Divinity often takes human form and lives amongst men to teach them and show them the way back to God. Trailinga Swami is one such great being who was a great siddha and an enlightened master. When we read about his life, we find that he teaches us through the incidents of his life and not through talks or lectures. When the divine force is born as man, we feel that his life should be easy and he should achieve all his life goals without effort. Through the example of his life, Trailinga Swami teaches us that it is not so and to shed the limitations of man and rise to the fullest heights of divinity through hard work and perseverance.
Trailinga Swami was born to Narasingh Rao and Vidhyavati in a small village in Andhra Pradesh. His father was the village leader and a truthful and virtuous man. Both parents were Shiva Bhaktas and did their sadhana sincerely. Though they were married for many years, they remained childless. Vidhyavati increased the length and intensity of her sadhana and prayed to Lord Shiva for a child. One day, during her sadhana, she had a dream in which she saw Lord Shiva bringing her a son. Soon after that, she became pregnant and at the right time gave birth to a beautiful son. The baby was named Shivaram and later he became Trailinga Swami.
When Shivaram was a young child, an extraordinary incident happened. Vidyavati was doing her meditation and the young child fell asleep in front of the Shiva Linga. When his mother got up from her meditation, she saw a light emanating from the Shiva Linga and moving in front of Shivaram. He was an unusual child. He was quiet and serious and did not play and run around like others. He was indifferent to others around him and enjoyed the religious stories told by his mother. He sat with his mother when she did pooja and meditation. He started his spiritual practices at an early age.
Shivaram refused to marry as he was definite that his spiritual growth would suffer because of marriage. Else he was a dutiful son who carried out the wishes of his parents and took great care of them. He was 40 years old when his father died and he desired to leave home and become a wandering monk. His mother wept and asked him to remain back till she was alive and then leave. She promised him that he would receive the highest blessings and attain the ultimate liberation if he did so. She died after 12 years and Shivaram left home at the age of 52 and started his sadhana in the local cremation grounds. He remained here meditating and praying for 20 years, living a very austere life.
The great yogi Vagirathswami arrived here to take Shivaram with him. They both travelled to all the pilgrimage spots of South and North India. Then they reached Pushkar. At Pushkar, Shivaram received Sannyas from Vagirathswami and was named Ganapatiswami at the age of 78 years. He practiced Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga systematically under the guidance of his Guru. He won the heart and grace of his Guru who transferred all his Yogic Siddhis to him. He became a Siddha-Yogi at the age of 88 years after a long and rigorous Yoga-Sadhana.
Guruji Vagirathswami left his physical body during this time and Ganapatiswami left Pushkar and travelled to all the holy places of India. Later he left for Himalaya again for higher Yoga-Sadhana, where he spent a long time in a remote area (Gyanganj). He came down to Varanasi in mid 1730, became very popular due to his spiritual powers and siddhis. He was then called Trailinga Swami.
Trailinga Swami worked hard all his life and finally achieved great heights after the age of hundred. His life is one of great inspiration to us. He teaches us to preserve and keep going on and on till success is achieved. The Holy Name of God or mantra is very powerful and will take us to our goal sooner or later. Much depends on our personal karma. We easily blame the power of mantra and rarely see the failings within us. Let us learn and be inspired by the life of Trailinga Swami who worked for many years with dedicated perseverance and attained great heights of spiritual knowledge. He was later considered as an incarnation of Lord Shiva. By doing our regular sadhana of SitaRam mantra, meditation and following the teachings of the Guru, we too walk the same path and slowly but definitely too will reach the goal of self realization.
( Contd.... part 2)
