Mirabai’s Poems on Love and Devotion

Mirabai’s Poems on Love and Devotion

As soon as we read the first poem by Mirabai, we know we are in the presence of someone who is unworldly. Mirabai’s poems take you to this unreal realm where you get immersed in the magic of literary beauty.

There is no one else exactly like her in the whole history of poetry. Mirabai was born in Rajasthan (India) in 1498, and had a profound influence on the religious life of her time. The intensity of the sort she had appears in every century in India, as it did with Ramakrishna in the nineteenth century. Mirabai’s genius encouraged thousands of people in her time to compose ecstatic poems and to sing and to dance them. Many villages treasure poems that she is said to have left behind in that town. Her poems are still being sung everywhere in India.

Krishna-Connection

Mirabai’s love affair with Lord Krishna, or the Dark One, has spoken for itself for close to five hundred years. In her poems, she calls the Beloved by many names. She names also the listeners and witnesses to her path — “Friends;” “Sisters;” “Companions;” she begins many poems with these addresses.

Mirabai’s poems sing of ecstatic union, and of the despair that ecstatic union, having once been tasted, can then disappear. Her freedom comes from taking her seat at the feet of Oneness and refusing to budge from that place. Neither the conventions of society nor the words — or actions — of family, friends, or enemies can touch the untouchable self she has created. She has gone beyond caste, beyond personal ego.

Mirabai’s surrender to the Dark One is complete, and that completeness is the source of her strength. When you study the lives of mystics, you see that it is not as we might first have imagined — it is much harder. The experience of oneness comes and goes. Look closely and it becomes clear. Longing and grief are simply the other face of a love that depends on nothing outside itself, not even its own reciprocation. When the Beloved is present, Mira loves. When the Beloved is absent is absent, she loves. Desire for the Dark One is the sign of his existence for her. Therefore, even in what appears to be abject surrender, Mira is free: the one who chooses.

Let’s take a look at some of the Mirabai’s poems. These beautiful verses were translated to English by Robert Bly and Jane Hirshfield.

All I was doing was breathing

Something has reached out and taken in the beams of my eyes. 
There is a longing, it is for his body, for every hair of that dark body. 
All I was doing was being, and the Dancing Energy came by my house.
His face looks curiously like the moon, I saw it from the side, smiling. 
My family says: "Don't ever see him again!" And they imply things in a low voice. 
But my eyes have their own life; they laugh at rules, and know whose they are. 
I believe I can bear on my shoulders whatever you want to say of me.
Mira says: Without the energy that lifts mountains, how am I to live?

It’s true I went to the market

My friend, I went to the market and bought the Dark One. 
You claim by night, I claim by day.
Actually, I was beating a drum all the time I was buying him. 
You say I gave too much; I say too little. 
Actually, I put him on a scale before I bought him. 
What I paid was my social body, my town body, my family body, and all my inherited jewels. 
Mirabai says: The Dark One is my husband now. 
Be with me when I lie down; you promised me this in an earlier life. 

A dream of marriage

In my dreams the Great One married me. 
Four thousand people came to the wedding. 
My bridegroom was the Lord Brajanath, and in the dream all the doorways were made royal, and he held my hand. 
In my dream he married me, and fortune came to me.
Mirabai has found the Great Snake Giridhar; she must have done something good in an earlier life. 

Where did you go

Where did you go, Holy One, after you left my body?
Your flame jumped to the wick, and then you
disappeared and left the lamp alone. 
You put the boat into the surf, and then walked
inland, leaving the boat in the ocean of parting. 
Mira says: Tell me when you will come to meet me. 

Mira swims free

What do I care for the worlds of the world?
The name of the Dark One has entered my heart.
Those who praise, those who blame,
Those who say I am crazy, wicked, an uncontrolled fire --
All ignorant fools, caught in their senses. 
It is true, Mira has no sense: she is lost in the sweetness. 
To take his path is to walk the edge of the sword;
Then the noose of birth and death is suddenly cut.
Mira now lives beyond Mira. 
She swims, deep mind and deep body, in Shyam's ocean. 

Mirabai’s Poems on Love and Devotion: A Voice of Pure Bhakti