The soul, like the moon,

is new, and always new again.

 

And I have seen the ocean

continuously creating.

 

Since I scoured my mind

and my body, I too, Lalla,

am new, each moment new.

 

My teacher told me one thing,

Live in the soul.

 

When that was so,

I began to go naked, and dance.

 

Lalla

Translated by Coleman Barks

The feminine imagery of this poem comes through strongly. The soul, the moon, the ocean – all continuously creating, all in constant motion, all existing in state of change and transformation.

Lala’s poem seems to portray an ever-lasting cauldron of energy, a cosmic dance of creation in which the soul, once it is relieved of its burdens and purified, joyfully enters the ecstatic state. There is the feeling of the whirling dervish, the music of the sphere, the great choirs of angels, all reverberating in just a few words.

When we can live in the soul, all fear is gone- fear of judgement, fear of vulnerability, fear of domination, fear of life as well as death. Only by surrendering to the music of the soul, can we learn to dance.

Lalla, or Lal Ded, was a Kashmiri mystic who lived in the 14th century at the height of Kashmiri Shaivism. Though she was a Hindu and a yogi, even Shah Hamdan, the great Sufi teacher who was her contemporary, recognized her as a saint. She was the creator of the style of mystic poetry called vatsun, literally “speech” (voice).  Her verses are the earliest compositions in the Kashmiri language and an important part of modern Kashmiri literature.