Divine Helmsman Among the first to inflame my flickering a reward given to him by the Viceroy for the curiosity in lives of great spiritual King’s bravery and was a prized item for the personalities was the owner. He proudly handed it to the Mahatma Bengali book series to examine. Holding it with great curiosity, ‘Bharater Sadhak’ Trailanga Swami suddenly tossed it (Saints of India) overboard into the river. The King was at his authored by Shri wit’s end. He begged the saint to retrieve his Shankarnath Roy. treasure, ‘Please give me back my sword, Being a student at Sir’, he pleaded. The Swami smiled that time, I did not innocently and prepared to leave. Frustration have too much began giving way to anger as the outraged money to spare. Yet King continued to ask for return of his ‘my after completing each volume containing sword’. Swami-ji then leaned over, dipped around a score of spiritual life-tales, I rushed his hand in the water and took out two to buy the next, as if addicted, and identical swords asking the King to identify completed close to a dozen volumes. The which one was ‘his sword’. The King, very first biography of the first volume was unable to make out any difference, was that of Mahatma Trailanga Swami and it was stunned into bewildered silence. Trailanga my earliest introduction to him. This Swami then threw one of the two pieces incomparable yogi strode like a colossus in back into the water and handed over the the spiritual arena for anything between other to the stupefied Maharaja saying ‘Why three to four hundred years, the last century do you talk about something as being yours and a half of which was in open public gaze if you cannot even recognize it?’ It is in the holy city of Varanasi. Innumerable therefore no wonder that he was revered as historically documented tales of his the ‘Sachal Vishwanath’ or ‘Walking Shiva’ - legendary yogic powers known from the Lord of the Universe himself who, encounters with all kinds of people - having perfected that body was using it as a plebeians, royals, administrators, skeptics, vehicle for divine manifestation. humbugs, devotees, aspirants and saints - In the book ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’, are folklore. It struck me that each such Paramhansa Yogananda, while giving a display of yogic perfection contained deep reference to Trailanga Swami remarked, ‘He wisdom expressed with infinite compassion was one of the siddhas (perfected beings) and child-like playfulness. I take this who have cemented India against the opportunity to mention one such incident erosions of time.’ This line somehow that continues to excite me whenever I recall intrigued me as being loaded with inner it. meanings that Yogananda-ji did not possibly An Indian Raja reverentially invited the fully elaborate in public. Often many secrets Swami to his boat on the River Ganga. learnt through inner realizations or through Aboard the vessel, Swami-ji expressed the Guru Parampara are not stated in public. interest for the bejeweled sword that was in A quick research on Trailanga Swami the Maharaja’s possession. Apparently it was revealed his connections to a large number Hiranyagarbha a Volume 5 No. 1 a 15th April, 2012 38 ø˝ı˛Ì…·ˆ«ìrnh„gdCo¬ of saints and spiritual lineages. Yogananda-ji asking whether God was singular (advaita) has mentioned his close relationship with Sri or dual (dwaita)? Swami-ji, in response, Sri Shyamacharan Lahiri Mahashay. I also lifted one finger and then joined the two read how the fingers. This has been explained as – when then Brahmo the self is fully immersed in the preacher, Sri Sri transcendental soul during Samadhi then in Bijoy Krishna that state of absolute unity (advaita) God is Goswami, tried realized as one; again when one approaches to run away God as a devotee then the duality (dwaita from the great bhava) of bhakta-bhagwan comes into play; Swami who this duality is also a conjoined unity like the kept on joined halves of chick-peas or gram. After insisting that he this sign-based interaction both saints went had been into deep Samadhi. Coming out from this instructed by state Sri Ramakrishna encircled Trailanga God to give Swami in a rapturous sankirtana-like dance him a mantra with his hands raised. Later Sri Ramakrishna and prepare arranged for bhog of payasa of several Sri Shyamacharan Lahiri Mahashay him for his kilograms for the ‘God in motion’, all of primary mission just before Sri Bijoy which the Swami consumed in his inimitable Krishna met his own Sadguru. This became style of eating only when fed. The Swami a turning point in the life of Gosai-ji, who offered Sri Ramakrishna his little gold snuff later transformed into a self-realized saint. box as a gift in return. Shankari Mata, who Sri Lokenath Brahmachari, a great yogi was also the daughter of Sri Kalikananda himself, refers to Trailanga Swami (whom he Abadhut, (one of the principal and highly met in the