Jeganatha Swamigal who was born in India in 1814, at eighteen, left for Burma. At thirty, he tracked down to Malaya through Thailand. He worked as a brakeman with the Malayan Railways, serving at Tanjong Malim for four years. He lived in Baling for eight years where the local folks looked up towards him as a a spiritual man and addressed him as Swami. He left for Singapore, later, stopping over at Taiping, where he was mistaken as a spy by the Burmese security forces loyal to the British in Malaya. He was put behind bars. Surprisingly he was released the next day without any interrogation. At Seremban too, people began to take notice of him as a spiritual man. He moved on to Teluk Anson where he did extensive charity and fed the poor.
Towards his end Jeganatha Swamigal settled in Tapah, building a hut for himself near a Chinese graveyard. He continued his sadhana and tapas or austerity here. He purchased three acres of rubber land in the vicinity and allowed the locals to build their homes on his land. He lived a simple life never making himself and his powers known to others. He lived alone. Often he used to be seen in loincloth and pranksters made fun of him calling him a lunatic.
When the time came for him to go into samadhi, Jeganatha Swamigal asked to be buried alive but the authorities in Malaya did not allow that. Therefore, he dictated that his followers leave an opening with a pipe protruding in the concrete floor. He most probably went into another living thing, an art known as Kudu Vittu Kodu Paaiyum Vitthai, thus appearing 'dead' in his present body, that was then laid to rest. He must have entered, back into his body later, through the pipe that was now laid in the ground connecting his samadhi chamber.
Jeganatha Swamigal went into samadhi at 4.30 am on 25 January 1959 in Tapah. He chose a full moon and a Thaipusam day to go into samadhi. An eyewitness mentions that a flash of light was seen emerging from his samadhi at that moment of samadhi.
A Shivalingam was installed above his samadhi. The locals collected funds to build a Shiva Temple. In 1980, philanthropists N. Arumugam Pillai of Penang built a small hall. Later in 1990, A.V. Pasupathy Pillai of Malacca renovated the Shiva temple.
Jeganatha Swamigal lived for 145 years. He had three disciples: Chitramuthu Adigal from Panaikulam, India, Veemavar from Indonesia, and Sathyananthar of Sudha Samajam, Malaya.
Prayers are held annually on Guru Purnima and the day after Thaipusam.
When a colleague of mine accompanied his friend and family to Jeganatha Swamigal's temple some years back, the saint gave a darshan to the friend's two year old kid. It was past midnight and they decided to stay overnight at the temple. As their baby was crying for milk, the couple attended to the infant, while the elder girl roamed the temple grounds. Suddenly she let out a sharp cry that brought everyone running to her. The father kept questioning her as to why she was crying. Finally she pointed to a painting of Jeganatha Swamigal and told her dad that "Grandpa had carried me!"
Uvaraj was mysteriously brought to Jeganatha Swamigal's temple one dark rainy night. All he knew was that he had driven his car into the temple grounds. He got out to enquire from the temple priests what temple it was. When told it was Jeganatha Swamigal's temple, he sat down to meditate and immediately sensed the presence of the saint.
I had accompanied Tavayogi, Mataji and Jnana Jyothiamma on their visits to Malaysia, taking them to Jeganatha Swamigal's temple. Yesterday, my family and I stopped over at the temple again. I managed to interview Thiru G Krishnan, the chairperson of the temple committee, on how he came to this temple, and regarding the upcoming Guru Purnima celebrations and Malaysian Hindu Sangam's intent to start a Hindu College in the vicinity of Jeganatha Swamigal's temple.
(Source of information from Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal; TIRUPPUR THAAIVEEDU AINTHAVATHU ANDU NIRAIVU VIZHA MALAR, 1994; the caretaker cum local priest of Jeganathar Temple who has since then passed away; and from Nithyavani Manikam’s blog at http://nithyavani.blogspot.com/2011/12/blog-post_28.html. Read more about Swamigal at http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=470)
