Mira: The Divine Lover

by Mīrābāī, V.K. Sethi (Translator)

Another monograph in the Mystics of the East Series, it presents the life and message of one of the most popular devotees that India has produced. Born and brought up in a royal family, Mira followed the path of divine love with unflinching dedication, in spite of public censure, persecution by her family, and even attempts on her life.

Genres: Poetry

230 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Meera [(ca. 1498-1547)], also known as Mira Bai, was a 16th century Hindu mystic poetess and devotee of Krishna. She is celebrated as a poet and has been definitively claimed by the North Indian Hindu tradition of Bhakti saints.

Meera was born in a royal family of Rajasthan, and her education included music, religion, politics and government. She married Bhojraj the crown prince of Mewar in 1516, her husband was wounded in 1518 and died in 1521 after a Hindu-Muslim battle, her own father died in a war with Babur's army in 1527, and little else is known about her life with any certainty. She is mentioned in Bhaktamal, confirming that she was widely known and a cherished figure in the Indian bhakti movement culture by about 1600 CE. Most legends about Meera mention her fearless disregard for social and family conventions, her devotion to god Krishna, her treating Krishna as her lover and husband, and she being persecuted by her in-laws for her religious devotion. She has been the subject of numerous folk tales and hagiographic legends, which are inconsistent or widely different in details.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Darius Murretti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mira was a royal princess (1492-1547) Her guru was a cobbler . She was tormented by her royal family for going to the humble of a lowly cobbler . Her poems give a glimpse of true divine love which is the supreme path to God . Love is the life of all paths and Mirabai was a great lover of God and her Guru whom she regarded as God in human form . Through her intense love she was able to reach and merge her soul into God in her very life time .

This book is actually free online here !!!!!
https://archive.org/stream/MiraTheDiv... (you can copy and paste out of this document )

another format is here
https://archive.org/details/MiraTheDi... Thsi is a High quality flip page type text

I will paste a few poems here :

MIRA IS STEADFAST


This is another poem with an autobiographical touch,
describing how Mira stood up boldly against all the torments
inflicted upon her by her brother-in-law, the ruler of Mewar.
Here she expresses her firm resolve to follow the path of
devotion. Her Master has shown her the mirror within the
body, her soul is shining bright and she is lost in the Lord’s
love.


I will not be restrained now, O Rana,
Despite all you do to block my path.

I have torn off the veil of worldly shame;
Only company of Saints is dear to me.

Merta, my parents’ home, I have left
for good.

My surat and nirat, awakened,

Now shine bright.

My Master has revealed to me
The mirror within my own body;*

Now I’ll sing and dance in ecstasy.

Keep to yourself your gems and jewelry,

I have discarded them all, O Rana.

My true Lord I have come to behold;

None knows of this wealth within the body.

I fancy not your forts and palaces,

Nor want silken robes wrought with gold.
**********************************************
"Love and devotion for the Lord and the Master come
alive for us in the songs of Mira... Mira expresses her longing for
the Lord and the pain of separation from her Master with the
anguish of a bride torn from her bridegroom. What she sings
of is what all devotees sing of, deep within their heart. It is a
cry to end duality, to merge in the Lord, to live in eternal and
lasting bliss and peace. It is a song that is the same today as it
was when Mira was singing. It is the song of love.

Mira’s poems were spontaneous outbursts of her
emotions;

Mira talks of her gurus grace :
"I kept searching for the secret

Of that Realm, but none could reveal it.

When Saint Raidas, my Master, I met

He gave my soul the clue
to that Eternal Abode.

Then I ascended and met my Beloved;

And my anguish was finally allayed. 7

When Raidas, the perfect Master, I met,

The severed twig joined again the tree.

My Master revealed the secret of the Name,

The flame of Mira merged into the Flame. "

Mira says that once one has found a Guru and been blessed with the way to hear the holy sound one should meditate with all the love one can muster :

"O friend, the true path to God
is that of meditation and love.

Adore the Lord; love Him....

says Mira, without love, my friend,
You can never meet the Lord ."

Like all Saints, Mira gives great importance to human
birth, which she describes as a rare opportunity to attain
freedom from the endless cycle of birth and death:

Rare is the privilege of this human birth;

This is a chance provided by the Lord

To ferry across the dreadful ocean."

Describing the body as ‘home’, Mira conveys her
experience of finding the Lord within it:

"O friend, my bliss knows no bounds today,

For within my home I have discovered
The Beloved Lord. "

“Realize, O friend, your body, like the ocean, is full of
treasures.
Open your inner chamber and light the lamp
within.

Within the body are gardens with rare blooms where
peacocks* dance to the tune of Divine Music.

Within the
body is the lake of bliss in which swans* revel in transports of
joy.

In your body is a vast market; go within, engage in trade
and reap ever-abiding profit.

Mira sings Thy praises, O Lord,
and begs Thee to give her a lasting abode at the feet of the
Saints( who are God in human form) .”

It is only the Master (God in human form) who bestows the rare gift of Nam,
which cannot be which Mira says “keeps increasing from day to
day.”

This power of Nam manifests within the human body in
the form of a divine melody. Saints have variously called it
Nam, Shabd, Bani, Dhun. It is the Word of the Bible, Km or
Kalma of the Holy Koran and Nad or Akashwani of the
Hindu scriptures. Mira refers to Shabd, the Sound Current or
Divine Melody, in a number of her poems:

"My Master joined me with my source,
the Shabd,

And I’m lost in the power
of that sweet Melody.

Ever do I live in the Shabd "

The Lord can be realized only by merging into Shabd Mira says ,:
"Within your body the gong resounds

In sweet strains of Eternal Song.

Within your body burns a flame

In resounding waves of brilliant Light
"Mira has known the Almighty Lord

By merging in the Ocean of Shabd ."

The divine melody of Shabd or the Sound Current is
ever resounding within the human body mind . The purer and more focussed our mind the better we can hear it.

Mira says

"If Master, the washerman, washes your mind.

It will never be soiled again.


With remembrance as the soap,

With love as the water,

Your mind, cleansed of all blemish,

With virtue will shine.

So deftly will the washerman scrub it clean,

Even a speck of dirt it’ll not gather again."

Mira says we are asleep in delusion we must awaken:

My Beloved rests within the chambers above.

How am I to go and awaken Him ?

And Mira adds:

O thou darling of the Lord,

Thou must awaken thy Beloved;

Be alert, O friend, reach Him

And be in His resplendence."

[Priyanka · Rating 4 out of 5]

The lessons of Bhakthi with unconditional love and ecstatic experience is brought out beautifully. However, the book misses out to cover the personal life of Meera instead of too much of political affairs involved in it.

[INWARDS & UPWARDS ! · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuts to the heart of the matter