Poems by Mirabai Mirabai

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We Do Not

We do not get a human life

Just for the asking.

Birth in a human body

Is the reward for good deeds

In former births.

Life waxes and wanes imperceptibly,

It does not stay long.

The leaf that has once fallen

Mirabai Mirabai

Mine is Gopal

Mine Is Gopal

Mine is Gopal, the Mountain-Holder; there is no one else.

On his head he wears the peacock-crown: He alone is my husband.

Father, mother, brother, relative: I have none to call my own.

I've forsaken both God, and the family's honor: what should I do?

I've sat near the holy ones, and I've lost shame before the people.

I've torn my scarf into shreds; I'm all wrapped up in a blanket.

I took off my finery of pearls and coral, and strung a garland of wildwood flowers.

Mirabai Mirabai

That dark Dweller in Braj

Is my only refuge.

O my companion,

Worldly comfort is an illusion,

As soon you get it, it goes.

I have chosen the Indestructible for my refuge,

Him whom the snake of death

Will not devour.

Mirabai Mirabai

The Plums Tasted

The plums tasted

sweet to the unlettered desert-tribe girl-

but what manners! To chew into each! She was ungainly,

low-caste, ill mannered and dirty,

but the god took the

fruit she'd been sucking.

Why? She'd knew how to love.

She might not distinquish

Mirabai Mirabai

Mine is the Lifter of Mountains

Mine is the lifter of mountains, the

cowherd, and none other.

O sadhus! there is no other—I have seen

the whole world.

I left brothers, I left kindred, I left

all I had.

Sitting near the sadhus, I lost worldly shame.

I looked at the devotees and I was one with

Mirabai Mirabai

In A Sudden

On a sudden,

the sight,

Your look of light,

stills all,

The curd-pot

falls to the ground.

Parents and

brothers

Mirabai Mirabai

The Saffron

The saffron of virtue and contentment

Is dissolved in the water-gun of love and affection.

Pink and red clouds of emotion are flying about,

Limitless colours raining down.

All the covers of the earthen vessel of my body are wide open;

I have thrown away all shame before the world.

Mira's Lord is the Mountain-Holder, the suave lover.

I sacrifice myself in devotion to His lotus feet.

Mirabai Mirabai

I have found

I have found, yes, I have found the wealth of the Divine Name's gem.

My true guru gave me a priceless thing. With his grace, I accepted it.

I found the capital of my several births; I have lost the whole rest of the world.

No one can spend it, no one can steal it. Day by day it increases one and a quarter times.

On the boat of truth, the boatman was my true guru. I came across the ocean of existence.

Mira's Lord is the Mountain-Holder, the suave lover, of whom I merrily, merrily sing.

Mirabai Mirabai

Drink the Nectar

Drink the nectar of the Divine Name, O human! Drink the nectar of the Divine Name!

Leave the bad company, always sit among righteous company. Hearken to the mention of God (for your own sake).

Concupiscence, anger, pride, greed, attachment: wash these out of your consciousness.

Mira's Lord is the Mountain-Holder, the suave lover. Soak yourself in the dye of His colour.

Mirabai Mirabai

Nothing is really mine except Krishna

Nothing is really mine except Krishna.

O my parents, I have searched the world

And found nothing worthy of love.

Hence I am a stranger amidst my kinfolk

And an exile from their company,

Since I seek the companionship of holy men;

There alone do I feel happy,

In the world I only weep.

Mirabai Mirabai

Turn Back?

This infamy, O my Prince,

is delicious!

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.

Mirabai Mirabai

Your Look Of Light

On a sudden,

the sight.

Your look of light

stills all,

stills

all, The curd-pot

falls to the ground.

Parents and

Mirabai Mirabai