Lighthouse Journalism found a video widely shared on social media platforms showing a sadhu (monk) sleeping on fire. The video was claimed to be from the recent Mahakumbh.
During the investigation, we found that the video was over 15 years old. The old video was falsely linked to Mahakumbh 2025, claiming it was recent.
Claim:
X user Deepak Sharma shared the video on his profile with the claim.
Other users too are sharing the video with the same claim on various social media platforms.
Investigation:
We started the investigation by uploading the video to the InVid tool and running a reverse image on the keyframes obtained.
However, this did not yield any results.
We then ran a basic Google keyword search, ‘Sadhu sleeping on fire’.
This led us to a 4 video series on the YouTube channel of Aaj Tak.
The video was published 15 years ago.
We found another, video posted on the YouTube channel IndiaDivine.
This was a clip from a video uploaded on July 8, 2008. The description said: The Fire Yogi is a 47-minute documentary exploring the journey of a Yogi who has the extraordinary ability to use a unique breathing technique to get into union with Fire. This documentary portrays a rare and unusual Fire Ritual performed by a Yogi from India and the subsequent chemical analysis of his clothing & physical tests that examine this supernatural phenomenon. The Yogi has performed this Fire Ritual for a total of 1000 days over the last 45 years. The Yogi, weighing a mere 94 pounds (43 kilos), has survived on only two bananas and a mere glass of milk with a few drops of water twice a day for the last 28 years. Many aspects of the Yogi are on the edge of unbelievability, while at the same time highlighting the power and endurance of the human mind, body, and spirit.
Conclusion: Visuals from a 15-year-old video showcasing Sadhu from Tanjore, sleeping on fire, were falsely shared as recent from Mahakumbh 2025. The viral claim is false.
