Mirabai
Indian Bhakti poet-saint, princess of Rajasthan, and one of the most beloved female voices in the long history of Hindu devotional literature. Born around 1498 into the royal family of Merta, she renounced her aristocratic life after the death of her husband and devoted herself entirely to her chosen Beloved, the dark-skinned cowherd god Krishna. Her poems — sung in Rajasthani and Hindi by ordinary devotees for over five centuries — are some of the most ecstatic and uncompromising love poetry in any language. Where most Bhakti poets remained within the social structures of their time, Mirabai walked through caste, marriage, and royal expectation as if they were not real, and her verses still carry that scent of freedom.
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Quotes by Mirabai
108 quotes“I have drunk the wine of his name. The world's wine cannot reach me.”
“My beloved walks through the chambers of my heart at midnight.”
“Tell my beloved I have been crying for him.”
“Where there is love, there is no fear. Where there is fear, there is no love.”
“My garland is woven of his name.”
“I drink the cup of poison and find it sweet — for the dark one is in it.”
“My beloved is the perfume in the rose. My beloved is the song in the bird.”
“I have abandoned the world and the world has abandoned me. We are equal.”
“Without his sight, my eyes are useless.”
“Sing his name in every breath, dear sister.”
“What I have, I have only because he gave it.”
“Other women bind their hair for husbands. Mira binds hers for the cowherd.”
“My door is always open for him. My heart is always open for him.”
“In the dust of his feet, I find my throne.”
“His flute is calling. The whole forest is listening.”
“My beloved comes in the form of every guest.”
“Knowing him, I know all. Not knowing him, I know nothing.”
“I am his servant. I am his bride. I am his.”
“Mira's Lord is the Mountain-Holder, the dark one.”
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