Samadhi

An ancient tapasya, bur rarely performed nowadays, is samadhi, usually meaning enlightenment, but in this case referring to a state of suspended animation, a virtual death which may last for a period of days or weeks, during which the spirit leaves the body and travels on the astral plane. The body stays behind, under the ground – in a ‘grave’– or in a casket under water.
I made this photo in 1980. It was in fact the first picture I took of a sadhu, though only his hand sticking out of the sand is visible.
The hand was slowly moving the mala through its fingers. No way could be seen that this person buried in the sand could breath.
The sitting boy is keeping watch over the donations.
Combined with other 'miraculous' events that day (a partial solar eclipse), it would eventually impel me to start my "camera yoga."

A Japanese female sadhu, Mata Keiko Aikawa, is about to descend the ladder into her 'grave', where she would stay, under the ground for five days (at the Kumbha Mela in Ujjain in 1992).
On the right is her Guru, Pilot Baba, who has performed this 'miracle' twenty-seven times.
More recently Pilot Baba stayed under water – without casket – for four days. Reported in the Times of India, 9 November 1992, he said: ‘I have mastered the way to survive in conditions akin to that in the womb.’ It is also reported that the Indian Rationalist Association accused him of fraud.
At the Allahabad Kumbha in 2001 Mela Mata Keiko Aikawa also stayed underground for five days.

The body stays in an airtight chamber under the ground -- a ‘grave’ -- but quite dissimilar from the sarcophagus depicted by Picart.
Another type of samadhi: death of a sadhu.
Sadhus are not cremated as the common Hindus are, but either buried sitting in padmasana, or tied to a chair, loaded with a stone and thrown into a holy river, like the Ganges, shown here.
Usually then they are seen no more, eaten by the creatures in the water, but this unfortunate baba was washed to a shallow part of the river.

Of a dead Shaiva sadhu it is said: "He has gone to Kailas."
Vaishnavas go to Vaikunth.
All supposedly are in samadhi