NASA and the University of Pennsylvania briefly studied him (Pic Credit: Instagram)
An extraordinary claim has been brought to the attention of a viral post on social media by an Indian engineer, Hira Ratan Manek (also known as HRM).
The post claims that in 1995, Manek survived 411 days without any solid food, just drinking water and sun rays. He is said to have done the sungazing, where he stared at the sun at sunrise and sunset in order to get his energy.
Hira Ratan Manek, who died in Kozhikode in 2022, at the age of 85, purported to live 411 days without anything to eat in 1995, only on water and sunlight. This was an unusual marvel that he did under firm medical supervision that astonished doctors.
Close observation of Manek was done by his team of 24 doctors, who were led by a neurologist, Dr. Sudhir Shah based in Ahmedabad. Amazingly, every medical examination indicated that his health was still normal throughout the 411 days.
Manek spent in excess of two decades after the fast not eating hard food. These medical scans showed abnormalities in his body such as enlarged pineal gland, elevated concentration of melatonin and serotonin and enhanced neuronal activities. Doctors observed that he did not starve, but appeared to fit into the strange diet.
In his book Sungazing, Manek described his technique and went to more than 100 countries, the United States being one of them, to lecture about his technique.
He was a leader of the Solar Energy Society of India, too. Studies of him were briefly undertaken by NASA and the University of Pennsylvania in 2002 but they never got published.
Reacting to the viral post, one user stated, “Sun gazing or surya trataka is extremely dangerous and can lead to huge psychological imbalances if done without prior training, don’t even think about it.”
Another shared, “After all in the Hindu mythology, even though there are major gods that command every little detail of life, our sun god is the very source of life. There’s even a festival in the tamil community called ” Pongal ” where we boil and cook sweet rice with milk and brown sugar and offer it to the sun in banana leave, as a sign of gratitude.”
One social media user commented, “Do meet jain monks then 411 days u will thought is a smaller span,” as another added, “Hindu yogis do this. Surya vigyan. Sourya Sampradaya.”
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