Saint Mira

Author(s): T L Vaswani
Publisher: Saint Miras English Medium School

Page 35

34
SAINT MIRA
There are some who regard Tulsi as the prince of Hindi poets. Sir George Grierson, a great student of Indian languages, says that “Tulsi Das is the brightest star in the firmament of Hindi literature."
One thing Tulsi and Mira had in common. They both put emphasis on the value of Nama, the Name Divine. The Name, to Tulsi, was Rama. The Name, to Mira, was Shyama. Yet Mira, too, refers, in some of her lyrics, to Rama as the Name Divine.
"Remember His Name,” says Tulsi. “This," he adds, “is the royal road to salvation". As Mira is never tired of singing the Name of Krishna or Shyama, so is Tulsi tireless in singing of Rama-Nama. “Rama-Nama,” he says, “is to my heart as water is to the fish.” And both Tulsi and Mira use in their Hindi many words which are taken from Brija-bhasha, - the language which Sri Krishna used, in the long ago.
All the three, -Sur, Tulsi and Mira,--are bhaktipoets of a very high order. The holy man, according to Tulsi, is he who sings Nama, the Name Divine. "He ever sings,” Tulsi says, “the Holy Name”. And
From place to place He wandereth still, To give to men the knowledge That illumines and purifies!