Her praxis, as her poetic corpus reveals, is rooted in the Saivate tradition and equally influenced by Islamic mysticism.
Amir Suhail Wani
Lalla started her journey as a yogini belonging to Saivite tradition of Kashmiri Hinduism. Shaivism being one of the major divisions of Hinduism along with Vaisnavism. Whereas Saiva is seen as the God of snow clad mountains, Vishnu is seen as the God of the hot Indian landmass, as if mimicking the Islamic notions of divine Jamal (beauty) and Jalal (Wrath). Saivism, whose spiritual strain Lalla followed, is described by John Bowker as, “One of the major traditions of medieval Hinduism worshipping Siva or one of his forms or symbols such as the Linga…. Various Saiva sects developed, ranging from those who adhered to Smarta orthodoxy (followers of household rites preserved in the tradition ie Smriti) to those who flouted it…. Of these, the most theologically developed are the monistic Trika or Kashmir Saivism.”
Kashmiri Saivism is based on a short treatise written in the form of bursting aphorisms bearing the name Sivasutra and believed to have been revealed to Vasugupta around 9th century . The greatest sage-scholar Abhinavgupta of Kashmir later commented upon the book in the 11th century. Kashmir Shaivism is a non-dualistic philosophical and spiritual tradition that views Lord Shiva as the ultimate reality, with the Shiva Sutras serving as its central text. Within this tradition, Trika philosophy, meaning “the threefold path,” emphasises the interconnectedness of the individual soul (Atman), the supreme consciousness (Shiva), and the world (Shakti). This reverberates the Ibn Arabian schematisation, which sees Anfus (self), Aafaq (universe), and Ahad (the divine unity) joined into an inseparable triad. Trika teaches that spiritual evolution involves recognising the unity of these three aspects through practices like meditation and mantra recitation, aiming for liberation by realising one’s oneness with Shiva. Both Kashmir Shaivism and Trika share core concepts such as non-duality, the central role of Shakti as the dynamic power of creation, and the importance of spiritual practices in attaining liberation.
The reason for discussing this system of thought is that Carnac Temple suggests that “for a proper grasp of Lalla’s verse it is necessary to have as clear an understanding as possible of the theory on which Trika philosophy is based, as it was completed for all practical purposes a century before her date”. Look at this Vaakh of Lalla which is perfectly written in the context of Trika tradition of Kashmiri Saivism:
“Up, Woman! Go make your offering.
Take wine, meat and a cake fit for the Gods.
If you know the password to the supreme place,
You can reach wisdom by breaking the rules”
— Translated by Ranjit Hoskote.
Mark Dyczkowski’s comment in his book The Doctrine of Vibration will be of immense value to understand this vaakh. Dyczkowski writes, “Unlike the Siddhanta rituals, many of them (Bhairava rituals) involve the offering of meat and wine to the deity”. However, it must be noted here that in Kashmiri Saivism, and therefore in the poetry of Lalla, writes Dyczskowski, “Rituals are transformed into process of inner realisation and transformation” affecting the union with object of devotion. Thus, the references to ritual as they appear in Lalla need to be understood both in their esoteric and exoteric dimensions. This shall save the reader both from a monochromatic ritual-driven understanding of Lalla and more importantly from missing the crux and essence of her philosophy, which is primarily esoteric, articulated by way of the symbols of exoteric ritualism. Lalla is as much opposed to lifeless ritualism as much as she is opposed to spiritual charlatans, inauthentic mysticism and verbal jugglers of her age. Deconstructing the façade of sacrificial rites, she addresses the temple priest,
“It covers your shame, keeps your from shivering
Grass and water are all the foods it asks
Who taught you Priest-Man,
To feed this breathing thing to your thing of stone”
— Translated by Ranjit Hoskote.
The last line not only reflects the dislike that Lalla has for lifeless rituals, but also reveals her iconoclast character. This iconoclasm seems to have its roots in Islamic monotheism and reverence for transcendence, its opposition to idol worship as opposed to the crass idolatry of Lalla’s era. Accardi, taking note of Lalla’s kinship to Islam and its central tenets, remarks, “Grierson and Barnett dismiss earlier hagiographical accounts of Lal Ded encountering Sufıs. Although they state, ‘There is hence no inherent difficulty in accepting the tradition of her association with Sayyid Ali. (Grierson and Barnett 1920: 1), it is only as long as Muslims like Sayyid Ali Hamadanı are understood as having no real effect on Lal Ded and her Hindu religiosity.” As soon as there is a story in which a Sufi is said to have had an impact on Lal Ded, they preempt it with the following dismissal: “Numerous stories are current about Lall in the Valley, but none of them is deserving of literal credence. Lalla’s contemporary Hindus seem to have lost the symbolic meaning of idols and reduced the practice to an end in itself instead of a means to an end. This might have inspired Lalla to look to her contemporary Muslim mystics who located God beyond images in the realm of absolute transcendence, the realm of which 9th-century non-dualist mystic Sankara said “from which words fall back”.
