My grandfather would didn’t want to take the doctors advise and use a blood transfusion when he had a 7 hour surgery. Luckily he survived the surgery, but it was a close call.

I don’t understand how anyone could let them selves or a family member die because of something like this. I can say from personal experience and observations that I truly cannot believe that Jehovah’s Witnesses are a religion based on love. (They disown family members and shun them if they were baptized and later decide not to go to Meetings any more). I am so glad I was never baptized.

Aghori ascetics, while being devotees of the Hindu God Shiva in Shiva’s form as Lord Bhairava, are monists who adhere to the common Hindu belief in liberation (moksha) from the cycle of reincarnation (samsara). This liberation is a realization of the self’s identity with the absolute. Because of this monistic doctrine, the Aghoris maintain that all opposites are ultimately illusory. The purpose of embracing pollution through various practices is the realization of non-duality through transcending social taboos, and seeing the illusory nature of all conventional categories. The Aghoris are not to be confused with the shivnetras, who are also ardent devotees of Shiva but do not indulge in extreme ritual worship practices known to some extent as Tamasic (rituals involving some or all of the following: meat eating, alcohol drinking, consumption of beverages and foods with opiates, hallucinogens and cannabis products as key ingredients, cannibalism, residing in cremation grounds, and Tantric sexual rituals). Although they enjoy close ties with the shivnetras, netras are a complete opposite of the aghoris and are purely Sattvic in nature and worship.

In essence, Aghoris base their beliefs on two principles. First, that Shiva is perfect. Second, that Shiva is responsible for everything; every rock, tree, animal, and even every thought. Due to this, everything that exists must be perfect, and to deny the perfection of anything would be to deny the sacredness of all life in its full manifestation, as well as deny God/Goddess and the demigods perfection.[citation needed] Aghoris eat any form of food and intoxicants, engage in a variety of sexual practices, ritually and otherwise, and also meditate on dead bodies for some rituals as prescribed in Hindu Tantric holy scriptures.[3]

The Aghoris distinguish themselves from other Hindu sects and priests by their alcoholic and cannibalistic rituals. The corpses, which may be either pulled from a river [including Ganges] or obtained from cremation grounds, are consumed both raw and cooked on open flame, as the Aghoris believe that what others consider a “dead man” is, in fact, nothing but a natural matter devoid of the life force it once contained. Therefore while for ordinary folks cannibalism may be seen as primitive, barbaric as well as unclean, for aghoris it is being both resourceful and subverting the common stereotypes placed on such taboos into a spiritual ascertainment that indeed nothing is profane nor separate from God, who is hailed to be all and in all. In fact, the Aghoris see it as a scientific approach in trying to discover how matter converts from one form to another.[5]

I’m Hindu, and comment #203 was hurtful and unkind. All religions have their fallacies, true, but the “facts” that he/she/it listed was twisted.

I think the comment about Kali-Amman was the worst. Copulating with a corpse?? Where the hell did you get that information??

Many people have asked me why goddess Kali looks so demonic. Well, you know the old adage, fight fire with fire. The Goddess Kali is a destroyer of demons, and she had to be as powerful and bloodthirsty as they are. She is only terrible to the evil spirits and the sinful, but very loving to devotees. She is actually the Universal Mother to Hindus. Think about it – when you have trouble in your life, don’t you go running to your mom? Goddess Kali is like Supermom, saving the universe.

She’s depicted as standing over a demon, symbolically the demon of ignorance. She’s keeps it in check so man can pursue higher knowledge.

Alternatively, she’s standing on her consort, Lord Shiva. The stories have it that after the battle, she began dancing in bloodthirsty joy, and because she’s so powerful the universe’s safety was threatened. Lord Shiva lay among the corpses, and when she stepped on him, the shame of it caused her to bite her tongue.

To insult another religion shows extreme low-mindedness and a certain degree of fear. If you are comfortable in what you believe in, then other faiths should not threaten you.