Informative

Aghoris – The Misunderstood Mystics of India – Maa Bhairavi MahaVidya

For the past few months, we have been demystifying the Aghoras. We have been diving into their practices and understanding the reasons behind them, helping us release the judgment or fear and develop acceptance and insight into their lives. While we understand their guiding principles and their ways from the surface, we are yet to understand their learnings and the divinity they draw their knowledge from. In this blog, we discuss the Maa Bhairavi Mahavidya. One of the Ten Great Tantric Goddesses, Maa Bhairavi is one of the main Gurus of the Aghoras. We will discuss Her Depiction, Her Mysticism, Her Powers, and why the Aghoras Worship Her. 

Who is Maa Bhairavi 

Known as one of the fiercest of the Dasa Mahavidyas (The Ten Great Tantric Goddesses), Maa Bhairvai dispels Her children’s fears. She is depicted as having dark greyish red skin, similar to a thousand rising suns. She wears smooth clothes and has a garland of skulls around her neck. She has prominent earrings, a nose ring, bangles, a waistband, and a jeweled crown. Her lips are depicted as smeared with blood, and She has three eyes. Maa Bhairavi holds a book and a rosary and hols both the Vara (wish-granting) and the Abhay (fear dispelling) Mudra. Her palms are wet with blood as well. Her weapons are an axe, a trident, and a thunderbolt. 

The Mysticism 

Maa Bhairavi embodies the destruction principle of the universe. She is present in the inevitable decay, decline, destruction, and death. She is also seen in the self-destructive habits of humans. However, destruction is not always negative. Creation happens only when destruction happens first, making destruction important for the cycle to complete. This gets clearly depicted in the process of nourishment and metabolism, in which life feeds on death; creation proceeds by means of transformed energy given up in destruction. This is the mystic form of Maa Bhairavi. She destroys so creation can happen. But most importantly, She destroys the negative or that which has lost its potential to contribute. This comes as a very hard-hitting fact for people who have lost their loved ones. There are children and many young adults who lose their lives to accidents or diseases and these people had great potential. This is one of the questions we can ponder upon because we don’t know why these people lost their lives. However, if we look at all the other deaths, we find decay, destruction, and the loss of potential in them. Thus, helping us realize the harsh reality of death. 

Her Powers 

Maa Bhairavi’s powers go beyond the realms of time, space, and existence. She not only embodies destruction but also controls the weather, heals people, and opens us up to the truth of life. She can make the impure pure and the pure divine. She represents the transforming heat, Tapas, and the divine radiance, Tejas. Tapas here is not only asceticism but also the heightened aspiration that consumes all secondary interests and attachments. Maa Bhairavi has the power to help Her children cross over and reach the Divine. She is the transformation that comes with destruction. She personifies light and heat that can burn away the imperfections of the soul. She destroys and eliminates all obstacles from the way of true awareness and enlightenment. 

Why Do the Aghoras Worship Her?

From the skull garland to destroying unnecessary attachments, Maa Bhairavi brings Her children closed to enlightenment every step of the way. The skull garland Maa Bhairvai wears is not only a symbol of the demons She has destroyed, but also symbolizes embracing death. It also symbolizes that the skull is a beautiful part of the human body and should be embraced with or without flesh. The blood on Her lips and hands depict the life force of blood and that there is nothing impure or fearful about the fluid that runs in our veins. Most people faint at the sight of blood. Others, find the smell of blood nauseating. However, Maa Bhairvai teaches us that it is neither impure, not to be afraid of and nothing to be disgusted with. In fact, the blood in our veins keeps us alive and pumping. This also has relation to the period of blood and menstruation, which is a form of destruction and the beginning of a new cycle. 

The Aghoras also worship Maa Bhairavi because she destroys the notions of pure, impure, wild, civil, distracting desires and anything that may confuse a practitioner. 

The word Aghora means that which is pure or that which kills impurity. Ghora means impure and hence Aghora means that which is the opposite of impure. Since Maa Bhairavi destroys all impurities, the Aghoras revere to Her and learn to embrace all sides of the existent and non-existent reality from Her. 

We hope this blog helped you understand Maa Bhairavi better and also the why of the Aghoras worshipping Her. In case of any queries, feel free to write to us at info@chamundaswamiji.com