The world is full of bizarre things. We have so many rituals, traditions and communities in our own country that we have no idea about. And one can say that television and print media has helped us in understanding our surroundings better.
But how often do they portray things as they are?
Reza Aslan is an Iranian-American author who hosts a show ‘Believer with Reza Aslan’ on CNN. In the show, he explores different faiths of the world and interacts with their followers.
This time, he was in Varanasi where he had a tête–à–tête with Aghori sadhus. That’s not it. While he was at it, well, he also ate a human brain!
For those who don’t know, Aghoris are people who call themselves followers of Lord Shiva and are engaged in post-mortem rituals. They live in charnel grounds (shamshaan) and eat remains of human corpses.
In this part of the show, Aslan is seen interacting with a group of Aghori sadhus, who ask him to eat a part of a human brain.
The video shows how the Aghoris have smeared ash from cremated human bodies on Aslan’s face.
Before eating the brain, the Aghori sadhu offers an alcoholic drink to Aslan in a human skull.
It’s quite common for Aghoris to drink from bowls made from human skulls.
While asking questions, at one point, the Aghori sadhu even flips and threatens Aslan of cutting his head if he keeps talking.
The elderly Aghori is also seen doing somersaults in the sand and hurling his own feces at Aslan, before eating it.
At this point an apprehensive Aslan calls his show director and tells him it might have been a mistake to come here.
In a Facebook post, Aslan wrote:
‘Want to know what a dead guy’s brain tastes like? Charcoal’.
‘It was burnt to a crisp!’
It was indeed a horrifying show and anyone watching it can easily develop a misunderstanding towards Hindu religion. Naturally, the Indian-American community was not pleased with Aslan’s portrayal of the Hindus.
You can watch the graphic clipping here, at your own risk!
We don’t know what to say!
