Sun Yogi Umasankar

Sun Yogi Umasankar

Normally, how long can an average human being survive without food or water? Or without sleep? The answer would probably be: a few days.

Is there a possibility that a human being can procure necessary nutrients and energy directly from the sun energy and get rid of the need to eat or drink water?

There indeed is one such man, now becoming well-known as Sun Yogi, who has discovered a unique method of absorbing energy directly from the chief source of energy in our world: the sun. Armed with this less known Indian system, he is travelling barefoot across the country to spread the message of ‘Universal Unity, Peace and Brotherhood’. He has already logged in 62,000 km.

Born Umashankar in 1967 in Midnapore, West Bengal, he developed an early interest in yoga and religion. A Calcutta university graduate with a diploma in electronics, he was managing his electronics shop when in 1995 he decided to chuck it all up and headed for the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry in search of real knowledge.

During his stay at the ashram, the Sun Yogi recalls: “I spent every morning meditating on a rock at the beach looking at the sun’s reflection in the sea. It was very soothing. Gradually, I started gazing directly at the rising sun. Later, I could concentrate on the sun even when it rose higher in the sky. The harsh brightness disappeared after continued meditation and now the sun appears to me as a clear hazy ring with soft blue sky inside.”

As days passed by, he started experiencing seven bright colours radiating from the sun, slowly reaching closer to the ground. And he felt the sun’s cosmic energy embracing his body from within. One day after a particularly exhilarating experience, when he returned to the ashram, to his surprise he noticed that his body rejected food and he didn’t feel hungry! Realisation dawned on him that during his sun meditations, he was somehow able to absorb energy directly from the sun.

Initially, he started skipping breakfast. Six months later, he stopped taking dinner. From August 17 to December 7, 1996, Sun Yogi stopped eating and sleeping altogether. Yet, his weight remained the same and he continued his daily routine without feeling tired or exhausted or noticing any health problem.

A simple, amiable man with child-like nature, this is how Sun Yogi explains his discovery: “It made me believe that looking directly at the sun is a way of charging one’s body cells with kinetic energy.” As for essential vitamins and minerals, he claims that as they are present in the air, he just inhales them directly from the surroundings.

People who have watched him at close quarters, authenticate his claims. Says D.R. Kaarthikeyan, former CBI director: “I met Sun Yogi at the Yoga Centre of Annamalai University. He stayed with me for a period of 48 hours and I saw him eating or drinking nothing.”

Ben Horen from England who co-founded the Ananda Society with a project in Himachal Pradesh, has been so impressed with Sun Yogi that he has created a link (www.anandaproject.org/sunyogi) on their website on him and his work. Writes Ben: “I have witnessed him living with no food, water or sleep, spending part of each day staring at the sun as if it was as soft as the moon. Many times I have watched him enter samadhi during meditation, and I have felt him stop his pulse through sheer concentration. He does not seem to feel the cold—he sits barechested at night when I am feeling cold wearing thick woollens.”

Sun Yogi now teaches Sun Yoga to whosoever cares to learn. It is easy, he says, and most people can pick up in a few sittings. What are the benefits? “I believe that almost all the ailments that our body develops are because of eating.” Living increasingly on sun energy, you will stay healthy and the ageing process will slow down, if not reverse altogether. An additional therapy he teaches is acupressure, which is easy to learn and use.

Sun Yogi has over 40,000 students from India and abroad practising his yoga under him. Every year he holds an International Spiritual Conference in his native place in West Bengal and has centres in Kolkata, Port Blair and Saharanpur. He has also founded K.G.K. Gurukulam, an educational/ training institute for yoga and related subjects in Vedaraniyam in Tamil Nadu.

Sun Yogi’s life can be called Surya Namaskar, a true salute to the sun.