December 2007
Published by
Indira Mansukhlal Doshi Memorial Trust
Editor: Manu Doshi
VOL. 17 NO. 12
Muhum Muhum Mohgune Jayantam, Anegroovä Samanam Charantam;
Phäsä Phusanti Asamamjasam Cha, Na Tesu Bhikkhoo Manasä Pausse.
The monk, who has been trying to overcome the attachment, comes across many situations that
cause disturbance of mind, but he does not look at the same with the sense of aversion.
Uttarädhyayan Sutra
KASHMIRI SAINT LALLESHWARI
The readers might have heard about the saints like Narsingh Mehtä, Meeräbäi, Kabir, Surdäs, Nanak, etc.
who appeared on the stage of Indian history during the middle ages. Their lives have been associated with
some types of miracles. Such miracles are believed to have occurred by the grace of God, but the people
with scientific approach do not give much credence to those anecdotes. Though Jainism does not admit
the existence of Creator, yet it is not averse to the concept of miracles. Its Kathänuyog is rapt with miracles,
which are supposed to have been created by heavenly or other accomplished beings. Some philosophers
of the present age are also not averse to the belief in miracles. The famous philosopher Gurjiev (The correct
name was Gurdjieff, which could be a version of Gurudev) had said that miracles represent the impact of
other planets on earth.
In this issue we have planned to write about a Kashmiri female saint named Lalleshwari, who lived during the
14 th century. It was the time when Tughluq dynasty was ruling over India. Though Muslim rulers had taken
over Kashmir, the large-scale conversion had not yet taken place. After its conversion to Islam the story
of Lalleshwari was buried and very few people knew about her till recently. During the last century Pundit
Änand Kaul undertook research in the matter and collected useful information about her.
According to his research Lalleshwari was married in her previous birth in a Brahmin family of village
Pändrekan. After she gave birth to a son, a ritual was organized to celebrate the occasion in the presence
of a priest named Shrikanth. During that ritual she asked the priest, “How is this boy related to me?” The
reply was obvious. ‘He is your son’ said the priest. Lalleshwari said, “That is not a lasting relationship. Soon
I am going to die and after taking a couple of births in non-human species I would come back to this very
family in a different relationship.”
She died shortly thereafter and was reborn as Lalleshwari at the appropriate time. Her marriage in that life
took place with a Brahmin youth named Nikkabhatt. That time the same priest Shrikanth was to perform
the wedding ceremony. Lalleshwari pointed out to him. “Do you remember that a girl had given birth to
a son in Pändrekan village some years before?” As the priest said ‘yes’, Lalleshwari said, “I am the same soul
and the boy, whom I had given birth that time, is now sitting in this ceremony as my bridegroom.” This
incident need not be set aside as imagery; there are many stories in Jain Kathänuyog that relate to the same
souls being husband and wife or otherwise related to each other for several births.
Though Lalleshwari was thus equipped with occult knowledge, her in-laws did not give importance to it and
treated her lightly. While she went for fetching water from the village well, she used to sit in a forlorn temple
for meditation and come home late. The in-laws thought that she was whiling away the time in going to
different places, and suspected her character. Once while she was late in returning, her husband and
mother in law were anxiously waiting at the village border for her arrival. As the mother in law saw her
coming back with an earthen water pot on the head, she asked her son to punish Lalleshwari for being so
late. Accordingly the son hurled his stick at her. That hit the water pot and broke it into pieces. The water
column, however, stayed on her head in the shape of the pot. She quietly entered the house and emptied
the water in appropriate vessel. The miracle soon spread in the village and the people started treating her
as a divine lady.
That was the time of her transition to internal ramification. Since there was, however, no outward sign of
the change, the miraculous event did not have much impact on her in-laws; they continued to look at her
with suspicion. But Lalleshwari remained increasingly internal-oriented and was getting eager to see God.
In her earnestness for the purpose she often forgot her physical state and even went out without clothes.
Once there was a meeting in the village. Lalleshwari happened to arrive there unclad. As her father in law
saw her in that condition, he reprimanded and asked her to go home and put on the clothes. Lalleswari
pointed out, “I do not see here any person to look at me; I see only lambs and sheep." As the father in law
turned his glance towards the meeting, he noticed only lambs and sheep. What he had earlier seen had
turned out to be an illusion.
