Sambodhi 2004 Vol 27

Author(s): J B Shah, N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 38

32
YAJNESHWAR S. SHASTRI
SAMBODHI
saubhāgya māro. MSP-1). "Friends, I have married to indestructible bridegroom" (akhanda varane vāri saheli, hu to akhanda varane vārī- MSP-3). Again, in another poem she says. "I have wedded to my beloved, I will not tie marriage thread to anyone else” (hu to parani mārā pritamni sangath, bijānā mindhal nahi re bandhu MSP-7,9). She says, "the dark one is my husband" (Māro Śāmaliyo bharatār re - MSP-36). At another place she proudly declares, “I have put on His eternal bangles and I will live as his eternal wife” (MSP-20). Love of Krsna was all Mirābāi saught and she firmly believed that He could free her from the world of sorrows (amane pār utāro Syām- MSP-33). Her sole support was Krsna (antaranā ādhār. MSP-18). Krsna was her heart's Lord and her companion, not only in her life-time, but in past lives also (janam janam ki dāsi- MSP-13). Mira's love for Krsna was too subtle and elevated to be understood by those with coarse mind. It was not worldly kind of love, it was divine love. It was a kind of worship, for she had given her mind and heart to her Giridhara. Sensual love and spiritual love are worlds apart. One pampers the body and another soothes the soul. The person, who has reached the topmost height of spirituality, sees God everywhere. To him or her, love becomes kind of worship. Mīrā's love for Krsna was all-encompassing type.
Mira had indeed, sold herself in the hands of Krsna, as she puts it in many of her poems (hu to vechāni chhu nāth, tamāre hāth MSP-18). Meaning thereby that she had surrendered herself completely to the Lord. Though she knew that, tongues would be wagging and people would malign her, she never cared for what they said (loka amāri nindā kare, ame dhoko teno na dhariye MSP-10), and thu on praising virtues of Lord (giridhara guna gāve MSP-12). Her attitude of love towards Krsna was often misunderstood. Many in Mīrā's own time, have looked on the expression of her love for Krsna, as wrong one. Even her own familymembers branded her as a licentious woman and thought that her Giridhara was some lover, who secretly visited her. But Mīrābāi did not care for such slander and was courageous enough to stand up and face it.
Many poems of Mira reveal that she was directly in communion with Krsna. True love is losing one's own identity into that of the beloved becoming one with him. Her expressions, such as, “Mīrā obtained Giridhara' (Mīrāne Giridhara malyo. MSP-5, 15), 'we are yours and you are ours' (ame to tamārā, tame to amārā MSP). show her union with the Lord. In one of her poems, she says that, 'she has obtained the precious toy, that is Rāma.' She does not make any difference, any distinction between Rāma and Krsna, because, both are incarnation of Visnu. She found this toy in the temple of her body. It cam dancing and singing. It is rare and