India is a cradle of many geniuses. It is a land of religion and a great place for pilgrimage. Long ago, a great man was born in our country. He was Trailangaswami, (reportedly 27 November 1607– 26 December 1887), whose monastic name was Swami Ganapati Saraswati, He was a Hindu yogi and mystic, famed for his spiritual powers. He is regarded by devotees as an incarnation of Shiva. Sri Ramakrishna referred to him as the walking Shiva of Varanasi.
Many years ago, in Varanasi devotees of Shiva used to watch a hefty man remain absorbed in meditation. The saint was engrossed in his yogic kriya and never paid attention. He was always carefree like a child and people flocked for his yogic supremacy.
In 15th century, a kind hearted zamindar called Nrisinghadhar hailing from the Deccan region had a son named Shibram with his wife, Vidyabati, who was a devotee of Lord Shiva. Later on, the child was named Trilangadhar. In his childhood, he was intelligent. With the passage of time, Trilangadhar gained vast religious knowledge and was not at all interested to lead a family life but he married on his mother’s request.
When Trilangadhar was forty, his father Nrisinghadhar died and his mother also passed away soon after. Trilangadhar gave up his parental property to his brother and set out as a holy man. He was patronized by a monk named Swami Vagirathananda Saraswati who later became his religious master and Trailangadhar was renamed as Trailanga Swami.
Once he was going through a remote place when a widow who had just lost her child kept her child at his feet. He took pity on her, and touched the body of the child and shortly after, the child opened his eyes.
One night, Khaki Baba, a man of religious austerity, saw that the colour of the water of Narmada had changed to white. Trailangaswami was found drinking milk while standing in the river. On a stormy day of summer, Trailangaswami while sitting on the bank of Trbenisamgam at Prayag saw a passenger carrying boat drowning in the river. Trilangaswami disappeared momentarily and soon after he reappeared with the passengers of the drowned boat.
At the end of his life, a Brahmin from Maharashtra named Mangal Bhatta requested Trilangaswami to reside in his house. Considering his sincere request, Swamiji agreed to reside in their house when many people, saints and monks visited to listen to his sermons and preaching.
In 1868 Sri Sri Ramkrishna went to Varanasi. After visiting the Temple of Lord Biswanath Thakur, he went to meet Trailangaswami. when Swamiji saw Sri Sri Ramkrishna, a super-powered devotee of Ma Bhabatarini. With great pleasure, Swamiji gave him a snuff-box and they conversed between themselves.
Once Sri Shyamacharan Lahiri, a great ascetic met Trailangaswami. Seeing him, Swamiji was excited and told his disciples that Lahiri was a gentleman who had reached the highest level of divine spirituality.
One day after bathing in Ganges, he told his disciple that his time had come to leave the world. His date was fixed by him and he instructed his disciple to make a wooden box of sandal and also advised them to keep his body in the box and stated that it should be immersed in the Ganges. In the month of December, 1887 Trailangaswami left the mortal world.
Trailanga 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 desire-lessness, "this world is transformed into heaven" and one can be liberated from samsara.
Swamiji’s messages are internal. A few of those are:
· Who always supports his neighbour he can leave in peace.
· It is necessary to make every effort to get rid of laziness, the main reason for inaction.
· Honor all religions. All religions have one truth and all have one goal - the achievement of Salvation (Moksha).
· Help the poor and truly needy people, not those who pretend to be such. Distribute knowledge wisely and only to those who wish to receive it.
· Violence with any creatures of the world is not acceptable. You cannot kill any creature with the cause of good or bad. Who is unable to give life he has no authority to snatch the life of others.
· If I do not purify myself, if I do not show modesty and humility, if my thoughts, speech and actions are not sincere, all my attempts to wear the clothes of the righteous will lose all meaning
· A bee, collecting pollen from a flower, does not harm its beauty and aroma. A person who acquires knowledge should behave in this way and not harm anyone.
· Listen carefully and with concentration to the speech of the guru and follow all his instructions with thoughts and actions. The guru is the inner teacher.
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