Mira Bai

Ananya Bhakthai – Madhurya Bhava

Speaking of Mira Bai, Swami Sivananda states “ She was an embodiment of love and innocence. Her heart was the temple of devotion. Her face was the lotus-flower of Prem. There was kindness in her look, love in her talk, joy in her discourses, power in her speech and fervour in her songs.”  She was born in an aristocratic family, married into a princely family but she gave up all the comforts and the pleasures of a palace for leading a beggar’s life in Brindavan, a revolutionary step for a woman of royal family at that time.  She has written about 1300 songs in the form of Bhajans which are very popular in North India today.  Her love was only for Lord Krishna, as she imagined herself as a Gopi in Bridavan in her previous birth, which she herself mentions in one of her Bhajans; 

"I myself in a previous birth

 was a cowherding girl at Gokul “

For that love she was willing to undergo any suffering. 

Mira Bai was born in in the Chaukari village in Merta,Rajasthan, her father, Ratan Singh, being a descendent of Rao Rathor, the founder of Jodhpur.  When Mirabai was about  three years of age, a wandering Sadhu came to her home and gave a doll of Sri Krishna to her. This doll became her constant companion from then on and she became a devotee of Lord Krishna.  Then another incident happened which added a new dimension to her devotion. When she was witnessing a marriage procession with her mother, she asked her mother in all innocence as to whom she will marry. Her mother replied in jest that it would be her Krishna only.  From that day she considered herself as the spouse of the Lord and from this resolve she did not waver even in all her trials and tribulations of married life.  

She was married at an early age to Prince Bhoj Raj of Chittore. She was not happy with her marriage as she considered herself already married to Lord Krishna.  Anyway she obeyed her husband’s commands implicitly, but after her household duties were over, she would disappear into the temple of Lord Krishna, worshipping, singing and dancing before the Lord daily.  She refused to worship their family deity, Devi Tulja Bhavani, with the plea that she was already committed to Lord Krishna and she cannot even think of any other God. She revered sadhus and was often in their company.  Sometimes carried away by the ecstasy of devotion she will be in the street singing and dancing.   All these were not to the liking of palace ladies and they started poisoning the mind of her husband against her.  At one time hearing noises of talking from her room he rushed in with sword in hand, only to find her playing with her doll and talking to it.

But the matters came to a head when Mughal emperor, Akbar, and Tansen paid a visit to hear her songs, disguising themselves as sadhus.  Without knowing their identity she entertained them.  Akbar was so moved by her soul-stirring songs that he placed an emerald necklace at the feet of her idol before he left.   The news somehow reached her husband and he became furious as the kingdom of Mewar was at war with the Mughal Empire.  He told Mira Bai that she had brought disgrace to the family and ordered that she should end her life by drowning as an act of atonement.   As she was entering into the water, Lord Krishna appeared before her and asked her to come to Brindavan where she could worship Him in peace.

She came out of water and went on foot to Brindavan and there she stayed getting her food as Bhiksha and singing and praying.  People even from Chittore came to see her.  Her husband also came in disguise to see and hear her and then feeling repentant that he had wronged her, he revealed himself and begged her to come back.  When she came to know who he was, she prostrated before him and returned with him to Chittore, but her attitude  remained unchanged:  

“Some revile me, others applaud,
I simply follow my incomprehensible road
A razor thin path but you meet some good people,

A terrible path but you hear a true word”  she sang in one of her Bhajans. 

Not only her attitude but even that of her in-laws did not change. So when her husband died before long, fighting the Mughals, they saw an easy way to get rid of her by asking her to join her husband’s body in Sati.   But she refused stating that her real husband, Giridhar Gopal is not dead and that she will not ascend the mortal husband’s funeral pyre.  This infuriated them.  Her brother-in-law Vikramaditya tried a few tricks to get rid of her by indirect means.  He mixed poison in the prasad and gave her but it had no effect.  He put a snake in the basket and sent it to her as a garland for the Lord.  When she opened she found only a nice garland for the Lord. Then he sent her a bed of nails, fully covering the nails, for her to sleep on. When she lay down on it, it became a bed of roses.  As in the case of Prahlad, her Lord saved her every time they tried to trick her to death.  She left for Merat, where also she was not accepted as they felt she was not conforming to the code for Rajput widows.  So she went back to Brindavan to which place He had beckoned her earlier.

In Brindavan, Mirabai spent her time singing Bhajans and in ecstatic communion with her Lord, Sri Krishna, loving Him with all her heart as an ananya bhaktai, without any hindrance. She lapsed into Mahabhava frequently imagining herself as a Gopi and going mad in pure love for her beloved Lord which she expressed in Bhajan as:

In pain I wander from door to door,

But could not find a doctor.

Says Mira: Harken, my Master,

Mira’s pain will subside

When Shyam comes as the doctor. 

In Brindavan she wanted to meet and pay her respects to Rupa Goswami, head of the Vaishnavite mutt in Brindavan.  But he declined to see her as he was not allowing any woman in his presence.  She shot back in reply that it was strange that there was a male other than Giridhar Gopal in Brindavan as they were all only Gopis in His presence.  Rupa Goswami realised his mistake and the greatness of Mira Bai and himself went and paid his respects to her. After some time she went on a pilgrimage singing and dancing her way and ended up in Dwaraka where she merged into the Murthy of Lord Krisna there.

She describes herself  as Sri Hari’s slave in her Bhajan as follows:  

Mira's lord is Hari, the indestructible.

My lord, I have taken refuge with you, Thy slave.

Like her Lord, her name is also indestructible through her Bhajans and boundless love for the Lord.  The spiritual teacher Sri. Chinmoy sums it up as, “Mirabai was a devotee of the high, higher, highest order. Among the saints of India, she is absolutely unparalleled. She composed many, many Bhajans, which are prayerful songs to God. Each song Mirabai wrote expressed her inspiration, aspiration and sleepless self-giving”

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