Another great article on the local Sinhalese newspaper, Divaina! And here’s what it says;
1 out of 8 people in the world belong to the “Starving Army”. 870 million people wake up and go to sleep hungry. 1.1 Billion people in the world earn less than 1USD a day. Due to the increase in food and commodity prices, their meals have been pretty much whatever is within their reach. On the other extreme of this spectrum are the obese, suffering a completely different set of health issues. In the famous novel Le Miserable, the character Jon Val Jon is imprisoned for the crime of stealing a loaf of bread. The French revolution had begun by the time he was released. At this point, the queen upon finding the lack of bread, said “Let them eat cake” This is the extreme gap between hunger and excessive eating.
Man cannot survive without food. This is an eternal truth. But the question is, do we consume only what we require?
Kirby de Lanerolle, a Sri Lankan, has been shot to fame throughout the world for answering this question. His opinion has been carried out on international media such as National Geographic Channel, Sun and the Daily Mail. Some of them reported that he has not consumed food for many years. These reports were made after observing him and his lifestyle without meeting him and others with personal interviews.
Although there has been a lot of attention and speculation about Kirby from around the world, very few Sri Lankans have heard about him. Therefore we decided to meet him in person to find out more about his lifestyle.
Kirby’s lived in a modern house, built on a high ground much like a hill; with a large garden. Kirby with a slim physique very simply dressed in a sarong and t shirt welcomed us and began his story.
“Five years ago I experienced something new. I used to waste a lot of what I had. My parents were moderately wealthy, and we lived in Wattala. I studied at D.S Senanayke College and St. Thomas prep school, following which I went to England for my higher education. I used to be real trouble a wild child But as this went on, I got some uncommon ideas. I wanted to change and come out of my turbulent life. Since my parents were Christians, I read the bible to learn what Jesus thought. There I discovered the act of fasting increased spirituality. Jesus had fasted for 40 days without water and food. I went on to discover that every religion spoke about fasting. Muslims fast. So do the Jews. The hebrew religion talks a lot about food. This made me realise that fasting would help one discover deeper States of spirituality. I used to be addicted to different substances and was in a world of desire. So I thought that I would find a solution to all of this by fasting. Even the Lord Buddha consumed only the fruits that fell to the ground for 6 years”
“But no one told me how to go about doing this. I didn’t have any teachers to advise me”
Kirby who had begun conveying his story for us in a charm, serene manner, was seated, legs crossed in a like he was all ready in a meditation. I interrupted him; “You said you had a lot of problems. Religious books offer many solutions for overcoming them. But why did you choose fasting as your solution?”
“Every religion speaks about our self-destruction due to Desire and the lust of the flesh. This generation pursue alcohol, women and even our over consumption of sweets like chocolate because of our strong desires. Fasting is something that is very easy for someone to develop. It develops our spirituality in contrast to our flesh. which leads to mental well-being and reduces our attachments to worldly things. I felt this strongly.
I say that people from any religion can take this on. I currently am learning different types of meditation and spend lots of time in “maithri bawana” with my teachers and friends the priests. Meditation develops us internally and spiritually making us self-sustained, reducing our dependence on external sources. When we reduce our food intake and meditate. we increase our internal energy. Food is not of great importance. Most issues we face today are food related. The root of a large number of illnesses is food. Because I addressed this issue first that through teachings and meditation desire for food can decrease; that is mainly why American media showed interest in what I was saying. I first used fast for ten days, which increased to forty days. The number of days increased every year. Sometimes I did a forty day fast and ate for several months. Then, fasted again for eighty days. Last year I had only 4 meals over 5 months” says Kirby.
“You had only eaten 4 meals for 5 months. But usually, a common man would feel weak after skipping only 3 meals a day; we mentioned.
“Well, we can’t survive by just letting go of food. We need to go through a process to open our bodily chakras. Then we need only 10% of external food. This is a process activated through breathing. Then the food we require is generated in body itself, just like in a tree. After all, if a car has fuel in its tank, why should we pump more fuel into it? People who consume mostly vegetables are called vegetarians. This is called Breatharianism. It means that we live mostly on the food generated by breath. But, everything necessary cannot be provided by only breath. The problem is, when you are without food man gets tired But when you meditate on the right things you generate energy, you do not feel any discomfort. I run often and work like any other individual. My lack of food intake has not affected my lifestyle in any way. This is what National Geographic channel was interested in. They put me on a show which had the most amount of viewers world-wide. And they did not take my word for it. They will not take risk. They tested me, and asked me to teach an American citizen breatharianism if what i was saying was true. you can see on the program that i succeeded. I did my program in the USA, based on their religion Christianity. This will differ according to the country and religious culture. Any people of all religion can learn this program. Whilst religion is not an important aspect of the program, if it is based on what they are already familiar with it is easier to learn. A large number of people have already tried this program. One of them is my wife. She eats only a few meals week. Right before I appeared on National Geography, I ran a half marathon whilst not eating for months. Therefore, there is no doubt to the fact that I was and still am very healthy. We open up our energy centers whilst decreasing our food and meditating on love. This is how we continue to be healthy. People who are used to eating continuously but get gastritis due to delay in meals will overcome that problem this way.
I need to say this. What I’m doing is nothing extraordinary deep in every religion and culture is this spiritual value. Anyone one with simple intent can embark on a similar journey. I have put together a 7-Day program to teach the basics to people. The next major global issue is going to be the food crisis. Our mentality shouldn’t be that we overcome this by keeping on increasing and modifying the food supply. The solution lies in the modification our food intake and how we reduce our food consumption. There are many people in the world who claim to completely abstain from food. For me that’s not natural. I enjoy food and eat once in a while. My specialty and unique ability is that i can pass on this ability to someone else who is interested to cut down over consumption.
While he speaks, Kirby’s voice is very radiant. His behavior was simple and natural. When we arrived at his home there were already several people who had come there for his program. When we left them, I noticed a large outdoor cafeteria full of people with so much food on their plates, that it covered their faces. For these people, with an immense desire for food to live individuals like Kirby are a wonder. Right opposite the cafe on the other side of the road lays a jogging track. Seen on it are many obese individuals who are trying to get rid of the excessive life style accumulated in their bellies.
