The commencement of the activities of East India Company in India and the life of Shri Trailanga Swami have an unnoticed relation, as far as I understood.
—-
East India Company ships docked at Surat in Gujarat
in 1608. The company's first Indian factory was established in 1611 at
Masulipatnam on the Andhra Coast of the Bay of Bengal, and its second in 1615
at Surat.
In
the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and under the provisions of the
Government of India Act 1858, the British Government nationalised the company.
The British government took over its Indian possessions, its administrative
powers and machinery, and its armed forces.
—-
Interestingly,
this entire period was witnessed by Shri Trailanga Swami, a spiritual giant
from Andhra Pradesh, who lived for almost 280 years (1607 - 1887).
trailanga (त्रैलिङ्ग) - belonging to/from triliṅga (त्रिलिङ्ग) deśa/land.
triliṅga
(त्रिलिङ्ग) deśa is
the land of the Āndhras/Telugu speaking people, otherwise called Triliṅga-bhūmi
by its association with the three famous Shiva shrines (liṅgas), viz.
Śrīśaila, Kāleśvara and Dākṣārama.
——
Shri Trailanga Swami was born in Kumbilapuram (now
known as Kumili of Puspatirega Tehisil) 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, Sivarama was born in 1529, while according to another biographer it
was 1607.
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, Sivarama became known as Shri Trailanga Swami
after he settled in Varanasi, living the monastic life Varanasi, till his death
in 1887, he lived at different places.
After
seeing Shri Trailanga Swamy, Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa 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 Shri 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."
----
Was
it a divine providence or simply a coincidence that Shri Trailanga Swami lived
that long period covering the entire tenure of East India Company in India?
---
I
have found a Bengali film on Shri Trailanga Swamy in YouTube.
Part-1:
Part-2
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