R K Datta
The land of Kashmir has been blessed from antehistorical times with the dust of feet of great saints and sages-the true wealth of any country. Among them the greatest has undoubtedly been Lalla.
Lalla Yogishwari, a woman saint, lived in the Kashmir during the 14th century. She is also known by names like, Lalla, Lal Ded (Mother Lalla), and Lalleshwari. Lalla was born in 1355 in Pandrethan in a Kashmiri Pandit family.
She had clear memories of her past incarnations. Even as a child, Lalla was wise and religious-minded. She was married at a young age, into a traditional Kashmiri family. Her husband and mother-in-law had a very strict view on her spiritual yearnings.
Her in-laws lived in Pampur. They gave her the name Padmavati. Her mother-in-law was very cruel. She never allowed her to live peacefully. Her mother-in-law used to put a stone on Lalla’s plate. She would then cover the stone with rice so that people would get the impression that Lalla is taking a plateful of rice. Lalla would remain half fed, but would never complain. Her father-in-law was a good man and he was kind to her, but her mother-in-law made her miserable. She would even speak ill of Lalla to her husband. Lalla knew no happiness either from her husband or with her mother-in-law.
Lalla used to spend time in meditation, without neglecting house-hold chores. But her long absence at river spot (where only she could obtain calm and peace) and love for loneliness were misinterpreted. Once she stayed unusually longer at the river ghat and bringing the water-pot on her head. The angry husband hit the earthen pot with a stick at which it fell into pieces. But the water solidified as one piece and remained in its place. Lalla later filled all the vessels with it.. Still the water flowed, to form a stream. The stream formed a tank known as Lalla’s tank and was noticed even in early part of the 20th century. This singular miracle established Lalla as a siddha, and as the word spread, people from all villages came to see her for darshan.
When Lalla was twenty-six she renounced the family and became a devotee of Shiva. She would roam in the jungles, trying to find nook and corners to meditate, living on wild fruits and berries.
She got trained under various masters including Siddha Srikanth and Swami Paramananda Tirth. The very first instruction was to interiorize her consciousness using special techniques (discussed later in the article). Such was the intensity of concentration with which Lalla persued her goal, that soon, this physical universe, which appears so solid to our eyes, became just consciousness to her-sat-chit-anand-and she was this consciousness-all pervading, ever-new bliss of Eternal Spirit. Her vast body of consciousness (Chinmay Sharir) could not be covered by any cloth, so she renounced all clothing and became the highest among ascetics, an avadhut. Great avadhuts like Lalla are totally dependent on the will of God, and act in this great world show of God as per His instructions, only to please Him.
Lalla Yogishwari later became a preacher going all around the Kashmir Valley, singing songs on enlightenment and about Lord Shiva, calling the Spirit of Heavenly Father to descend on man–just as Christ moved in the city of Galilee.
After becoming an avadhuta, when her husband came to see her and call her back home, she replied: “There is no light like the Light of God, no pilgrimage like attunement with Him, no relative and source of happiness like the Lord. Cling to Him, love Him. He is your real benefactor. Your and mine physical connection ends here.” Then she gave her husband a glimpse of his former lives and his connection with Lalla. By that experience and Lalla’s divine touch, he became a changed man.
The teachings of Lalla are known as Lal Vakh or Vakyas. These Vakyas are transcendental, yet simple-and have the capacity to carry a seeker to the realms of divine height, and have a taste of the consciousness which this great saint so readily manifested. Lalvakyani is the collection of poems by Lalla Yogishwari. It has since been translated into many languages worldwide. They touch the heart of the reader and simplify the complexities of spirituality-hidden in dogma and tradition.
Ever one with Spirit, great Yogini Lalla converted her body into light in her last days, just like medieval Masters Kabir and Meerabai. She still resides in a body of consciousness (Chinmay Sharir) and listens and replies to the call of truth seekers. Among recorded history, she personally met Swami Vishnu Tirth-the great saint in the Shaktipat tradition in the present era, on the way to Kedarnath. She is ever in a state of sahaj-samadhi, and can manifest her physical form for the benefit of some devotee.
The greatest saint of the modern world, Paramahansa Yogananda, whose Kriya Yoga teachings not only make him stand as a systematizer of Yoga (like Patanjali of yore), but he also stands as a Jagadguru-guiding devotees, sadhaks, monastics and householders from all walks of life. He has written about the great Lalla in his classic Autobiography of a Yogi.
One of the patron saints of Kashmir, the 14th-century Lalla Yogiswari (“Supreme Mistress of Yoga”) was a “sky-clad” Shiva devotee. A scandalized contemporary asked the saint why she observed nudity. “Why not?” Lalla replied tartly. “I see no men about.” To Lalla’s somewhat drastic way of thinking, he who lacked God-realization did not deserve the name of “man.” She practiced a technique, closely allied to Kriya Yoga, whose liberating efficacy she celebrated in numerous quatrains. I translate one of them here:
What acid of sorrow have I not drunk?
Countless my rounds of birth and death.
Lo! naught but nectar in my cup
Quaffed by the art of breath.
Undergoing no mortal death, the saint dematerialized herself in fire. Later she appeared before her grieving townspeople, a living form enwrapped in golden robes-fully clad at last!
The technique followed by Lalla bears close resemblance to the original Kriya Yoga technique taken to the West by Paramahansa Yogananda. All the techniques of energizing the body and recharging it, techniques of meditation and Kriya Yoga proper have been dubbed as “Kriya Yoga science”. Any sincere student can learn the Kriya Yoga science through correspondence by contacting Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, Ranchi sitting at the ease of his home. (www.yssofindia.org)
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