In order to illustrate such illusive approach Gurjiev used to say that he knew of a very spacious house. The
owner had to employ many servants to maintain it. After some time the owner went on a pilgrimage and
entrusted maintenance of the house to his servants. If someone asked any of them about the owner, he
used to say that the owner had been on a pilgrimage. Many years passed by, but the owner did not come
back. In the meantime the servants forgot about him and started believing that the house belonged to
them. As a newcomer once asked about the ownership of the house, every servant claimed to be the
owner. That raised a dispute among them about the ownership. They realized the truth only when an old
neighbor arrived and reminded them that the real owner was on a pilgrimage and they were his servants.
Whatever Lalleshwari had stated by way of instructions has been presented in the form of short Sutras.
Thousands of such Sutras have been traced during the research. They are simple, but very pointed. There
is no evidence to suggest that she had been under the influence of Jainism. Her Sutras, however, bear the
impact of Jainism. It is possible that Jainism could be prevalent there, because it had spread in the entire
Northwest of the country since its migration from Bihar, which took place after the fall of Maurya dynasty
in the second century BCE. The impact of Jainism on Lalleshwari can be seen from her following Sutras.
I am dragging my ship from the worldly sea with the help of untwisted yarn. I am keen to cross over, but
do not know when the Lord would come to my assistance and help in crossing over.
Oh soul, I am crying aloud to see you deeply stuck in worldly delusion; you do not have even a faint idea
that not a single particle of your worldly belongings will stand by your side at the time of death! Why are
you forsaking your true nature?
I do not know from where I came and where I have to go. The direction would be made out only when
someone points out the right path. It is not worth merely depending upon Yog, Pranayam (Breath
regulation) etc.
I just noticed a river, but there was no bridge over it; I just saw a plant with blossoming flowers, but now
there are neither flowers nor thorns.
Don’t talk of enlightenment to a fool; do not feed jaggery to a donkey. Everyone will reap as he sows; do
not deliberately push yourself into a well.
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Guru has given me one direction, “Move from outside to inside.” That single directive resulted in a
metamorphosis and I started moving without any entanglement
One, who made use of sword, got lordship of a State; one, who resorted to austerities and charity, got a
place in heaven; one, who absorbed Guru’s instructions, became worthy of getting the glimpse of God.
I repeatedly asked Guru about the meaning of what is termed as nothing. When I gave up asking, I realized
that everything emerges out of ‘Nothing’.
In this life I have never asked for prosperity, nor have I been inclined towards greediness or worldly
pleasure; I have been content with a little food. All sorts of unhappiness and distress got evaporated
thereby and I gained my destination.
Oh man, you will be nowhere merely by filling your belly and by indulging in worldly pleasure; by fasting and
restraining the desires you will feel arrogant and will profess to have gained accomplishments. The right way
is to avoid either extremes and stay at the center.
Oh man, sensuality, anger and greed have been defiling you; leave them, otherwise they will destroy you.
Calmly and quietly understand their natures and firmly root them out.
Let the people abuse me or talk nasty about me; let them do whatever they like. Even if one adores me
with flowers or hurts me, how does it matter? That cannot have impact upon me.
Oh man, why do you stay deluded in spite of knowing? Why stay blind in spite of having eyesight? Why
stay deaf in spite of having ears? Why stay unconscious while being awake? These questions would lead
to the essence of philosophy.
This learned devotee seems to have breathed her last at a forlorn place on Jammu-Srinagar highway at a
distance of twenty eight miles from Srinagar. It is said that she entered a tub-like earthen vessel, which was
closed with an earthen lid after her entry. When the eyewitnesses opened it after a while, there was nothing
inside. Her last words were:
‘Whatever I have done constitutes my pursuit, whatever I have spoken constitutes my mantras, whatever
I have physically done constitutes the communion of my soul with the supreme being.’
And that is the essence of bliss.
Put Them Down
Once a teacher took a glass full of water and asked the students how much it could weigh. One student looked at the
measurement marked on the glass and said that it weighed a pound.
Teacher: What would happen if I hold it for five minutes?
Student: Nothing.
Teacher: What would happen if I hold it for an hour?
Student: Your arm would ache.
Teacher: What would happen if I hold it for the whole day?
Student: Your arm could go numb, you could have severe muscle stress and you might be required to go to a hospital.
Teacher: Could it be due to the change in the weight of glass?
Student: No sir; the weight remains the same. It is holding for a long time that would cause the pain.
Teacher: In that case what should I do to avoid it?
Student: Put the glass down.
Teacher: Life’s problems are exactly like that. Hold them in your head for a while and nothing would happen. Think over it
for an hour, you will get headache. Think of it longer, the mind would get upset; you would feel unable to do anything. It is
no doubt important to think of the problems, but more important is to put them down as early as possible. One should at
least put them down before going to bed. That’s the way to avoid mental stress.
