Hari Om tat Sat

Trailinga Swami born to Narasingh Rao and Bidayabati in 1601, was a great Indian Saint who did tremendous sadhana for over 250 years and attained to the heights of spiritual knowledge. Swami is said to be the incarnation of Lord Shiva. His initial name was Shivaram.

Shivaram was always a profound and seriously introspective child. For the most part he avoided regular childhood past times, preferring instead to spend his time in solitude. He was quite indifferent to the demands of the society around him. Rather his great joy was to listen to religious stories told by his mother. He spent 52 years of his life serving his parents and at the age of 52 when his mother left her earthly body, Shivram moved out of his house and started his search for the guru. He started his sadhana in the local cremation grounds, where he remained seeking wisdome for 20 years. After that he went to many places including Nepal and finally settled in Banaras (Kashi) where he stayed for about 150 years.

The Swami, rarely eating earthly foods, was said to have gained a pound of body weight for each of his earthly years and finally reaching over 300 pounds. The Swami was consistently seen to drink deadly poisons and remain unaffected by it. Thousands of people have seen Trailanga floating on the Ganges for days on end. Many who witnessed this are still living today. Swami was seen sitting on the top of the water and other times remaining hidden under the waves for hours and days. Frequently the Swami was seen on the extremely hot stone slabs at Manikarnika Ghat under the blistering heat of the Indian sun, yet no ill affect resulted to his body. The yogi was great not only spiritually, but physically. His weight exceeded three hundred pounds: a pound for each year of his life! As he ate very seldom, the mystery is increased. A master, however, easily ignores all usual rules of health, when he desires to do so for some special reason, often a subtle one known only to himself. Great saints who have awakened from the cosmic mayic dream and realized this world as an idea in the Divine Mind, can do as they wish with the body, knowing it to be only a manipulatable form of condensed or frozen energy. Though physical scientists now understand that matter is nothing but congealed energy, fully-illumined masters have long passed from theory to practice in the field of matter-control.

Trailanga always remained completely nude. The harassed police of Benares came to regard him as a baffling problem child. The natural swami, like the early Adam in the garden of Eden, was utterly unconscious of his nakedness. The police were quite conscious of it, however, and unceremoniously committed him to jail. General embarrassment ensued; the enormous body of Trailanga was soon seen, in its usual entirety, on the prison roof. His cell, still securely locked, offered no clue to his mode of escape.The discouraged officers of the law once more performed their duty. This time a guard was posted before the swami’s cell. Might again retired before right. Trailanga was soon observed in his nonchalant stroll over the roof. Justice is blind; the outwitted police decided to follow her example.

The great yogi preserved a habitual silence.

In spite of his round face and huge, barrel-like stomach, Trailanga ate only occasionally. After weeks without food, he would break his fast with potfuls of clabbered milk offered to him by devotees. A skeptic once determined to expose Trailanga as a charlatan. A large bucket of calcium-lime mixture, used in whitewashing walls, was placed before the swami.

“Master,” the materialist said, in mock reverence, “I have brought you some clabbered milk. Please drink it.” Trailanga unhesitatingly drained, to the last drop, the containerful of burning lime. In a few minutes the evildoer fell to the ground in agony. “Help, swami, help!” he cried. “I am on fire! Forgive my wicked test!”

The great yogi broke his habitual silence. “Scoffer,” he said, “you did not realize when you offered me poison that my life is one with your own. Except for my knowledge that God is present in my stomach, as in every atom of creation, the lime would have killed me. Now that you know the divine meaning of boomerang, never again play tricks on anyone.”

The well-purged sinner, healed by Trailanga’s words, slunk feebly away. The reversal of pain was not due to any volition of the master, but came about through unerring application of the law of justice which upholds creation’s farthest swinging orb. Men of God-realization like Trailanga allow the divine law to operate instantaneously; they have banished forever all thwarting crosscurrents of ego. Autobiography of a Yogi, Chapter 31, “An Interview with the Sacred Mother” Paramahansa Yogananda

* Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had a vision of Trailanga Swami prior to meeting him. After meeting him physically, he declared him a “veritable image of Siva.” Indeed, the saint was oft referred to as “the movable Siva of Benares.”

Sri ParamahamsaYogananda in his autobiography explains the divine life of trailanga swamy.

Tailang Swami is spoken of with reverence, awe and almost with fear in the city of Benaras. As we ask for directions to his temple, the people we speak to display all three emotions. Who was Tailanga Swami? Was he really superhuman or an incarnation of Lord Vishwanath (Shiva) as they claim? The sceptic in us perks up for the first time.The story goes that when Ramkrishna Paramhansa came to Benaras, he met Swamiji, to whom he mentioned his desire to visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple. But as time was running out, he concluded that it would perhaps not be possible. As he said this and turned around to leave, there stood, instead of Swamiji, Lord Vishwanath himself! After this divine sighting, Ramkrishna became a lifelong disciple of Tailanga Swami.As we sit down to chat with the Tailanga Swami Temple priest, he tells us that Swamiji was originally from Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. Born in 1607, Tailanga Swami travelled extensively after his mother’s death. At times living out of cremation grounds, he appeared in Kashi somewhere in mid 1730’s immediately capturing the public’s imagination with superhuman feats like remaining submerged in the Ganga for more than 48 hours, lifting statues of deities weighing nearly a thousand kgs and travelling for miles etc.

The story goes that one day the King of Kashi had come to the ghats for bathing along with his wives, who were taking a bath in a private enclosure. And suddenly Tailanga Swami appeared from under the water in the cordoned off area causing much commotion. The miffed King ordered Tailanga Swami to be whipped mercilessly, but later the marks were found on the body of the King’s son. This was the time when reverence for him had turned to awe in Kashi where he lived for more than 150 years.During this time he shunned public contact. As the temple priest says, “Tailanga Swami had five disciples during his stay in Kashi who were instructed to not take on any disciples of their own.” This was Tailanga Swami at his reclusive best. In fact he had announced beforehand the exact date he would attain nirvana. A month earlier, he personally supervised the setting up of his idol. On the due date, he took Samadhi (meditation unto death) directly under it.Even today as we walk down the twisted, narrow lanes of Benaras toward an obscure corner which houses his Temple, the people with a tinge of the same fear tell us, that it is impossible to look at Swamiji’s idol for too long. Upon reaching we find that they’re right. With huge intimidating eyes Swamiji looks at you with a piercing gaze that makes it almost impossible to even glance back at this saint who, many say, still walks the earth.