{"id":6872,"date":"2020-11-20T08:28:33","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T15:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=6872"},"modified":"2020-11-20T08:28:33","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T15:28:33","slug":"mirabai-out-in-a-downpour-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2020\/11\/20\/mirabai-out-in-a-downpour-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mirabai – Out in a downpour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Out in a downpour
\nby Mirabai<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

English version by Andrew Schelling<\/font><\/p>\n

Out in a downpour
\nin a sopping wet
\nskirt.
\nAnd you have gone to a distant country.
\nUnbearable heart,
\nletter after letter
\njust asking when,
\nmy lord, when
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 are you coming?<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from For Love of the Dark One: Songs of Mirabai<\/a>, Translated by Andrew Schelling<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by jarr1520<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what it is about this imagery, but this poem has stuck with me ever since I first read it. A woman standing out in a downpour and not caring, consumed by a great and terrible love \u2014 it is like a scene from a classic film. Visceral, intimate, yet epic.<\/p>\n

(This picture I found doesn\u2019t do justice to the image in my mind. I see something in black-and-white. A lovely young Indian woman, the camera looking down upon her, as she lifts her face and opens her arms to the downpour. And the open-mouthed expression I see on her face, is it one of pain? Or the beginning of laughter? Or a feral combination of the two\u2026?)<\/p>\n

We are witnessing a moment in a great love story. But this is Mirabai, and her beloved is God.<\/p>\n

Often we like our saints and sages to be born in stable, perfect enlightenment, a simple picture with no struggle or drama, never having sensed separation. But that pain of separation, desperately looking for the lost love, is essential for the flowering of full self-awareness and true union.<\/p>\n

And you have gone to a distant country.<\/i><\/p>\n

That sense of separation \u2014 separation from God, separation from Source, separation from Home \u2014 is the fundamental pain of the soul. Every life pain, when we really trace its tendrils, reaches down to that root pain. The basic belief of separation from the Eternal. Every hunger, every craving, is an attempt to spread a thin layer of pleasure, or at least comfort, over that pain. Every self-inflicted hurt is an attempt to overpower that great ache with the sharp intensity of the moment. Most actions, when carefully dissected, are an attempt to distract ourselves from that terrible emptiness.<\/p>\n

You can see that so much of our life force is spent in avoidance, avoidance of confrontation with that gulf between the individual and the Eternal.<\/p>\n

letter after letter\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Most people look away, spend all their life running from that canyon of separation. But the mystic sits on the cliff edge and, though frightened, stares endlessly into the great space\u2026 until suddenly an amazing thing happens \u2014 in a flash the emptiness is seen to be not a distance but a connection, a joining. The gulf is itself the bridge spanning the distance, and we discover that we can walk upon it, that there was, in fact, never any separation or distance.<\/p>\n

It is the very intensity of our yearning that is finally recognized as the point of connection with the Eternal. And then the pain flips, turning to such sweetness. <\/p>\n

Next time it rains, don\u2019t run for cover. Step out in the downpour, feel what it\u2019s like to be drenched!<\/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>\nThe Winged Energy of Delight<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nSongs of the Saints of India<\/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 \u2013 1565?) Timeline<\/a>
\nYoga \/ Hindu<\/a> : Vaishnava (Krishna\/Rama)<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

Mirabai is one of India\u2019s most beloved poet-saints. Her devotional poetry \u2014 directed toward Giridhara, a form of the great God-man Krishna \u2014 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\u2019s life focus on her struggles with her husband\u2019s royal family. They did not approve of her constant devotion to God, which they felt led 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":"

Out in a downpour by Mirabai English version by Andrew Schelling Out in a downpour in a sopping wet skirt. And you have gone to a distant country. Unbearable heart, letter after letter just asking when, my lord, when \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 are you coming? \u2014 from For Love of the Dark One: Songs of Mirabai, Translated […]<\/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":[16,516,893,14,931,1829,189,87,936],"class_list":["post-6872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-bhakti-poetry","tag-devotion","tag-heart","tag-hindu-poetry","tag-krishna-poetry","tag-longing","tag-mirabai","tag-rain","tag-separation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6872","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=6872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6873,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6872\/revisions\/6873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}