Key to the understanding
of Lal Ded
by R. N. Koul
INTRODUCTION
It
is common knowledge that Lalla Ded (1320-1389) lived in the fourteenth century.
This was the most unfavourable time for the cultivation of mystical powers lying
dormant in our beings. The Happy Valley was passing through traumatic events of
political and religious turmoil. Sandwiched between the two extremes of orthodox
Brahmanism and aggressive Islam (due to some fanatics) there emerged a tradition
or 'cult' engendered by Hindu mystics and Muslim sufis of the time. It was in
reality the resurgence of an indigenous tradition of the unique Kashmiri psyche
known for its tolerance, secularism, universal brotherhood and love, in short,
of humanism. In this synthesis of cultures Lalla Ded was destined to play a
leading role. Her special contribution to this synthetization was to give it a
mystical content. She was closely followed by Sheikh- Noor-ud-din (1376-1438).
Both, she in her vaakh and he in his srukh emphasized the importance of
over-coming the senses and the wavering mind and concentrating on Sadhana
(meditation) as a means to attain salvation, the merging of individual soul with
the Universal Consciousness. It really meant the realizing of the Divine in
one's own being. This tradition of mystic ecstasy was continued, enriched and
strengthened by later mystic poets and poetesses like Rupa Bhawani, Parmanand
(1791-1874), Shams Fakir (1834-1904), Abdul Ahad Zargar and a host of others.
The secret of Lalla Ded's
perennial appeal lies in her power to translate into metaphors and symbols the
longing of man to know ('the burthen and the mystery'), to feel, at least
vicariously, one with the infinite, the supreme power that inheres in all
things. Her outbursts are clothed in her verse-sayings so succinctly and yet so
communicatively that these have continued to hold us as if under a spell. That
charm and that appeal are like Keats's "magic casements" to make the
Solider- Scholar Temple utter:
Thine is a- song that
enslaveth me,
Son of an alien kin and
clime.
Shiekh Noor-ud Din wrote:
The Lalla of padmanpur-
She drank her fill of
divine nectar,
She was indeed an avatar of
ours,
Oh God, grant me the
self-same boon.
Shamas Fakir has this to say:
Lalla merged her
prana in the Transcendent.
While she went to bathe
At the sacred shrine of
shurahyar bank,
With a leap into the water
She swam across to meet her
God.
Lalla Ded's perennial appeal
stems from the fact that she spoke in the idiom of the masses, the vernacular
kashmiri and not in Sanskrit. She in fact, became the founder of modern
Kashmiri, the Kashmiri that with slight changes down the years, continues to
retain the infrastructure of Lalla's making.
But the essentiality of
Lalla Ded's appeal lies in her mystical experience or anubhav clothed in nearly
intelligible languages. Thoughshe did not give rise to any order as such and did
not present any systematized philosophy, yet the direction of her sayings in
unmistakable, an ethico-mystical message is inescapable. There is a method in
her 'madness' or personal ecstasy. She lays down a moral code and prescribes
rules for attaining spiritual salvation.
The present article is an
attempt to explain, in as simple a manner as humanly possible, the technique
Lalla Ded followed to reach her destination: discovering the Supreme residing in
the depths of her own soul. She adopted the theory and practice of Trika 'Sastra'
called Kashmir Shaivism, The technique has a physiological mystical content. It
adopts the Laya Yoga though other yogas exist like Hatta Yoga, Mantra Yoga,
Jnana Yoga and Bakhti Yoga. In kashmiri the Laya Yoga is called the kundalini
Yoga. According to this yoga there are six Cakras (Chakras) or centres of Cosmic
power in the human body. The Kundalini Sakti is supposed to lie coiled round the
svayambhu (the genital part) at the muladhara Cakra. This Sakti is roused
through yogis exercises or mantras and brought up through the six circles to the
highest centre, the Sahasrara, the abode of Siva. A kind of mystical bridge is
established to help the Kundalini Shakti to reach this highest point. There
exists a nadi (in the abstract) called Sushumna nadi which enables the practiser
to reach this seat of Siva and enjoy the mystical taste of nectar oozing from
Shashikala, Digit of the Moon. To understand it better one has to become more
familiar with Kashmir Sahivism. Parmasiva is the highest metaphysical principle
of this system. It has two aspects: one, the static, the eternal changeless and
Pure Consciousness, two, the dynamic, the one in constant flux. The first is
named Siva, the second Shakti, the two being one and the same. Man's spiritual
goal is to establish identity of the two in his own being. This effort is
obstructed by the power of the senses and the waywardness of the mind over our
higher existence. The world is like a magnetic illusion and the bold ofthe
senses is so strong that man lives many lives to seek their satisfaction. And
the most formidable task for the seeker of the Infinite according to the Laya
yoga is that he has to die (control his/her senses) and know the Supreme Self
while alive. The mind can be controlled through the vital energy of
consciousness centered in the body in the form of Susumna nadi, the uneven
movement of prana and apana is brought to a uniform rhythm by breath control.
The Susumna nadi extends from the muladhara at the base near the rectum right up
to Sahasrara in the crown of the head along the spinal cord. It is through this
subtle mystical corridor that Kundalini Sakti rises upwards to meet her consort
Siva in that thousand-petalled lotus of Sahasrara Within these two extremes are
six centres of energy cilled cakras or lotuses. These are:
1. Muladhar - at the base
of the spinal cord.
2. Suadhishsthana - at the
base of the reproductive organ
3. Manipur - in the region
of the navel
4. Anahata - in the region
of the heart
5. Visudha - near the
throat
6. Ajna - between the two
eyebrow
There are two other nadis
running parallel to the Susmna. These are ida and pingla. Prana flows through
the former while apana flows through the latter. The two breaths are kept in
perfect balance through the practice of yoga. All the channels (nadis) join at
the two eyebrows' junction; this point is called Triveni, symbolic confluence of
Ganga, Jamuna and Saraswati. The Rundalini Sakti which normally lies dormant is
awakened by yogic exercises and it then cuts its way through the six cakras to
meet 'her' consort Shiva in Sahasrara, Prana goes upwards while apana downwards.
To attain spiritual goal, man has to control five pranas, ten indriyas and their
controller, the wavering mind. This is done through abhyas or yoga practice.
Prana rises at the heart and ends at a distance of twelve fingers from the nose.
To attain absolute control, the mystic syllable OM is repeated with rise and
fall of breath as it travels through - subtle channels another mantra is called
hamsah. This mantra enables the yogis to concentrate. At each of these points
there occurs a split second in which prana remains still. It is this interval
which brings the seeker to the abode of Siva. The unstuck sound of anahata or OM
coincides with hamsa. There is complete merger of man's soul with Universal
Soul; then there is an ecstatic revelation that the two are in reality one:
Through the central channel
of Susumna
I reached the sanctum
sanctorum of my own soul
And lo! I beheld Siva and
Sakti sealed in one.
Feeling ecstatic I reached
the nectar-lake of the mystic moon
Apparently dead, I am now
really alive.
The same anubhawa is
expressed in another telling vaakh:
I held firm the reins of
the horse, my mind,
I controlled well the
pranas coursing through the ten nadis;
Then did the nectar of the
mystic moon
Melt and flow, suffusing my
whole being,
The mind thus curved,
My void merged with the
void of pure consciousness.
Thus Lalla Ded, without
rejecting the flesh altogether but accepting it only as a necessary evil, found
her spiritual salvation within her own self.
I discovered the Lord
Within the walls of my own
soul.
Note: The author has
consulted many books written on Lalleshwari especially those of Jaya Lal Koul
and Nil Kanth-Kotru.
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