ॐ नमः शिवाय ॐ THE POEMS OF LALLA OF KASHMIR GB101

GB101
dihaci lari da:ri-bar troparim,
pra:nà-tsu:r roTum ta dyutàmas dam     |
hridayici kyu:Thàri-andar goNDum,
omaki cobàka tulàmas bam     ||

I closed the doors and
windows of my body,
I seized the prana-thief
(breath) and controlled him.
In the jail of my heart
I tied him up,
and I whipped him
with OM.

ॐ नमः शिवाय ॐ

A page from my notes on the Kashmiri text of Lalla's poems

The above photo is a page from my notes on the Kashmiri text of Lalla's poems. There are about thirty of these pages, most of them equally densely marked with my corrections and notes. When I recently took the project up again (I like to think that it was at Lalla's own urging), I was amazed at the huge amount of preparatory work I had already done, years earlier. I had done so much, in fact, that you'd think I could just turn the crank and spit the translations out. Lalla, though, saw to it that it would never be that simple, either for me or for anyone else. Apart from being a fine poet, she was an amazing spiritual teacher. I may have the roughly 150 poems of the planned collection translated within a few months (at this pace, I will), but I'll still have years of work to do.

ॐ नमः शिवाय ॐ

ॐ नमः शिवाय ॐ THE POEMS OF LALLA OF KASHMIR JK/NKK 62

JK/NKK 62
gya:nà ma:rg chay ha:kà vö:r,
dizès Samà-damà krayi pöny     |
lam-tsakrà pôS prö:ny krayi dö:r
khènà-khènà mvatsiy vö:rày chany     ||

The path of knowledge
is a kitchen garden,
water it with actions
based on meditation
and self-restraint.
The LAM chakra is the
(sacrificial) beast,
prior actions the gate,
and as it eats,
the garden is left bare.

Note: This is one of the hardest of Lalla's poems to interpret. Most of the interpretations involve the burning of the the karma of past actions (which may indeed come into it), but they lose sight of the subject in the first line: gya:nà marg, which is the knowledge-path. In Yoga philosophy, three main paths are recognized: that of knowledge (gyana, often written as jñana), that of action or work (karma), and that of devotion (bhakti). But here we are talking about the path of knowledge, and it is not to be confused with wisdom (pragyana), to which it may lead. So what is cultivated in this "garden" (which in Lalla's symbolic language often means the cerebrum or the sahasrara "thousand-petalled" chakra which is above it)? Facts, quotations, definitions, technical terms, maybe even poetry--all derived from a lifetime of study. This knowledge is there to sustain us. But this peaceful picture is interrupted by KuNDalini:, the "serpent-power" that lives in the muladhara (basal) chakra, also known as the LAM chakra because of its seed-sound. She wanders up to the garden through the "gate," which represents the sushumna pathway that is analogous to the spinal cord. When she gets to the "garden," KuNDalini: "eats" (supersedes, blows away) all the book-learning that has been cultivated there. "The garden is left bare." The sustenance of all the book-learning that was cultivated is gone, but it has been replaced by something much better.

Another example of Lalla's use of this kind of symbolic language can be seen in JK/NKK 130, translated in this blog in an entry of October 5 2016.

ॐ नमः शिवाय ॐ