8. Various of medical student holding glass for yogi as he sucks oil into his bladder

7. Close up of yogi inserting hose into his penis (not visible)

5. Various of yogi blowing up balloon from pipe inserted in his penis

Hindi/English/Nat

A yoga teacher and his pupil are touring the Indian city of Bombay with a bizarre display to try to encourage people to take up yoga and improve their health.

The yogi has spent months training so that he can suck liquid INTO his bladder through his penis.

He can also inflate a balloon attached to his penis.

He says this demonstrates the power of yoga, and says if practised regularly it can radically improve health.

A classroom of medical students in Bombay are about to see a demonstration they are unlikely to see again, or forget.

India is the land of mystics and holy men and also yoga. And one man and his teacher are taking yogic powers to their extreme.

Yogi Raj Balram Sharan, a practitioner of the Bajroli school of yoga, says he has trained for many months so that he can suck liquids into his bladder through his penis.

Using an array of devices and props, he willingly strips naked to demonstrate.

First, with deep breaths and crouching, he shows how he can inflate a balloon attached to his penis by a hose inserted into it.

The pin-drop silence of the students, some of whom can't bear to watch, erupts into applause as the balloon grows.

The finale of the display is just the opposite -- the yogi gets a medical student to hold a glass of oil and sucks it into his bladder using a hose inserted into his penis.

The applause is, again, enthusiastic and the students awed and a bit dazed.

The yogi's teacher is hoping the display will get people to look again at the ancient art of yoga as a way of helping their lives.

And he says this act of control is more than a dazzling display -- and actually has healing powers.

SOUNDBITE: (English)

\"First it is that it is going to clean the urinary tract. He has got a control over -- absolute control over the urinary tract. So what will happen? It will help in the urinal bladder -- also for the kidneys and the entire system. Most of the people are now dying of kidney failure -- kidney transplants are high. But if somebody does this, I am sure transplants will go down.\"

SUPERCAPTION: Kishore Chandramohanty, Yoga teacher

Raj Balram Sharan has trained for many hours a day to get to this level of control.

He says yoga can go beyond nature's intentions for the penis.

SOUNDBITE: (Hindi)

\"The pipe of the penis is not cleaned. It is only a one way route. Yogis have said it is not like that and that to keep this

clean and healthy you have to do something. So Bajroli yoga cleans it by sucking up water.\"

SUPERCAPTION: Raj Balram Sharan, practitioner of Bajroli Yoga

A prominent scientist in Bombay has been checking out the demonstration for himself -- visiting the yogi's home.

He says it's an amazing feat.

SOUNDBITE: (English)

\"It is possible for human beings to develop the capacities through training to do certain things normal human beings do not do, and that's to me what Yoga implies. Beyond that, if somebody asks me what I think as a scientist are the benefits of this, I wouldn't be able to tell you. What benefits it would have, whether the sucking

of liquid is going to give any added advantage -- because any liquid that he sucks is going to stay up to the bladder level. It's not going to go to the kidney -- obviously it just cannot.\"

SUPERCAPTION: Dr Rashmi Mayur, Environmental scientist

The yogi is still in training - his next aim to suck liquid into his anus, as well as his penis.