Life
Trailanga Swami was from Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh and belonged to the Dashanami order. He became known as Trailanga Swami during his settlement in Varanasi. His biographers and his disciples differ on his birth date and the period of his longevity. According to one disciple biographer, he was born in 1529, while according to another biographer it was 1607. His pre-monastic name was Shivarama and was born in Holia at Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh. His parents were Narashingha Rao and Vidyavati Devi, who were devotees of god Shiva. After the death of his parents, at the age of forty, Shivaram renounced the world and lived the life of a recluse in a cottage near a cremation ground. After practicing sadhana (spiritual practice) for twenty years, he met his preceptor Swami Bhagirathananda Saraswati in 1679 from Punjab. Bhagirathananda initiated Shivaram into sannyasa (monastic vows) and named him Swami Ganapati Saraswati in 1685. Ganapati reportedly led a life of severe austerities and went on a pilgrimage, reaching Prayag in 1733, and finally settling in Varanasi in 1737.
In Varanasi, till his death in 1887, he lived at different places including Asi Ghat, the Vedavyas Asharama at Hanuman Ghat, Dashashwamedh Ghat. The Swami was often found roaming the streets or the ghats, naked and "carefree as a child". He was reportedly seen swimming or floating on Ganges for hours. The Swami talked very little and at times not at all. A large number of people became attracted to him upon hearing of his yogic powers to ameliorate their sufferings. During his stay in Varanasi, several prominent contemporary Bengali saints met and described him, including Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Mahendranath Gupta, Lahiri Mahasaya, and Swami Abhedananda., Swami Bhaskarananda Saraswati, Swami Vishuddhananda Saraswati, and Mahatma Vijaykrishna Goswami. After seeing Trailanga Swami, Ramakrishna said, "I saw that the universal Lord Himself was using his body as a vehicle for manifestation. He was in an exalted state of knowledge. There was no body-consciousness in him. Sand there became so hot in the sun that no one could set foot on it. But he lay comfortably on it." Ramakrishna also stated that Trailanga Swami was a real paramahansa (lit:"Supreme swan", used as an honorific for a spiritual teacher) and that "all Benares was illuminated by his stay there."
The Swami had taken the vow of ayachaka (non seeking) — remaining satisfied with whatever he received. In the later stage of his life, as his fame spread, pilgrims visited him in multitudes. During his last days, he took up ajagaravritti (living like a python) 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 died on Monday evening, December 26, 1887. His body was given salilasamadhi in the Ganges river, according to the funeral customs of the monks of the Dashanami sect, in the presence of a multitude of mourning devotees standing on the ghats.
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