Lalla

Category: Mystic

Description from Internet

Lalla, also affectionately called Lalli, Lal Ded, Lal Diddi ("Granny Lal"), or Lalleshwari, was born near Srinagar in Kashmir in northern India.

Little is known with certainty about her life, other than hints that come to us through her poetry and songs.

She was a young bride, married, tradition says, at the age of twelve. After moving into her husband's family home, she was abused by her mother-in-law and ignored by her husband. – so Physical abuse was the driving force.

A story is told about "Lalla's Lake" -- one day when returning from the well with a clay water jug on her head, her husband lost his temper over her delay and struck the jug in his anger. The clay vessel broke but, miraculously, the water held its shape above her head. This becomes an important symbol of the heavenly nectar that rains down from the crown.

Finally, Lalla could endure no more mistreatment and, in her early 20s, she left. She became a disciple of a respected saint in the Kashmir Shaivism tradition of yoga and she took up the life of a holy woman dedicated to Shiva. Lalla began wandering about, village to village, going naked or nearly naked, and singing songs of enlightenment.

Lalla's songs are short, using the simple, direct language of the common people, yet she touches on complex yogic techniques and the most elevated states of awareness.

The name Lalla can be translated as either "seeker" or "darling."

Lalla is deeply loved by both Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir today. There is a saying that in Kashmir only two words have any meaning: Allah and Lalla.

Her most beautiful work is Naked Songs

Observations

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• Lalla - Charge your bellows with breath
• Lalla - Dance Lalla, with nothing on
• Lalla - Don't let your donkey wander loose
• Lalla - Fatten the five elements
• Lalla - For a moment I saw a beautiful moving river
• Lalla - Forgetful one, get up
• Lalla - From what direction did I come
• Lalla - Gluttony gets you the best table in the town of Nowhere
• Lalla - Gourmet meals and elegant clothes can’t buy you peace of mind
• Lalla - He knows the crown is the temple of Self
• Lalla - I burnt up the landscape
• Lalla - I didn’t believe in it for a moment
• Lalla - I hacked my way through six forests
• Lalla - I locked the doors and windows
• Lalla - I wearied myself searching for the Friend
• Lalla - I wore myself out, looking for myself
• Lalla - I, Lalla, wore myself down
• Lalla - I’m towing my boat across the ocean
• Lalla - I’ve bridled my mind horse
• Lalla - Knowledge is a garden
• Lalla - Meditation and self discipline
• Lalla - My mind boomed with the sound of OM
• Lalla - Prune the weeds from your heart’s garden
• Lalla - Royal swan, what happened to your beautiful voice?
• Lalla - Sir, have you forgotten the promise
• Lalla - So many times I’ve drunk the wine of the Sindhu river
• Lalla - Some, who have closed their eyes, are wide awake
• Lalla - Sunlight shines everywhere equally
• Lalla - The mill goes round and round in slow circles
• Lalla - The road I came by wasn’t the road I took to go
• Lalla - The Sun beneath the navel was made to burn
• Lalla - There are two results and three causes
• Lalla - Those are waiting on; the unobstructed sound
• Lalla - Those who glow with the light of the Self
• Lalla - Three times I have seen the lake
• Lalla - We’ve been here before, we’ll be here again
• Lalla - What the books taught me, I’ve practised
• Lalla - Whatever my hands did was worship
• Lalla - Who’s the garland maker, who’s his wife
• Lalla - Wrapped up in Yourself, You hid from me
• Lalla - You made a promise in the womb
• Lalla - You rule the earth
• Lalla - You won’t find the Truth
• Lalla - Your way of knowing is a private herb garden