LAL DED'S VAAKH : MAKARA AND THE THOUSAND IMPURITIES

                                                               

                            ( Goddess Ganga seated on Makara. Photo courtesy: Indian Museum, Kolkata )

Lal Ded’s Vaakh: Makara and the Thousand Impurities

I heard a Kashmiri author speaking about Lal Ded in a private YouTube channel, and I found it nothing beyond ignorance masquerading as knowledge. When an interviewer/ interviewee does not know Sanskrit, Shiva Sutras, Spanda Karika, Hindu mythology and most importantly Shaiva Darshana, he can only understand one or two simple interpolated Vaakhs of Lal Ded to interpret the entire corpus of Lalla Vaakhs. He will only pick those two simple ones and ignore 50 other Vaakhs that resonate with the echoes of Shiv Sutras, Vijnana Bhairava Tantra and Antarmukha Sadhana. That is selection bias. That is appropriation. I found the interviewer and the interviewee ignorant of the subject brought into discussion. It was ignorance (interviewer) speaking to ignorance (interviewee) and informing the listeners that their ignorance is the only knowledge. The Interviewee invented unfounded theories and never touched on how Roopa Bhawani pays tribute to Lal Ded and what words were popular in the Kashmiri language when texts like Mahanaya Prakasha, Banasura Katha, Chhuma Sampradaya, and Sukh Dukh Charita were written from the 11th up to the early 15th century. Chhumma Sampradaya and Mahanaya Prakasha represent some of the earliest surviving records of the Kashmiri language, dating approximately from the eleventh to the thirteenth century. Banasur Katha and Sukha-Dukha Charit, by contrast, belong to the early 15^th century. Together, these works provide valuable evidence of the linguistic evolution of Kashmiri from its early Apabhramsha forms towards a more developed literary language.

Lal Ded’s Vaakhs are brief in form but profound in philosophical implication. Rooted in the lived experience of Yogic discipline and the non-dual philosophy of Kashmir Shaivism, they employ vivid imagery to communicate truths that transcend the literal meaning of words. In the Vaakh discussed here, Lal Ded appears to evoke the inviolability of the inner self, which remains undisturbed by abuse, hostility and the impurities of the external world.

Let us discuss a Vaakh where the central issue is the word Makara, which many interpreters have confused with Mokur, an Arabic-derived term. I contend that this reading obscures the original meaning of the Vaakh. The word Makra appearing  in the Vaakh must instead be examined in relation to Makara, the mythological aquatic creature described in Hindu scriptures and literary traditions. This interpretation calls for an understanding of the Sanskritic and indigenous cultural vocabulary of Lal Ded’s time, rather than the retrospective imposition of a meaning from a different linguistic tradition.

The distinction is crucial to recovering the Vaakh’s philosophical significance. Lal Ded must be understood within the spiritual and intellectual world that shaped her thought, not through a misreading that may distort her original intent. I offer the following clarification, exploring the significance mythological Makara and the deeper spiritual insight embodied in the verse.

The Vaakh

‘आसा बोल पृङ्यन्यम सासा।

म्य मनि वासा खीद नाहि॥

बो योद सहजन शंकर बखच आसा।

मकृरिस सासा मल नाहि॥‘

 

“Aasa bol parrinam saasa,

Mye mani vaasa kheed naahi.

Bo yod sahajan Shankar bakhach aasa,

Makṛris saasa mal naahi.”

 

My English rendering

“Before my eyes, a thousand abusive names are hurled,

Yet no anguish finds a dwelling in my heart.

Such is the way of the devotee of Shankara,

Makara remains untouched by a thousand impurities around.”

 

The opening lines speak of abusive names being hurled at a person. The image is one of hostility expressed through words, insults and denunciation. Yet the speaker declares that anguish does not find a dwelling in her heart. The distinction is essential. Abuse may reach the ears, but it need not take possession of the mind. Words may be hurled from outside, but their poison need not become an inward affliction.

This is not a counsel of weakness or passive submission. It is a statement about inner strength. A person who has achieved spiritual composure does not allow any insult to dictate the condition of the heart. The world may be hostile, unjust or unkind, but the individual retains the responsibility to guard the integrity of the inner self.

The reference to Shankara places this composure within the discipline of devotion to Shiva. The devotee is expected to cultivate an inner steadiness that is not easily disturbed by the changing circumstances of life. The spiritual achievement lies not in silencing every hostile voice, but in refusing to let hostility determine one's inner nature.

The word "Saasa" appearing in this Vaakh is a distorted version of Sanskrit word Sahastra meaning a thousand. "Mala"  is again a Sanskrit word meaning impure .

Makara, the powerful being of the waters

In the beginning, when the oceans were still young, Brahma created all the Jalas. For the clear white lakes of Kailasa, he created the Swan. For the deep blue sea, the Whale. And for the muddy, dark waters where rivers meet the earth, where ashes float, and sins are washed, he created Makara. Makara was strange. It had the mouth of a crocodile that could bite through time, the trunk of an elephant that could hold the ocean, the body of a fish, and a tail that glittered like a peacock even in mud. It lived where no other divine animal wanted to live: in the delta, in the swamp, in the Ghat of Kashi.

