LALLESHWARI- The light of wisdom in valley

 

 

Jammu Kashmir has given us many mystics, philosophers, poets and saints. It has also been a centre of different school of thoughts. Hailed from the valley, different personalities have shown light of spirituality to people from time to time. One of these mystic personalities is Lalleshwari also known as Lal Ded.

 

 

Lalleswari was born in 1317 AD at Pandrenthan, Srinagar to a Kashmiri Brahman named Cheta Bhat. She had clear memories of her previous incarnations. As a child, Lal was very wise and religious minded. At a very tender age of 12 years, she was married into a family in Pampore and her mother in law did not like her,she mistreated her and always tried to create misunderstandings between Lal and her husband. Lalleshwari never lost her patience. She used to spend time in meditation, with managing all house-hold work. She used to go to the river daily and fetch water in clay pot. Once she stayed longer at the river ghat and bringing the pitcher on her head. The angry husband hit the earthen pot with a stick at which it fell into pieces. But the water remained stagnant and frozen as one piece and remained in its place. Lalla later filled all the vessels with it and even after that some water remained surplus. She threw the remaining water out from the kitchen window and it became a pond which was called as Lalla Trag. The miracle established Lal as a siddha, and as the word spread, people from different villages started to visit her and seek blessings.

 

 

At the age of 24, Lal renounced family and started roaming in the jungles, trying to find corners to meditate, living on wild fruits and berries. She got trained under various masters including Swami Paramananda Tirth. She became disciple of Sidha Srikanth (Sedh Mol), a renowned sage and started to be only in the company of hermits. Sometime later she surpassed him in spiritual attainments which made her a prominent female sage. She used to be naked and when asked about it she said that covering the body in front of men is important but any person without that divine trait and only with animal instinct is not a man and in her lifetime, only once she felt to cover herself. By this time, everyone knew about Lalleshwari and had immense respect for her. Lal for Hindus was called Lal Aarifa by Muslims. The Yogini was a motherly figure for all.

 

 

 

 

She performed numberless miracles throughout her lifetime. Known as one of the most prominent faces of Trika Shaivism, Lal also worked as a social reformer, she spread the word of Nirgun Bhakti and did not support idolatry and criticized the rituals like Animal sacrifice and other religious malpractices. So that her teachings and spiritual experiences might reach the masses, she spread her word in Kashmiri only and she is also the creator of a style of mystic poetry called vatsun or Vakhs, literally "speech". Her vakhs are the earliest compositions in the Kashmiri language and are an important part in the history of modern Kashmiri literature. Her vakhs have helped many in their spiritual journeys or just in seeking knowledge. In his book, "Triadic Mysticism", famous author Paul E. Murphy calls her the "chief exponent of devotional or emotion-oriented Triadism". Author and poet Ranjit Hoskote writes: "To the outer world, Lalleshwari is arguably Kashmir's best known spiritual and literary figure; within Kashmir, she has been venerated both by Hindus and Muslims for nearly seven centuries. For most of that period, she has successfully eluded the proprietorial claims of religious monopolists. Since the 1980s, however, Kashmir's confluential culture has frayed thin under the pressure of a prolonged conflict to which transnational terrorism, State repression and local militancy have all contributed. Religious identities in the region have become harder and more sharp-edged, following a substantial exodus of the Hindu minority during the early 1990s, and a gradual effort to replace Kashmir's unique and syncretically nuanced tradition of Islam with a more Arabocentric global template. It is true that Lalleshwari was constructed differently by each community, but she was simultaneously Lallesvari or Lalla Yogini to the Hindus and Lal'arifa to the Muslims; today unfortunately, these descriptions are increasingly being promoted at the expense of one another.” Her poetry was easily accessible and not only laid the foundation for Kashmiri poetry, but formed a bridge between the Bhakti and Sufi poetic traditions. Prof. M.L. Koul says that:

 

 

‘’No right thinking person can dispute the status of Lalleshwari as Shaiva yogini . She took the Shaiva-praxis to recognise her essential worth as Shiva. Lalleshwari was a bhaktin too, who is consensually ranked with great bhaktas like Guru Nanak, Sant Kabir, Meera Bai, Raidass, Tulsi Dass et all. Prof. B.N. Parimu in his monumental studies on Lalleshwari unequivocally calls her the fore-runner of the Bhakti Movement in India. As yoga and bhakti are not mutually contradictory to each other, Lalla meticulously practised bhakti yoga. Her self-image as a ‘bhaktin’ had fortified her against the zig zags and adversities of life and world, and had invested her person with absolute equipoise and equanimity of temper and deportment.’’ One Kashmiri folk story recounts that, as a baby, Nunda Rishi (Famous Kashmiri Sufi) refused to be breast-fed by his mother. It was Lal Ded who breast-fed him She was the first saint who preached medieval mysticism in India.It is believed that she left this physical world in 1392.

 

 

 

One thing which must be kept in mind is that Ramananda’s teaching and those who came after had no impact on Lalleshwari as Ramananda became popular between 1440 and 1518,Kabir sang Dohas between 1440 and 1518,Tulsidas did not come till 1532 and Meerabai who was born in 1498, flourished much later.The question which arises that why we are not told about Lalleshwari? Our history books rarely talk about Lal and few times we see a vakh in literature books.