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CHILDREN'S CORNER
What is the objective in life?
Dear young friends,
By asking you about the objective in life we do not
want to drag you in philosophical discussion about
soul. Our purpose is to draw your attention towards
some objective in the worldly life. Making money
happens to be the most common objective. As
such, programs like ‘Who will become the millionaire’
draw the attention of the people. Many of them also
look to gambling or speculative dealings in order to
make easy money. It is a fact that if one has enough
money, he can procure all his worldly requirements.
As such, we do not intend to say that one should
not make money. The question is, ‘Is the life meant
merely for eating, drinking, availing worldly pleasure
and for being taken over by death? Or could there
be some objective that can make the life worth
living?’
The great men of the world have spent their lifetimes in order to get the reply. Even if we keep aside
what Lord Mahavir, Lord Buddha and other great
men of ancient time have said in that respect, those
of the present time also state that it is necessary to
think how to use the present life. Since the world is
getting closer, it is neither possible nor advisable to
live lonely and independently like Robinson Crusoe.
Crusoe had one advantage. There were ample resources and he could use them the way he liked.
There was no one to dispute his right. Our fate is
different. The natural resources remain constant,
while the demand has been increasing due to the
tremendous growth in population and ever accelerating requirements for more comforts. Not only is it
necessary to have coordination among the producers, distributors and consumers, but at every level
of social and economic life. That implies interdependence. The people have to depend on one another.
The need for interdependence among human beings is obvious, but it is not restricted to human
beings; it extends to other living beings too. The
interdependence of humans and animals is evident.
We depend upon the domestic animals and those
animals depend upon us. Tattvartha Sutra specifies
this very fact by stating ‘Parasparopagraho
Jivänäm’, which means that the living beings are
interdependent. The term living beings denotes the
entire live realm inclusive of minute beings as well as
plant life. Our dependence on minute beings like
bacteria is now known. Many of our requirements
are provided by the minute beings. In return we
happen to raise the conditions in which those minute
beings thrive. As such, it is true to say that the living
beings are interdependent.
Our life style, however, involves destruction of animal life, plant life as well as natural resources. Since
it is not possible to entirely avoid the same, the
interdependence implies that we should live in a way
that causes minimum hurt to other living beings and
minimum destruction of natural resources. In other
words, we need to avoid all possible violence and
restrain our needs to a reasonable level. We have to
apply brake to the desire for more and lay voluntary
limitations on possessions. In religious terms it can
be said that we need to observe the restraints of
Ahinsä and Parigrah Parimän. That could be our
primary objective.
While pointing out the purpose of life Swämi
Vivekänand had said “Divinity lies latent within every individual and the purpose of this life is to
manifest it.” For that purpose we need to overcome
the defiling instincts like anger and arrogance, remain peaceful and hold equanimity in all the situations, favorable as well as unfavorable. Most of you
might agree with this objective, but would think
that it is hard to avoid anger and such other instincts. For that purpose let us consider the following illustration.
There was a businessman, who used to become
angry on the slightest ground. He could realize that
it was wrong to be angry and wanted to change his
habit. Once he went to a saintly being and requested him to point out the way to overcome the
anger. The saint minutely looked at him and said
that it was no use pointing out the way to him,
because he was going to die within a week.
The man was perturbed to hear about the impending death. He went home and called his sons. He
calmly said that he wanted to retire and entrust the
business activities to them. Then he called for coffee. As his daughter in law was bringing it, the plate
fell down and the valuable crockery was broken.
The man was used to get mad on such occasions.
Everyone was caught with fright that he would
JD V17.12 PAGE 6
explode. But not only did he not get angry, he
showed the concern that the daughter in law could
have been hurt. Thereafter a beggar came at the
door. Normally the man would have hunted him
out. Instead of that, he asked his wife to give some
food to the beggar. Everyone was surprised to
notice the change in his behavior.
The man continued to behave peacefully for the
whole day. The next day he got up early in the
morning and asked his wife to accompany him with
some fruits and flowers. On reaching the temple he
offered the fruits and flowers to the idol and worshipped the deity with total sincerity. He thus spent
seven days in a quiet and peaceful mood. The entire
last day he spent in praying and chanting the name
of his deity while waiting for death.
Since the death did not take over him, the next
morning he went to the saint and asked why he had
made fool of him by talking about the death. The
saint told him to calm down and asked, “How much
anger did you indulge in during the week?”
Man: Forget getting angry; I remained so scared of
the impending death that I could not even think of
doing anything wrong during the entire week.
