Wednesday, 23 October 2024

Trailanga Swami

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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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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?

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I have found a Bengali film on Shri Trailanga Swamy in YouTube.

Part-1:

https://youtu.be/ZjPax6S_jpw

Part-2

https://youtu.be/xlcPHc9H5AI

 


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