Bawa Lal Dayal

Modern painting of Baba Lal Dayal

Bawa Lal was born in the village of Kasur near Lahore, Punjab. His father was Bohlamal and his mother was Krishna Devi. He left his home at the age of 8 in search of guru Chetan Swami and went to Lahore. From Lahore, he went to Behra, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Riyas, Rajouri, Kashmir, Mansarovar (Kailash Parvat), and then moved towards Badrinath and Kedarnath. Eventually, he returned to Punjab. Upon reaching Lahore, near Shahdra on the bank of the Ravi river, he had a darshan of Chetan Swami.

Bawa Lal is mentioned in famous historical works including Samudra Sangama, Ḥasanāt al-ʼĀrifīn, Majma al-Bahrain, Dabistān-i Madhāhib, and Mathnawi-i Kajkulāh.[12]

The Prince Dara Shikoh, elder son of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, was depressed and did not have the courage to face his father, due to his defeat in a battle at Khandhar in 1653. He started residing in Lahore. Seeing his depressed state, Chandra Bhan Brahman, Jahan's mir-munshi, advised Dara to meet Bawa Lal. On hearing his praise, Dara was influenced and wanted to have a darshan of Bawa Lal.

From 1652 to 1653 in Lahore, he claimed to have held a series of interviews with Bawa Lal, and discussed with him the life of the ascetics, the relationship between a guru and their devotees, the circles of life and death, idol worship, the path of spiritual salvation, and various other topics.

Dara held Bawa Lal in the highest regard as evidenced by the introduction and praise in his writing. He introduces Bawa Lal with the following words in his Ḥasanāt al-ʼĀrifīn:[13] "Lāl Mundiyya, who is amongst the perfect Gnostics – I have seen none among the Hindus who have reached such ʼirfān and spiritual strength as he has." He also quotes three aphorisms that he claims to have heard directly from Bawa Lal:

• In the first, Bawa Lal is quoted as having said "Do not become a shaykh, or a walī, or a miracle worker; rather, become a sincere faqīr (faqīr-i bīsākhtagī)."[14]
• In the second aphorism, Bawa Lal tells Dara that "in every community, there is a perfect Gnostic, so that God shall grant salvation to that particular community through him. Therefore, you should not condemn any community."[13]
• In the third and last aphorism, Bawa Lal, on the authority of Kabīr, describes four types of guide: "The first type is like gold, for they cannot make others similar to themselves; the second type is like an elixir – whoever reaches them becomes gold, but they cannot transform others; the third type is like the sandalwood tree, which has the ability to create another sandalwood tree if that tree is prepared for it, but not otherwise; the fourth type is like a lamp, and he is the one known as the 'perfect guide', indeed from one lamp a hundred thousand lamps are illuminated".[15]

On November 1, 2001, Ram Sundar Das was enthroned as the Acharya of Shri Dhianpur Dham. He is the 15th Vaishnavacharya of Shri Dhianpur Dham and the present divine successor of Bawa Lal.