Sant Lalleshwari
By Virendra Qazi
You are the Sky, You are the earth
You are the day, the very air, the night
You are the grain-offering, sandal paste, flowers and water too
You are everything, O Lord
So what can we offer You?
So sang Lalleshwari or Lal Ded. The 14th century village girl turned mystical genius, had a vision of the past, present and future. She foretold the condition of our present times, that material advancement has led to internal despair. Although the world has become a global village or family due to communication and networking, we still fight over narrow things like caste, creed and color.
But Lalla also sang of hope for sincere aspirants to realize God within. Essentially, she was a torch bearer of the new spiritual movement that witnessed great saints like Guru Nanak, Meera, Kabir, Tukaram and many others.
Born into a Pandit family, she found herself inundated by empty rituals. Lalleshwarī was a great devotee of Śiva who lived in Kashmir. Her mother-in-law starved her. She would serve a big round stone covered with a layer of rice to give it the semblance of a big helping. Lalla would patiently wash the stone and keep it back in the kitchen for her mother-in-law to use again.
She observed wise and learned men starving, withering like leaves in the winter wind. On the other hand, she saw a fool enjoying a full meal and then beating his cook for minor shortcomings.
Lalla revealed her agony but counseled patience, contentment and forbearance. Finally, she relinquished her home and became a wandering nun. People flocked to her as her supernatural powers got revealed. Failing to dislodge her from the spiritual path, Lalla's mother-in-law poisoned her son's mind with false accusations. One day as Lalla returned from filling her water pitcher, her husband accosted and abused her. He struck her pitcher in rage, but miraculously the water stayed intact though the earthern pot broke and scattered.
At the age of twenty-six, her husband and mother-in-law falsely accused her of being immoral. One day her cruel husband dragged her into the market and insulted her publicly. Unable to bear the humiliation, Lalleshwarī left her home and devoted herself entirely to the worship of Bhagavān Śiva.
She wandered from place to place, singing heartfelt poems in praise of Śiva. But instead of admiration, most people mocked and abused her as she begged for food. Once, someone even threw a clod of mud at her, but she remained silent and continued her singing.
One day, a compassionate friend who was a cloth merchant pulled her into his shop to protect her from further insults. He reasoned with her, “Why not live like other women? If you do not want to live as a householder’s wife, at least go away and stay in a cave. What is the point of facing insults and attacks every day in the streets?”
Lalleshwarī smiled and requested him to cut two pieces of cloth of exactly equal weight. The merchant obliged. She then draped one piece over her left shoulder and the other over her right. “Now,” she said, “I will walk through the town again. Each time someone abuses me, I will tie a knot in the cloth on my left shoulder. Each time someone praises or blesses me, I will tie a knot in the cloth on my right shoulder.”
That evening, she returned. The left cloth was filled with many knots, while the right had only a few, since insults far outnumbered praises. The merchant said, “See, I told you—this path only brings abuse.”
But Lalleshwarī asked him to weigh both cloths again. To his surprise, they weighed exactly the same as before. Lalleshwarī smiled and explained: “Although one cloth has more knots than the other, in reality both are equal. The yarn, the dye, the essence of both pieces is unchanged. In the same way, praise and blame, joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain are only surface knots. They do not change the true essence of the self. Therefore, whether I receive insults or blessings, it does not disturb me.”
Message of the Story This story teaches that the true devotee sees praise and criticism, pleasure and pain as equal. Just as knots cannot alter the weight of the cloth, worldly opposites cannot touch the essence of the ātman.
References[edit]
- Also published in the Hindustan Times as "Vision of Lalleshwari" by Virendra Qazi