Fakir Buried Alive For Forty Days, Survives!

by excitedbylife on July 3, 2010

We found a newspaper clipping published in 1880 in the London Telegraph of a fascinating account of a Indian Fakir (Hatha Yogi) called Sadhu Haridas being buried alive for 40 days and then being completely resuscitated. Yet another story showing the amazing untapped powers of our minds through meditation.

“From the time of the box being opened to the recovery of the voice, not more than half an hour could have elapsed; and in another half hour, the Fakir talked with myself and those about him freely, though feebly, like a sick person. Then we left him, convinced that there had been no fraud or collusion in the exhibition we had witnessed.” Claude Wade’s account of the famous Fakir of Lahore

WONDERFUL PERFORMANCES OF THE INDIAN FAKIRS.

A WELL-ATTESTED ACCOUNT OF A FAKIR

WHO WAS SEALED UP, BURIED, AND RESUSITATED

AFTER FORTY DAYS

- THE PROCESS OF REVIVING THE VITAL SPARK

From the London Telegraph

Published Aug 22 1880

We are not told of whether the Seven Sleepers who retired to a cave in Ephesus during the reign of the Christian-killing Emperor Decius, and only woke up 155 years afterward, when Theodosius II. was on the throne, made any special preparation, but probably they did not. Perhaps it was not necessary. Those where stirring times for members of the new faith, and they had little opportunity to grow obese. But, as a rule, to fast successfully it is said to be necessary for a man to abstain beforehand, and reduce himself most carefully to the required condition by a long course of preparation. Pre-eminent at this art of suspending animation -for an art it becomes -are the Easterns, and most wonderful stories are told of the natives of India, which, whether their powers are due to narcotics or any other process, seem to open up-if true-a Wide field of medical study. One of these Indian stories, ‘not easily accessible, but of considerable interest on account of the known veracity of the witnesses, will probably be read with interest at the present time, and is inserted here. The author of it was one Hon. Capt.Osborn, and the notes made of his statement, here subjoined, come from an almost unique copy printed for private’ circulation.

“ Runjeet Sing had heard from a Seyd or Fakir who lived in the mountains, that the latter could allow himself to-be buried when in a condition of apparent death, without really ceasing to live, seeing that he understood the art of being’ brought back to life on being exhumed after several months

had passed. To the Maharaja this appeared to be a rank impossibility. In order, however, that he should he convinced one way or the other, he ordered the Fakir to be summoned to the Court, and caused him to undertake the singular experiment, under a threat that no means of precaution would be wanting toward the discovery of fraud. The Fakir consequently ’caused himself to appear in a state of apparent death. When  every spark of life had  seemingly vanished, he was, in the presence of the Maharajah and the nobles who surrounded him, wrapped up in the  linen on which he had been sitting, and on which the  the seal of Runjeet Sing was placed. The body  was then deposited in a chest, on which Runjeet

Sing, with his own hand, fixed at heavy padlock.

The chest was carried outside the town and buried  in a garden belonging to the Minister; barley was  sown over the spot, a wall was erected around it,  and sentinels posted. On the fortieth day, when  the chest containing the Fakir was dug up and  opened the man was found cold and stark in precisely the same condition as that in which he had  been left. With much trouble he was restored to  life by means of heat applied to the head, afflation in the ears and mouth, rubbing the body. &c. The  Minister Rajah Dhyan-Sing. assured a friend that

he had this Fakir, whose name was Haridas, for a period of four months under the earth at Jummoo in the mountains. On the day of his burial he had caused his beard to be shaved off, and when he  was taken up again his chin was just as smooth as  on the day when he was consigned to the earth –a proof, as would seem, of suspended animation.It is related that the Fakir in question took a purgative some time before the burial display, and for  several days afterward lived only on a scanty milk  diet. On the day of the interment it is said that,

instead of taking any nourishment, he swallowed  eighty yards of a strip of linen of the breadth of three  fingers, which he immediately drew up again, his  object being to clean the stomach. However wonderful and perhaps laughable these operations appear to many, it is plain that these people must have a singular control over the deferent organs of their bodies, and more especially over their muscular contractions.

When all the necessary preparations have been accomplished,  the Fakir closes all the openings of his  body with stoppers made of aromatic wax, lays his tongue far back in his throat, crosses his hands  on his breast, and suspends animation by means of  holding his breath. On his being brought back to  life one of the first operations is by means of the  fingers, to draw the tongue away from the back of the throat; a warm and aromatic paste made of meal is then placed on his head, and air is blown  into his lungs and into the ear-holes, from which the Wax stoppers have been removed, the stoppers  in the nostrils being presently forced out with an  explosive noise. This is said to be the first sign of  a return to life. He then gradually commences to  breathe, opens the eyes, and recovers consciousness, continuous friction of the body being carried  on all the time.

” Here is a further curious statement of opinion on the subject of the Indian stories from an equally rare source, the little pamphlet of Sir Claude Wade,

published in 1837. ‘I was present ’ he writes, ‘at  the Court of Ranjeet Singh when the Fakir, mentioned by the Hon. Capt. Osborne, was buried alive for six weeks; and, although I arrived at few hours after his actual interment; and did not, consequently, witness that part of the phenomenon, I had the testimony of Runjeet Singh himself, and others of the most credible witnesses of his Court,  to the truth of the Fakir having been buried before them; and, from my having been myself present when he was disinterred , and restored  to a state of perfect vitality in a position so  close to him as to render any deception impossible, it is my firm belief that there was no collusion in producing the extraordinary sight which I have to relate.

