The Enlightened – Trailinga Swami – part 5
For a man of God, everything is God. All creation, whether it is animate or inanimate is made up of the same Divine Consciousness. Every particle of creation – animate or inanimate, is full of Divine Intelligence and recognises and responds to the needs of Men of God. Great saints and siddhas like Trailinga Swami are dear to God as they move about in the world to bring the word of God to people and show the eager men and women, the way back home to God. Many men and women filled with ego and ignorance could not see the greatness of Trailing Swami but mere metal parts responded to the insults heaped on Trailinga Swami’s head as it has no ego and self importance. The incident of Trailinga Swami and the railway train is awesome and hilarious and brings home to us our pitiable state that we are unable to see the greatness of his being whereas the metal railway train could!
Trailinga Swami was a sadhu who had no possessions. He wore no clothes. He rarely ate. He definitely did not have money. Once, he boarded a railway train without a ticket. The ticket collector was angry with the naked sadhu and asked him to get down immediately. At that time, the train had stopped between two stations and was waiting for clearance from a crossing guard. The ticket collector forced Trailinga Swami to get down at that point. Trailinga Swami was agitated and got down and walked in the direction of the next oncoming train. One crippled man called out to him from doorway of the next compartment to take him along with him. With seemingly great anger, Trailinga Swami kicked the lame man and continued walking to the next station which was a few miles from that spot. When the lame man got up, much to his amazement, he was able to walk with ease. He threw down his crutch with a great shout of joy and ran after Trailinga Swami.
Trailinga Swami and the now healed cripple reached the station and Trailinga Swami sat under the shade of a large tree. In the meanwhile, the crossing guard gave the signal for the train to move and the driver started the train. But the train refused to move. The engineers worked on it all afternoon but found no problems. The mechanics came and checked. The master mechanic and senior engineers too came from the nearest city and checked. All of them were bewildered at the train not moving though there was absolutely nothing wrong with the mechanics of the engine.
In the meantime, all the passengers of the train got down and walked to the station to wait in shade rather than bake in the heat of the metal compartments. They saw Trailinga Swami sitting there comfortably and wondered how he knew that the train would not move. The now healed cripple announced to the people that the train would not move as it was aware of the insult to the great saint. After Trailinga Swami was thrown out of the train, the train refused to start. He told the officials to request Trailinga Swami to board the train and the train would surely start moving. The harassed officials decided to try this suggestion as they had worked all noon with no success. As soon Trailinga Swami boarded the train, the engine started up, and the train moved off swiftly towards the next station.
Science tells us that even metals respond to proper treatment, care and love in usage. When metals are mistreated and not cared for, there is a breakdown at the cellular/atomic level of the metal and the metal starts to slowly disintegrate. The innate intelligence of non living things is recognized today. The lives of great masters show us this truth from the instances in their lives. We regard ourselves as the highest creation of God and yet do not recognize the greatness of Men of God and God. Let us make ourselves worthy of the Great One who has created this Universe and the teeming life forms in it and live a life at our maximum potential. This is possible when we do our SitaRam japa, meditation and follow the teachings of the Guru.
