Incredible Prahlad Jani.

In my search for truth, inspirational people and knowledge, I have more than once come across incredible deeds; deeds so unbelieveable that I would not have given it a second thought if not for the verification made by professional people with qualifications we have no reason to doubt.

Lately, there was this 83 year old Indian holy man, Prahlad Jani, whom doctors and medical specialists wonder how he could have survived as he claimed to have lived more than seventy years without food and water, living a life of yoga and meditation.

Between April and May 2010, a team of more than 30 medical people and researchers did a study of this man's ability to survive for 15 days without food and water. The study was conducted in a hospital by the Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Science. During the duration of the study, Prahlad Jani did not drink, eat, bathe or go to the toilet. To rinse his mouth once a day, Prahlad Jani was given a beaker of water in which he spat into after cleaning his mouth to show that none of the water entered his body. At the end of the study, doctors found Prahlad Jani as healthy as anyone half his age. They came to this conclusion after tests on his heart, lungs and memory capacity, and scans on his organs were made.

When I told my son, a science student and an engineering undergraduate, about this incredible man, he did not believe the feat possible. First, there was this claim that Prahlad Jani had not had food or water for seventy years since the age of eleven when he was blessed by the goddess, Amba, with special powers and was able to receive nutrients from the air, although some believe the nutrients could be from the brain, through a hole in his palate. Without food and liquids, he demanded to know how the body of a young boy could develop in size to that of a grown man. That, I must admit, is a valid question.

Then there was the question of dehydration. After more than four days without liquid, what would happen to the blood, its circulation (a cause for caution in dengue cases), and the organs of the body as dehydration of the body worsen?

However, it must be pointed out that Prahlad Jani went through a study with 24-hour surveillance with such aids as CCTV cameras as well as observation of a team of doctors and researchers. Tests were even made on his bladder, revealing that liquid moves in and out of it although no urination took place. As for the expected effects of starvation from not consuming any food, there was no muscle mass loss, no weight loss and no fatigue which was really incredible. How this man managed to stay healthy and maintain his body without damage or loss despite going through fifteen days without food and water is not only beyond us, but also the doctors in the study.

As it defies science and logical understanding, we have no alternative but to fall back on the only other possibility; that this man truly has been blessed by a goddess who had sustained his body by feeding him some kind of life-energy which is his claim.

In which case, the purpose of the study would not have been achieved as the doctors were hoping to discover some way to assist victims of natural tragedies and astronauts who often had to survive for long periods without food or water.

Actually, there was this belief that humans need not rely on food and water for sustenance. This belief is known as Breatharianism, in which it is claimed that the human can be sustained with prana, an energy derived from sunlight, which is similar to Ayurveda teaching.