Trailanga Swami

Overview and Significance

Life History

Tradition and Gurus

Teachings

Miracles

Contemporary Masters

Holy Sites and Pilgrimages

Bibliography

External Links

Overview and Significance

Trailanga Swami (Swami or Telang Swami), whose monastic name was Swami Ganapati Saraswati, was a great Hindu yogi and mystic from Bengal, famed for his spiritual powers, living 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 resided at Varanasi between 1737 and 1887. He was celebrated as an incarnation of Lord Shiva by great saints, such as Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Paramahamsa Yogananda, etc.

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa referred to him as ‘The walking Shiva of Varanasi’.

Swami Trailanga was believed to have lived to be around 300 years old, living in Varanasi for about 150 years, and was a larger-than-life figure, reportedly weighing over 300 pounds (140 kg), though he seldom ate.

Swami Trailanga always remained completely nude. He was a muni, a monk who observes mauna, spiritual silence.

Life History

Trailanga Swami was born in Kumbilapuram (now known as Kumili) at Vizianagaram District in Andhra Pradesh to Narasingh Rao and Vidyavati Devi, ardent devotees of Lord Shiva as Shivaram in the year 1601. Trailanga Swami’s father, Narasingh Rao, was a leader of his village in Andhra Pradesh, and being a virtuous and truthful man, he was respected by the entire community. His mother, Vidayavati, faithfully supported her husband, performed service to others, and did her sadhana (practices) along with him. The couple remained childless for many years but desired a son to carry on the family’s lineage.

One day Vidyavati, in her most sincere desire to fulfill her husband’s wishes for a son, asked him to take a second wife by whom he would be able to have a child. Eventually, he accepted her suggestion and married again, increasing her devotion and spiritual practices towards Lord Shiva. At one point during her sadhana, she dreamed of Shiva’s arrival with a son. The dream soon came to fruition when she became pregnant. She gave birth to a beautiful son called Shivaram, later known as Trailanga Swami, at an auspicious astrological configuration.

After one year had passed following Shivaram’s birth, Narasingh’s second wife gave birth to a son named Shridhar. The two sons were raised together in a very happy and harmonious household.

One day during Vidyavati’s meditation on Lord Shiva, the young Shivaram fell asleep in front of the Shiva Lingam. Upon rising from her meditation, Vidyavati saw a light emanating from the Shiva Lingam she had been worshiping and moving directly to her son, Shivaram. Shivaram was always a profound and seriously introspective child. He was quite indifferent to the demands of the society around him. For the most part, he avoided regular childhood pastimes, preferring instead to spend his time in solitude. Instead, his great joy was to listen to religious stories told by his mother.

His father wanted him to marry, of course, because he would not be entitled to participate in Vedic rites of worship or community affairs without marriage, but Shivaram adamantly refused. He viewed it as an impediment to his spiritual growth. Ultimately, the father became resigned to his son’s tenacity of purpose, and Narasingh instructed his younger son, Shridhar, to marry and carry on the family name.

When Shivaram was 40 years old, his father died. He had a great desire to leave the world and take up the life of a religious mendicant, but his Mother requested him to remain with her so long as she maintained her body. She promised him that he would find the highest blessings and the ultimate liberation if he stayed with her until her death. He agreed and remained in the family home. His mother once shared with him that her father (his grandfather) at the time of his death expressed his desire to be born to her and continue his Kali sadhana to benefit humanity. Hence Vidyavati Devi told Shivaram that she believed that he was her father reincarnated and that he should take up Kali sadhana. Upon the initiation of a Kali mantra from his mother, Shivaram carried out Kali sadhana in the nearby Kali temple but was never far away from his mother.

When his mother died twelve years later, he was freed from the debts of family karma, and being accountable to no one, he moved off to live the life of a wandering sadhu. He continued his intense practice of Kali Sadhana day and night. Ganapati Swami reportedly led a life of severe austerities and went on a pilgrimage, reaching Prayag in 1733 before settling in Varanasi in 1737, where he stayed for about 150 years, living the life of a hermit in a cottage near a cremation ground, where he remained seeking wisdom for almost 20 years.

