said that he should have mastered aghora too.
Aghora is the height is vama marga tantra in its essence. But it also is a way of life in true sense. All the white sides (disciplines) presumes maya as the reality and work towards realizing the uniqueness. But, aghora from the start believes in leaving everything behind, totally without relationship with the mundane world.
so an aghori perceives the world devoid of attachments. For him the world is also like his favorite dwelling place the smashan..he considers the world as the smashan, the one which belongs to one who are already dead or the one who will be dead at a future period of time.
Most of the time , when the word aghori is mentioned, most people identify it with a man who lives in filth and other related impurities in smashan. I do agree that some aghori's deliberately convey that picture. but it's not necessary to find the aghori in an unapproachable form. The major reason for aghori's to portray such a picture is to avoid unwanted conversations and disturbances.
The urge to converse always is a result of one being uncomfortable with oneself. As speech is an inferior form of communication which is subjective to the bodily existence, a person who is accustomed with fierce aghora discipline easily sacrifices it to achieve higher modes or methods of communication. In any white discipline, we always practice for enlightenment or advancement to newer spiritual level with moderation. Or in other words , we are patient. But an aghori embraces the darkness, sacrifices everything and extremely induces pain to burn of his karmic debts to return back to the source. The aghora practices are extreme in regard and hence only suited for people who have high temperaments.
Before moving into the nature of aghora rituals, I would love to attract the attention of the readers to the most less celebrated veda called Atharva Veda. There are two mantra samitha which can be seen associated with Atharva veda. They are the shaunka and pippalada systems. As the duty of the atharvan was to protect the vedic rituals from any hindrances, these systems provide ways from charms to sorcery to witchcraft. Its interesting that sage shaunaka even has a text for rigveda based tantra called shunaka rikvidhana. The relationship of atharva with aghora basically is in the level of deities on in other words, they share a lot of common deities. Eg of common deities ; tara ma , mahakala , bhairava , the ethereal beings like yakshini etc
But the sadhana and the philosophy of aghora are more different and spiritually oriented.
