Lalleshwari was a mystic woman from Kashmir who followed Kashmiri Shaivism. To call her a woman might be a sacrilege as she had lost her body consciousness.
Profile
Lalleshwari’s life has been concretised from the oral tradition and so there are quite a few details about her life. But the year of birth is contested. It is widely believed that she lived between 1320 and 1392. She was born into a Brahmin family and was religious and wise even as a young girl. As per the tradition of those days she was married off at the age of twelve. Her name was changed to Padmavati. She was a devoted wife and daughter-in-law but she was not treated well by her husband and in-laws. So she began to meditate near the river bank after her household work. On one occasion she spent more time in meditation and her husband was enraged. She was coming back home with a pot of water when her furious husband hit the pot with a stick. It is said that the water solidified and stayed in its place. Lalleshwari then picked up the pieces of pot and fixed it and then the water returned to liquid state and flowed. The water flowed out and became a tank of water which was known as Lalla’s tank. The word of this miracle spread and people began to come to her for blessings. She renounced her family life when she was twenty six and became a devotee of Lord Shiva. She trained under Siddha Srikanth and Swami Paramananda Tirth. Once she began to revel in her own Self, she dropped her clothes and began moving around as an avadhutha. Once her husband came and invited her back to family life and she said to have given to him the glimpses of his previous life and his connection with her in those lives. This divine touch of Lalla changed him. She sang many songs about Lord Shiva and about her enlightenment in Kashmiri and these were considered her teachings and were called Lal Vakh or Vakyas. She is believed to have merged into the fire, which was her own nature. She then appeared before her devotees fully clad in golden robes before disappearing for ever. It is believed that she is still visible to people who pray to her sincerely.
Philosophy Propounded
Lalleshwari’s Vakyas were words of oneness and she was celebrated by the Hindus and the Muslims of her times and for many centuries after her death as well. She is mentioned in Paramahansa Yogananda’s book ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’. She is believed to have revealed herself to him.
Work Done to Spread the Philosophy
For a saint who lived in the fourteenth century, it is amazing that her works are still popular and they have been translated to many languages. She was one of the first who wrote in Kashmiri. There were plays about her in Hindi, English and Kashmiri titled Lal Ded. One of her contemporaries had questioned about her nudity and she had replied “I see no men about.” A lofty statement that can come out only from a realised saint and it is for this reason it is a sacrilege to call Lalleshwari a woman.