Later, he met his preceptor Bhagirathananda Saraswati (some sources say Rattananda Saraswati) from Punjab. Together they made a spiritual pilgrimage on foot across the North and South of India and ultimately came to Pushkar Lake. It was here that the yogi initiated Shivaram into sannyas dharma and gave him the name Ganapati Saraswati (1685). Shortly after the initiation, his guru left his body, and Ganapati remained there and performed spiritual practices for ten years more.

The Swami, rarely eating earthly foods, was said to have gained a pound of body weight for each earthly year and finally reached over 300 pounds. Amazingly, the Swami was consistently seen drinking deadly poisons and remained unaffected by it. Thousands of people have seen Swami Trailanga floating on the Ganges for days on end. Swami was seen sitting on the top of the water; he would remain hidden under the waves for hours and days at other times. 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 effect resulted to his body.

The yogi was great not only spiritually but also physically. His weight exceeded three hundred pounds: one pound for each year of his life! As he ate very seldom, the mystery increased. A master, however, easily ignores all usual rules of health when he desires to do so for some particular reason, often a subtle one known only to himself. The great yogi preserved a habitual silence. Despite his round face and huge, barrel-like stomach, Swami Trailanga ate only occasionally. After weeks without food, he would break his fast with a pot full of clabbered milk offered to him by devotees. He was always carefree like a child and frequently roamed naked on the streets or the Gange ghats. He talked to others very little or sometimes not at all. Having heard of his yogic supremacy, many people came to him to get rid of their problems.

Trailanga Swami spent the last of his life at Pancha Ganga Ghat in Kashi, now called Benares. His caretaker was Mangal Bhatt. Trailanga Swami spent his last years in silence next to Kali and Shiva deities carved from stone with his own hands. He sat at his altar writing Sanskrit shlokas and giving advice to others. When Saints visited him, he often spoke in his own version of sign language.

The famous Bengali Saint, Ramakrishna, visited Trailanga Swami and said that although he had taken a body, Trailanga Swami was indeed Lord Shiva and the embodiment of Wisdom. Both of them were so happy to be with one another, yet few words were exchanged. They communicated at the level of the heart. Ramakrishna recognised all of the signs that indicated Trailanga Swami’s saintliness. Trailanga Swami also was most respectful.

One question that Ramakrishna asked was whether God was one or many? Trailanga Swami answered in sign language. ‘In samadhi, you will know that God is one. When you have a taste for the world, God is many.’

One day Ramakrishna wished to feed Trailanga Swami pudding and gave him 25 pounds of sweet rice boiled in milk. Trailanga Swami ate the entire offering in one sitting.

Affluent visitors liked to decorate him with gold and gems. Attired like this, he would lose consciousness, and thieves would remove the jewels. For him, it was as if someone was giving and someone was taking. An incident occurred when a King had beckoned him with beautiful gemstones, and robbers took away everything. When the robbers were brought to Trailanga Swami, he dismissed the whole incident saying, ‘I am still the same with or without the jewels.’

Trailanga had taken the vow of non-seeking (ayachaka) — remaining satisfied with whatever he received. During his last days, he took up living like a python (ajagara vritti) 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 left the world on the Monday evening of December 26, 1887. Salila samadhi was given to his body in the Ganges River in Varanasi according to the customs of the Dashanami sect.

Many Saints met him in his lifetime. One day he announced to his disciples that he would like to leave this world. The distressed disciples cried that they had no statue of him. He promised his disciples a memoir, a statue of himself before his departure, which they made. Then before leaving, he advised his devotees to make a sandalwood coffin, put his body inside, and then throw it into the Ganges. Finally, he entered into a meditative samadhi and consciously exited his body on the 11th day of the full moon.