The other creatures believed purity meant staying away from impurity. The swan stayed only in clean lakes. The ocean fish stayed only in vast waters. Makara was the opposite. He stayed in the dirtiest waters of creation, yet the mud never stuck to his scales. Black water passed over its body, but the body remained pearl-like. It was like the lotus.

When Varuna, the Lord of Waters and Guardian of Cosmic Order, came to inspect the worlds, he saw this quality. He saw that true purity is not about living in a pure place. Anyone can be pure in heaven. True purity is to live inside impurity and not become impure. Seeing this power, Varuna chose Makara as his Vahana. For only such a creature could carry the weight of all the world's waters: clean and unclean, without drowning. He needed a vehicle that would not abandon the ocean when the ocean became polluted by humans.

Mother Ganga saw the same. As she flows from Gomukh to the sea, she takes in the sins, flowers, ashes and waste of millions. She becomes heavy and black. She needed a companion who would not leave her when she became dirty. She needed strength that would remain steady in her darkest stretch. So she also took Makara to hold her. Kama Deva, the God of Love, also saw the same truth.

Makara appears in the Puranic and epic imagination and is represented in temple art in a variety of striking forms. Makara is therefore not an ordinary creature in the symbolic vocabulary of Hindu tradition. It inhabits a vast element, shifting and filled with unseen forces. Water surrounds it wherever it goes. Yet, in the interpretation advanced here, the significance of Makara lies in its ability to remain in its aquatic environment without being defined or overcome by the impurities surrounding it.

The final line, with its reference to a thousand impurities, reinforces the image. The number need not be read merely as a literal count. It conveys abundance, multiplicity and the seemingly endless presence of contaminating influences. Makara remains in the water, yet the impurities of the water do not become the essence of Makara.

Makara and the lotus: living above impurity

The image of Makara can be understood alongside that of the lotus. The lotus grows in muddy water. Its roots are embedded in the murk, and the pond from which it rises may contain dirt and decay. Yet the flower emerges above the water and opens in the light. Its beauty is not erased by the mud from which it grows.

The lotus does not have to wait for the pond to become perfectly clean before it can bloom. It grows where it is rooted, rises through the water and unfolds above the surface. Its surroundings do not dictate its final form.

In a comparable symbolic sense, Makara remains in water without allowing the impurities of that environment to define it. The two images lead towards the same moral insight: one need not escape the world to preserve one's inner integrity. One must learn to live in the world without becoming a product of its corruption.

Be in the swamp and the dirt, but remain above them. This does not mean that we should become indifferent to injustice or accept wrongdoing without resistance. It means that we should not allow the ugliness we encounter to reproduce itself within us. We may have to live among hostility, deceit, resentment and malice, but we need not make these qualities our own.

The lotus rises above the mud. Makara inhabits the waters. Both images help us understand the possibility of maintaining one's essential nature amid an imperfect environment or the spiritual discipline of remaining untouched. The devotee of Shankara, in this reading, is one who strives to maintain such composure. The outer world may be turbulent, but the inner self need not surrender to that turbulence. Makara provides the image of endurance; the lotus offers the image of emergence. Both point towards the possibility of remaining true to oneself.

Read in this light, the Vaakh discussed offers a practical lesson in self-mastery. The thousand abusive names in its opening lines represent the assaults that human beings may endure from the world around them. The thousand impurities in its concluding line suggest the countless influences that can disturb the mind and corrupt the heart. Lal Ded's spiritual vision here asks us to distinguish between what surrounds us and what we allow to reside within us. We cannot always prevent insult, hostility or injustice. We cannot make every person fair-minded, nor can we purify the world of every impurity. We can, however, cultivate the strength not to become inwardly enslaved by the things we encounter.

This requires vigilance, discernment and spiritual discipline. It also requires courage. To remain inwardly composed in the face of abuse is not easy. To resist the temptation to answer malice with malice is harder still. Yet this is precisely where spiritual practice becomes meaningful in everyday life. It must manifest itself not only in prayer or ritual, but in the manner in which we respond to provocation, endure adversity and treat others.

Lal Ded: The Anachronism of Secularism and the Authenticity of Her Vaakhs

Lal Ded must be understood within the spiritual, philosophical and linguistic world of medieval Kashmir. Her Vaakhs cannot be adequately interpreted through the ideological categories of a much later age. The tendency to describe her as a secular poet, in the contemporary sense of the term, is an anachronism that obscures the very foundations of her thought.

