Trailinga swami lived to be 280 years old !?!

Trailinga Swami (also Tailang Swami, Telang Swami) November 1607– 26 December 1887, whose monastic name was Swami Ganapati Saraswati, was a Hindu yogi and mystic famed for his spiritual powers who lived in Varanasi, India.He is a legendary figure in Bengal, with stories told of his yogic powers and longevity. According to some accounts, Trailinga Swami lived to be 280 years old,residing at Varanasi between 1737 and 1887.He is regarded by devotees as an incarnation of Shiva. Sri Ramakrishna referred to him as "The walking Shiva of Varanasi".

Anyone heard of this chap?

There were many powerful swamis and gurus around....Do we know any of Dada Lekhraj gurus?

Do we know any of Dada Lekhraj gurus?

Sadly, no. And Virendra Dev Dixit had his theories proven mistaken as well. He did not know, PBKs couldn't/never tried to find out.

The big question remains who was the one in Bengal that he paid a fortune to be initiated by, which triggered his spiritual awakening?

BKs? Absolutely no response. As it goes against their theories. I'd love to know which tradition and which siddhi he dealt in, although the general opinion is that anyone trading on spiritual powers, i.e. making money out of them, is at a lower level.

It may also be worth adding that, from the contemporary texts of the time, although Lekhraj Kirpalani might have patronised holy men, as wealthy people did/do, there was no indications that he was a deep or devout student of theirs. He was committed to business until his "enlightenment".

Personally, I would further than to say "I believe" weird, wonderful and mysterious things happen on the spiritual side of life. I know that they do. My frustration is that no one seems to know or demonstrate how to do, learn or achieve the ability to do any of them, despite what they say. From modern accounts of "spiritual" leaders, it appears that such phenomenon "just happens" to the individuals, often after difficult times or adversities, when the individual faces crises.

There just don't seem to be any solid, reproducible "recipes", e.g. 'chant x, y, z, 16,108 times a day for 10 and you'll get this'. Not within BKism, or any other path. Although they will all tell you they do.

If you find one, let us know.

Greetings,

There were/are many yogis like Shri Tailang Swami. One such yogi was Shri Devraha Baba (just search this name on Youtube or Google). The common thing about such beings is that they live in solitude and don't bother with popularity and certainly don't entertain thoughts of being the chosen one to usher in a New Age or save the earth sort of thing for spirituality or even commonsense maturity for that matter, brings in us awareness that things happen at the right time. Once we are in sync with nature we realize that we don't need to "do" anything to get 'bodh'.

There have been saints and mystics who have lived for ridiculously long times and there have been some who have left their bodies in their 20s and 30s. There have been saints who had all sorts of 'sidhhis' and there have been those who don't have any!

The only thing I find common among such advanced beings is that they just know their core and act accordingly. Transcend their 'chitta' and live in utmost humility even when they look angry!

The funny thing is most of those who 'know', don't bother about teaching others as they know that everyone is already learning according to their individual capacities and will learn at their right time and most of the so-called teachers have a lot to learn themselves!

Good night my friends. Been a while.

PS: Sorry for typos and stuff. Have lost my touch with texting.

PS: Sorry for typos and stuff. Have lost my touch with texting.

I never took to typing on my mobile for more than short messages. Amazed you wrote all that! Give me a "workstation" with full keyboard and big screen any day. (Even laptops are fiddly!)

I agree with your post Mr Being. There is a topic here which quotes an excerpt (with a link to the book) by one of the many yogis named Shivananda, where he clearly says "Do Not Build Ashrams!"

Haha, thanx for the encouragement pink. I would like to add a small clarification from my side. Although I have little faith in organizations as far as spiritual well being on an individual is concerned, and also I believe that it is the fate of all organized religion to ultimately become dogmatic and a hinderance to the mental,emotional and spiritual well being of an individual, there have been saints and yogis in all major religions who have established terrific organizations focussed on selfless service of the needy, sick or simply truth seekers. One such example is Ramkrishna Math in India. But as time passes, no matter how powerful and enlightened the founder is, the organization tends to lose its 'Shakti', if not it's direction.

However, the thing that separates cults like the BKs from genuine spiritual organizations, IMHO, is that the founding Father of a cult is himself misguided (if not outrightly malevolent). The very seed of establishing a cult like the BKs is corrupted. It starts as a misguided attempt of achieving a lofty goal (that's how the delusion starts) for most people and quickly turns into deception and dishonestly, both with oneself and with the society. The vicious cycle starts and you know the rest of the story.

