LUCKNOW: The banks of Ganga and Yamuna witnessed a rare sight here on friday morning. A naga sanyasi has lend his voice to the echo of justice for Nirbhaya — victim of the brutal gang rape in Delhi.
Naga Shyamanand Saraswati of Vrindavan buried himself completely under the earth in a religious custom called 'Bhoosamadhi' at the ongoing Mahakumbh.
He went in a six-feet deep pit in sector nine of the mela city at around 11.15am and will remain there for nine days without food and water.
All this while, he will pray to god to instill sensitivity among men so that they respect women and never indulge in acts of harassment and molestation.
A believer of women's liberation, the sanyasi says that his act is a form of hatyoga.
The seer, who belongs to the Juna akahada, had been preparing himself for the pledge for the last one week.
"He has stopped eating and was taking only tea and water," said a fellow. Prior to the exercise of burying himself, the seer spoke to media.
When someone raised the question on how he will breathe inside the pit, he said, "Yoga is the key. I have been practising yoga for the last 40 years."
Medical experts from Toronto University are in Allahabad to examine the seer in the nine days of his pledge.
One of experts said that the earth in which the seer was burying himself was sand which has a lot of oxygen.
The experts however feel that it was a big challenge for anyone to stay inside without food or water for so many days. "Maybe that's why india is a magical land," they told the press.
Shyamanand has carried little water with himself to wet his lips when they turn dry.
Shyamanand belongs to a small village in Vrindavan. But he left his home at an age of seven.
"As told by my mother, I never begged to survive. I ate whatever came my way," he recalled adding that after wandering for several years, he came in touch with a group of sanyasis who took him under his patronage.
He has seen other seers taking Bhoosamadhi. One of them was a seer named Shambhu in Haridwar who stayed under the earth for 101 hours. He said that he would stay under the earth for 216 hours. He would come out just before mauni amavasya and head to the sangam for the ritualistic bath.
Naga sanyasi buries himself under earth for Nirbhaya
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Naga sanyasi buries himself under earth for Nirbhaya