Pertinent to mention that Sankara visited Kashmir during his lifetime, leaving behind the imprints of his Advaitic monotheism. This background, in addition to Islamic influence, might have also contributed to Lalla’s heightened sense of unity of divinity, disdain for idols and quest for the god of transcendence. To quote from Lalla:
God is stone, the temple is stone,
head to foot, all stone.
Hey priest-man, what’s the object of your worship?
Get your act together, join mind with life-breath.
— Translated by Ranjit Hoskote.
Hoskote writes under this Vaakh that “Dismissing the worship of an idol and the religious economy of the temple – ‘all stone’ – she emphasises that the Divine is to be reached through the Yogic practice of pranagnihotra, the offering of the body’s awakened vital energies”. This explicitly favours the spiritual ideal of awakening and enlightenment over the decayed religious ideals of blind acceptance and submission to authority. It must however be noted that religion in itself is of great value and forms the vase and vessel of spirituality. It is only what John Caputo says, “When religion becomes its own victim, losing touch with its symbolism” that it no longer satisfies the quest of the spirit and is reduced to soulless association and baseless proprietorship.
Hawkins, commenting upon the rise of spirituality within religion insightfully observes, “In the lifetime of the prophet, the chasm between man and divine is obliterated and man lives in a space of spiritual unity mediated by the presence of prophet who is always in touch with the divine. In the Post-prophetic era, the door to transcendence is closed and man finds himself alienated from God which pushes him to explore paths of spirituality to regain the state of primordial spiritual communion” (Quoted by Bashir Ahmad Dar in Tarikh I Tassawuf Qabl Az Islam).
This was the era in which Lalla found herself where systematisation had choked genuine quests and borrowed answers were offered against existential queries. In this aura of dogmatism, Lalla realised that Truth is to be earned not borrowed or inherited. While the Truth is objective, it is to be participated in subjectively and this subjective discovery of the objective Truth is what genuine spirituality is all about. In this quest, Lalla was no doubt inspired and influenced by her contemporary Muslim mystics as much as she was influenced by her Saivite predecessors whose flag she carried. Lalla stands at the intersection of Kashmiri Saivism and Islamic mysticism and to make proprietary claims from either side misses the entire point that Lalla tried to make. The point is that when religions, dogmas and doctrines become parochial, their myths inauthentic and their symbols meaningless, the questor has to search for a path of his/her own may that quest demand going to and fro between Saivism to Islam.
The poetry of Praxis
Shafi Shauq writes “In her (Lalla’s) poetry are found the traces and echoes of all those ideological variants which preceded here for thousands of years. Introspection, a meditation on the transcendent use of colloquial and the feminist expression”. Lalla was the mystic of ecstasy who, despite her emphasis on Bhakti Marga, participated equally in the practice of Jnana and Karma Marga. Lalla’s poetry is verb-centric and action-driven, placing the subject at the centre of the sphere of activity. It is narrated that Lalla went around naked, covered by ethereal luminosity, and uttered her spiritually pulsating couplets extempore and in a state of communion with the divine. “Despite her nudity, her nakedness is veiled from humanity with a covering unknown to mankind, just as the stars are hidden from view in the presence of the sun” (Dean Accardi). However, her poetry, like her mysticism, is one of spiritual inebriation. But it needs special attention that her poetry contains references to subtle Saivite and Sufi doctrines which would not have been possible for somebody unacquainted with these systems of thought at an intellectual level.
Her poetry is the poetry of praxis where theory drives practice and practice informs theory. Lalla’s poetry is the siren of Being (Being as understood in mysticism and Heideggerian metaphysics) which guides the initiate and illumines the accomplished in spirituality. Her poetry is a thoroughgoing anti-hierarchical slogan and decry against the ossified Brahmanical Hinduism of her era. Her poetry is structurally called Vaakh or Vac which belongs to the larger poetic form called Doha, but has a metric system of its own as explained by Barnett and Grierson in “Lal Vakyani or The Wise Sayings of Lal Ded” or as briefly mentioned by Hoskote in his much readable I, Lalla.
