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“The mind has stopped wandering. It has come home.”
homeNaked Song
“Lalla had no shoes. The earth was her shoe. The earth was the Lord.”
povertyI, Lalla
“In the dark of unknowing, the lamp of the Self burns.”
unknowingI, Lalla
“My body is the cup. My breath is the wine. The drinker is the Lord.”
vesselNaked Song
“What I have given up, I have not lost. What I have kept, I have not gained.”
renunciationI, Lalla
“Lalla's heart is the Lord's heart. Lalla's eye is the Lord's eye.”
unityNaked Song
“To the wise, even pain is the Lord's touch.”
painNaked Song
“In the silence of meditation, the Self awakens. In the awakening, the Self has always been awake.”
awakeningNaked Song
“The five senses, when turned inward, become five doorways.”
sensesNaked Song
“What I do not need, I do not keep. What I keep, I do not need.”
non-attachmentI, Lalla
“In the moment of recognition, the seeker dissolves. The Self alone remains.”
recognitionNaked Song
“Lalla's robe is the wind. Lalla's home is the road. Lalla's wealth is the Self.”
freedomI, Lalla
“Whoever sees with the eye of the heart, sees the Lord. Whoever sees only with the body's eye, sees only forms.”
visionNaked Song
“To the wandering mind, the world is endless. To the still mind, the world is the Self.”
stillnessNaked Song
“In the bedroom of the heart, the Lord is always waiting. Open the door.”
heartNaked Song
“Lalla's pen wrote what Lalla's mouth sang. Both came from the Self.”
sourceI, Lalla
“The Lord is the milk. The body is the cup. The drinking is the practice.”
practiceNaked Song
“In the company of the awakened, the unawakened wakes.”
companyI, Lalla
“What is mine, was never mine. What is the Lord's, was always the Lord's.”
ownershipNaked Song
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