Saint: As you remained scared of death, we, saints,
always remain scared of it. We know that the death
is going to take over any time. As such, we continually remain calm and peaceful. I gave you a week for
getting ready for death, but remember that death
is not going to serve an advance notice; it will take
over any time. It is therefore worth remaining continually scared of it. You have now experienced the
pleasure of remaining peaceful; continue to live the
same way.
Aside from the virtues of remaining calm and peaceful there are a few physical aspects to which we
would like to draw your attention. Take the instance
of heart. It weighs eight to ten ounces, but undertakes enough exertion to circulate seven to eight
liters of blood in the entire body and pull it back
within two minutes. The energy that it exercises
during a day is equivalent to 30% of the hard work
done by a manual laborer. The cumulative force
that it exercises in an hour can move an object a few
thousand feet up in the air. It has been exercising
that much exertion day and night. We take rest
from our activity, go to sleep, proceed on vacation.
The heart does not afford any of those luxuries; it
continues to work without interruption.
You know what would happen, if the heart stops
working. Since the heart has been incessantly carrying out a hard task, is it not necessary to see that
we do not overtax it? When we become angry, the
heart beats go up. It indicates that the heart has
started overworking; it is required to exert more
pressure for supplying enough blood to the body.
That causes high blood pressure, which can damage the heart. It is therefore absolutely necessary
to avoid being angry. Is it not in our own interest?
What are the principal grounds for getting angry?
Someone not doing as per our expectations, perceiving him as a foe or as working against our
interests, breach of faith, attributing loss or other
damage to his acts and so on, isn’t that? The
biggest factor in all such cases is our perception. Is
it not possible that our perception could be wrong?
Even when it is right, could there not be some
grounds for the person concerned to act the way
he did? If we think from these perspectives, we can
make out that there was no reason for getting
angry.
Aside from the physical aspect there is a strong
spiritual ground to avert anger. The theory of Karma
states that everyone has to bear the consequences
of his Karma. Remember the case of Chandkaushik,
the cobra that bit Lord Mahavir. In an earlier life he
was a monk and was observing acute austerities. He
happened to crush a tiny frog while going for alms.
Since he did not atone for it, his pupil pointed it out
to him three times. That turned him mad. While
trying to hit the pupil out of rage, he accidentally
got hurt and died. He was then born as a Kaushik
Brahmin. In that life he used to assail those, who
would enter his garden. That led him to an accidental death and he was reborn as cobra. If the anger
could lead a monk to that fate, why should anyone
think of indulging in anger?
Aside from anger indolence plays a major role in
preventing us from reaching cherished objective.
Lord Mahavir therefore repeatedly urged even the
enlightened person like Gautamswämi not to get
indolent for a single moment. Many a times we think
of undertaking some activity, but do not do so out
of indolence. Let us take an anecdote from Rämäyan
in order to show the significance of averting indolence.
Rävan, the king of Lankä, was very learned, but
being enamored of Seetä’s beauty he abducted her.
During the war that ensued when Rävan was dying
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on the battlefield, Ram asked Laxman to go and
learn something from the learned man. Accordingly
Laxman went to Rävan and asked for some advice.
Rävan said, “With my level of learning I had major
objectives in mind. One of them was to de-saline the
sea water so that every one could have enough
sweet water. Instead of undertaking that project I
abducted Seetä and you now see the result. Therefore my advice is “Do not delay any plan, which you
think to be beneficial.”
Every one wants to gain the peace of mind and the
people are looking for the same in worldly comforts.
For that purpose they have been trying to accumulate the means of comforts. They overlook the fact
that peace lies within, not without. The following
Greek anecdote would be of interest in making out
what the peace of mind really means.
Diogenes lived without any possession and enjoyed
total peace of mind. Alexander was impressed by his
life and invited him to the court in order to learn how
Diogenes could remain peaceful. Since the latter did
not come, Alexander went to him. That time
Diogenes was taking sun-bath while lying on the bank
of a river.
Alexander: Oh Diogenes, since you did not come to
the court, I have come here. I envy your peace of
mind; please tell me the secret thereof. In return I
am willing to give whatever you ask for.
Diogenes: If you want to favor me, please move a
little away. Your shadow prevents the sunlight from
reaching my body.
Life is not in vain, it has its own significance. Dharma
(Religion) is the principal significance. With that the
life can be turned into an unprecedented occasion.
You can think of an objective in your life from the
contents of a Sanskrit verse. It says;
‘Rivers flow for the sake of benevolence, trees grow
for giving fruits and flowers, cows live for giving milk
and saints bear the life for providing bliss.’