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O my friends

Mirabai, Mirabai poetry, Yoga / Hindu, Yoga / Hindu poetry, Vaishnava (Krishna/Rama) poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry,  poetry by Mirabai
(1498 - 1565?) Timeline

English version by
Jane Hirshfield

Yoga / Hindu : Vaishnava (Krishna/Rama)
16th Century

O my friends,
What can you tell me of Love,
Whose pathways are filled with strangeness?
When you offer the Great One your love,
At the first step your body is crushed.
Next be ready to offer your head as his seat.
Be ready to orbit his lamp like a moth giving in to the light,
To live in the deer as she runs toward the hunter's call,
In the partridge that swallows hot coals for love of the moon,
In the fish that, kept from the sea, happily dies.
Like a bee trapped for life in the closing of the sweet flower,
Mira has offered herself to her Lord.
She says, the single Lotus will swallow you whole.

 

 

-- from The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, by Stephen Mitchell

Amazon.com

 

Themes

  Fire
  Garden
  Honey
  Light
  Lotus


Recommended Books


The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, by Stephen Mitchell
For Love of the Dark One: Songs of Mirabai, Translated by Andrew Schelling
Holy Fire: Nine Visionary Poets and the Quest for Enlightenment, Edited by Daniel Halpern
Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, Translated by Daniel Ladinsky
Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems, Translated by Robert Bly

More >>

 

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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2009 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.