Lal Ded
Fourteenth-century Kashmiri Shaiva mystic and poet, the most beloved spiritual figure of Kashmir. Born around 1320 to a Brahmin family in Pampore and married into another by twelve, she fled an unhappy marriage to wander the valley as a renunciate, naked and singing — and her short verse-sayings, called vakhs, became the founding texts of Kashmiri vernacular literature. Equally claimed by Hindus, Muslims, and Sufis, her teachings blend the radical non-dualism of Kashmir Shaivism with the ecstatic devotional fervor of the Bhakti movement. Her vakhs are still recited daily by ordinary Kashmiris, six centuries later.
104
quotes in library
Quotes by Lal Ded
104 quotes“Lalla wears the sky. Lalla wears the breath. Lalla wears the Self.”
clothingNaked Song
“In the pilgrimage of life, every step is the destination.”
pilgrimageI, Lalla
“What use are the rituals if the heart is not in them?”
ritualI, Lalla
“My beloved Lord lives in my breath. Why should I look for Him in the temple?”
breathNaked Song
“To the wise, the body is a flute. The Self is the breath that makes it sing.”
fluteNaked Song
“The river joins the sea. The sea remembers the river. They are not two.”
unityI, Lalla
“Whoever has tasted the honey of the Self does not return to other waters.”
tasteI, Lalla
“In the silence, He spoke. In the speaking, He fell silent.”
paradoxNaked Song
“The Self is the lamp. The body is the wick. The breath is the oil. The Lord is the flame.”
lampNaked Song
“I do not need the world's approval. I have the Self's silent assent.”
approvalI, Lalla
“What is heaven? The recognition of the Self. What is hell? The forgetting.”
heavenI, Lalla
“Lalla, naked, walked through the streets. The wise saw the Self. The unwise saw a woman.”
perceptionI, Lalla
“To the eye of the heart, every face is the Lord's face.”
visionNaked Song
“The breath of the Lord moves through me. I am the flute. He is the music.”
breathNaked Song
“Tear off the cloak of doubt. Wear the bare truth.”
truthI, Lalla
“The Self is older than the mountains. The body is younger than the dawn.”
timelessNaked Song
“In the void of the heart, the Self appears. In the noise of the world, the Self is forgotten.”
voidNaked Song
“What I sought, I was. What I was, I sought.”
reflexiveI, Lalla
“Whoever is His is also Lalla's. Whoever is Lalla's is also His.”
unityNaked Song
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