These four liners are informed by their specific spiritual message, unique tonality and a discernable idiom. Despite the fact that these Vaakhs may have been subjected to repeated updating and thereby carrying the traces of what Hoskote describes as “contributory lineage” ie a group of Pandit and Muslim reciters who edited these Vaakhs for changing times and linguistic sensitivities. They do carry an underlying pattern and signature of the poetess identified as Lalla who emerges as a spiritual questor and somebody despising the rigid orthodoxy and meaningless ritualism.
The symbols in Lalla’s poetry are mainly drawn from nature, away from the buzz and noise of city life. This can be explained primarily by the fact that she lived her life in the countryside and more deeply by What Lévy-Bruhl called “participation mysticism” to describe the way individuals in traditional societies often perceive themselves as being deeply interconnected with the world around them. The key idea is that, in such cultures, the distinction between the self and the external world is not clearly defined. People do not think of themselves as distinct, separate entities but rather see themselves as integrated with the natural, spiritual, and social realms. This also reminds us of the references to nature as employed in the scriptures across the linguistic and geographic divide thereby giving the nature around us a meaning deeper than illustrated by their vegetative and inanimate existence.
The point to note is that the whole of nature is one great symbol and if Wordsworth can see the spark in a blade of grass, our poetess also sees the divine in her immediacy in the forests and fields that surround her vision – notwithstanding that she’s a believer in transcendence and follows the creed of Nirguna Brahma. For the sake of systematic understanding, Jawahar Lal Bhat has divided the poems of Lalla into six major categories which are listed here along with the select examples from each group
• Personal celestial experience: The personal experience is the most prized element and the most authentic mark of Lalla’s Vaakh’s. Trained in Yoga and Tantra and equally benefitting from Islamic mysticism, she explored the terrain of spirit and on the way passed on valuable information about this terrain to future travelers. She says: “I studied books and followed their spirit besides gaining lot of unread experience. I caught a fierce beast and tamed it forcefully till it became a timid jackal. I didn’t advantage myself only but made others gain too. It was a tedious crusade but I achieved my goals.” (Jawahar Lal Bhat, Lal Ded Revisited). Some of the Vaakhs pertaining to her personal spiritual quest are:
“I, Lalla, wore myself down searching for Him
And found a strength after my strength had died.
I came to His threshold but found the door bolted.
I locked that door with my eyes and looked at Him”.
— Translated by Ranjit Hoskote.
When the dirt was wiped away from my mind’s mirror,
people knew me for a lover of God.
When I saw Him there, so close to me,
He was All, I was nothing.
— Translated by Ranjit Hoskote.
• The essential purpose of life: From the dawn of life, humanity has contemplated the meaning and purpose of life. This has broadly divided humankind into two categories – those of materialists and spiritualists. While the former holds that this world is an end in itself and its pleasures are all that is offered to man, the other camp advocates that man must pursue the infinite and everlasting pleasures of the soul, which might involve temporary suspension on the minimisation of bodily pleasures. This has been the guiding philosophy of the vast majority of men across the globe. Lalla belonged to this school which sought the union of Atman (individual soul) with Brahman (the universal soul whom she identified with Siva) as the ultimate aim of life. This not only liberates man from the vicissitudes of terrestrial sojourn but serves as the essential purpose of man’s existence. Lalla writes:
My mind-horse straddles the sky,
crossing a hundred thousand miles in a blink.
It takes wisdom to bridle that horse,
He can break the wheels of breath’s chariot
— Translated by Ranjit Hoskote.
Gluttony gets you the best table in the town of Nowhere,
fasting gives your ego a boost.
Slave of extremes, learn the art of balance
and all the closed doors will open at your touch.
— Translated by Ranjit Hoskote.
• The concept of universal lord: Mystics and sages have repeatedly described the universe as the manifestation of God/Transcendent Principle/The divine Mind/Brahman/Allah. In Ibn Arabi’s cosmology, the universe emerges as the manifestation of divine attributes. In Bekeley’s idealism, the universe is one idea of God and in Hinduism, the whole process of the cosmos is an act of divine play or Lila. In Kashmiri Saivism, particularly its Trika variant, the universe is a vibration of energies emanating from the divine by the process called Spanda or vibration within the divine. Quantum Mechanics and String Theory, the most advanced of the theories of physics of existence posit that creation is actually a set of vibrations tuned to proper frequencies by a seemingly master musician. In this regard, Brain Greene’s books The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of Cosmos are worth pursuing. Now see how Lalla describes the phenomenon of creation and its relation to the cosmic mind:
“The lord has spread the net of himself across everything
Pierced into the frames of all objects and creatures
If you don’t find him when you are alive
How do you expect finding Him when you are dead”
— Translated by JL Bhat.
