The Promise of Lalla

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

I have gathered some poems by Lalla, born in Kashmir in 1350. She was

married at a young age, and suffered at the cruel hands of her

mother-in-law. Her mother-in-law would always put a large stone on Lalla's

plate and cover it with a thin blanket of rice. All the guests thought Lalla

was well fed, because she never said a word about the injustice. Lalla

starved for many, many years. Finally she renounced family and fled and

found her guru, Sidh Srikanth. Lalla was born a Muslim, yet she embraced

Shiva, was a Bhakta, and a Muslim, she was also nondual. Imagine that! It is

said that Lalla surpassed her own guru in Realization. They say:

 

The disciple surpassed the Guru:

God grant me a similar boon.

 

Here are some poems and counsel by Lalla.

 

Passionate with longing in my eyes,

Searching wide and seeking night and days,

Lo' I beheld the Truthful One, the Wise,

Here in mine own House to fill my gaze.

`````````

Holy books will disappear, and then only the mystic formula will

remain.

When the mystic formula departed, naught but mind was left.

When the mind disappeared, naught was left anywhere,

And a Voice became merged within the Void.

``````````

I saw and found I am in everthing

I saw God effulgent in everything.

After hearing and pausing, see Shiva

the House is His alone; Who am I, Lalla?

`````````

You are the heaven and You are the earth,

You are the day and You are the night,

You are all pervading air,

You are the sacred offering of rice and flowers and of water;

You are Yourself all in all,

What can I offer You?

``````````

In your mother's womb you vowed

not to be born again.

When will you recall the vow?

And die, even while alive

(to all desire, and be released from birth and death.)

Great honor will be yours in this life and

greater honor after death.

`````````

I came straight

And straight I shall return.

How can the crooked lead me astray?

Surely, no harm can come to me:

He knows me from the beginning of time,

And loves me.

`````````

Patience to endure lightening and thunder,

Patience to face darkness at noon,

Patience to go through a grinding-mill -

Be patient whatever befalls, doubting not

that He will surely come to you.

`````````

Whatever work I did became worship of the Lord;

Whatever word I uttered became a mantra;

Whatever this body of mine experienced became

the sadhana of Saiva Tantra

illumining my path to Parmasiva.

``````````

Whence I have come and by which way,

I do not know.

Whither I shall go and by which way,

I do not know.

Were I to know the end of it all

and gain the knowledge of the truth,

(it would be well, for otherwise_

life here is but an empty breath.

``````````

Now I saw a stream flowing;

Now neither bank nor bridge was seen.

Now I saw a bush in bloom;

Now neither rose or thorn was seen.

``````````

I practiced what I read,

and learnt what was taught.

>From its jungle abode

I brought the lion down

As I a jackal would;

(From pleasure of the world

I pulled my mind away).

I practiced what I preached,

and scored the goal.

``````````

I renounced fraud, untruth, deceit;

I taught my mind to see the One

in all my fellow men.

How could I then discriminate

between man and man,

And accept the food offered to me

by brother men?

`````````

Should you, in this body seek

The Supreme Self that dwells within,

Greed and illusion soon removed,

A halo of Glory will surround

this very body of yours.

`````````

Ill or well, whatever befalls,

let it come.

My ears will not hear,

My eyes will not see.

When the Voice calls from within

the inmost mind,

The lamp of faith burns steady and bright,

even in the wind.

`````````

When can I break the bonds of shame?

When I am indifferent to jibes and jeers.

When can I discard the robe of dignity?

When desires cease to nag my mind.

``````````

Only one word 'Om'

I studied

The same word 'Om'

I reared in my heart,

The same 'Om' I ;earned

And smoothed on a stone:

A bit of grass I was, yet

I changed to gold.

``````````

I Lalla willfully entered the garden door (of self)

There

I saw Shiva and Shakti

Merged in one:

Absorbed in that VISION, I

Dissolved in Him alive.

Realised the essence and,

Tasted the sweetness of

The Divine Secret, I would die while alive -

How can He stop me?

``````````

Fair or foul, satire or sarcasm, all

I deserve:

Blockade of audition, screening eyes,

As the voice of God tickled

My consciousness:

My burning lamp sparkled

Even in raging storms.

```````````

In the midst of the ocean

with unspun thread,

I am towing the boat:

Would that God grant

My prayer and,

Ferry me too, across:

Water in my unbaked earthen plates

Seeps in and none collects

Yearn and yearn

To return Home.

 

In this last poem, water is symbolic, as always, of enlightenment. The

unbaked earthen plate is the fertile receptivity of highest spiritual

knowledge. The unspun thread is what stands between her and liberation of

the soul.

 

As soon as they drink the joyous water of life,

they fall there.

 

With Love,

Mazie

 

 

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