The Enlightened – Trailinga Swami – Part Six
Ego finds its ugly way in the lives of all – whether it is a man or woman or child, whether it is young, middle-aged or an old person; or rich or poor; learned or illiterate; king or commoner. Each of us think we are the best and deserve the highest level of respect and obedience from others. We expect the entire Universe to get up and salute us as we pass by. We demand that God obeys our orders and fulfills all that we desire. As we are the only deserving, we insist that Saints and Gurus recognize and reward us for our personal greatness. All the time, our identification is with our body and not our soul. We measure our greatness with wealth, popularity, gender, common rules of culture and find saints wanting.
Saints have no body identification and have overcome the ego to merge with God. They are beyond rules of society, wealth and power identification and gender bias. They choose to remain in society to teach mankind how to overcome the ego and walk towards God. When we have darshan of Saints, they give us peace of mind and love. They also blast our ego! For without ego blasting, we do not bow in front of God or Men of God. When we see the life of Trailinga Swami, we can see many instances of darshan where the ego of the various persons was smashed and they were made aware of the incandescent presence of the Divine Being of Trailinga Swami.
At a certain place on the banks of the Ganges, the Queen was bathing in the river when she noticed a naked Sadhu nearby. She screamed in alarm and her body guards captured the sadhu. When Trailinga Swami was caught, the people around the King warned him of the Divine Powers of the sadhu. But the King was full of anger and arrogance. He planned for the entire town to assemble and curse the sadhu repeatedly. That night, the King had a dream. Lord Shiva appeared and spoke angrily to the King. He said the King had wronged the sadhu by insulting him and demanded that the King leave the holy city of Kashi ( Benaras) immediately and never return again. In the morning, a subdued and chastened King went to Trailinga Swami and humbly sought forgiveness, which Trailinga Swami granted at once.
A local woman used to worship Lord Shiva in the Hanuman Ghat daily, seeking healing for her sick husband. One day, she saw a naked man pass by. She cursed him and his nudity and insulted him saying he was an animal and should be in jungle with other animals. The nude man simply ignored her and went away peacefully. That night, she had a dream. Lord Shiva informed her that as she had insulted a great being, all her worship was wasted. Only Trailinga Swami could now grant her the healing she sought for her husband’s stomach ulcers. The next morning, the woman searched in many places till she found Trailinga Swami and fell at his feet. He blessed her and gave her some ashes. She applied them on her husband’s stomach, and to the amazement of all, her husband was healed immediately.
Once the King of Ujjain visited Benaras and was leaving by a boat. He noticed Trailinga Swami floating in the water and asked him to be brought in. Trailinga Swami saw the beautiful bejewelled sword of the King and asked to see it. He admired it and then with the mischievousness of a small child, threw it in the waters of the river. The King was enraged and wanted to punish the saint. Trailinga Swami just jumped into the river and brought out two identical swords and asked the King to choose his. The King stood humbled as he did not know which one was his. Trailinga Swami said: O Foolish King, your sword is so important to you but you do not know which is yours. You are full of delusion and ego. You cannot carry this sword with you when your body dies. Then why are you so angry and why are you so attached to the sword? The now wiser King sought forgiveness from the Saint.
Men of God like Trailinga Swami walked the dusty lanes of Benaras in the hot sun in order to teach us to leave behind our ego and rise above our body consciousness and desires to reach out to God. Let us draw inspiration from such great men and do our spiritual practices of SitaRam japa, meditation and following the teachings of the Guru and reaching our goal of enlightenment.