I will briefly state what I saw, to enable others to judge of the weight due to my evidence, and whether my proof of collusion can, in in their opinion, be detected. On the approach of  the appointed time, according to invitation, I accompanied Runjeet Singh to the spot where the Fakir had been buried. It was in a square building, called a barra durra, in the middle of one of the  gardens adjoining the Palace at Lahore, with an  open veranda all round, having an enclosed room  in the centre. On arriving there, Runjeet Singh,  who was attended on the occasion by the whole of  his Court,  dismounted from his elephant, asked me to join him in examining the building to satisfy  himself that it was closed as he had left it.

After our examination we seated ourselves in the  veranda opposite the door, while some of Runjeet Singh’s people dug away the mud wall, and one of his officers broke the seal and opened the padlock. When the door was thrown open nothing but a dark room was to be seen. Runjeet Singh and myself then entered it, in company with the servant of the Fakir, and, a light being brought,

we descended about three feet below the floor of the room, into a sort of cell, where a wooden box about 4 feet long by 3 feet broad, with a sloping  roof, contained the Fakir, the door of which had also a padlock and seal similar to that on the outside. On opening it we saw a figure enclosed in a bag of white linen, fastened by a string over the head, on the exposure of which at grand salute was fired, and the surrounding multitude came crowding to the door to see the spectacle. After they had gratified their curiosity, the Fakir’s servant putting his arms into the box, took the figure out, and, closing the door, placed it with its back against it, exactly as the Fakir had been squatting (like a Hindu idol) in the box itself.

Ranjeet Singh and myself descended into the cell, which was so small we were only able to sit on the ground in front of the body, and so close to it as to touch it with our hands and knees. The servant then began pouring’ warm water over the figure, but as my object was to see if any fraudulent practices could be detected, I proposed to Runjeet Singh to tear open the bag and have a perfect view of the body before any means of resuscitation were employed. I, accordingly did so; and may here remark that the bag when first seen by us looked mildewed, as if it had been buried some time. The legs and arms of the body were shriveled and stiff, the face full, the head  reclined on the shoulder like that of a corpse. I then called to the medical gentleman who was attending me to come down and inspect the body, which he did, but could discover no pulsation in the heart, the temples, or the arms. There was, however a  heat about the region of the brain which no other part exhibited. The servant then commenced bathing him with hot water, and gradually relaxing his arms and legs  from the rigid state in which they were contracted, Ranjeet Singh taking his right and I his left leg, to aid by friction in restoring them to their proper action, during which time the servant placed at hot wheaten cake, about an inch thick, on the top of the head – a process which he twice or thrice repeated. He then pulled out of his nostrils and ears the wax and cotton with which they had been stopped, and ‘after great exertion opened his mouth by inserting the point of a knife between his teeth, and while holding his jaw open with his  left hand drew the tongue forward with his right, in the course of which the tongue flew back several times to its curved position upward, in which it had been, so as to close the gullet. He then rubbed his eyes with ghee (or clarified butter) for some seconds, till he succeeded in opening them, when the eyes appeared quite motionless and glazed. After the cake had been applied for the third time to the top of the head the body was violently convulsed, the nostrils became inflated, when respiration ensured, and the limbs began to  assume a nature of fullness; but the pulsation was still faintly perceptible. The servant then put some of the ghee on his tongue and made him swallow it.

A few minutes afterward the eyeballs became  dilated, and recovered their natural color, when the Fakir recognized Ranjeet Singh sitting close to him, and articulated in a low sepulchral tone, scarcely audible. ‘ Do you believe me now?’ Runjeet Singh replied in the affirmative, and invested the Fakir with a pearl necklace and a superb pair of gold bracelets, and pieces of silk and muslin, end shawls, forming what is called a khelat, such as is usually conferred by the Princes of India on persons of distinction. I share  entirely in  the apparent  incredibility of the fact of a man being buried alive and  surviving the trial without food or drink for various periods of duration; but, however incompatible with our knowledge of physiology, in the absence of any visible proof to the contrary I am bound to declare my belief in the facts winch I have represented, however impossible their existence may appear to others.”

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Sadhu Haridas

For other uses, see Haridasa (disambiguation).

Sadhu Haridas (fl. 1837) was a hatha yogi and fakir of nineteenth-century India, renowned for his reputed power to control his body completely using the power of his mind, employing the energies of kundalini. His most notable feat, carried out in 1837, was to survive burial underground, without food or water and with only a limited supply of oxygen, for forty days. This feat took place at the court of the Maharaja of the Punjab, Ranjit Singh, at Lahore, India (now in Pakistan).

Haridas was interred in the presence of the Maharaja, his whole court, and a number of French and British doctors. He adopted a sitting posture, and was covered over and sewn up in cerecloth. He was then placed inside a large wooden case, which was strongly riveted closed and sealed with the Maharaja’s own seal. The case was then lowered into a specially-constructed brick vault. Earth was piled upon the case, and a detachment of the Maharaja's guard was placed to keep watch over the vault; four sentries mounting guard over it by day, and eight by night. Forty days later, Haridas was disinterred in the presence of the Maharaja, his court, and the French and English doctors who had been previously present at his interment. His apparently lifeless body was washed with hot water, massaged, and ghee placed on his eyelids and tongue; in a short time, he had recovered.

According to Claude Wade, the British Resident at the Maharaja's court: "From the time of the box being opened to the recovery of the voice, not more than half an hour could have elapsed; and in another half hour, the Fakir talked with myself and those about him freely, though feebly, like a sick person. Then we left him, convinced that there had been no fraud or collusion in the exhibition we had witnessed."

Pasted from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadhu_Haridas>