Lal Ded belongs to the tradition of Kashmir Shaivism, particularly the Trika philosophy, with its emphasis on inner realisation, consciousness and the recognition of Shiva as the ultimate reality. Her spiritual world must be approached through the Tantric traditions, Vedanta, the Shiva Sutras, the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra and the wider philosophical and religious literature of India. These are not incidental references to her intellectual background; they provide the essential framework within which her spiritual utterances must be examined.

Secularism, as understood in modern political discourse, concerns the relationship between religion, the state and society. Lal Ded's central preoccupation, by contrast, is the inward journey of the seeker. Her Vaakhs speak of spiritual discipline, the transcendence of the limited self and the realisation of ultimate consciousness. Their vocabulary belongs to the world of antarmukha sadhana, the inward-directed spiritual quest. The concepts of the Brahmarandhra, Hridaya Akasha, Prana and the ultimate Shiva must therefore be examined in their yogic and philosophical contexts. The yogic practices and experiences associated with Kundalini, Shambhavi Mudra and Khechari Mudra also deserve careful consideration when interpreting individual Vaakhs. Such associations, however, must be established through close textual analysis rather than assumed in advance.

There is no Hindu-Muslim debate in the technical vocabulary of these spiritual experiences. The language is that of the seeker, consciousness, yogic discipline and liberation. To reduce this vocabulary to a contemporary narrative of communal harmony is to substitute a modern interpretative agenda for the philosophical substance of the original.

Understanding Interpolations

Lal Ded is also generally placed before the historical flowering of the Bhakti movement in many parts of India. She lived centuries before the emergence of modern secularism as a political and philosophical concept. To call her secular in the contemporary sense is therefore to project a later category upon a medieval mystic. Her spiritual insights may speak across religious and cultural boundaries, but their universal resonance does not erase their specific Shaiva foundations.

Of particular significance is Lal Ded's identification of her Guru as Siddha Srikantha. This reference deserves serious attention in any investigation of her spiritual lineage and its relationship to the Shaiva traditions of Kashmir. Her association with a Shaiva Guru is an important element of the traditional understanding of her spiritual formation. The precise relationship between that lineage and the transmission of the Shiva Sutras, however, requires historical and textual corroboration. What cannot reasonably be ignored is the Shaiva framework within which her spiritual vocabulary and quest for realisation are to be understood.

A further question concerns the authenticity of the Vaakhs attributed to Lal Ded. I have encountered the use of the word Makara in two works predating Lal Ded. The incorporation of Kashmiri words into older literary traditions, and the subsequent evolution of the language, may offer valuable clues to the history of particular expressions. Such evidence could help identify linguistic layers, later interpolations and alterations introduced to make a Vaakh conform to a particular narrative or interpretation. This is where linguistic scrutiny becomes indispensable. The age of a word, its geographical distribution, its usage in dated texts and its presence or absence in different manuscript traditions can help establish whether a particular reading belongs to an earlier or later textual layer. The appearance of a word such as Makara in an older source may provide a useful comparative point. This critical method must be applied to the Vaakhs attributed to Lal Ded. We must distinguish between her original utterances, their transmission through an oral tradition, later linguistic changes and possible interpretative additions. We must also examine whether particular readings preserve the vocabulary and philosophical assumptions of medieval Kashmir or reflect the concerns of subsequent generations. A text should not be accepted as authentic merely because it supports a cherished narrative, nor rejected simply because it challenges one.

Lal Ded deserves a more serious approach than the appropriation of her name by competing ideological narratives. She was a mystic whose spiritual quest emerged from the philosophical traditions of Kashmir. Her significance does not depend upon making her conform to the vocabulary of modern secularism. Nor does recognising her Shaiva inheritance diminish the universal appeal of her poetry. On the contrary, understanding her tradition more precisely allows us to appreciate the depth of her spiritual vision.

Lal Ded must first be understood on her own terms: as a Shaiva mystic rooted in the spiritual and philosophical traditions of Kashmir. Her Vaakhs require philological rigour, historical sensitivity and philosophical discernment. Neither modern secularist interpretations nor sectarian readings should be permitted to replace the evidence of the texts themselves. The task is not to fashion Lal Ded into the figure that a later age wishes her to be, but to recover, as faithfully as possible, the mystic and her authentic voice.

Conclusion

The force of this Vaakh lies in its contrast between the abundance of impurity outside and the refusal to harbour anguish within. The thousand abusive names do not find a permanent home in the heart. The thousand impurities do not define Makara. The lesson is neither to flee from life nor to imagine that the world can be made free of every imperfection. It is to participate in life without surrendering one's inner integrity. We must be able to encounter the world's mud without allowing it to stain the deepest part of our being. In my reading, Lal Ded's Vaakh expresses this truth through the image of Makara: remain in the waters of the world, as Makara remains in its aquatic domain, but do not allow their impurities to become your own. Like the lotus, rise above the swamp without forgetting the ground from which you have risen.

Live in the world, but do not let the world corrupt your inner nature. Let it surround you, but do not let it define you. That is the enduring message I find in this Vaakh of Lal Ded.

 

(Avtar Mota )

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