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Prahlad Jani ("Mataji") - an Idian sadhu, who was supposedly able to live without food and water for the last few decades.

Outline of life

Prahlad Jani grew up in Charod village in Mehsana district. According to Jani, he left his home in Rajasthan at the age of seven, and went to live in the jungle.

"When he reached the age of 11, he underwent a religious experience during which he became a follower of the Hindu goddess Amba. In her honour, he chose to dress as a female devotee, wearing a red sari-like garment, nose-ring, bangles and crimson flowers in his shoulder-length hair. In return, Jani believes that the goddess has sustained him ever since by feeding him with a lifegiving, invisible "elixir", which has supposedly given him the strength to continue without food or water."

"For at least the past 40 years, Jani has been living, hermit-like, in a cave in the jungles close to the Gujarati temple of Ambaji. He rises at 4am, spending most of the day meditating." Amongst his followers and devotees he is commonly known as Mataji (" The Great Mother"). This name is also frequently used by Indians (regardless of their religious views) with reference to Prahlad Jani.

2003 Tests

Prahlad Jani, an Indian sadhu who claims to have gone without food for decades, spent ten days under strict observation by physicians at Sterling Hospital, Ahmedabad, India, in 2003. The study was led by Dr Sudhir Shah <http://www.sudhirneuro.org/>, a well known and ardent proponent of Jain philosophy, who studies people claiming spiritual abilities, the same doctor who led the study of Hira Ratan Manek.

Reportedly, during the observation, he was given only 100 millilitres of water a day to use as mouthwash, which was collected and measured after he used it, to make sure he hadn't consumed any. He was reported to enter Samadhi state of consciousness almost daily during meditation. Throughout the observation, he passed no urine or stool, but doctors say urine appeared to form in the bladder, only to be reabsorbed. Jani claims a goddess sustains him through amrit that filters down through a hole in his palate.

According to the hospital's deputy superintendent, Dr. Dinesh Desai, "A series of tests conducted on him show his body mechanism is that of a normal person", but "a hole in the palate is an abnormal phenomenon."

Criticism

Critics said, that Jani was not engaged in strenuous exercise during the ten-day trial, and longer trials were not recorded under similarly strict observation. Further, his weight did drop slightly during the 10 days, casting some doubt on his claim to go indefinitely without food.

The Indian Rationalist Association has criticised the Indian Ministry of Defence for agreeing to take part in the tests, and for being taken in by a "village fraud". Sanal Edamaruku of the Indian Rationalist Association claimed to have been repeatedly denied sending an independent team to survey the room where Jani was held. He also claimed that "this particular hospital, led by this particular doctor, keeps on making these claims without ever producing evidence or publishing research." The Indian Rationalist Association also said that individuals making similar claims have all reportedly been exposed as frauds.

Reports say that a special vomiting gas had been successfully used by IRA to intoxicate one of the previous claimants and force the vomiting effect to expose that there was indigested food in her intestines.

The Discovery Channel Documentary

On June 26, 2006, The Discovery Channel aired a documentary called "The Boy with Divine Powers" featuring a 5 minute interview with Prahlad Jani and Dr. Sudhir Shah.

2010 Tests

As of April 22, 2010, new tests are being conducted on Prahlad Jani under surveillance of 35 doctors and researchers of Defence Institute of Physiology & Allied Science (DIPAS).

Rajiv Sharma, CEO of Sterling Hospital, said, “We wanted to insure Jani’s life. However, due to certain legalities, insurance firms refused our request. Finally, the state government insured his life so that the study could be conducted.”

Prahlad Jani was kept for fifteen days, until May 6 (tests were completed on Thursday at 3:30pm), and reportedly did not eat, drink or go to the toilet once during the time. This was apparently shown by blood tests, hormone profiles, MRIs and angiographs. The doctors also claimed to have found that he was "more healthy than someone half his age."

Doctors admitted they expected to observe noticeable muscle mass loss, significant dehydration, weight loss and fatigue. Some believed organ failure might occur — yet the observation results showed none of the above.

During the study, a protocol of round-the-clock surveillance was followed with the help of CCTV cameras and personal observation. Mataji (Prahlad Jani) was taken out for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasonography (USG), and X-ray examination and exposure to sun under continuous video recording.

“During the tests we found that in Prahalad Jani's bladder, the amount of liquid fluctuates even when he does not pass urine,” said a member of the team of medical experts that conducted medical tests. Mataji's lung functions is quite normal, as per reports by Dr. Mukesh Patel and his team.

Dr. G. Ilavazahagan, director, DIPAS (a heavily funded branch of India's Defence Research and Development Organisation), said, "The exercise of taking this yogi under a medical scanner is to understand which energy supports his existence, if not food or water. And if at the end of three months by which we plan to come out with observations based on this 15-day check up, we are able to reach to an explanation of this hypothesis - it would tremendously benefit mankind. The observations derived from this case study can help many soldiers, victims of calamities and astronauts - who often have to survive without food or water for long spells."

