Trailanga Swami (also Tailang Swami, Telang Swami) (reportedly
1607–1887) was a Hinduyogi and mystic famed for his spiritual powers who lived in Varanasi, India. He is a legendary figure in Bengal, with stories told
of his yogic powers and longevity. According to some accounts, Trailanga Swami
lived to be 280 years old, residing at Varanasi between 1737 and 1887. He is
regarded by devotees as an incarnation of Shiva. Sri Ramakrishna referred to him as "The walking Shiva of Varanasi".
He was born in Kumbilapuram (now known as Kumili of PuspatiregaTehisil) at Vizianagaram District in Andhra Pradesh, with the name of Shivarama. His biographers and his disciples differ
on his birth date and the period of his longevity. According to one disciple
biographer, he was born in 1529, while according to another biographer it was
1607. His biography has been written by Biruduraju Ramaraju as one volume of his six volume project Andhra yogulu.
His parents were Narashingha Rao and Vidyavati Devi, who were devotees
of Shiva. After the death of his father in 1647, at the age of 40, he gave up
wealth and family responsibilities to his half brother Sridhar. His mother then
shared with him the fact that her father at the time of death expressed desire
to be born to her and continue his Kalisadhana for the benefit of
mankind. She told Sivarama that she believed that he was her father (his own
grandfather) reincarnated and that he should take up Kali sadhana. In 1669 his
mother died. After her death, he saved her ashes (chita bhasma). He would wear
her ashes and continue his Kali sadhana day and night (teevra sadhana). During
that time, Sivarama lived the life of a recluse in a cottage, built by his
half-brother, near a cremation ground. After 20 years of spiritual practice (sadhana), he met his preceptor swami, Bhagirathananda Saraswati, in 1679 from
the Punjab. Bhagirathananda initiated Shivaram into monastic vows (sannyasa) and named him Swami Ganapati Saraswati in 1685. Ganapati reportedly
led a life of severe austerities and went on a pilgrimage, reaching Prayag in 1733, before finally settling in Varanasi in 1737.
A member of the Dashanami order, he became known as Trailanga Swami after he settled in Varanasi,
living the monastic life.
In Varanasi, till his death in 1887, he lived at different places
including Asi Ghat, the Vedavyas
Asharama at Hanuman Ghat, Dashashwamedh Ghat. He was often
found roaming the streets or the ghats, "carefree as a child". He was
reportedly seen swimming or floating on the river Ganges for hours. He talked very little and at times not at all. A number of
people became attracted to him upon hearing of his yogic powers to ameliorate
their sufferings. During his stay in Varanasi, several prominent contemporary
Bengalis known as saints met and described him, including Loknath Brahmachari, Benimadhava
Brahmachari, Bhagaban Ganguly, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda,Mahendranath Gupta, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Swami Abhedananda, Bhaskarananda, Vishuddhananda, and Vijaykrishna and Sadhak Bamakhepa .
After seeing Trailanga, Ramakrishna said, "I saw that the universal
Lord Himself was using his body as a vehicle for manifestation. He was in an
exalted state of knowledge. There was no body-consciousness in him. Sand there
became so hot in the sun that no one could set foot on it. But he lay
comfortably on it."Ramakrishna also stated that Trailanga was a real paramahansa (lit:"Supreme swan", used as an honorific for a spiritual
teacher) and that "all Benares was illuminated by his stay there."
Trailanga had taken the vow of non-seeking (ayachaka)—remaining
satisfied with whatever he received. In the later stage of his life, as his
fame spread, crowds of pilgrims visited him. During his last days, he took up
living like a python (ajagaravritti) in which he sat still without any
movement, and devotees poured water (abhisheka) on him from early
morning till noon, looking upon him as a living incarnation of Shiva.
He died on Monday evening, December 26, 1887. His body was given
salilasamadhi in the Ganges, according to the funeral customs of the monks of
the Dashanami sect, in the presence of mourning devotees standing on the ghats.
There are many stories told about Telang and his spiritual powers, such
that he has become a near mythical figure in India. Robert Arnett writes that his
miracles are "well documented" and "he displayed miraculous
powers that cannot be dismissed as myth" and that there were living
witnesses to his "amazing feats". He was reputed to have lived to be
around 300 years, and was a larger-than-life figure, reportedly weighing over
300 pounds (140 kg), though he seldom ate. One account said that he could
"read people’s minds like books."
On many occasions, he was seen to drink deadly poisons with no ill
effect. In one instance, a skeptic wanted to expose him as a fraud. The monk
was accustomed to breaking his long fasts with buckets of clabbered milk, so the skeptic brought him a bucket of calcium-lime mixture used for
whitewashing walls instead. The monk drank the entire bucket with no ill
effect—instead, the skeptic fell to the ground writhing in pain. The monk broke
his usual silence to explain the law of karma, of cause and effect.
According to another story, he often walked around the Varanasi police
were scandalized by his behaviour, and had him locked in a jail cell. He was
soon seen on the prison roof, in all his "sky-clad" glory. The police
put him back into his locked cell, only to see him appear again on the jail
roof. They soon gave up, and let him again walk the streets of Varanasi.
Thousands of people reportedly saw him levitating in a sitting position
on the surface of the river Ganges for days at a time. He would also apparently disappear under the waves
for long periods, and reappear unharmed. Sivananda attributed some of his miracles to the siddhi or yogic power Bhutajaya — conquest over the five elements, "Fire
will not burn such a Yogi. Water will not drown him."
With respect to his reportedly yogic powers, miracles abound in his
biographies and exceptionally long life, Medhasananda writes that
according to the "science of yoga", attainment of these is not
"impossible".
Trailanga Swami had given an explanation for his nudity in the following words, “Lahiri Mahasaya is like a divine kitten, remaining wherever the Cosmic Mother has
placed him. While dutifully playing the part of a worldly man, he has received
that perfect Self-realization which I have sought by renouncing everything –
even my loincloth!”
It is also said that he is same as Kulandaiananda swamigal of south
India who was based out of the south India village of batlagundu in Tamil Nadu.
His teachings are still extant and available in a biography by Umacharan Mukhopadhyay, one of his disciples. He described bondage as "attachment to the
world" and liberation as "renunciation of the world and absorption in
God." He further said that after attaining the state of desirelessness,
"this world is transformed into heaven" and one can be liberated from
samsara (the Hindu belief that life is a cycle of birth and death) through
"spiritual knowledge". He remarks that attachment to the
"evanescent" world is "our chronic disease" and the
medicine is "detachment".
He described man's senses as his enemy and his controlled senses as his
friend. His description of a poor person as one who is "very greedy"
and regarded one who always remains content as rich. He said that the greatest
place of pilgrimage is "Our own pure mind" and instructs to follow
the "Vedantic truth from the Guru." He described a sadhu as one who is free from attachment and delusion. One who has
transcended the egoself.
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