This program discusses the possibility of breatharianism, or living without eating food, and is not a full instruction. For your safety, please do not attempt to cease eating without proper expert guidance. For your safety, please do not attempt to cease eating without proper expert guidance.

Today’s Between Master and Disciples – “Sunyogi Umasankar: Becoming Food-free through the Practice of Sun Yoga” – will be presented in Hindi and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech-Slovak, English, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mongolian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish and Thai.

In scriptures, the human body is often referred to as the temple of God. Yet, it is quite an uncommon privilege for any soul to attain this sacred abode that houses the Divine, as it is truly a blessing to be reborn as a human being. On several occasions, Supreme Master Ching Hai has spoken about the rarity of this phenomenon:

To be reincarnated in the human world is hard. You have to have enough Human Quality. You have to have affinity with the parents and with the society, with the people around which you are born. Very difficult. To be a human, you need some merit. You have done something good in the past in order to be able to pick a human birth.

As a living temple of God, the human body is fully equipped with miraculous wonders that can be awakened in those who are spiritually conscious and have complete faith in the Creator of all life. Inedia, Latin for “fasting,” is the human ability to live without food. Since time immemorial, there have always been individuals who can sustain themselves on prana, or the vital life force. Through the grace of the Providence, inediates, people who follow a food-free lifestyle, can draw the energy from nature to nourish themselves:

They live on the chi from the ground, or from the forest, and from the sun and from the air. They make use of all that. Or they live on love, on faith alone. These individuals are known as breatharians (pranarians or inediates), solarians, or waterians, and they come from all walks of life, from different cultures, and all corners of the world.

Indeed, the possibilities and miracles in this life as our benevolent Creator has designed for us are endless; we only need to connect within to recognize our abounding largess as God’s children. Supreme Master Ching Hai has lovingly recommended a weekly series on Supreme Master Television to introduce those individuals of the past and present who have chosen to live food-free on Earth. May their spiritual stories enthrall you; may hearts be opened, and horizons be expanded.

We now invite you to join us for the second part of our 3-part program, “Sunyogi Umasankar: Becoming Food-free through the Practice of Sun Yoga,” on Between Master and Disciples.

Sunyogi Umashankar is one of India’s most well-known sun gazers. A native from Calcutta, he developed an early interest in yoga and meditation. Although educated as a scientist, at the age of 18, he decided to spend a part of his life walking through every state of India to spread the message of “Universal Unity, Peace and Brotherhood.”

Umashankar Ji started his practice of Sun Yoga in 1995 while staying at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, South India. Soon, he noticed that his hunger was dissipating, and after one year of practicing Sun Yoga, he abstained from food entirely and lived solely on the sun’s energy for four months. From 1996 to 2007, Umashankar Ji ate only once a month or once every few months, and only when he felt that he shouldn’t refuse the food which was offered to him by pure-hearted devotees. Recently, he has completed a two-year retreat high in the Himalayas and has returned to the world to continue teaching Sun Yoga. Sun Yogi Umasankar shares with Supreme Master Television his process of becoming food-free while he was performing his daily duties at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry.

I stopped eating my breakfast. Then it continued for 6 months. On the 2nd February of 1996, I was able to stop my dinner also. And then on the 17th of August, 1996, I was able to stop all my eating, drinking, and even sleeping also. At that time I was only meditating. So, for four months more, completely, I was not eating, not drinking, not sleeping. And then I felt, “Oh, I got something!” And Sun Yoga is not instant yoga. Our scriptures mention it very long ago, the Upanishads and in all the scriptures Sun yoga has been mentioned. So in the fourth month, I got that simple technique, how we normal people, we can see the sun and we can get benefit.

So, how does one practice Sun Yoga? Umarsankar Ji explains the basic technique.

Some simple techniques used are there, yama (precepts), nyama (virtuous actions), asana (body posture). So, the first principle is there. First, we should sit properly, if possible we can sit in padmasana (lotus posture), siddhasana (“perfect” pose), gomukhasana (cow-face posture), vrajrasana (Zen pose). These four Asanas are very much preferred for the sun meditation. But if somebody can’t sit, they can sit at the beginning level in sukhasana (easy crossed-legged pose); and if somebody can’t sit on the ground, they can sit on the chair.

But only one thing, the backbone should be straight, relax the body, and sometimes we have to close our eyes to prepare our mind. And then we’ll do pranam or prostrate to our own parents, then we’ll prostrate to own guru, guardians, teachers, and to whom we learn something, maybe younger, maybe elder than us, maybe enemy, maybe a friend of ours. Then, if Muslim, we have to pay respect to Muhammad; if we are Buddhist, we should pay respect to Lord Buddha; if we are Christian, then we should pay respect to Lord Jesus; if we are Hindu, we should pay respect to all the gods and goddesses, those we believe in.

Equally important for the practice of Sun Yoga is to have the right attitude of mind. We should feel the broad mind: all living beings are one family – maybe human being, maybe animal being, insect being, or plant kingdom – we are all one family. We should love all. Then we have to put ourselves the question: “Who am I? What do I want? Why do I want it? What is the purpose of life? What is the relation between what do I want and what I’m doing now?” Again and again, we have to put that question and prepare our mind. We should not expect the answer; the answer will come on time. Then we put strong determination: “I will do it. I must do it. Then we’ll feel the sun is our best friend, our life, and we’ll prepare our mind to look at the sun, to open our eyes, and make friends with it.

