Women's Voices (Lalla Ded)

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.

Born in Kashmir, northern India, in the 14th Century, Lal Ded (often called Lalla, meaning “Seeker) was married at age twelve to a husband who ignored her and a mother-in-law who mistreated her. She found refuge in spirituality and became a wandering pilgrim, teaching and composing hundreds of songs.

I was passionate,
filled with longing,
I searched
far and wide.
But the day
that the Truthful One
found me,
I was at home.

For ever we come, for ever we go;
For ever, day and night, we are on the move.
Whence we come, thither we go,
For ever in the round of birth and death,
From nothingness to nothingness.
But sure, a mystery here abides,
A Something is there for us to know.
(It cannot all be meaningless).




I might disperse the southern clouds,
I might drain out the sea,
I might cure the incurable sick,
But I cannot convince a fool.