The Shiva Within: Lal Ded's Mystic Poetry
Neerja Mattoo
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The most significant contribution of Kashmir's 14th century mystic poet Lal Ded is that she brought the complex Kashmir Shaiva philosophy , known as Trika Shastra out of the cubicles of Sanskrit-knowing scholars and into the wide, open spaces of Kashmiri-knowing common people.In the process of translating its highly evolved, nuanced concepts and her personal mystic experiences into the language of the people, she made these more accessible. The philosophy is that the material world is an extension of Shiva Himself, therefore it not to be denied or thought of as an illusion.
The world with its infinite variety is a celebration of His divinity . But the senses and other faculties through which we grasp material reality and the mind that controls them have to be disciplined in order to develop detachment, totally focussed towards the goal of Self-realisation. Two of her vaakhs or quatrains, translated into English, sum up these two significant aspects: “Shiva is everywhere, know Him as the sun.Know not the Pandit different to the Muslim.If you are wise, a Trikaite, know then yourself, That alone is the way to know the Saheb.“ Here, there is an interesting play upon the word `zaan' to know analysing its meaning at various levels, from the everyday interaction, almost the lowest level of consciousness, to the highest. How do we get to know Shiva? The verse prompts us to ask this primal question, and then proceeds to give the answer. At the commonest and obvious level, it means the ability to see `rav', the sun, something that is clear as daylight and which almost everyone can comprehend.Interestingly, for Shaivites, the sun is Supreme Consciousness; it is also Shiva.
The second line rises to a higher level of knowing discernment, the ability to understand the essential non-difference between Hindus and Muslims. The third line raises the level of understanding still higher, asking the listener to look squarely at something most of us are unable to see our own Self, which is part of that Supreme light pervading the universe. This is the toughest test of our understanding, after passing which can we claim to have found what most philosophers seek: God-realisation and meaning of life.
Lal Ded not only breaks down barriers between one religion and another by invoking the image of the sun shining upon everyone without distinction, she goes on to emphasise the idea of recognition, and seamlessly hangs the Islamic valence of the word `Saheb' to the apparent Shaiva reference to Shiva. The second Vakh is equally significant: “What am I to do with the five, the ten and the eleven Who stirred the pot, scraped it, and left?
Had they all been together and pulled the rope The eleven would not have lost the cow.“
The `five' are the tattvas, the five elements: earth, air, fire, water and ether, while the ten are the karmendriyas or five senses, and gyanendriyas, five apprehensive powers. The eleventh is the mind. To Lal Ded, in this anxious mood, all these seem to be working at crosspurposes while ruling the functioning of jivatma, the human self. The metaphor of the cow not being led in the right direction is from the Yajurveda which refers to jivatma as a cow. Lal Ded comments on what can happen and how one can lose one's bearings in life if all the eleven mentioned above are not in harmony .
The world with its infinite variety is a celebration of His divinity . But the senses and other faculties through which we grasp material reality and the mind that controls them have to be disciplined in order to develop detachment, totally focussed towards the goal of Self-realisation. Two of her vaakhs or quatrains, translated into English, sum up these two significant aspects: “Shiva is everywhere, know Him as the sun.Know not the Pandit different to the Muslim.If you are wise, a Trikaite, know then yourself, That alone is the way to know the Saheb.“ Here, there is an interesting play upon the word `zaan' to know analysing its meaning at various levels, from the everyday interaction, almost the lowest level of consciousness, to the highest. How do we get to know Shiva? The verse prompts us to ask this primal question, and then proceeds to give the answer. At the commonest and obvious level, it means the ability to see `rav', the sun, something that is clear as daylight and which almost everyone can comprehend.Interestingly, for Shaivites, the sun is Supreme Consciousness; it is also Shiva.
The second line rises to a higher level of knowing discernment, the ability to understand the essential non-difference between Hindus and Muslims. The third line raises the level of understanding still higher, asking the listener to look squarely at something most of us are unable to see our own Self, which is part of that Supreme light pervading the universe. This is the toughest test of our understanding, after passing which can we claim to have found what most philosophers seek: God-realisation and meaning of life.
Lal Ded not only breaks down barriers between one religion and another by invoking the image of the sun shining upon everyone without distinction, she goes on to emphasise the idea of recognition, and seamlessly hangs the Islamic valence of the word `Saheb' to the apparent Shaiva reference to Shiva. The second Vakh is equally significant: “What am I to do with the five, the ten and the eleven Who stirred the pot, scraped it, and left?
Had they all been together and pulled the rope The eleven would not have lost the cow.“
The `five' are the tattvas, the five elements: earth, air, fire, water and ether, while the ten are the karmendriyas or five senses, and gyanendriyas, five apprehensive powers. The eleventh is the mind. To Lal Ded, in this anxious mood, all these seem to be working at crosspurposes while ruling the functioning of jivatma, the human self. The metaphor of the cow not being led in the right direction is from the Yajurveda which refers to jivatma as a cow. Lal Ded comments on what can happen and how one can lose one's bearings in life if all the eleven mentioned above are not in harmony .
