Laleshwari (Lal Ded)

The Great Mystic Saint (1335-87)

The Valley of Kashmir, in spite of being walled by the high mountains, received waves after waves of various Asiatic cultures, which came from different directions and formed a happy amalgam in this land of beauty and plenty. First came the early Aryans from India and later Kushans, the Indo-Scythians, the Mongols and then Muslim Turks from Central Asia and China.

Lal Ded (URL)

But in the fourteenth century there was a thorough stirring and cataclysmic change in the political, social and religious aspects of Kashmir. Politically Kashmir came under the rule of the Muslim upstarts. When Shah Mir deposed Kota Rani (1338-39), the widow queen of Udyamadeva (1323-1338), the Muslim rule established its firm root in Kashmir. Then came the missionaries led by Mir Sayyid Ali of Hamdan, who found the Valley fertile for spreading the message of Islam. But there had also risen a sect of Muslim saints who were the sons of the soil and who were strongly influenced by the local tradition and found the famous Muslim order of Rishis or Babas. The founder of this order was Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Vali, popularly called Nund Rishi at Tsrar-i-Shrief (1376-1838).

Earlier in this socio-political milieu appeared Laleshwari or Lal Ded (mother Lal) whom the Muslims call Lala Arifa. She was born in the middle of the 14th century when Sultan Alau-ud-Din became the third Muslim king of Kashmir. We are not sure of her date of birth. Various dates are given by the various people but according to Prof J.L. Kaul, it was 1335. It is believed that she was born of a well-to-do Kashmiri Brahman family at Pandrethan, a small village at a distance of four miles from Srinagar. At an early age she got her religious education from her family priest Shri Sidha Mol (respected Sidh). As her verses reveal she was well-versed in Yoga philosophy and Shaivism. It is said that she even excelled her Guru in religious knowledge:

"Gai Tsatta guras khasithay
Tyuth vara ditam Diva".
(The disciple excelled the Guru
May I be granted the same boon!)

She was, as the custom then prevailed, married at the age of fourteen to a Kashmiri Pandit who lived at Pampore at a distance of eight miles from Srinagar. She was treated cruelly by her mother-in-law who practically starved her by placing a lumpy stone on the platter and thinly covering it with rice. There is a legend that one morning a few women accosted her and told her about the feast of grahashanti, which was to be held that day in her house. "You will have wonderful dishes to eat today. Do invite us also". They said to her and Lalla replied:

"Ho'nd maarrtyan ya kath
Lalli nalavath tsali'nas zanh".
(They may kill a big lamb or a small one
Lalla will have the large pebble on her plate)

Her husband, too, upbraided and badly treated her. She looked around and saw herself in a quagmire of misery. It was a time when human suffering evoked no tears. She became restless and something screamed out in her. "Where is release from human misery?" She renounced the world and set out in quest of the Truth. She plunged into torturous asceticism but all in vain. She says:

“passionate, with longing in mine eyes,
Searching wide, and seeking nights and days,
Lo! I beheld the Truthful One, the wise,
Here in mine own House to fill my gaze".

The three mystic saints of Kashmir, Sheikh Noor-u-Din, Pandit Parmanand and Shams Faqir have sung praises of her. All the three eulogise her spiritual attainments. Sheikh Noor-u-Din says:

"The Lalla of Padamanpur
Who had drunk nectar
She is the Avtar and Yogini
O God, bestow the same spiritual power on me".

Pandit Parmanand considered her a perfect Shaiva Yogini. He writes:

"Unique in her yoga of dvadashanta mandaia
Realising anhata, nada, bindu and Om
Laleshwari attained the Supreme Anand.
Lalla merged her prana in the Transcendent void
And while ostensibly she went to bathe at the shrine
At Shurahyar ghat, with a leap and bound
She jumped across this world to where
There is none but God.