Sunyogi Umasankar revealed that of the many thousands of people who have practiced sun gazing with the technique he teaches, many have improved their eyesight. He also explained how to best benefit from the process of sun gazing without endangering our eyes.

Slowly we have to open the eyes and look a few inches above the sun, and through our pineal gland. We are not looking directly with the retina; the sunlight is not coming directly to the retina. Look from the ajna chakra (the third eye), means the center point over the eyebrow. When we are getting that there is the pineal gland, the pineal gland will be activated. And while we are looking there, a few inches above the sun, when we are able to adjust, the eyes are not getting pain, so then the eyes get relaxed. Then we can see through the pineal gland at the center of the sun. And slowly, slowly, we can see the sun, inside, will be a black hole. So that’s the way we have to look, that is the beginning level.

How can gazing at a physical object such as the sun benefit our spiritual development? In a videoconference with Supreme Master Television staff, Supreme Master Ching Hai explained that the sun, as well as the moon and the stars, exists not only as objects on the material plane but are in fact great spiritual beings.

The Sun is a great, great, great, great spiritual being, who manifests himself to help our planet, to nourish all beings on our Earth. So, we always have to thank the Sun. And in the ancient time, people worshipped the Sun God and for that reason as well. He is beautiful, beautiful inside; loves us all the time. No discriminating, always love, love, love. And whenever you look up to the Sun, you feel only love, love, love. And if you have time, you sit in the sun sometime, you feel happier, no? ( Yes.)

That’s why in summer people feel very happy, happier than in winter because it’s due to the plentiful sunshine, yes, plenty of sunshine. And it’s not because the Sun doesn’t love us in winter. It’s just that the absence of his presence makes us forget the happiness within us. The Sun has also beings in it, but not physical beings. The beings in the Sun also help the great being of the Sun to protect our planet, to help all things to grow, and to send us happiness. All they do is just send us bliss and happiness and love. They exist just for that.

One of Sunyogi Umasankar’s students, Mr. Datoallen Yong, speaks to Supreme Master Television about his experience through the practice of Sun Yoga.

My name is Datoallen Yong from Malaysia. I started this Sun Yoga gazing since 2007. I met my Sun Yoga Master Umasankar at Nainital, at the foothills of the Himalayas. I started to do Sun gazing and I found the tremendous benefits that I have obtained. Firstly, I became a much calmer person, and I can see a lot of clarity in my mind, and love starts to pervade around me, and I exude a lot of love because Sun Yoga makes me a loving person. And more importantly, I am a meditator, so I manage to stay focused in my meditation; I stay a longer time because it really enhances my meditation. And also eventually, I begin to know more about myself and to understand more about what is my next journey. So it comes back to self realization eventually. The sun energy is free, so anyone can enjoy it. It is a life-sustaining energy.

In 2007, Sun Yogi Umasankar began to eat regularly again, not because he felt the need to eat but because he felt that the people around him paid too much attention to the fact that he had renounced eating and drinking. According to Umasankar Ji, becoming food-free is only a by-product of the practice of Sun Yoga while the main goal is spiritual enlightenment.

Actually, enlightenment is the way we get connection from the inner soul to the universal soul – that is enlightenment. When you’re balance in and out completely, the inner cosmos to the universal cosmos, when we get balance – that is enlightenment. So when we are looking at the sun then, at the very beginning – beginners also feel this when they are looking the sun – the sun becomes soft and they saw the blue sky inside the sun. Then I ask them, “Was your monkey mind disturbing to you?” They were surprised. They forgot themselves and they told me, “No, there cannot be a monkey mind; it was stopped.” You see, that “monkey mind” means a disturbed mind. To make it stop, it is very, very tough, very, very difficult. But beginners, at the very beginning, they can stop their monkey mind. That means they’re balancing the space element.

And when they are looking at the sun, they are not feeling that the sun is hot – means they’re balancing their fire element energy. After that, they forget their breath also – means balancing the air element. And some, they forget their thirst also – means it is balancing the water element also. And after practicing sun meditation, everybody was completely relaxed. They enjoyed their life; they are not feeling tired and they themselves then forget their age limit also. Because of that much relaxation is there. That means it gives us the earth element benefit, balance, also.

During his stays in the Himalayas, Sunyogi Umasankar had the great fortune to have the darshan of the great immortal Master Mahavatar Babaji twice. From Sri Babaji, Umsankar Ji learnt the secret of the 29 chakras as well as other secrets of the universe and Creation. Be sure to join us again next Sunday on Between Master and Disciples when Sunyogi Umasankar shares this divine knowledge with us.

Thank you, respected viewers, for joining us for today’s episode of Between Master and Disciples. Now, please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Good People, Good Work, right after Noteworthy News. May the loving sun brighten up your days and fill your heart with peace. For more information on Sunyogi Umasankar, please visit or Literature on Living Food-free

Meet Sunyogi Umasankar, a sun gazer and Indian yogi who has been able to live food-free through the practice of Sun Yoga. The stage when we are just after samadhi, that is the Amrit chakras – means we can conquer our hunger, then we can conquer our thirst also. That is called Jivanmukta chakras.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television on Sunday, March 13, for our program, “Sunyogi Umasankar: Becoming Food-free through Sun Yoga,” on Between Master and Disciples.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television today for our program, “Sunyogi Umasankar: Becoming Food-free through Sun Yoga,” on Between Master and Disciples.