Wanna Live to 280 Years Old? This Guy Did

Could stay under water for hours
lived to over 280 years old

Meet Trailanga Swami, a 300 pound yogi who never ate and who was able to hold his breath under the water of the river Ganga for very long periods of time, sometimes weeks!

Depending on weather you read Maehle or Wikipedia, he lived to be 280 years old or 300 years old.

I am reading again now the chapter on Breath Retention for the Book Club, and this Swami pops up again and fascinates me.  I realize today there is a wiki page for him, and that even though many want to write him off as in the category of myth, many others accounts seem to indicate otherwise.

Perhaps one sign that gets me is that, says wiki, he used to talk little, and over time people became attracted to him for his healing powers.

My favorite story about him:

According to another story, he often walked around without any clothes, much like the naga (or "sky-clad") sadhus. The Varanasi police were scandalized by his behaviour, and had him locked in a jail cell. He was soon seen on the prison roof, in all his 'sky-clad' glory. The police put him back into his locked cell, only to see him appear again on the jail roof. They soon gave up, and let him again walk the streets of Varanasi.

I can almost picture him unaltered by events, enjoying the view from the roof, confused at why would anyone try to jail themselves into a cell like that, for, I am sure, it was all one for him.

On chapter 39 of Sivananda's book: Mind, Its Mysteries and Control, he says:

A Raja Yogi gets conquest over the mind... Fire will not burn such a Yogi. Water will not drown him. Late Trailinga Swami of Benares who lived 80 years ago and Sri Jnanadeva of Alandi (near Poona) had various Siddhis. Sri Jnanadeva made his house move to receive Changdeva who was coming on the back of a tiger. He made the Masjid walk. Trailinga Swami used to live for six months underneath the Ganga.

Six months under the Ganga! And I thought it was just the modest couple of weeks.

For some reason when I look at him I smile. I feel a certainty that nothing is at it seems, that the mystery must be explored.

Here is wiki if you would like to read more about him. What do you think? Myth or real?