fakir:
(also with the spelling: ‘fakeer’; ‘faqir’; ‘faquir’;plural: ‘fakirs‘ — for the pronunciation difference American and British English of this word, please click here)
a Muslim fakir
a Muslim or Hindu religious person (an ascetic) who gives up all the bodily pleasures, spends his time in prayers and in a dream-like condition (trance) and lives on the food and alms given by others, often doing some dangerous feats that show more mental strength than physical strength (they are like monks and are regarded as holy men, but some of them are known to use drugs, such as opium, hashish, etc.);
an ascetic;
a mendicant,
a Hindu fakir
When I was a child, there was a fakir who would come very early in the morning singing some song asking for alms during festival seasons.
It used to be a common sight to see at one fakir moving about at a market place, but now we rarely see any fakirs in our town.
Fakirs are known for their supernatural powers which, the modern day sceptics, are nothing but cheap magic tricks that anybody with a quick hand can do.
In India, the land of sentiments and superstitions, there have been many fakirs with the name ‘Sai Baba’ of which Puttaparthi Sai Baba, a fakir but not a beggar, gained such great popularity that the presidents, prime ministers, bureaucrats, highly qualified intellectuals and multi-national businessmen would prostrate before him for his blessings; however, no amount of the blessings saved those people from disease and death, nor his own supernatural powers protected him from that dreaded disease of which he died suffering like any normal person!
