Stopping the heartbeat

Shyama Charan Lahiri was something! He stopped his heart. One of his disciples was a doctor. The disciple said, “It is clear that he is not alive.” Then Lahiri smiled at him and said, “Look, this is your medical science! Now feel my pulse.” The doctor did not find any pulse. Lahiri said, “Now look,” and he smiled at his disciple.

One particular tree is still alive in the park where I used to go to meditate. That was where I told my friend, “Do not say that all spiritual people are fake if they say that they have occult power.” I have taken so many pictures of that tree. Each time I go to Pondicherry, I take a picture of that huge tree in the main park in front of the Governor’s palace. During my Ashram days I sat there. At that time I could sit very easily. From time to time, not every day, I used to go and sit at the foot of the tree to pray and meditate. One day I saw some cars and rickshaws only thirty or forty metres away in the street. I got a peculiar idea. I said, “Indian yogis all say that they can stop their heartbeat at their sweet will. Let me examine myself and see if I can do that.” I cannot remember how old I was. I saw that my heartbeat completely stopped. I had at that time a stopwatch that I used for running. Believe me, I did it! I did stop my heartbeat.

Nowadays, every time I go to Pondicherry I sit at the foot of that tree and I ask my rickshaw driver to take my picture. I know what I did at that place. The last time I could not sit, so I stood at the foot of the tree.

I requested the driver to take my picture. Why? Because there, at that particular tree, I did something. It was not a trick and I was quite successful. I know why I am still so attached to that tree.

I did it once again when I returned to the tree. I used only thirty per cent of my capacity and it was not for as long as I did it the first time. The first time I was examining myself to see if I did have that capacity. The second time I stopped my heartbeat for a very short time. All these things I did.

Physically I am seventy-five, but spiritually I am very old, very old.