THE FATU NETWORK EXPLORER: With Amara Thoronka
Can you hold your hand in the air for ten minutes? It’s difficult, right? Well, there is a man in the Republic of India whose hand has been in the air for over thirty-five years. He is Amar Bharati. The world is still amazed at the decision of Bharati to raise his right hand and never put it down.
Amar Bharati is an Indian man who is believed to have raised his right hand in the air since 1973. After some years, the said hand dried up and became a piece of skin and bone. While some will see it as an unreasonable undertaking, others (especially Hinduists) perceive his withered stuck-in-the-air right hand as a symbol for Shiva worshipers around India. Shiver is a Hindu deity.
Before 1970, Amar was an average middle-class man who lived a normal life. He had a job, a home, a wife and three children, but none of that mattered when he woke up one morning and decided to leave everything behind and dedicate his life to serving Shiva.
He began wandering the roads of India dressed in his simple Sadhu clothes and carrying only his Trishula (a metal trident). After three years, in 1973, Amar realized he was still too connected to the fading luxury and pleasures of mortal life, so he decided to separate himself from them by raising his right arm and never putting it down forever. Since then, his hand is still up and he can’t use it, even if he wants to.
Other sources claim Amar Bharati felt disillusioned by all the fighting going on in the world and decided to raise his right arm for peace. As a respected Sadhu at the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, Amar has inspired other Sadhus to raise their arms for peace and harmony, and some of them have kept them raised for years.
Doing something like this doesn’t just mean giving up the functionality of an important body part, it also implies dealing with a lot of pain. Bharati himself says he went through excruciating pain for a long time, but not anymore. That’s because his arm is completely atrophied and stuck in a bizarre, semi-vertical position, a functionless bony structure ending in thick, twisted nails that he never clips.
Resources
https:www.odditycentral.com
https://www.themarysue.com
