Advaitacentrum

The poems of  Lalleswari (1320-1391), the mystical poetess from Kashmir who renounced the world in her search for the Highest, haven't lost any of their power of expression  in all the centuries since their creation.

There is not much know about the life of the woman from Kashmir who is called Lalleshwari by the Hindus and Lalla Arifa by the Moslems.  Both groups know her also under the name Lal Ded (“Grandmother Lal”) or just as Lalla. She was born in the fourteenth century near Srinagar, probably from a Brahmin family. Given away in marriage at a young age, she quickly appeared to be an unmanageable daughter in law. After a few years she renounced the married state and left hearth and home. She renounced the world and became a wandering ascetic. Due to some lines in her poetry it is sometimes thought that she wandered around naked, but it is more probable that these lines are simply an expression she used to describe her relinquishment of all worldly things. Lalla certainly possessed a certain knowledge of Kashmir shaivism and also of Sufism, but it remains abundantly clear from her poems that she did not feel herself bound to any one tradition.  It is also clear that, even though a guru in human form is sometimes indicated, her words and insights come from her own experience.

I, Lalla, full of longing, eagerly set out,

The days and nights stretched while I sought,

Until I found the Lord within my own house,

Since then that star has never dimmed.

Sunken deep in thought I held my breath,

Until the truth revealed itself and the light kindled within.

The brilliance that illumines me, also radiates outward,

I will never release the truth that grasped me in the darkness.

He who thinks himself as one with another,

For whom day and night are identical,

He whose mind has transcended every duality,

Only such a one has recognized the supreme God.

He who has recognized the light that is active in mind and bliss,

Only he is redeemed in this life.

In the net of confusion, eternally changing,

 The fools make thousands of knots.

O Lord, earlier I knew nothing of myself,

I had only loved my body

I had not known that I was one with You

Only a fool asks who he is and who You are.

Whether his name be Shiva, Vishnu or Jina,

Or whether men revered him as a lotus-born priest,

If he will free me of the pain of existence,

Let him be who he will.

He who would acquire a kingdom finds no joy,

Also the one who gives it away finds no rest,

The soul never dies free from craving,

Only by dying during the lifetime does insight come.

The clothing should only protect you from the cold,

take food only to ease hunger

the mind should sink into God and itself,

Finally, the body is just food for the crows.

Water seized by cold becomes ice and snow,

We know water, snow and ice have one source,

Which becomes one  in a shaft of sunlight,

So, too, God and the world become one in a flash of insight.

Men come and then go again,

They must wander here and there, day and night

From whence they come, thither they go.

What remains of them? Nothing, absolutely nothing.

Lord, you alone are the heaven and the earth,

Air and water, the floral scents, day and night.

You are the offering on the altar, you are all.

 Lord, what is there for me to offer you?

There is no "this" and no "that", no "I" and no "you",

Only the creator who gives himself exists.

The blind cannot see the meaning of words,

But when sight comes, the world disappears.

From: Indische Geisteswelt by Helmuth von Glasenapp, Emil Vollmer Verlag, Wiesbaden

(Tr: ET)