fakir claims not to have eaten or drunk for decades!!

[vakil sahib]

Fasting fakir flummoxes physicians
By Rajeev Khanna
BBC correspondent in Ahmedabad

Doctors and experts are baffled by an Indian hermit who claims not to have eaten or drunk anything for several decades - but is still in perfect health.

Prahlad Jani, a holy man, or fakir, who is over 70 years old, has just spent 10 days under constant observation in Sterling Hospital, in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad.

During that time, he did not consume anything and "neither did he pass urine or stool", according to the hospital's deputy superintendent, Dr Dinesh Desai.

Yet he is in fine mental and physical fettle, say doctors.

Most people can live without food for several weeks, with the body drawing on its fat and protein stores. But the average human can survive for only three to four days without water.

Followers of Indian holy men and ascetics have often ascribed extraordinary powers to them, but such powers are seldom subject to scientific inspection.

Mouthwash

"A series of tests conducted on him show his body mechanism is that of a normal person," said Dr Desai.

Mr Jani spends most of his time in a cave near the Ambaji temple in Gujarat state.


He has never fallen ill and can continue to live like this
Bhiku Prajapati, Mr Jani's devotee
He spent his 10 days in hospital in a specially prepared room, with a sealed-off toilet and constant video surveillance.

To help the doctors verify his claims, Mr Jani agreed to avoid bathing for his time in hospital.

The only fluid he was allowed was a small amount of water, to use as mouthwash.

One hundred millilitres of water were given to him, and then collected and measured in a beaker when he spat it out, to make sure none had been drunk.

Thank goddess

A statement from Ahmedabad's Association of Physicians says that despite no water entering his body, urine nonetheless appeared to form in his bladder - only to be re-absorbed by the bladder walls.


At the end of his confinement, doctors noted no deterioration in his condition, other than a slight drop in his weight.

"I feel no need for food and water," says Mr Jani, who claims he was blessed by a goddess at the age of eight and has lived in caves ever since.

He grew up in Charod village in Mehsana district and wears the dress of a devotee of the goddess Ambaji - a red sari-like garment, nose ring, bangles and crimson flowers in the hair.

He also wears the vermilion "tika" mark on his forehead, more often seen on married Hindu women.

His followers call him "mataji" or goddess.

More tests

He says he has survived several decades without food or water because of a hole in his palate.

Drops of water filter through this hole, he says, sustaining him.

"He has never fallen ill and can continue to live like this," said Bhiku Prajapati, one of Mr Jani's many followers.

"A hole in the palate is an abnormal phenomenon," says Dr Desai.

His colleague, Dr Urman Dhruv, told the BBC a full medical report is being prepared on Mr Jani's 10 days under observation.

Doctors say they cannot verify his claim to have not eaten or drunk for decades - but by observing his feat under laboratory conditions, they hope to learn more about the human body.

It is likely that doctors will want to examine Mr Jani again in order to solve the medical mystery he has presented them with.

link

[loverboy260]

i have heard of some cases where holy men fast for so many days and are fine, why? because they only pray to God and do not care about anything else and God in returns give them this status that they do not need any food/drink!

[Dhurandhar Bhat]

I just want to take this guy to a buffet at Karim's..he has to just one thing..just watch me eat all that coool stuff...yummmie....

[echarcha]

There was another thread about this fasting guy. I could not find it but this thread showed up in search.

Here is latest update -->

Study on Yogi Prahlad Jani’s Fasting Miracles Concludes
Last Updated: Jun 14, 2010


After 15 days of investigation, India’s Defense Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences concluded its study of 82-year-old yogi Prahlad Jani on Thursday, May 6.

Jani, who claims to have lived without food or water since his childhood, was under the close watch of three video cameras 24 hours a day. Researchers conducted various medical tests on him. The research team, consisting of 35 scientists, could not find any evidence that Jani ate or drank anything during the 15 days.

Doctors have not found any adverse effects in his body from hunger or dehydration. They think that yoga exercises may have caused Jani’s body to undergo a biological transformation. The researchers said tests found that his brain is equivalent to that of a 25-year-old.

In fact, according to the Daily Mail, the doctors said that after fasting for two weeks, Jani was healthier than the average 40-year-old.

When a person fasts, there are usually changes in metabolism, but that was not observed in Jani.

“Clinical, biochemical, radiological, and other relevant examinations were done on Prahlad Jani and all reports were within the safe range throughout the study. He is healthy; his mind is sharp,” said researcher Dr. G. Ilavazhagn according to the Daily Mail. “What is truly astonishing, and something we have no explanation for, is that he has not passed stools or urine. To my knowledge, that is medically unprecedented.”

Scientists will continue to analyze the results from this study, and it may take two months for them to draw conclusions.

LINK

[Mr.Bharat]

there are several such hindu saints and monks who can do this. someday scientists will discover the secret, what our ancient sadhus and yogis achived centuries back

Another example of a yogini who lived her life without food
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Autobi...ogi/Chapter_46


Sri Yukteswar used to say: "The Lord has given us the fruits of the good earth. We like to see our food, to smell it, to taste it--the Hindu likes also to touch it!" One does not mind HEARING it, either, if no one else is present at the meal!


Someday scientists will discover how man can live directly on solar energy. "Chlorophyll is the only substance known in nature that somehow possesses the power to act as a 'sunlight trap,'" William L. Laurence writes in the NEW YORK TIMES. "It 'catches' the energy of sunlight and stores it in the plant. Without this no life could exist. We obtain the energy we need for living from the solar energy stored in the plant-food we eat or in the flesh of the animals that eat the plants. The energy we obtain from coal or oil is solar energy trapped by the chlorophyll in plant life millions of years ago. We live by the sun through the agency of chlorophyll."

[dhurandhar]

but why this Jani guy wearing a nose-ring