Lalleshuri
A
Brief Study
Lalleshuri (LAL
DED) of Kashmir has invited attention of a number of scholars throughout the
world. Her poetic compositions or VAAKHS as they are popularly called are the
extempore outpourings of a highly awakened YOGINI and exhibit high quality
poetry with a deep philosophical content. Here and there we find her personal
spiritual experiences unfolded in a simple form besides terse principles of Yoga
exemplified with easily graspable day to day activities. Lalleshuri communicated
her spiritual teachings in the language of the common man using verbal medium
only and the impact was so great that her poetry safely has carried through
centuries by memory lane as a divine word with negligible distortion of
language.
The VAAKHS of
Lalleshuri is a vast canvas with varied hues spread over by a great literary
artist, a highly awakened SHAIVITE YOGINI and a religious philosopher. Her
sayings about the futility of worldly existence and the escape route through the
practice of Yoga have received wide recognition and continue as such. She had
detached herself completely from the material world and become a wandering
ascetic displaying a frightful aura devoid even of her clothes to cover her
nakedness. Her poetic compositions were instantly committed to public memory and
sung as divine songs to make retribution to God for ones sins. A highly awakened
soul, a YUGPURSHA and a living incarnation of Lord Shiva, she gave out rare gems
of VAAKHS in the common man’s word showing a clear path towards self
realization. She has castigated man time and again for collection of material
belongings ignoring the real divine treasure that only is capable to give safe
passage through temporal existence. She was shocked to see people enjoying
life’s glamour which they knew was nothing but an illusion and how eager she
was to see people shun the lure of the world. Repeatedly she like a past master
preacher stressed upon man not to take the false for the true. She says it was
only their ignorance that bound them to the falsehood and thus waste the
precious moments of their lives that could otherwise be fruitfully used for
higher purpose.
Lalleshuri was
very much dedicated to her GURU. While expressing her gratitude to her GURU in
guiding her in all her progress she says that her GURU is both father and mother
to her, who made her blind eyes capable to see, her bare body able to wear the
celestial garments and thereby discriminate between falsehood and the truth.
Lalleshuri has repeatedly described the importance of a teacher in the way to
self realization. She says one who develops full faith in his GURU and follows
religiously his directions, is able to control all five senses with the help of
GYAN YOGA and succeeds in overcoming the sea of ignorance. He is lifted above
the gross material world and all worldly events, joys and sorrows, sound
immaterial to him. LALLA says in one popular VAAKH--- she asked her GURU a
thousand times who was the one who was nameless and beyond comprehension but she
didn’t get a reply. When she got tired by asking repeatedly and hence helpless
she was suddenly satisfied without an answer and understood the truth of life
and its creator who was responsible for all creation and still beyond
comprehension. The purpose here is to bring home to the seeker that the GURU
guides his disciple in all circumstances and the seeker doesn’t fall short of
guidance in association with him. LALLA says she has washed her body with the
GANGAJAL (water of the sacred Ganges) of the GURA-SHABDA (word of her GURU) and
thus attained pure salvation while living the same material body.
Lalleshuri is a
great interpreter of the divine word AUM. She extensively explains the validity
of AUM in achieving higher stages in yoga through PRANAYAMA and advancement of
self by mastering efficiently the recitation of AUM. She says one who is able to
master the recitation of this divine word with the rhythm of his breath without
any digression of thought can form an easy bridge between him and the universal
consciousness. LALLA says further that she gradually mastered the recitation of
AUM in a way that she began feeling a strange sensation and with it her whole
ego vanished, and thus detached from the world she was enlightened. At this
stage, says Lalleshuri, she closed all the doors of her body i.e. controlled all
her physical senses and took to recitation of AUM with the beats of the heart
and thus achieved the higher echelons of consciousness. Here she cautions the
seeker to inhale and exhale slowly with a particular rhythm such that there is a
transformation of self as from a baser metal into gold and no stopping at any
stage till the goal is reached. There is always at each stage the danger of
being carried away by worldly digressions as these are much overpowering and
most misleading. Lalleshuri points to a stage where the seeker gains full
control over five senses and to him the world of matter vanishes completely. His
soul is released from the bondages of the body and that is liberation. Nothing
can be achieved without full control on the material self and ego. Lalleshuri
expresses her personal experience in this context. She says she reached
perfection by experiencing the bliss of the realization of truth and became the
embodiment of celestial gleam through the discipline of yoga. She felt the
presence of Lord everywhere and became herself too part of the infinity. She was
wonderstruck that she had lost her identity and merged with the supreme. The
fully realized yogi ultimately achieves that stage of perfection as LALLA says
when Lord SHIVA becomes a horse to ride for him, Lord VISHNO the saddle and
BRAHMA to hold the stirrups. That indicates the fulfillment of purpose or the
ultimate liberation from material bondages.
In her ecstasy
of achievement Lalleshuri describes her encounter with the supreme. With her
tears of joy she washes the divine feet but feels the divine presence on her
head indicating the ultimate success of a yogi. She says on her observation that
the lord is without name, form, shape, caste or creed and still the nucleus of
the universe, so there is none else worthy to be worshipped. She feels the
presence of the lord shining everywhere, she listens to the divine talk and
LALLA nowhere, already merged with the supreme. The influence of the lord
(Shiva) is everywhere in the cosmos and it is only the human mind that can work
to tune it in its favour in its lifetime. Human life is precious as only capable
to achieve the highest stage of perfection by being one with the supreme. When
human mind is absorbed in worldly affairs it is quite non-receptive to divine
influences, alternatively when one is absorbed in meditation and looking within
his self it naturally becomes sensitive to divine vibrations by losing interest
in material advancement and shunning all egos.