Lal Ded's sayings were written for the first time in 1914 by Pt. Makand Ram Shastri from the oral speech of Dharmdas Darvesh of Handwara. He passed them on to Sir George A. Grierson who published as Vakyani in 1920. In 1924 Sir Richard Temple published "The Word of Lall - the Prophetess", rendering these sayings into English. He also explained her philosophy. Anand Kaul Bamzai wrote "Lalla Yogeshwari: Her Life and Sayings", adding 75 more vakhs (sayings) to the one of Grierson. Then Prof. Jia Lal Kaul and Prof. B.N. Parimu also wrote on Laleshwari.

Like the Buddha Lal Ded found the Supreme Light in her own soul. She realised that the Supreme Self (God) and-her own soul were one. One can trace out the ascent of her own self to the Supreme Self from her own verses. The following verses translated by Sir Richard Temple make it clear:

"So my lamp of knowledge blazed afar
Fanned by slow breath from the threat of me
They, my bright soul to my self revealed
Winnowed I abroad my inner light
And with darkness all around me sealed
Did I garner Truth and hold Him tight.
Keep a little raiment for the cold
And a little food for stomach's sake:
Pickings for the crows thy body hold,
But thy mind a house of knowledge make.
Slay first the thieves-desire, lust and pride;
Learn thou then slave of all.
Robbers only for a while abide;
Ever liveth the devoted call.
All a man's gain here is nothing worth,
Save when his service shall be his sword;
And from the fire is the sun of birth;
Gain thou then the knowledge of the Lord
Whatever thing I do of toil,
Burdens of completion on me lie;
Yet unto another falls the spoil
And gains he the fruit thereof, not I.
Yet if I toil with no thought of self,
All my works before the self I lay;
Setting faith and duty before help,
Well for me shall be the onward way.
"Think not on the things that are without;
Fix upon thy inner self thy thought:
So shalt thou be freed from let or doubt:
Precepts those that my Preceptor taught.
Dance then, Lalla, clothed but by the air;
Sing, thou, Lalla, clad but in the sky.
Air and sky: what garment is more fair?
"Cloth", said custom. Doth that sanctify?"

There are seven pillars of her teachings like the seven colours of the rainbow. These are:

1. She taught that there was no need to go to a temple or mosque. Man's own heart is a temple where dwells the Supreme Lord. She says:

"I worked and worked at the bellows-pipe
Till the light flared and I saw the true self
Till the light shown within and spread without".

2. She was absolutely against idol-worship and says:

"Idol is of stone, temple is stone;
Above temple and below idol (are one)
Which of them will thou worship,
O foolish Pandit? Cause thou the union of mind and soul".

Or again:

"Every moment
I taught Omkar to my mind
I was myself reading
And myself hearing
From So'ham (I am He)
I cut of aham (I am)
Then did I, Lalla
Reach the place of illumination".

3. She believed in the omnipresence of God. She sings:

"I saw and found I am in everything,
I saw God effulgent in everything.
After hearing and pausing, see Siva,
The House is His alone; Who am I, Lalla".

4. She was against greed, lust and pride.

5. She lay importance on purity, morality and equanimity. "Self-denial, purity of life are the keynote of her sayings. She rejected the established religious dogmas and rituals". Prof Kaul has beautifully translated her vakh in this connection:

"When the oft-repeated discipline, the wide expanse of the
Manifested universe is lifted to the Void;
When the saguana becomes merged in the akasha with a
Splash, like water falling into water;
When even the ethereal Void is dissolved
And nothing remains but the Weal-
Then, O Bhatta, learn that this is the true doctrine for you".

6. She had catholicity of outlook and respected all the religions alike

7. One should not mind the criticism of others or the admiration of others. One must concentrate on Him with stoic calm. She says:

"Let them jeer or cheer me;
Let anybody say what he like;
Let good persons worship me with flowers;
What can any one of them gain, I being pure.
If the world talks ill of me,
My heart shall harbour no ill-will.
If I am a true worshipper of God.
Can ashes leave a stain on a mirror?"

Prof. J.L. Kaul says: "Thus did Lal Ded enrich the thought and literature of Kashmir and, what is significant, leave behind a forceful message of tolerance and understanding and indeed, a possible synthesis of cultures for the land of her birth. She has been not only the most famous poet-saint of Kashmir but the maker of Kashmiri poetry."