Lalleshwari
Forerunner of
Medieval Mystics
"Her sayings echo and
re-echo to this day"
by P.N.
Kaul Bamzai
As
in the rest of India, the middle of the 14th
century was a period of religious and moral
fermentation in Kashmir. Buddhism had practically
disappeared from the Valley, though we find
mention of Buddhist priests and viharas in the
later Rajataranginis. Tilakacharya, described as a
Buddhist, was a minister of Zain-ul-Abidin. Most
of the Buddhist theologians and saints finding the
Valley uncongenial, had left for Ladakh and Tibet.
The long period of political instability which
followed the peaceful and enlightened reign of
Avantivarman (855-83 A.D.) was responsible for the
ossification of the predominant religion, Shaivism,
into elaborate and complicated rituals which
dominated all social and cultural activities.
Shaktism, born of the love for Durga worship, had
degenerated into grotesque forms of rites and
ceremonies. Vaishnavism was not a strong element
in the religious fabric of the Valley, but in the
11th century it received further nourishment from
the teachings of Ramanuja who travelled all the
way from Madras to Kashmir to fight Shaivism at
its fountain-head. And with the destruction of
temples and images by several Hindu kings like
Harsha, as well as by Muslim zealots, Hindu
worship was driven to the seclusion of the home or
of 'natural' (Svayambhu) images - rocks, or ice
formations, or springs. Sanskrit became the domain
of the learned few, the common man having taken to
a form of Prakrit which though retaining its
essentials, was yet wholly different from the
'Language of the Gods'.
A rare sketch of
Lalleshwari
Courtesy: J. K. Mirza
Impact of Islam
In this troubled period
of political uncertainty and changing social
values, the people of the Valley were subjected to
the impact of Islam. From a close contact between
the two religions and their deep influence on each
other, there resulted the evolution of what may be
called Medieval Reformers or Mystics.
For more than two hundred
years Islam had, in central Asia and Persia, been
similarly influenced by the teachings and dogmas
of Mahayana Buddhism and Upanishadic philosophy,
resulting in the emergence of a cult of Islamic
mystics. Fortunately, the new religion entered the
Valley in this form, being carried there by
enlightened Sufis like Bulbul Shah. With their
humanistic approach to religion, they found a
ready and sympathetic response from the Kashmiris,
already permeated with the teachings of mystic
saints and "seers".
For, it was during this
period of religious fermentation that a need had
been felt for a new approach to religion embracing
all creeds and castes appealing to the 'heart'
rather than the 'head'. Thanks to its rich
religious and philosophic traditions, Kashmir rose
to the occasion and produced a number of mystics
and saints who by their teachings and their lives
of complete self- abnegation were the living
embodiments of true religion and morality.
Mother Lalla Appears
Foremost among them was
the great mystic "seer", Lalleshwari,
popularly known as Lal Ded (Mother Lalla), who
profoundly influenced the thought and life of her
contemporaries and whose sayings still touch the
Kashmiri's ear, as well as the chords of his
heart, and are freely quoted by him as maxims on
appropriate occasions. She was born in about the
middle of the 14th century of the Christian Era in
the time of Sultan Ala-ud-din. Lall's parents
lived at Pandrenthan (ancient Puranadhisthana)
some four and a half miles to the south-east of
Srinagar. She was married at an early age, but was
cruelly treated by her mother-in-law who nearly
starved her. This story is preserved in a Kashmiri
proverb: Whether they killed a big sheep or a
small one, Lalla had always a stone for her dinner
- an allusion to her mother-in-law's practice of
putting a lumpy stone on her platter and covering
it thinly with rice, to make it look quite a big
heap to others. And yet she never murmured.
Her father-in-law
accidentally found out the truth. He got annoyed
with his wife and scolded her. This incident
invited more curses on Lalla. Her mother- in-law
poisoned the ears of her son with all sorts of
stories. Ultimately, the anomalies and cruelties
of wordly life led her to renunciation and she
discovered liberty in the life of the spirit.
She found her guru in
Sidh Srikanth, whom she ultimately excelled in
spiritual attainments:
Gav Tsatha guras Khasithay
Tyuth var ditam Diva
The disciple surpassed the
Guru:
God grant me a similar
boon
She pursued Yoga under Sidh
Srikanth, until she succeeded in reaching the
'abode of nectar'. But she did not stop there. All
around her was conflict and chaos. Her countrymen
and women needed her guidance. She had a mission
to perform, and well and effectively she did it.
Her life and sayings were mainly responsible in
moulding the character of her people and setting
up tradition of love and tolerance which
characterises them even today.
As Wandering Preacher
Eventually she gave up
her secluded life and became a wandering preacher.
She led a severely ascetic life, clad in the
bareness of one who had forsaken comforts, and by
example and precept conveyed her teachings to the
masses. Like Mira she sang of Siva, the great
beloved, and thousands of her followers, Hindus as
well as Muslims, committed to memory her famous
Vakyas.
There is a high moral
teaching which Lalla demonstrated when during her
nude state a gang of youthful rowdies were mocking
her. A sober-minded cloth vendor intervened and
chastised them. On this she asked the vendor for
two pieces of ordinary cloth, equal in weight. She
put them on either shoulder and continued her
wandering. On the way some had salutations for her
and some had gibes. For every such greeting she
had a knot in the cloth, for the salutations in
the piece on the right, and for the gibes in the
piece on the left. In the evening after her round,
she returned the pieces to the vendor and had them
weighed. Neither had, of course, gained or lost by
the knots. She thus brought home to the vendor,
and her disciples, that mental equipoise should
not be shaken by the manner people greeted or
treated a person.
