AGHORA: At the Left Hand of God This trilogy forms a portion of the story of the Aghori Vimalananda.

An aghori is a practitioner of Aghora, the spiritual discipline that takes Tantra to its farthest limits. For Vimalananda Aghora was a wholly internal process that eliminates all commonly-accepted restricitions to the human faculties of perception. He defined an Aghori in this way: "An Aghori is beyond the bounds of the earthly shackles; nay, something above the elements which shape the universe, and you. He takes a sort of intoxicant and thus gets intoxicated in Supreme Love which emanates from the innermost recesses of his heart. Shall I call it interiority? It is that part which is beyond awareness. He gives off the best part of love. Why part? Part of the Supreme, Universal Love, where one experiences, with the help of perception, All-in-One and One-in-All. When you, the finite, merge into infinity what does thou not know? During this stage he merges with his own deity so that he becomes Him - capital H. That is why he is said to have gone from darkness to divine enlightenment. This is an Aghori." Aghora: At the Left Hand of God is the first book in the Aghora trilogy. Written almost entirely in Vimalananda's own words, it presents events from his life, tenets of his philosophy, and highlights from his spiritual practices. Designed partly to shock and partly to comfort, but wholly as an offering to his Beloved, Aghora is as clear a picture as possible of a man who was a riddle wrapped up in an enigma. Vimalananda insisted that this book be published only after his demise, that he might be spared pursuit by those whose curiosity might be inflamed by some of the sensational events described within. He believed in devoting his all to the pursuit of the direct perception of Reality, and advised others to be similarly dedicated to attaining personal experience of God. To readers he offered this

warning: "Don't take anything I say as gospel truth. I am human, I make mistakes. Test on yourselves what I've told you. Try it out, experience it, and then you will know whether or not I'm telling you the truth."