Following his directions, they placed his body in the sandalwood coffin, circumambulated Kashi, and then lowered the coffin into the Ganges, beside which he had resided for so many years. The coffin sank to the bottom, but after some time, it floated to the surface. When the disciples opened the lid, they found that the box was filled with flowers; there was no sign of the body.

It is also said that Trailanga is the same as Kuzhandaiananda Swamigal of South India who has Samadhis at Madurai, Tenkasi and Batalagundu.

Tradition and Gurus

Rattananda Saraswati (Bhagirathananda Saraswati)

Swami is a member of the Dashanami order, living a monastic life.

In 1685, when Shivaram was 78, he met a famous old swami named Bhagirathanandaji, who became his guru. He received an initiation mantra from him and began to learn yoga (union). It was at that time that he was given the name Saraswati, after Swami Ganapati Saraswati. But since he was born in Telangana, over time, he became more famous as Telang Swami. Also, since he had gone beyond gender identification, he was called Trailanga Swami—the word ‘trailanga’ meaning ‘of three genders’.

Teachings

His philosophy is extant and available in his life history written down by one of his disciples, the Umacharan Mukhopadhyay. According to this text, Trailanga Swami had described the attachment of humans to the world, the process of liberation, and the assimilation in God.

Swami’s words as below:

If someone attains the desirelessness state, his world is altered into heaven. He then can be liberated from the cycle of birth and death. Worldliness is like a chronic disease, and detachment is the medicine to become free from it.
All the sensual desires of the human body are his enemy; control of the senses is his friend.
The accurate description of a poor person – the very greedy one is very poor.
Sadhu – The one who has no attachment and desire. One who has transcended the ego-self.
Unfortunately, our real nature is most often mistaken by others. Those who forget their own nature, their Godly essence, forget the power within themselves. They prefer to believe in a miracle of the supernatural rather than the inner strength of the power that all of us possess.
Human life need not depend on oxygen or certain conditions and precautions. It only requires divine consciousness.
The greatest place of pilgrimage is ‘Our own pure mind.’ Swami often instructs people to follow the ‘Vedantic truth from the Guru.’
The most important thing is the purification of the mind. But not all are qualified for the same because people are entangled within the materialistic force (maya). To go beyond the bond of maya, one needs to do strict penance.
The one, who is the eye of the eye, the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the soul of the soul – HE is the only one worshipable.
If you do not overcome your desires (non-spiritual), you cannot reach the absolute. So one should overcome their mind. But how to achieve total control over the mind? You have to listen to the instructions of a realised Guru and need to practice accordingly with a focused mind. So a ‘Satguru‘ is very much needed. But who will be that Satguru? He who has realised the supreme Self in the heart through yoga. Only he can be recognised as Satguru.

Miracles

A skeptic once determined to expose Trailanga as a charlatan. A large bucket of a 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 container full 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 realise 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 the unerring application of the law of justice, which upholds creation’s farthest swinging orb. Men of God-realisation like Trailanga allow the divine law to operate instantaneously; they have banished forever all thwarting crosscurrents of ego.