So that her teachings and
spiritual experiences might reach the masses, she
propagated them in their own language. She thus
laid the foundations of the rich Kashmiri
literature and folklore. More than thirty per cent
of the Kashmiri idioms and proverbs derive their
origin from her Vakyas.
Spiritual and
Philosophical Vakyas
These Vakyas or sayings
are an aggregate of Yoga philosophy and Saivism,
expressive of high thought and spiritual truth,
precise, apt and sweet. Her quatrains are now
rather difficult to understand as the language has
undergone so many changes, and references to
special Yogic and philosophic terms are numerous
therein.
Some of these sayings
have been collected and published by Dr. Grierson,
Dr. Barnett, Sir Richard Temple and Pandit Anand
Koul and apart from the consideration that they
explain the Saiva philosophy of Kashmir through
the Kashmiri language, they exemplify the
synthesis of cultures for which Kashmir has always
been noted.
Lalla fills her teachings
with many truths that are common to all religious
philosophy. There are in it many touches of
Vaishnavism, the great rival of Saivism, much that
is strongly reminiscent of the doctrines and
methods of the Muhammadan Sufis who were in India
and Kashmir well before her day, and teachings
that might be Christian with Biblical analogies,
though Indian's knowledge of Christianity must
have been very remote and indirect at her date.
Lalla is no believer in
good work in this or in former lives, in
pilgrimages or austerities. In one of her sayings
she criticises the cold and meaningless way in
which religious rituals are performed:
God does not want
meditations and austerities
Through love alone canst
though reach the Abode of Bliss.
Thou mayst be lost like
salt in water
Still it is difficult for
thee to know God.
All labour, to be effective,
must be undertaken without thought of profit and
dedicated to Him. Exhorting her followers to stick
fast to ideals of love and service to humanity,
paying no thought to the praise or condemnation
that might follow from their observance, she says:
Let them jeer or cheer me;
Let anybody say what he
likes;
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 am a true worshipper of
God
Can ashes leave a stain on
a mirror?
She is a strong critic of
idolatory as a useless and even silly
"work" and adjures the worshippers of
stocks and stones to turn to Yogic doctrines and
exercises for salvation:
Idol is of stone temple is
of stone;
Above (temple) and below
(idol) are one;
Which of them wilt thou
worship O foolish Pandit?
Cause thou the union of
mind with Soul.
She further castigates the
fanatical followers of the so-called
"religions" in the following apt saying:
O Mind why hast thou
become intoxicated at another's expense?
Why hast thou mistaken
true for untrue?
Thy little understanding
hath made thee attached to other's religion;
Subdued to coming and
going; to birth and death.
But Lalla is not a bigot;
she constantly preaches wide and even eclectic
doctrines; witness the following and many other
instances: "it matters nothing by what name
the Supreme is called. He is still the Supreme;''
''Be all Lhings to all men;" ''the true saint
is the servant of all mankind through his humility
and loving kindness," "It matters
nothing what a man is or what his work of gaining
his livelihood may be, so long as he sees the
Supreme properly."
She puts no value on
anything done without the saving belief in Yogic
doctrine and practice, one of the results of which
is the destruction of the fruits of all work, good
or bad. The aspirant should try to auain
perfection in this life. He only requires faith
and perseverance:
Siva is with a fine net
spread out
He permeath the mortal
coils
If thou whilst living
canst not see
Him, how canst thou when
dead
Take out Self from Self
after pondering over it
She is a firm believer in
herself. She has become famous and talks of the
"wine of her sayings" as something
obviously precious, and alludes often to her own
mode of life, fully believing she has obtained
Release:
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.
The removal of confusion
caused among the masses by the preachings of
zealots was the most important object of her
mission. Having realised the Absolute Truth, all
religions were to her merely paths leading to the
same goal:
Shiv chuy thali thali
rozan;
Mo zan Hindu to Musalman.
Truk ay chuk pan panun
parzanav,
Soy chay Sahivas sati
zaniy zan.
Siva pervades every
place and thing;
Do not differentiate
between Hindu and Musalman.
you art intelligent
recognise thine own self;
That is the true
acquaintance with God.
The Great Mystic
The greatness of Lalla
lies in giving the essence of her experiences in
the course of her Yoga practices through the
language of the common man. She has shown very
clearly the evolution of the human being, theory
of nada, the worries and miseries of a jiva and
the way to keep them off. The different stages of
Yoga with the awakening of the Kundalini and the
experiences at the six plexi have been elucidated
by her.
Much can, indeed, be said
on her work as a poet and more, perhaps, on her
work in the spiritual realm. But at a time when
the world was suffering from conflict - social,
political and economic - her efforts in removing
the differences between man and man need to be
emphasised.
The composite culture and
thought she preached and the Orders she founded
was an admixture of the non-dualistic philosophy
of Saivism and Islamic Sufism. As long back as the
13th century she preached non-violence, simple
living and high thinking and became thus Lalla
Arifa for Muhammadans and Lalleshwari for Hindus.
She was thus the first
among the long list of saints who preached
medieval mysticism which later enwrapped the whole
of India. It must be remembered that Ramananda's
teaching and that of those that came after him
could not have affected Lalla, because Ramananda
flourished between 1400 and 1470, while Kabir sang
his famous Dohas between 1440 and 1518, and Guru
Nanak between 1469 and 1538. Tulsidasa did not
come on the scene till 1532 whereas Mira
flourished much later.
Source: Koshur
Samachar
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