The only known living disciple of the great yogi is
a woman, Shankari Mai Jiew. Daughter of one of
Trailanga’s disciples, she received the swami’s
training from her early childhood. She lived for
forty years in a series of lonely Himalayan caves near
Badrinath, Kedarnath, Amarnath, and Pasupatinath.
The BRAHMACHARINI (woman ascetic), born in 1826, is
now well over the century mark. Not aged in appearance,
however, she has retained her black hair, sparkling
teeth, and amazing energy. She comes out of her
seclusion every few years to attend the periodical
MELAS or religious fairs.
This woman saint often visited Lahiri Mahasaya.
She has related that one day, in the Barackpur section
near Calcutta, while she was sitting by Lahiri Mahasaya’s
side, his great guru Babaji quietly entered the room
and held converse with them both.
On one occasion her master Trailanga, forsaking his
usual silence, honored Lahiri Mahasaya very pointedly
in public. A Benares disciple objected.
“Sir,” he said, “why do you, a swami
and a renunciate, show such respect to a householder?”
“My son,” Trailanga replied, “Lahiri
Mahasaya is like a divine kitten, remaining wherever
the Cosmic Mother has placed him. While dutifully
playing the part of a worldly man, he has received
that perfect self-realization for which I have renounced
even my loincloth!”
{FN31-1} One is reminded here of Milton’s line:
“He for God only, she for God in him.”
{FN31-2} The venerable mother passed on at Benares
in 1930.
{FN31-3} Staff, symbolizing the spinal cord, carried
ritually by certain orders of monks.
{FN31-4} He was a Muni, a monk who observes mauna,
spiritual silence. The Sanskrit root Muni
is akin to Greek MONOS, “alone, single,”
from which are derived the English words monk,
monism, etc.
{FN31-5} Romans 12:19.
{FN31-6} Luke 19:37-40.
{FN31-7} The lives of Trailanga and other great masters
remind us of Jesus’ words: “And these
signs shall follow them that believe; In my name (the
Christ consciousness) they shall cast out devils;
they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take
up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it
shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick,
and they shall recover."-Mark 16:17-18.
RAMA IS RAISED FROM THE DEAD
“Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus.
. . . When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness
is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that
the Son of God might be glorified thereby.’”
{FN32-1}
Sri Yukteswar was expounding the Christian scriptures
one sunny morning on the balcony of his Serampore
hermitage. Besides a few of Master’s other
disciples, I was present with a small group of my
Ranchi students.