Or
A thousand times at least I asked my Guru
to give Nothingness a name.
Then I gave up. What name can you give
to the source from which all names have sprung
— Translated by Ranjit Hoskote.
One is immediately reminded of the phenomenon of Quantum Fluctuations by these lines. One who is well versed with the theory will realize from a distance they they converge towards the mysterious phenomenon of Quantum, as both Lalla and Quantum are talking about the ultimate reality in their respective ways.
• On Pranayama and Kundalini yoga: Pranayama and Kundalini Yoga are integral practices in the yogic tradition aimed at cultivating spiritual awakening and physical well-being. Pranayama, which translates to “control of breath,” involves various techniques to regulate the breath, thereby calming the mind, increasing life force energy (prana), and promoting mental clarity. It is often used to prepare the body and mind for deeper meditation. Together, these practices aim to balance the mind, body, and spirit, guiding individuals toward self-realisation and inner peace. Lalla writes:
I’ve bridled my mind-horse, reined him in,
struggled to tie my ten breath-streams together.
That’s how the moon melted and rained nectar on me
and a void mingled with the Void
— Translated by Ranjit Hoskote.
Or
The sun beneath the navel was made to burn.
When the breath, rising there, flows through the throat,
it comes out long and burns.
But when it meets the moon river flowing from the crown,
It comes out short and cools
— Translated by Ranjit Hoskote.
• Guru Saadhna: Guru/spiritual master/Shaykh is an indispensable and eminent figure in the spiritual journey within any religious framework. Even those who propound the oxymoron “spirituality without religion” recognise the importance of a Guru – somebody who is well versed with the spiritual terrain and guides the disciple through the ups and downs thereof. Guru is the object of devotion and love who actualises the quest for the divine in Earthly form and serves as a vehicle to channel the energies of the disciple towards the ultimate spiritual goal. Lalla was deeply dedicated to her Guru Sed Boyu, but, as Jawahar Lal Bhat pertinently notes “the figure of the teacher or guide often serves as a proxy for, or manifestation of, the divine in her poetry”. Lalla writes:
Who trusts his Master’s word
and controls the mind-horse
with the reins of wisdom,
he shall not die, he shall not be killed
• On the syllable Om: In every religion, there exists the concept of the threefold prayer ie , canonical prayer, free personal prayer and the prayer of the heart (Schuon). The last is but perpetual remembrance of the lord by having his idea firmly rooted in the heart and one of his sacred names, specific to religion, uttered by mouth. This corresponds to the Sufi concept of Zikr and the Hindu equivalent of Japa. In the case of Lalla, Om served as the syllable to be recited during meditation on the transcendent and scholars and sages have attributed various vocal/oral and metaphysical allusions to this syllable of Om. Lalla says:
My mind boomed with the sound of Om,
my body was a burning coal.
Six roads brought me to a seventh,
that’s how Lalla reached the Field of Light.
— Translated by Ranjit Hoskote.
Contemporary times
Lalla is the epitome of Kashmiri genius and despite scholarly works by Orientalists, local scholars, post-colonialists, and neo-orientalists; she remains largely hidden from what Jurgen Habermas called “The Public Sphere”. Some recent studies have tried to find feminist trends in her poetry, but this seems to be an exercise in historical anachronism and retrospective constructionism. A more befitting comparison, if a comparison is to be made, can be had between Lalla Ded and Simone Weil, not Simone De Beauvoir. This is because, despite her rebellion against her times, Lalla worked within the contours of religion and spirituality and her entire quest was the quest of securing genuine spirituality and an earned answer to her existential questions – not the quest for women’s rights or struggle for women’s liberation. The last bit can however be disagreed with given other possible readings of her text.
What is however important is that the malaise of spiritual abyss and religious dogmatism, like the one which characterised Lalla’s era, the seekers and fellow travellers on the path of Moksa or liberation have a lot to learn from her, who preferred personal experience to the borrowed systems of life and thought. The works of Jiya Lal Kaul, Grierson, Carnac Temple, Ranjit Hoskote, Jawahar Lal Bhat, Shafi Shauq and others have indeed enriched the field of Lalla studies, but she still awaits a “devotee scholar” to make her presentable to the scholarly and the common community with equal ease – only then will we have celebrated her life and poetry.
Amir Suhail Wani is a comparative studies scholar working on the intersection of literature, religion and philosophy.
First published in Scroll