He walked to Rameshwaram in South India. It is here that the first of several powerful miracles certified the depth of his yogic powers. Trailangq Swami stopped and blessed the corpse of a young child amidst a large funeral procession. Much to the surprise of all the thousand or so mourners, the boy suddenly came to life. Without a word, the saint disappeared.
At the Hanuman Ghat, once a local woman performed Shiva Puja (prayers) every day. One time, seeing a naked man there, she cursed his nudity and asked him why he didn’t live in the jungle with the other animals. The man simply ignored her and continued peacefully on his path. That night, in her dream, Shiva revealed that her worship would not bear any fruit because of her insults to him earlier in the day. Furthermore, only that naked man, Trailanga Swami, would be the one who could grant her the fruit for which she was worshipping. Her purpose for doing the puja was to find a cure for her husband’s stomach ulcers. She searched and searched for the Saint in the morning, and when she finally saw him, she asked for his forgiveness. Trailanga Swami happily blessed her and gave her some ashes for her husband’s cure. Applying the ashes to her bewildered husband, she found that he was cured immediately.
The story goes that when Ramakrishna 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, Ramakrishna became a lifelong disciple of Trailanga Swami.
There is a famous anecdote of Prayag, where Swami kept getting soaked at the river bank and took no shelter even in extreme rain. On being persuaded to take shelter by Ramtaran Bhattacharya, he said that he was there to save a boat that would sink. Ramtaran then saw a ship with pilgrims coming towards the bank. No sooner had he said this than the boat sank underwater. Swami disappeared, and in a few minutes, the ship went on the shore with all the pilgrims, followed by Swami. No one but Ramtaran realised that the yogi had saved the ship. It is the grace of a saint when he chooses to reveal his powers to someone. A saint does this only for a chosen few, for the purpose of spiritual inspiration.
In the Markandeya ashram, while Swami had water from the river Narmada in the cup of his hands, another famous saint named Khaki Baba noticed that when Trailanga Swami took the water, it was milky. In contrast, when Khaki Baba took water in his hands, it was normal regular river water. Was it part of the supernatural powers that he had, or was it that Mother Goddess did not wish that her favourite child should drink anything but milk!
Once at Asi Ghat, Trailanga Swami saw a woman weeping for her husband, who had died of a snakebite. As was the tradition for death from snakebites, the funeral group attempted to throw the whole body into the Ganges rather than cremate it. Trailanga Swami approached the body, applied some clay to the wound, and quickly jumped into the Ganges. The dead man slowly came to life, and for weeks the talk at the Ghat was only about Swamiji’s miracles.
Thousands of people reportedly saw him levitating in a sitting position on the surface of the river Ganges for days at a time. Sometimes, he would disappear under the waves for long periods and reappear unharmed. Swami Sivananda attributed some of his miracles to the siddhi or yogic power Bhutajaya — or conquest over the five elements: ‘Fire will not burn such a Yogi. Water will not drown him.’
A ticket collector told the naked sadhu to get down from the train. ‘You can’t avail of the train service without a ticket!’, he was told. The train had to stop between two stations waiting for a crossing guard, when the Swami was told to get off. He stomped off in an agitated mood in the direction of the next train. One disabled man called to him from the next compartment, ‘Hey, Babaji! Take me with you!’ Swami kicked the lame man with seemingly great anger and continued towards the next station, a few miles from there. When the lame man got up from the ground, much to his amazement, he could walk. He threw down his crutch with a shout of triumph and ran after the Swami, shouting with joy at his recovery.
The Swami reached the station and took his seat underneath a large tree. Meanwhile, the crossing guard gave the signal to go, but the train refused to move. People started to walk to the station rather than sit in the hot sun waiting for the train to move. When they reached the station, they saw the Swami comfortably reposed under a tree, and they all wondered how he knew the train wouldn’t be able to move and that everyone would have to walk to the station.
The engineers worked on the train all afternoon, but they couldn’t find any problem. Mechanics came from the station, but they, too, were mystified by the train’s failure. Even when the master mechanics and engineers arrived from the nearest city, all of them were bewildered by the train’s inability to move. No one could even explain. Then the disabled man, who had been cured by the swift kick of Trailanga Swami, told everyone that the train wouldn’t run because of the insult to that great saint. After he was thrown off the train, the machine refused to run. ‘Just ask the Swami to come again on board and see whether the train won’t go.’ ‘Well,’ reasoned the officials, ‘We’ve tried everything else. No one has a better explanation. Go, call him to come.’ No sooner did Trailanga Swami board the train than the engine started up, and the train moved swiftly towards the station.
Trailanga Swami liked to torment the British police in Benares. Of course, they were scandalised by his nudity, so they were always trying to arrest him for it. He liked having them run after him, for though he weighed a great deal, he could move very fast and always run only an arm’s length away from them. Eventually, he would take a street that led to the Ganges, and just as they thought they would catch hold of him, he would leap far out into the Ganges. There he would just sit on the water, remaining stationary, even though the river was flowing very swiftly. Or, when the water was clear, he would sink to the bottom and sit in meditation. Whichever he did, he would remain there for days, with the police taking shifts to watch and eventually arrest him. And then he would disappear! Eventually, it would start all over.
The British officers saw Trailanga Swami’s nudity as a social disgrace and frequently complained to the magistrate, who finally arrested him. The policemen, who tried to bring him before the magistrate, told a tale that seems highly impossible. Trailanga Swami simply disappeared before their very eyes! A huge search party was summoned to look for him, but he returned alone while they were out searching. He was laughing hilariously. Someone informed the magistrate that Trailanga Swami was no ordinary human; in his spiritual greatness, he saw everything as equal.
