45 DAYS WITHOUT FOOD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 19 December 1935, Page 13

45 DAYS WITHOUT FOOD

YOGI'S; LONG TRANCE (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) LONDON, 17tli December. ' The Delhi correspondent of. “The Times” cites a. remarkable instance of a Hindu yogi meditating without food or water for 45 days, carrying out- the philosophical doctrine of samachi, the highest form of penance practised by ancient Hindu sages. The yogi had himself immured in a stone* tomb 16ft square by 4ft deep at ltishikesh, a noted place of pilgrimage in the United Province?, having previously fasted for several days. Hf issued instructions that between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. on the forty-fifth day, when ho uttered the sacred word “Om,” lie should be taken out and given fruit juice and his body rubbed with oil. Crowds of worshippers continually watched out. side the tomb, the door of which was cemented up and guarded. The yogi was duly heard at the appointed time to utter in low voice “Om,” when his pale thin body, still living, was carried out amid the prayers of thousands. When a yogi previously went into a similar trance white ants partly ate ono of his hands.