Lalleshuri
gives a very beautiful description of her journey towards her liberation.
Comparing her birth to the bloom of a cotton flower she says that she came to
this world as a cotton flower, which is a symbol of purity and innocence. Soon
the weaver took her control and gave her knocks and beatings to make the thread
out of it capable to be taken to the loom for weaving a coarse cloth. The cloth
was then taken by the washer-man who washed it by beating it again repeatedly on
his washing stone to be finally given to the tailor. Still her ordeal was not
over as the tailor again mercilessly cut it into pieces and joined them by
sewing them with sharp needles to give it the shape of a garment to be worn
gracefully. The purpose here is to bring home to the seeker that the way to
perfection is full of trials and tribulations but the end is quite rewarding.
Lalleshuri gives her experiences further in order to make a guideline for the
seeker to liberation. She says she didn’t seek wealth or power, remained away
from sensual pleasures, adopted moderation in taking foods, bore lot of pain and
suffering but took refuge in her lord, her love. She didn’t attach herself
with the material possessions but cultivated intense desire to reach her goal by
keeping her mind fixed constantly on her beloved Lord. The pain that she
suffered cannot be estimated by a layman. She wore the robes of pain and
anguish, wandered lonely door to door to seek the divine grace. She left all
forms of caprice and deceit, she didn’t differentiate between a Hindu and a
Muslim, and she simply tried to look within her self to get awakened and get
acquainted with the Lord.
In a very
popular VAAKH Lalleshuri describes her journey through her life. She says she is
towing the boat of her life through the murky waters of the sea of life pulling
at the frail untwisted cotton thread praying constantly to her lord to help her
across. Her life is like an unbaked earthen pot with water gradually seeping
through ready to fall apart, but she is still aspiring to get liberated from the
agony of life and reach her real home, the house of her Lord. The symbol used
here is very appropriate. There is a permanent danger to the boat of life to get
detached from the path of salvation and get lost. The pulls and pressures of
worldly attachments are so hard that there is always a danger of leading astray
from the reality. She says further that the flesh of the soles of her feet wore
off while going on the rugged path towards her goal but she sustained and was
finally rewarded and was now dancing with joy. Why not, it was an occasion for
celebration but instantly she wondered that her lord was nowhere else but within
the closeness of her heart and enjoins upon the seeker to find out and meet Him
there. In her deep ecstasy LALLA had a chance to see Lord SHIVA and His consort
SHAKTI in close embrace. She took a deep dip into this celestial spectacle and
was graced eternally and thus freed from the cycle of life and death. Thus she
got admittance into the abode of immortal bliss which she calls the garden of
most beautiful flowers. Here she calls upon the aspirants to seek this stage of
immortality as there remains nothing beyond to be achieved further.
Lalleshuri has
given exhaustive description of KUDALINI SHAKTI and the exercise of KUNDALINI
JAGRAN. The KUDALINI SHAKTI is a latent energy in the form of a coiled serpent
with its abode in the lower end region of the spinal cord of the human body. On
purification and awakening of this energy which is a systematic YOG-KRIYA the
divine energy takes an upward course through spinal cord called KUNDALINI JAGRAN
performed with the inhalation and exhalation of breath (PRANAYAMA) and gradually
with sustained effort the energy reaches the top of the head of the YOGI. On
acquisition of this energy the seeker attains the final and most comprehensive
truth about the entire universe. This is the highest stage in YOGA and when the
seeker reaches this stage all his passions for worldly pleasures retire and he
is freed from the cycle of birth and death, a stage of eternal bliss. Lalleshuri
calls KUDALINI SHAKTI in the form of a coiled serpent a SHAH-MAR (king serpent)
and calls upon the seeker to lift the lid off the container of this energy by
the power of exhalation and inhalation of breath and dive deep into the supreme
consciousness.
The VAAKHS of
Lalleshuri is an ocean of learning and spirituality, an authentic guide to the
science of Yoga and self realization and above all a treasure of masterpiece
poetic compositions. The symbols and similes, metaphors and picturesque
compositions are the creations of a super artist. The world of literature is yet
to recognize the greatness of the poetry of Lalleshuri. The greatest hurdle here
is of language which has a limited readership and so the responsibility of
Kashmir scholars is to open these gems of VAAKHS without prejudice before the
world so that the worth of Lalleshuri is established further as a poet and a
YOGINI. Whatever work has been done so far does not do full justice to the great
work of Lalleshuri and one of the reasons is the prejudicial treatment that
Pandit artists and writers faced in Kashmir in recent times. As such in order to
establish the greatness of Lalleshuri in the international forums some more
authentic work needs to be done urgently and the responsibility again goes to
our learned scholars who are capable enough to take up such projects for this
great service to Lalleshuri the pride of Kashmir in general and our community in
particular.
JAWAHAR LAL BHAT
B-3, ASHIANA Apartments,
SECTOR-46, FARIDABAD, HARYANA
CONTACT
NO: 0129-4096114
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