Dr. Urman Dhruv, a physician, said, "We are collecting data on a person who has lived on an alternative pathway compared to an ordinary person. The comparative study of his reports of the tests conducted in 2003 and results of the recent and on-going tests would throw light on the process of aging in Jani's body - which seems to have undergone some type of genetic transformation."

Reaction of Critics and Supporters

Despite the strict protocol observed by the Indian military and the involvement of 35 doctors for monitoring of the event, Dr. Michael Van Rooyen (an emergency physician at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an associate professor at Harvard's medical school, and the director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative that focuses on providing aid to people lacking food and water) dismissed the observation results saying, "But that's simply impossible!". "Without food," as Van Rooyen explains, "your body chemistry changes. Profoundly malnourished people auto-digest, they consume their own body's resources. You get liver failure, tachycardia, heart strain. You fall apart.” “You go from being a grape to a raisin,” Van Rooyen says, "and if you didn’t have a heart attack first, you’d die of kidney failure." "You can hold a lot of water in those yogi beards," Van Rooyen asserts. "He must take in water. The human body cannot survive without it."

However, Van Rooyen's conclusion remains refuted by the fact that while Prahlad Jani was allowed to bathe and gargle with water, the doctors had imposed severely restricted measures by initiating a stolid protocol to control the quantity of fluid the subject of observation spit out.

In the recent review, published by The Indian Rationalist Organization on May 18th, 2010, Sanal Edamaruku criticizes that Jani was allowed to move out of the CCTV camera's field of view, which was supposedly revealed by an official video clip. The critic points out that Jani was allowed to receive devotees and could even leave the sealed test room for a sun bath. Accordingly to his opinion, the regular gargling and bathing activities were not sufficiently monitored.

In the article Sanal Edamaruku also hypothesizes that "Prahlad Jani has some influential protectors" and says that "a call from Sterling hospital invited me – live on TV – to join the test the next day", but right before he was going to get on the plane and fly to Gujarat for inspection, he was supposedly "informed that we had to wait for the permission of the "top boss" of the project. ... this permission never came."

Accordingly to the journalist reviews, many Indian scholars are not as eager to dismiss the yogi as is Dr. Van Rooyen and Sanal Edamaruku. They explain that breatharians exist and it can be a real, acquired ability. A person can learn to gather energy from sources other than the traditional ones. The term 'breathers' is accepted as the ability to obtain energy from the 'prana' (universal energy source) in the environment.

References

1. ^ Rajeev Khanna (2003-11-25). "BBC NEWS". Retrieved 2008-06-07. {{cite news}}: Text "Fasting fakir flummoxes physicians" ignored (help); Text "South Asia" ignored (help)
2. ^ Rawstorne, Tom (7 May 2010). "The man who says he hasn't eaten or drunk for 70 years: Why are eminent doctors taking him seriously?". Daily Mail.
3. Dr. Urman Dhruv, Dr. S. V. Shah and Dr. V. N. Shah, Mataji Case Study. Retrieved on 2010-05-08
4. Jain Religion And Science http://www.sudhirneuro.org/jain.php
5. ^ How a man can live seven decades without food or water http://www.helium.com/items/1830574-how-a-man-can-live-seven-decades-without-food-or-water
6. ""No food, no water for 60 years! - Indian Ministry of Defence and NASA taken in by a village fraud"". Retrieved 2009-09-22.
7. Mataji - Case Study http://www.sudhirneuro.org/mataji-case-study.php
8. PDF and PPT presentations of Mataji http://www.sudhirneuro.org/articles.php
9. Man who lives on air undergoes defence tests http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=3&contentid=201004272010042703191596a47ffb68
10. Hermit Claims 70 Years Survival Without Food http://www.wusa9.com/news/watercooler/story.aspx?storyid=100671&catid=148
11. Presentation on Prahlad Jani http://lifeadventurestariq.blogspot.com/2010/04/man-survives-for-decades-without-food.html
12. Prahlad Jani Breaks a Record,No Food & Water for 74 years http://www.kerala365.com/political-news-events/prahlad-jani-breaks-a-recordno-food-water-for-74-years-prahlad-janiabout-prahlad-jani/
13. Experts baffled as Mataji's medical reports are normal http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_experts-baffled-as-mataji-s-medical-reports-are-normal_1380169
14. ^ "Yogi sans food gives medical fraternity food for thought". Dnaindia.com. 2010-04-27. Retrieved 2010-05-10.
15. ^ Edamaruku, Sanal (2010-05-18). "Prahlad Jani and his powerful protectors". Rationalistinternational.net. Retrieved 2010-06-14.

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