Hindu yogis eat brains ("Believer"/Reza Aslan)

Reza Aslan (CNN.com); Breaking News Channel; Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

 

Our favorite Muslim, following the passing of Mohammed Ali, is Prof. Reza Aslan -- Christian scholar, author, and now TV host of "Believer" on CNN. Here he travels to India to meet the Aghori, crazed yogi ascetics or sadhus, with severe practices that apparently include eating rotted human flesh. A host should get right near the action, but maybe crossing the line shows why there's a line in the first place. Cannibalism? Eating brains from a corpse like a zombie? Hinduism would be mortified, but the Aghori are trying to show that nothing one takes in affects one's purity. Ritual contamination is a big thing among Hindus, particularly the standoffish Brahmins, so the Aghori are trying to show a different perspective.

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