Meet The Man Who Raised His Hands For Almost 50yrs In Support For World Peace (pics)

For 50 years, an Indian man has kept his arm raised in the air, never wavering in his endeavor to keep it above his head, even when the pain became nearly unbearable.

His name is Amar Bharati, and he’s an ascetic, a religious man called a sadhu in some aspects of Indian culture, specifically in the religions of Buddhism and Jainism, who has rejected all worldly desires and adheres to strict self-discipline.

Instead, Bharati dedicated his life to Shiva, a Hindu god known as “the primordial yogi,” and his raised arm is his form of activism — by keeping his arms raised, he protests wars across the world. Shiva is known as the deity who will destroy the universe and recreate it, one of the big three in the Hindu religion.

Bharati took his oath and began raising his arm in 1973 as a way to “militate against wars and support world peace,” according to the Greek Reporter. Before that, he had lived in New Delhi and had a wife and children — he was a family man. He worked at a bank in the country, but quit his job suddenly in 1970 to dedicate himself to his religion.

He spent two years of his life in severe pain by doing this, but later lost all sensation in his arm. The muscles in his arm atrophied during this time

The Khaama Press News Agency reported that he led a modest life until then but decided to pursue his spiritual path. So, he moved away and began a life dedicated to finding liberation and enlightenment.

In 1973, he decided to show his devotion to Shiva by raising his arm and keeping it up. The act caused him excruciating pain for two years, The Jerusalem Post reported, but eventually, he lost all feeling in the arm. That has made it easier to keep up for all these years.

All the muscles in the arm have atrophied since then, and his arm is now a bony structure so fragile that trying to move it would likely cause it to break, then decay. His fingernails stopped growing after a while, likely from a lack of blood flow to the extremity.

Many of his followers have taken inspiration from his actions, calling it a “beacon of hope” and even raising their own arms for years.