Saints and Gurus

Recently I visited the samadhi temple of Sadhu Chidambaram Swami, who is also known as "Valla Naattaar". A samadhi is the location where the physical body of a saint or siddha is burried. Such locations are spiritually very powerful, as the saint continues to interact with devotees through his samadhi. I would like to narrate a few stories of this little known saint of South India, who entered samadhi in recent times.
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"Sripada Madhvacarya took his birth at Udupi, which is situated in the South Kanarada district of South India, just west of Sahyadri. This is the chief city of the South Kanarada province and is near the city of Mangalore, which is situated to the south of Udupi. In the city of Udupi is a place called Pajaka-ksetra, where Madhvacarya took his birth in a Sivalli-brahmana dynasty as the son of Madhyageha Bhatta, in the year 1040 Sakabda (A.D. 1119). According to some, he was born in the year 1160 Sakabda (A.D. 1239).
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"Sri Ramanuja Acarya appeared around 1017 A.D in a pious brahmana family. He became the formost Acarya in the Sri Sampradaya and was reputed to be the incarnation of Laksmana, the younger brother of Lord Ramacandra.

He was a boy of extraordinary intelligence and placed himself under the charge of Yadavacarya, a renown Sankarite scholar. His guru was struck with his marvelous intellect and became very uncomfortable on account of his firm faith in Bhakti.
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Arakkhita Das (Arakshita) occupies a unique place in Orissa"s rich tradition of saint-poets. He was born into the ruling family of the big zamindari (estates) of Badakhemundi in Ganjam district of coastal Orissa towards the end of the 18th century. Various sources place his year of birth between 1780 and 1788, more likely towards the later date. He grew up in tumultuous times, when the British were finally gaining ascendancy in Orissa; and perhaps his renunciation from his privileged context took place at about the same time as the British conquest of Orissa in 1803. But he seems to have left home and taken formal sanyas (permanent renunciation of worldly life and the status of a householder) after the death of his father in a battle with the British, and his uncle"s subsequent ascent to the throne. He wandered around coastal Orissa for some time before settling on the Olasuni hill in Kendrapada district; he never left it again.
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Trailanga [also called Tailanga] Swami is spoken of with reverence, awe and almost with fear in the city of Benaras. As we ask for directions to his temple, the people we speak to display all three emotions. Who was Trailanga Swami? Was he really superhuman or an incarnation of Lord Vishwanath (Shiva) as they claim? The sceptic in us perks up for the first time.
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Sri Kodi Swami lived for over 300 years, before attaining Mahasamadhi in 1993. Some families had been visiting him for generations. He was spoken of as belonging to the saints of the highest order by spiritually acclaimed people and other saints who came to seek His darshan. As a playful child spirituality was unknown to me but in my little mind was instilled the fact that He was a Godly figure by my parents and elders of the family. Little did I realize the greatness of this spiritual giant Kodi Swamy who spent the last thirty years of His life at our residence, Puravipalayam, a small village near Pollachi in Coimbatore district of Tamilnadu. ...

It was the fag end of 1969. On my way from Tiruvannamalai to Vellore, I stopped at Polur to have darshan at the samadhi of Saint Vitthoba. We met Duraiswami Swamigal at the mutt who introduced me to a Mr. R. Pargunam. The latter’s father had been a contemporary and devotee of Vitthoba and had had a close association with the saint. Pargunam narrated certain incidents he had heard from his father about Vitthoba’s life.
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According to Vedic scripture, the mere sight of a yogi saint is sufficient to transform an individual's life from the pursuit of mundane pleasures to the pursuit of wisdom and god-realization. My personal experience bears truth to this statement. I was profoundly influenced by the sight of Sri Tat Wale Baba, and my brief two hours' encounter with him. Sri Tat Wale Baba was the living embodiment of the Vedas. He did not have to speak or preach. He exhibited those qualities about which other yogis only preach. His presence radiated a divine essence that, of itself, communicated the goal of life to all who had the honor to come within his aura.
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Swami Trailanga, who was reputed to be nearly three hundred years old when he died, is so renown in India on such a widespread basis, that few Hindus would deny the possibility of truth in any story related to his astounding miracles. If Jesus returned to earth and walked the streets of New York, displaying his divine powers, it would cause the same awe among the people that Trailanga created decades ago as he passed through the crowded lanes of Benares. He was one of the siddhas (perfected beings) that have cemented India against the erosions of time.
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