Ascent of Self
by B.N. Parimoo

A Mystical genius of the 14th century of the Christian era that Lala-ded was, she stands out as a conspicuous landmark in the cultural history of Kashmir. Her younger contemporary, Sheikh Nuruddin Vali, himself a great saint-poet, hails her as an 'Avatar'--an incarnation of God. In Kashmir, people of all faiths, Hindus and Muslims, own her as a realized soul of a very high order, and remember her verse-quatrains, known as Lala-vakhs, out of deep veneration for her. She sings from heights of enlightenment where the barriers of caste, creed and colour do not exist. Her uniqueness lies not only in her capacity to explore and fathom the immeasurable depths of Being but to bask in the Divine Light which balzes out in her state of supreme consciousness 'Andaryum prakash nebar tshotum', says she. She communicated her sublime, ineffable experience in exalted language, at once simple, pithy, incisive and soothing. The author has given the verses a new order, rendered them into English and commented upon them so as to show that Lala-ded's spontaneous outpourings are, by and large, an expression of the flowering of her soul.