Lal Ded

And I travel into the lands of unknown, with wonderment and awe. Lala in the garb of a woman takes us to the space of no shame, wearing her body as her only cloth mingling and discarding with the five elements with ease.

For me this is no hearsay.

Lalla oh Lalla, my heart swells with love as I take your name.

“Then it is said , she gave him a demonstration of what the  penance should really be. She placed an earthen pot on her head and another under her feet ; and with the waning of the moon, her body waned till, on the fifteenth night of the dark fortnight (amavas), nothing was left of her except a little quantity of trembling quicksilver. Then, with the waxing moon her body waxed and, on the full moonlight, she was herself again. In wonderment, her Guru asked: “ What was the quicksilver-like substance in the pot trembling all the time ?” “ It was I,” replied Lalla, “ shorn of all the  appurtenances of  body, its senses and desires, mind and ego; and yet I trembled for fear that I might not be accepted, for there is no mukti (liberation) through mere self-mortification. It comes ultimately as God’s grace”.

Excerpt from Lal Ded by Jaya Lal Kaul published by Sahitya Akademi.

Seema Kohli, 2022