Lalla-Naked-Song
Lalla lived in Kashmir in the 14th century, when many doctrinal streams were merging: Shaivism, sufism, Vedantic non-dualism, and other -isms, but Lalla is beyond religious categories, a living combination that cannot be described in those terms.
Lalla lived in Kashmir in the 14th century, when many doctrinal streams were merging: Shaivism, sufism, Vedantic non-dualism, and other -isms, but Lalla is beyond religious categories, a living combination that cannot be described in those terms.
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
equal in weight. That day as she walked about, she wore a piece<br />
of cloth over each shoulder, and as she met with respect or scorn,<br />
she tied knots in one or the other. In the evening she came back to<br />
the merchant and asked him to weigh the cloth again. The scales<br />
swung in balance, of course, no matter how the cloth was knotted.<br />
Praise and blame have no substance of their own.<br />
Other parables and legends, many of them miraculous, are<br />
associated with her meeting the sun master, Ali Hamadani. Wandering<br />
naked, she saw him approaching. She ran into a baker's shop<br />
and leaped into the blazing oven. Hamadani stopped and asked<br />
if a woman had come into the shop. <strong>Lalla</strong> suddenly appeared out<br />
of the oven wearing the shimmering green and gold of Paradise.<br />
She said, "I had never seen a man until you." <strong>Lalla</strong> is also connected<br />
with a Sheikh Nuruddin, and with Sed Bayu, mentioned<br />
earlier. An interesting exchange between <strong>Lalla</strong> and this man has<br />
come down to us.<br />
Sed Bayu was sitting with his disciples, when these<br />
questions were asked: Which is the greatest of all<br />
lights? What is the greatest pilgrimage? Which<br />
relationship is best? What is most comforting?<br />
<strong>Lalla</strong> was the first to answer. "There is no light<br />
like that of the sun, no pilgrimage like that to the<br />
Ganges. There is no relationship closer than with a<br />
brother, and no ease like a wife."<br />
Sed Bayu did not agree. "There is no light like that<br />
in the eyes, no pilgrimage like going down on your<br />
knees, no relationship like that with one's own<br />
pocket, and no comfort like a blanket."<br />
<strong>Lalla</strong> raised the level yet again. "There is<br />
no light like that of knowing God, no pilgrimage like<br />
a deep longing, no relationship except the one with<br />
God, and there is no peace that isn't gratitude for<br />
that."<br />
She was undoubtedly a challenge for her several teachers.<br />
The scholar Richard Temple, with great pains, has untangled the<br />
threads of the various religions woven into <strong>Lalla</strong>'s Word. I recommend<br />
his study to anyone interested in identifying the strands, but<br />
I prefer the whole cloth, the skin, of the counter-culture mystic
Change language