Appraised of this information that the Swami regarded everything as equal, the clever magistrate asked if the Swami would eat his food. He knew fully well that meat was forbidden to a Hindu Saint. The Saint, without any hesitation, responded affirmatively and added that the magistrate should eat his food also. Agreeing to the exchange, the magistrate served a plate of meat, which the Swami ate with gusto.
After eating his meat, Trailanga Swami squatted and defecated into the palm of his hand: the ‘food’ for the magistrate. The magistrate began to swear and curse offensively until he observed that the offering had become sandal paste. Convinced of Trailanga’s spiritual power, the magistrate protected him from that time onwards and gave him protection throughout the district.
Eventually a new magistrate came, and he also reacted to Trailanga Swami’s nakedness by arresting and jailing him. The new magistrate visited the prisoner. Much to his surprise, the magistrate found the prisoner outside the jail. He could not find out who let this man out of the cell. Angered, the magistrate demanded that Trailanga Swami tell him how he had escaped. In a simple, effortless way, Trailanga Swami said, ‘Early in the morning, I had the desire to urinate.’ This infuriated the magistrate, and he locked Trailanga Swami up again, but this time even more securely. Trailanga Swami managed to follow the magistrate outside, even despite extra security attempts. Trailanga Swami told the magistrate, ‘Sir, you, yourself are guilty, guilty of ignorance. This world has infinite possibilities and all-pervasive consciousness, things about which you know nothing. You can’t bind anyone who has reached the heights of yoga. Why do you disturb me if you can’t do anything to me? Where is your power now?’ Enlightened by the prisoner’s words, the magistrate recognised the power and depth of this man and ordered that all the officials of the town respect Trailanga Swami wherever he goes and leave him alone.
Often Trailanga Swami would stand in the Ganges and make his genitals as large as a fire hose and spray the pilgrims (and police) with the same force as a fire hose. But it was not urine; it was marvelous perfume! He would also go into a Shiva temple and either urinate on the linga (the deity) or urinate in his hand and then pour it over the linga. Of course, the priests and worshipers went wild, but it would be discovered that it was heavenly perfume and not urine at all.
Trailanga Swami continued his pilgrimages throughout India and came to practice sadhana in Nepal’s deep forests. A Nepalese story tells of a King on a hunting safari in that region and how, although a gifted sharpshooter, he could not seem to shoot a tiger. Despite repeated misses, the King insisted on getting the tiger and pursued it with all his might. The tiger chase brought the King to a yogi sitting amiably with the roaring beast. The yogi gently stroked the frightened animal while the King looked on in amazement. Yogi Ganapati beckoned the King closer to give him this marvelous advice, ‘Give up your fear, Oh King, for the tiger will not harm you. God has created everything. Give love, and He will give you love. Always remember this.’
One day Trailanga Swami was sitting outside the Pashupatinath Temple of Lord Shiva in Kathmandu, Nepal. The King’s daughter had prepared a special garden of flowers to worship Shiva in a special puja for her marriage. With great devotion, she performed the puja and put the garland on the Shiva lingam. When she came out from the temple, she saw a naked sadhu wearing the same flower mala. ‘You should marry me!’, he called to her, showing that he was wearing her mala. She was abashed. ‘That crazy sadhu has stolen the flowers from my puja!’, she called. ‘Go in and see for yourself,’ replied Swami.
She went into the temple only to find the offered garland was still draped over the Shiva lingam. Coming outside again, she saw that it was around the sadhu’s neck. It was in two places at the same time! Both on the Shiva lingam and the sadhu’s neck! How could that be? ‘Go, go,’ he said in benediction. “I accept your offering of worship. You’ll find a good husband.’ Returning to her home at the palace, she told her father of the extraordinary experience she had at the temple. ‘It must have been Trailanga Swami,’ replied the King. ‘Just while you were praying in the temple, we received a proposal for your marriage from a most worthy prince.’ The princess was married and enjoyed a most blessed life.
From Kashi come many wonderful accounts of Trailanga Swami’s compassionate and truthful character. One such story is about a leper for whom Trailanga sang stutis (Sanskrit hymns of Praise) and offered Bilvapatra, a leaf associated with the worship of Lord Shiva. After his worship of this man, Trailanga Swami requested him to shower at the Lolark Kund, always keeping the bilvapatra on his head. Now the Lolark Kund is notable for its auspicious waters, and when the leper washed as per the instructions of the Swami, his leprosy was cured.
Once, the King of Ujain visited Benares, and when leaving by boat, he noticed a naked man floating on the top of the water. The man floated towards the boat and was brought on board. The naked man was none other than Trailanga Swami. Trailanga Swami asked to see the king’s sword, and after admiring it, he simply threw it in the Ganges with the fun of a small child. The King became furious and decided to punish this crazy man.
Then Trailanga Swami jumped in the waters, pulled out two identical swords from the water, and asked the king, ‘Oh King, which one is yours?’ The King stood there meekly, unable to see any difference between the two swords, to which Trailanga Swami retorted, ‘Foolish King, you thought your sword was so important, but still you can’t tell the difference from another one. You are a container full of delusion and ego. That sword is not yours forever; you cannot take it with you. But your karma will go with you everywhere. Then why are you so angry about this sword? Why bother yourself with anger?’
Trailanga Swami gave the King his sword and threw the other one back into the water. The upset King asked forgiveness from Trailanga Swami, and without a second’s hesitation, Trailanga Swami granted it, and then he again jumped into the river.

