Sri Trailanga Swami ji had a very clear idea as to when to shed the mortal coils. He once told Umacharan, his closest disciple, that in about five or six years he would leave his body. He also told him that he would be informed well before hand and he should come to Kashi(Now Varanasi), where Sri Trailanga Swami ji resided, without fail.
Sri Trailanga Swami ji was ready with an answer to his disciple's question, which he knew he would ask. He got a statue of himself carved and intalled with the ceremony of praanapratishtha, investing it with praana, life force. When the disciple had asked how he could live with his guru gone, he told him earlier, the statue would offer him strength.
Sri Trailanga Swami ji sent a letter to Umacharan in the month of Margashira of the year 1887. It was conveyed that letters were being sent to his other disciples that he would leave the earthly body in a month's time. When Umacharan arrived in Kashi, Sri Trailanga Swami ji's departure was just ten days away. By then all those who had been very close to Sri Trailanga Swami ji were present. Sadanandaswami, Kalicharanswami, Brahmanandaswami, Bholanathswami were present besides two other paramahamsas. Sri Trailanga Swami ji explained to all those assembled there various spiritual matters till the day before the final moment came.
Sri Trailanga Swami ji gave instructions to his disciples down to the last detail. They were asked to get a Wooden box made to his size. Sri Trailanga Swami ji asked them to place his body in the box, close, screw the lids and lock it. They should then put the box in a rented boat and take it from Assighat to Varunaghat and then en- shrine the box in a particular point in the water a little distance away from Panchgangaghat. He very clearly stated that there should be no cremation.
That night he told them that if there were to be any clarifications to be sought, that very night was the time for that since the next day there would be no chance. All his disciples spoke about their respective con- cerns in the matter of the spirit. Sri Trailanga Swami ji entrusted the progress of Umacharan's spiritual welfare to his second disciple Kalicharan and told him that in case of necessity Kalicharan should go to Umacharan. There was quite a flutter in the entire city of Kashi when the news spread that Sri Trailanga Swami ji would leave the earthly body. He became the talk of the town.
Everything was made ready for the next day. A boat too was hired. At about eight in the morning, Sri Trailanga Swami ji retired into his room and sat on the dais. He ordered that all the doors be closed. He told them not to open the door till he knocked on it and went into a trance in the room. At about three in the afternoon there was a knock from inside the room. Sri Trailanga Swami ji came out when they opened the door and asked them to open the box. Then he sat in the box in yoga mudra, a posture of intense spirituality. Thus, on 26th December, 1887 of the Christian era, on the eleventh day of the former part of Paush, in the afternoon, Sri Trailanga Swami ji left his mortal body. He was two hundred and eighty years old.
As instructed by the saint, the disciples closed the lid of the box, fixed it with screws and locked it. The box was loaded in the boat at Panchgangaghat and they took it out in a sort of procession from Assighat to Varunaghat. Sev- eral people got into the boat before it started. As on auspicious days there were huge crowds at the vari- ous ghats that evening. Before sunset the box was slid into the waters of the river Ganga. The box sank in the water and the river flowed on.
Sri Trailanga Swami ji always had human welfare at the centre of his interests. He had the ability to foresee the queries his visitors approached him with. He Suggested replies very subtly even without saying a word, silently. He always emphasized that the object and goal of Hinduism had always been the knowledge of the self and the endeavour for attaining brahma jnaana, the knowledge of the Ultimate. It was his anguish that modern man (even in the Swami's own time) had become more worldly and self-centred. He showed to the world that brahma jnaana was within reach if only man had an earnest desire and will to strive for it. It was a matter of one's own endeavour That was his and it has to be pursued relentlessly. That was his Message to man. No wonder the people around him then and those even now who knew about him, considered him a walking God.