Regarding my recent post in which I mention Vimalananda, a Tantric adept,
as an example of a mono-eater, Roy comments:

Roy:
>Only problem: Vimalananda's health appeared to be quite poor during most of
>his life.The chain smoking certainly didn't help either.
>Physical health wasn't his priority anyway:
>Vimalananda's brand of Tantra, "Agora", preached that physical health and
>spiritual health were mutually incompatible, and that to fortify the latter, one had
>to sacrifice the three "obstacles": sleep, food and sex.
>(Agora is unlike mainstream Tantra, which goes to great extents to
>cultivate a healthy body:ex: Hatha Yoga being one of the creations of Tantrik yoga.)

Tom:
What you say is true. I was speaking of Vimalananda's experience as a mono-
eater, which was when he was very young. That was before he became an Aghori,
before he smoked, drank, and used marijuana. Aghora is part of the left-hand
path of Tantra, and includes as possible tools for spiritual development,
things like use of drugs (liquor, marijuana, opium), self-mutilation,
and sadhana - ritual worship of God - that requires that you can borrow a
fresh human corpse. (The rituals requiring corpses are done in smashans: burning
grounds where bodies are cremated). In contrast, the right hand path of Tantra
is very conservative, and uses meditation and mantra as tools for spiritual
development.

Even if one is not interested in becoming an Aghori, the books by Robert Svoboda
on the subject are fascinating - highly recommended! (Warning: said books are
not for the easily offended, or if you can be "weirded-out" easily.)

Tom Billings
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