Contemporary Masters

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa –

Ramakrishna himself said of Trailanga Swami: ‘He is an incarnation of Lord Shiva. Trailanga Swami has no body perception; he can lay very comfortably on the desert’s burning sand, which is generally impossible for the normal man.’ He was a real Paramahansa, according to Ramakrishna.

Lahiri Mahasaya’s was a friend of Swami Trailanga. The two yogis often sat together in meditation.

During his stay in Varanasi, several prominent contemporary Bengalis known as saints met and later spoke of him, including Lokenath Brahmachari, Benimadhava Brahmachari, Bhagaban Ganguly, Vivekananda, Mahendranath Gupta, Lahiri Mahasaya, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Swami Abhedananda, Bhaskarananda, Vishuddhananda, Vijaykrishna, and Sadhak Bamakhepa.

Holy Sites and Pilgrimages

Trailanga Swami’s Ashram in Varanasi

1, Ganesh Gali, Ratan Phatak, Kotwali, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh 221001, India

Shri Trailainga Swami Math

K.23/95, Panchganga Ghat, Chowk, Ghasi Tola, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh 221001

Bibliography

Shankari Mataji was a disciple of Trailanga Swami. Yoganandaji briefly wrote about her in his autobiography and included her photograph. The material in the book is mostly her memories of Trailangaji, which she told the author.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Trailanga-Shankari-Mataji-Paramanand-Saraswati/dp/1499166583