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“I trapped my breath in the bellows of my throat. A lamp blazed up within, showing me who I really was. I rode the airs out into the secret darkness.”
breathI, Lalla
“Whatever work I did became worship of the Lord.”
workNaked Song
“Whatever language I spoke became His mantra.”
speechNaked Song
“My body was His temple. My senses were His worship. My breath, the bell.”
bodyNaked Song
“With ardor on my lips I searched for Him. I found nothing till I burst at the seams.”
longingI, Lalla
“Then I broke open and there He was: my Self.”
selfI, Lalla
“You will not find Him by searching. You will find Him by losing the searcher.”
searchingI, Lalla
“My beloved is breath. My beloved is sound. My beloved is light.”
belovedNaked Song
“Some, abandoning home, become saints. Some, in the midst of home, become saints. Both are right.”
pathI, Lalla
“Don't blame the cloth for the dust. Don't blame the body for the world.”
acceptanceI, Lalla
“Lalla wandered, naked and singing. The world was her clothing.”
renunciationVakhs of Lal Ded
“What is the difference between the lover and the Beloved? Only the seeker. Drop the seeker, and there is only the One.”
unityI, Lalla
“Reading book after book. Did I find Him? Not until I closed the books.”
booksI, Lalla
“Patience and silence: these are my two friends.”
patienceNaked Song
“In the cave of my heart, the lamp of meditation burns. Day and night.”
heartNaked Song
“He is the Self. He is the breath. He is the heart. He is the witness.”
omnipresenceI, Lalla
“My Lord, you are not far. You are the I in my I.”
intimacyNaked Song
“What is the heart? The cup. What does it hold? Him.”
heartVakhs of Lal Ded
“I, Lalla, went out searching far and wide. I came back finding the Self at home.”
selfI, Lalla
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