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 first part of our 3-part program, “Sunyogi Umasankar: Becoming Food-free through the Practice of Sun Yoga,” on Between Master and Disciples.

Sunyogi Umasankar 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.” For six years, Umasankar Ji walked throughout the Indian subcontinent with no money or possessions. Umasankar 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, Umasankar 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. Umasankar Ji has taught the art of Sun Yoga to 2 million people worldwide. Sunyogi Umasankar explained to Supreme Master Television how he first discovered the ancient art of sun gazing in 1995.

That was in the morning at 7:30 to 8 o’clock – that was my free time – so I went to the seashore for the sea meditation. At that time, I felt that if I am wasting my time then I am wasting my life, so I have no right to waste my time. So I went to the seashore to look at the sea, to get some knowledge from the sea, the ocean. But I was very lucky, the sun was rising on the eastern side and then sun was reflected by the sea water and it came to my eyes.

After having gazed for the first time for a prolonged period at the sun, Sunyogi Umarsankar was concerned that he was losing his eyesight.

My whole eyes were burning – not only eyes, my whole body was burning. My intellectual mind told me, “Oh, I lost my eyesight! How can I stop it?” Then I closed my eyes very, very tightly, as much as possible, but the reflecting light, it was still hurting my eyes. Then I just turned my eyes to the opposite side and opened my eyes. I felt, “Oh, I lost my eyesight.” But when I saw outside, there I saw the small sand and it was so clear – it was visible, very small sand. Then, I felt, “Oh, I didn’t lose my eyesight!”

While staying at Pondicherry, Umasankar Ji continued to meditate every morning, sitting on a rock by the sea. Although the experience was at first harsh and uncomfortable, after 4 days he started to see what he described as “seven bright colors radiating from the sun, slowly reaching closer to the ground.”

Initially, these cosmic rays did not touch him, but three months after he had begun this practice, he felt that the cosmic energy from the sun touched his body which gave him a deep feeling of peace.

One day I got success by my offering, my surrendering to the sun, that the light could touch my body. Before, I didn’t know that it is a yoga and I didn’t have any expectation, that I have to get something. I just got interested, and my feeling was that I enjoyed it – means I got peace. So that’s why I was going there. But that morning that light touched me, that was a wonderful morning. And at noon time, every day I used to take a big noontime lunch, but that day I couldn’t feel my hunger; I was not hungry. Then I felt, “Oh, today it might be that that light has touched me and so I was not feeling hungry.” Then I felt, “How it could be?” So at night, again I got to my meditation, to know the process – how it can be, to become “hungerless”?

Then, at nighttime I saw that sunlight when I was looking through the pineal gland, then the pineal gland got connected to that cosmic energy and that cosmic energy causes the metabolism. A five-element energy was separated and that five-element energy goes to my brain to bring back that energy to send to each and every organ and every cell inside. So through that energy I got charged so that’s why food is not required for me.

Food is not required for our body; we need the energy, that kinetic energy. So that kinetic energy also indirectly comes from the sun. I got the vision that trees can receive through the chlorophyll that cosmic energy, the sun energy, so how I can be able to receive the sun’s cosmic energy? Then I saw that inside the blood there are photoelectric cells. Those photo-electric cells can draw that sun energy and create that inside food preparation. So that’s why I got energy directly from the sun.

Why is the sun so important to us? At a videoconference with Supreme Master Television staff on October 3, 2010, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke about the immense blessing which the sun offers to all beings on Earth.

First of all, physically speaking, without the sun, we’d be dying, or dead or gone already. Many things cannot grow, humans cannot grow – there is no food, no circulation of the waters, purification of the air, etc., etc. The sun has a lot of benefits: the sun cures many diseases. For example, in the old time, they did not have tuberculosis medicine yet, they would put the patient in a sunny room, or sunny area, and open a window, let the sun come in to cure the TB. Of course, when it’s too heavy, maybe they cannot, but maybe in the initial stage, then they can cure like that.

The sun cures your aches and pain, it eliminates toxins through sweat – when it’s hot, you sweat – and also it cures some of the diseases or other ailments. The sun gives benefits to all, bad or good. The sun would glorify the whole Earth that we live on and it gives life to all beings: plants, minerals, animals, etc. The sun gives also people happiness, carefree feeling. The sun is necessary for all on Earth.

Many people have benefitted from practicing Sun Yoga. Ms. Dak Lee from Kuala Lumpur describes her experience:

My name is Dak Lee and I am from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I have been practicing Sun Yoga for the last ten days after my retreat in Kahang, in Johor and with our teacher, Swami. I find that Sun Yoga is very interesting because it has brought many benefits to me and I find that the most obvious benefits would be health benefits. I find that, actually, my health has improved tremendously, and actually, I tested on one of the health problems that I have. I have lazy eyes and after five days, I managed to sort out the problems. I am actually ninety-five percent recovered now and I am very happy with that. I don’t suffer a lot of headaches anymore or strain in my eyes or in my face.

And the other benefits that I have experienced are that my body is able to regulate heat. I don’t need to sleep with air conditioning or stay in air conditioning rooms, even though Malaysia is a tropical country. I realize that I do not need to turn on the fan anymore even though it’s very hot outside. And I find that I am comfortable with whatever temperature that I am in. And also, another thing is I find that my mind is more peaceful and I am able to concentrate better. I find that Sun Yoga has actually helped me to improve my concentration quickly and I am able to settle down my mind.

Sunyogi Umasankar explains that there are no special requirements that one needs to adhere to when practicing Sun Yoga.

The sun is for all. The sun is for the baby, the sun is for every plant, everybody; it is there. Sun Yoga can be for everybody. Yoga is the connection between the soul to the Supreme Soul. In our cosmos to the universal cosmos, yoga is the balance of in and out. So, inner organ to outer organ, when we can get balance – that is yoga. Through the sun, we do that balance, so we call that “Sun Yoga.” There is no boundary of caste, color, creed and religion. And everybody can do the sun meditation, and the principle is that we have to make friendship with the sun, we have to surrender to the sun.

Thank you, cherished viewers, for accompanying us on Between Master & Disciples. Join us next Sunday for part 2 of our feature on Sunyogi Umasankar. Now, please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television for Good People, Good Work, right after Noteworthy News. May you benefit tremendously from the daily blessings of the loving sun.

For more information on Sunyogi Umasankar, please visit or Literature on Living Food-free For a complete list, please visit

Meet Sunyogi Umasankar, a sun gazer and Indian yogi who has been able to live food-free through the practice of Sun Yoga. When you’re balance in and out completely, the inner cosmos to the universal cosmos, when we get balance – that is enlightenment. 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.

Tune in to Supreme Master Television on Sunday, March 6, 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.