"Remember God's Name,
nothing else matters." Sri Ma
I, Lalla - Poems of Lal Ded
The road I came by wasn't the road I took to go.
As I stood on my mind's embankment, the day faded.
I looked in my purse and couldn't find
Shiva's name to give the ferryman.
You won't find Truth by crossing your legs and holding your breath.
Daydreams won't take you through the gateway for release.
You can stir as much salt as you like in water,
it won't become the sea.
from I, Lalla - Poems of Lal Ded translated from the Kashmiri by Ranjit Hoskote
I burnt up the landscape with footprints,
looked for Him everywhere.
Then it hit me: What am I thinking, He's everywhere!
Lalla distilled this truth from a hundred pieces of talk.
Now hear this, people, and go mad!
My mind boomed with the sound of Om,
my body was a burning coal.
Six roads brought me to a seventh,
that's how Lalla reached the Field of Light.