So, no, I won't use the same brush to paint all spiritual organizations but, yes, at a personal level I don't like the idea of establishing one.

I've adopted a definition of "cult" as that which discourages people from leaving the "group identity" through coercive means, be they mental, emotional or physical. A school from which you can never graduate, a Hotel California from which you can never leave, e.g. a person who's raised a strict Christian who is curious about other beliefs but because the've been taught that anything outside Christianity is "the devil" tricking them stops themselves investigating, by my definition is in a cult.

People who refuse to even entertain the idea that different cultural values may be valid, are in a cult, e.g. I mentioned to someone how the American Plains Indian nations accepted 5 different genders and their reasoning, but they just wouldn't even begin to try to see that point of view.

There's what I call "the cult of the mainstream" or what others might call social conditioning or fear of ostracism where people don't allow themselves to think or act differently because they want to be accepted, fear rejection.

Of course, many of us outwardly live according to our society's morals for practical reasons but inwardly, our values, and in our homes, our lifestyles, may be quite different to the "act'.

After a philosophy group discussion I'd attended years ago, someone said, "Well, we never really came to an agreement in that" to which another person replied, "If we did [for this kind of topic] we'd be a cult ".

Haha. Actually I am in 100% agreement with you. I think you covered all the points I would have made. Glory to our little cult.

Of course, many of us outwardly live according to our society's morals for practical reasons but inwardly, our values, and in our homes, our lifestyles, may be quite different to the "act'.

Do you think that applies equally to us during our sojourn in the Brahma Kumaris society?

We're straying off the topic of 'guronic' longevity ... which, to be honest, I am suspect is simply not possible and certainly undesirable, imagine carrying the burden of 100 or 200 years of regrets, memories, losses of friends, witnesses of tragedy, inequality and unfairness around you (I'd be glad die and go for the cosmic re-wipe [reincarnation] and start all over again in a next life, 70 to 80 years sounds just fine to me) ... but in answer to Human Being, I don't believe Lekhraj Kirpalani started the Om Mandli as a "misguided attempt of achieving a lofty goal".

I think he was pursuing the ... at least sub-conscious ... desires he had, fueled by his delusions of being pretty much all of the major Hindu gods he had read about in his comic books or seen in the Bollywood movies that, literally and metaphorically, provided the soundtrack for the early to mid period Brahma Kumaris. Putting aside any psychic element, he wanted to be Krishna, surrounded by his own gopis, acting out the Mahabharata, and had the money to fund his fantasy for 20 years or so, then working out a way of sucking in funds from elsewhere, to sustain it for longer.

Do you think that applies equally to us during our sojourn in the Brahma Kumaris society?

Yes, of course. At least I know that I did and may others.

We lived as part of a community, and when in the company of that community, we acted as was considered acceptable.

Some may have acted fully pukka (hoping for some personal salvation or insight) and there were those who were OCD BKs. BKs in their homes but many others were way more relaxed and would do or think things at the level they felt comfortable (or guilty!) with. Some are more strict about food, others less. Some are more strict about what they intellectually consume media-wise (some will only ever read Murlis others read without qualms whatever takes their interest).

I remember many admonitions by Seniors of me and others about petty things, allowing a beard to grow (if you weren't a Sikh!), watching TV, going to the cinema. One big scandal was in a men's share house (Shanti Bhavan) when the football world cup was on and someone bought a second hand TV to watch. Another time I was called in by Janki for questioning after someone informed her I'd been going out to watch films (I remember seeing Kurosawa's Rashomon, Bruno Ganz in Circle of Deceit, Satyajit Ray's "Distant Thunder" - a less known but real gem of a film). Why would I regret any of that. And a classic memory for me from around that. One time Janki giving everyone toli, occasionally saying things to some. With me, she grabbed my hand, looked deep into my eyes and said, "You need to learn to feel guilt" WTF!!!!

Many of these strictures are not talked about anymore in Western BK communities, they're more interested in keeping punters coming than scaring them off. A few years ago, I asked one about what the current estimated date of Destruction was. The reply, oh, we don't believe there will be a global destruction anymore, it's a Transformation. (!)
Asked the next obvious question and that saw them turn away.

Back to topic. There is a quite well documented story about "the Shivapuri Baba" who lived to 137. He was advised by his guru, his grandfather, to learn about himself, God and the world, and he walked most of the way around the world (northern hemisphere). Much of it well documented.

Link here - with source biography at the bottom.