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Meeting the Fasting Saint

23:08 recording · EN · 4 speakers

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Brief overview

Yogananda drives into rural Bengal to meet Giribala, who has eaten nothing for fifty-six years.

  1. Fifty-six years without food or drinkGiribala says she has neither eaten nor taken liquids since she was twelve years and four months old.
  2. Tested three times by a MaharajaLocked up for two months, then twenty days, then fifteen days at the palace of Bardhwan, with no evidence of eating.
  3. The secret is deliberately withheldHer guru forbade her to divulge the technique, saying the farmers would not thank her and karma's whips drive people to seek life's meaning.
Executive Summary AI
  • Yogananda sets out at dawn from the Ranchi school with Mr. Wright at the wheel of the Ford and three Bengali friends, bound for a woman saint whose diet, he says, is thin air.
  • He first heard of Giribala twenty-five years earlier from Sthiti Lal Nandi, who had her tested by the Maharaja of Bardhwan for two months, then twenty days, then fifteen days, convincing him beyond doubt of her non-eating state.
  • Her brother Lambadar Dey, a lawyer of Purulia, confirms that in more than five decades he has never seen her eat, and the party pushes the Ford through rice fields, mango groves and cart tracks to reach Beur about 5 p.m.
  • Giribala, sixty-eight and in good health, tells Yogananda she has taken neither food nor liquid since the age of twelve years and four months, after her mother-in-law's scoldings about her gluttony drove her to pray for a guru, who materialized by the Ganges and taught her a mantra and breathing technique.
  • She refuses to teach the method, saying her guru forbade tampering with God's drama of creation, and explains she was singled out to prove that man is spirit and can live by the eternal light rather than by food.
Key Quote
“we are on our way to see an eighth wonder of the world a woman saint whose diet is thin air.”
— Paramhansa Yogananda
Key Quote
“In more than five decades, I have never seen her eat a morsel.”
— Lambadar Dey
Key Quote
“a period of over fifty-six years, I have not eaten food or taken liquids.”
— Giribala

Transcript

0:00 chapter forty six of autobiography of a yogi this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox dot org autobiography of a yogi by paramhans yoganand sir whither are we bound this morning mr wright was driving the ford he took his eyes off the road long enough to gaze at me with a questioning twinkle from day to day he seldom knew what part of bengal he would be discovering next
0:36 god willing i repeat it devoutly we are on our way to see an eighth wonder of the world a woman saint whose diet is thin air. Repetition of wonders
0:46 after Therese Newman. But Mr. Wright laughed eagerly just the same. He even accelerated the
0:53 speed of the car. More extraordinary grist for his travel diary. Not one of an average tourist,
1:00 that. The Rachi school had just been left behind us we had risen before the sun besides my secretary and myself three bengali friends were in-shouldered bullocks, inclined to dispute the road with a honking interloper.
1:28 Sir, we would like to know more of the fasting saint.
1:32 Her name is Giribala, I informed my companions.
1:36 I first heard about her years ago from a scholarly gentleman, Stithilal Nandi.
1:41 He often came to the Gurpar Road home to tutor my brother, Vishnunu i know giribala well stithibabu told me she employs a certain yoga technique which enables her to live without eating i was her close neighbor in nawabganj near itchapur to watch her closely. Never did I find evidence that she was taking either food or drink. My
2:07 interest finally mounted so high that I approached the Maharaj of Bhardwan and asked him to conduct
2:13 an investigation. Astounded at the story, he invited her to his palace. She agreed to a test
2:19 and lived for two months locked up in a small section of his home. Later she returned for a palace visit
2:26 of twenty days, and then for a third test of fifteen days. The Maharaja himself told me that
2:33 these three rigorous scrutinies had convinced him beyond doubt of a non-eating state.
2:39 This story of Stithibabu's has remained in my mind for over twenty-five years i concluded sometimes in america i wondered if the river of time would not swallow the yogini before i could meet her she must be quite aged now i do not even know where or if she lives her brother has a home there by ten thirty our little group was conversing with the brother lambadar dey a lawyer of purulia yes my sister is living she sometimes stays with me here but at present she is at our family home in the Ford. I hardly think, Swamiji, that any automobile has ever penetrated into the interior
3:26 as far as Beur. It might be best if you all resign yourselves to the ancient jolt of the
3:32 bullock cart. As one voice, our party pledged loyalty to the pride of Detroit. The Ford comes
3:39 from America, I told the lawyer. It would be a shame to deprive it of an opportunity to get acquainted with the heart of Bengal. May Ganesh go with you. Lambadar Babu said laughing. He added courteously,
3:51 If you ever get there, I am sure Giribala will be glad to see you.
3:57 She is approaching her seventies, but continues in excellent health.
4:01 Please tell me, sir, if it is absolutely true that she eats nothing?
4:07 I looked directly into his eyes, those tell-tale windows of the mind. It is true. His gaze was open and honorable.
4:15 In more than five decades, I have never seen her eat a morsel. If the world suddenly came to an end,
4:20 I could not be more astonished than by the sight of my sisters taking food.
4:26 We chuckled together over the improbability of these two cosmic events.
4:31 Giribala has never sought an inaccessible solitude for her yoga practices, Lambadar
4:36 Babu went on. She has lived her entire life surrounded by her family and friends. They
4:42 are all well accustomed now to her strange state, not one of them who
4:46 would be stupefied if Giribala suddenly decided to eat anything. Sister is naturally retiring,
4:53 as befits a Hindu widow, but our little circle in Purulia and in Beur all know that she is
4:58 literally an exceptional woman. The brother's sincerity was manifest our little party thanked him warmly and set out toward beurre we stopped at a street shop for curry and lucches attracting a swarm of urchins who gathered round to watch mr wright eating with his fingers in the simple hindoo manner an afternoon which unknown at the moment was to prove fairly laborious. Our way now led east
5:27 through sun-baked rice fields into the Bardhwan section of Bengal. On through roads lined with
5:33 dense vegetation, the songs of the miners and the striped-throated bulbults streamed out from
5:38 trees with huge umbrella-like branches. A bullock cart now and then, the rinny-rinny-manju-manju squeak of its axle,
5:47 and iron-shod wooden wheels contrasting sharply in mind with the swish-swish of auto-tyres over
5:53 the aristocratic asphalt of the cities. Dick, halt! my sudden request brought a jolting protest
5:59 from the Ford. That overburdened mango-tree is fairly shouting an invitation the five of us dashed like children to the mango strewn earth the tree had benevolently shed its fruits as they had ripened
6:12 full many a mango is born to lie unseen i paraphrased and waste its sweetness on the stony ground nothing like this in america swamiji eh laughed sail laughed Sailesh Mazumdar, one of my Bengali students.
6:27 No, I admitted, covered with mango juice and contentment. How I have missed this fruit in
6:33 the West! A Hindu's heaven without mangoes is inconceivable. I picked up a rock and downed

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