{"id":5599,"date":"2017-02-10T09:24:44","date_gmt":"2017-02-10T16:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=5599"},"modified":"2017-02-10T09:26:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-10T16:26:12","slug":"mirabai-no-one-knows-my-invisible-life-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/10\/mirabai-no-one-knows-my-invisible-life-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mirabai – No one knows my invisible life"},"content":{"rendered":"

No one knows my invisible life
\nby Mirabai<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

English version by Willis Barnstone<\/font><\/p>\n

No one knows my invisible life.
\nPain
\nand madness for Rama.
\nOur wedding bed is high up
\nin the gallows.
\nMeet him?
\nIf the dark healer comes,
\nwe’ll negotiate the hurt.
\nI love the man who takes care
\nof cows. The cowherd.
\nCowherd and dancer.
\nMy eyes are drunk,
\nworn out from making love
\nwith him. We are one.
\nI am now his dark color.
\nPeople notice me, point fingers at me.
\nThey see my desire,
\nsince I’m walking about like a lunatic.
\nI’m wiped out, gone.
\nYet no one knows I live with my prince,
\nthe cowherd.
\nThe palace can’t contain me.
\nI leave it behind.
\nI couldn’t care less about gossip
\nor my royal name.
\nI’ll be with him
\nin all his gardens.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> — from To Touch the Sky: Poems of Mystical, Spiritual & Metaphysical Light<\/a>, Translated by Willis Barnstone<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by Cia de Foto<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

Tonight is the full moon. And an eclipse. And a comet will be seen in the sky, as well. It should be power packed, a time for transformation.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t pick just any old pleasant poem. We need something intense, passionate, with a hint of danger, and the determination that leads us into new awareness…<\/p>\n

If the dark healer comes,
\nwe’ll negotiate the hurt.<\/i><\/p>\n

Isn’t that a great line?<\/p>\n

This is a stunning love poem by Mirabai, erotic and dangerous in its passion for God.<\/p>\n

I love the man who takes care
\nof cows. The cowherd.
\nCowherd and dancer.<\/i><\/p>\n

The cowherd and “dark healer” mentioned here is, of course, Krishna (often equated with the other great Vaishnava figure of Rama).<\/p>\n

Our wedding bed is high up
\nin the gallows.<\/i><\/p>\n

When Mirabai says their wedding bed is “high up in the gallows,” Mirabai is referring to the mystic’s marriage bed or bridal chamber — the point of union between the individual awareness and the Divine, which takes place “high up” within the chamber of the crown.<\/p>\n

Of course, a gallows is not the same as a marriage bed. It is where people are hanged. It is where one goes to die… It is where you go to utterly lose yourself. In other words, this is both the place where the old ego-self is lost, but where supreme delight and fulfillment is found.<\/p>\n

To be “worn out from making love” is a reference to the divine union of mystical ecstasy, when the individual identity completely disappears in the divine embrace. That old identity is “worn out,” replaced by the mystic’s bliss.<\/p>\n

…We are one.
\nI am now his dark color.<\/i><\/p>\n

Darkness, dark color, is associated with many Hindu gods, representing the vastness of mystery, the Eternal in its mysterious, invisible, undefinable form beyond manifestation. When Mirabai says she is now Krishna’s dark color, she suggests that her individuality has been so intimately and profoundly touched by divine union, that she has utterly become the same, taking on that vast, unfathomable quality.<\/p>\n

The palace can’t contain me.
\nI leave it behind.<\/i><\/p>\n

The “palace” most obviously suggests her early life among royalty, but it can also be understood as representing her body, her name, her limited identity, which can no longer contain her newly awakened awareness, so she leaves all of those self-limiting definitions behind.<\/p>\n

Mirabai doesn’t care what people say about how she may step beyond social norms or how other people want to define her, for she is at rest with the Divine One within the eternal garden that is everywhere present.<\/p>\n

Flow with the changes, embrace the unexpected, and have a magical weekend.<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Mirabai<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nTo Touch the Sky: Poems of Mystical, Spiritual & Metaphysical Light<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nSongs of the Saints of India<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Winged Energy of Delight<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
More Books >><\/a><\/i><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\"Mirabai,<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nMirabai<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

India (1498 – 1565?) Timeline<\/a>
\nYoga \/ Hindu<\/a> : Vaishnava (Krishna\/Rama)<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n

[ad#Adsense-4]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Mirabai is one of India’s most beloved poet-saints. Her devotional poetry — directed toward Giridhara, a form of the great God-man Krishna — is so intensely personal that it borders on the erotic while, at the same time, it remains transcendentally spiritual.<\/p>\n

Mirabai was born into a noble Rajput family in Northern India. She was married to the crown prince of Mewar, but she made it clear that her love was for Giridhara alone. <\/p>\n

Many of the tales of Mirabai’s life focus on her struggles with her husband’s royal family. They apparently did not approve of her constant devotion to God to the neglect of her husband and family. And her preference for the company of wandering holy men was not considered proper for a princess. These conflicts grew to such a point that it is said they attempted to kill her, once with a deadly snake, another time by poison, but she was miraculously saved both times.<\/p>\n

When her husband died, Mirabai refused to throw herself on his funeral pyre and eventually took up the life of a wandering mendicant and poet, immersing herself in her love for God alone.<\/p>\n

More poetry by Mirabai<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No one knows my invisible life by Mirabai English version by Willis Barnstone No one knows my invisible life. Pain and madness for Rama. Our wedding bed is high up in the gallows. Meet him? If the dark healer comes, we’ll negotiate the hurt. I love the man who takes care of cows. The cowherd. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14,189,734],"class_list":["post-5599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-hindu-poetry","tag-mirabai","tag-womens-spiritual-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5599"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5602,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5599\/revisions\/5602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}