Aghora

We are all dead

dead souls walking the Earth

everyone who is born to live

is born to die

like a blink of candlelight

in an eternity of darkness

our life will flicker and die.

I have no need for possessions

in a world of illusion

why bind myself to that

which is ephemeral?

The cremation ground is my home

amongst the corpses and the ashes

I have no need to discriminate

between partially consumed flesh

or faeces mixed with dirt

it is all transformed within my skull bowl

by the strength of untempered passion.

What need have I

of purification rites?

Nothing can pollute me-

everything is part of God

and God is part of me.

I do not know

if I fornicate with a corpse

or with an apparition

of Kali Maa herself

or with an untouchable woman

from the local village;

it is all one to me.

The sadhanas I perform

are extreme and arduous in the extreme

and although I have acquired

supranatural powers

I take no pride in them

for my fate remains

the same.

By Sanandana