Himalayas advanced disciples of Trailanga Swami) before he came to lived for more than a hundred years and Varanasi) as one of the recounted to Swami Yogananda her times greatest personalities he spent with Sri Lahiri Mahashay including had encountered and occasions when Mahavatar Babaji Maharaj acknowledged the spiritual appeared before both of them. (I remember help that he received from Sree Sree Maa insisting on visiting the the Swami, then known in sadhana room of the late Shankari Mata the mountains as Hitalal during one of our early trips to Varanasi and Mishra. the wonderful vibrations we felt there.) Swami-ji’s famous Though we hear of only a few formal interaction with Sri disciples of Trailanga Swami, a little research Ramakrishna Paramhansa revealed an illustrious lineage that spans was witnessed by the several spiritual arenas covering Vedanta and woman saint and illustrious Shankari Mai Jew Tantra. Other than Sri Kalikananda Abadhut disciple of Trailanga Swami, Shankari Mai and his divinely pre-destined daughter Jew. The story goes on like this: During the Shankari Mata and their distinguished interaction, Sri Ramakrishna first lifted his lineages, one of the foremost disciples of fore-finger and then two fingers, apparently Trailanga Swami was his nephew Swami Hiranyagarbha a Volume 5 No. 1 a 15th April, 2012 39 ø˝ı˛Ì…·ˆ«ìrnh„gdCo¬ Paramananda Saraswati, who also lived for stone statue suddenly spoke up and became almost three hundred years. Sree Sree Maa a statue again! I also remember that Sri had mentioned to me that Swami Pranabananda Giri Maharaj (disciple of Paramananda later stayed in the Shyamacharan Lahiri Baba) mentioning a Manasarovar region and guided more than a sadhana experience of his as follows: I was hundred advanced sadhaks into in deep meditation when a pranava-like sun Paramhansa-hood before finally returning to appeared in the inner sky and, from within the plains prior to leaving his mortal coil. the pranava jyoti, Mahatma Trailanga Sree Sree Maa was once invited to the Swami’s smiling head popped out. He Kolkata Ashram and Temple of the blessed me and went back within, into the Mahananda Mission by the then head, omkar-sun, again. Swami Bimalananda Giri Maharaj. I had the Yet, I knew that if I approached Sree Sree good fortune of being in the party that Maa, I would get more spiritual insights. She visited the temple-ashram. They uphold a first showed me Sant Dariya Sahib’s Shakti-sadhana lineage of Trailanga Swami description of his realization of ‘Alakh that branched though his reclusive yet very Niranjan’ - the Absolute Infinite Supreme advanced yogi disciple Swami Suryananda Existence-Consciousness – Giri, not even a photo or picture of whom I could locate. This was followed up by high "Sadho, Alakh Niranjan Soyi, order saints like Swami Mahananda Giri (in Guru Partap Ramras nirmal, whose name the mission runs) and Swami aur na duja koi; Bhabananda Giri prior to Swami Sakal gyan-par gyan-dayanidhi, Bimalananda. During an interaction with Sri sakal jyoti par jyoti, Saumyendranath Brahmachari, Acharya of Jake dhyan sahaj agha nasai, Dev Sangha, whose lineage includes the sahaj mite jam chhoti." divine rishi parampara of Sri Bijoy Krishna Chattopadhyay, Brahmarshi Satyadev, Sri [Sadho, I slept into Alakh Niranjan, Pulin Bihari Brahmachari and Sri Through the divine Grace of the Sadguru, Narendranath Brahmachari Maharaj, I was Purified by the nectar of the soul, thrilled to hear that they draw their glittering (I reached where) lineage of self-realized saints from Mahatma There was no second person; Trailanga too. Sri Saumyen Baba informed (There I experienced) me that Sri Bijoy Krishna Chattopadhyay Beyond all Knowledge had said that he had received the divine The Knowledge-Compassionate, initiation from Trailanga Swami. Saumyen The Light behind all Light - Baba also related some very interesting Whose submerged dhyan stories he had heard of how the great Cleanses away all sins, Mahatma Trailanga would start speaking And frees from the clasp of Death.] from absolute silence - all of a sudden, immediately attaining full volume without After I completed reading the delightfully need for any warming up - and after inspiring Hindi verse, Sree Sree Maa began, completing, again instantly become “Alakh Niranjan is a name for Parabrahman deafeningly silent and still. It was as if a where ‘alakh’ refers to the pristine Hiranyagarbha a Volume 5 No. 1 a 15th April, 2012 40 ø˝ı˛Ì…·ˆ«ìrnh„gdCo¬ Existence-Consciousness which is the divine Himalayas, before so many people for so primordial Light-matrix of all Jyoti; long a period. But, away from public view, dissolution of the atma-satta into which takes yet well known to the great Mahatmas and one to nirvikalpa maha-nirvan samadhi-pada Devatas, this great personality took many leading to the realization of an eternal, other simultaneous embodiments to bring imperishable state of Parabrahman.