Mystical Verses
With passionate practices
I held the reins secure on my mind
and made the breath one column.
Then the new moon’s clear
nectar descending into me,
nothing pouring into Nothing.
(Lalla: Naked Song, Translations by Coleman Barks, p. 69)
“Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
~Rumi
Here Mirabai is sharing with a friend the depth of her understanding of the relationship between passionate love and devotion, between longing and union. She recognizes how the human form, and specifically the female form, is the ideal vessel for this deep desire to bring spiritual awakening. Mira does not back away from her pain and resistance, but goes towards it, ever deeper, til that which keeps her up at night transforms her into the deepest awakening.... (from What the Yoginis and Dakinis Know)
"Listen, my friend, this road is the heart opening,
Kissing his feet, resistance broken, tears all night.
If we could reach the Lord through immersion in water,
I would have asked to be born a fish in this life.
If we could reach him through nothing but berries and wild nuts
Then surely the saints would have been monkeys when they came from the womb!
If we could reach him by munching on lettuce and dry leaves
Then the goats would surely get to the Holy One before us!
If the worship of stone statues could bring us all the way,
I would have adored a granite mountain years ago."
Mirabai says: "The heat of midnight tears will bring you to God."
"Because the idol is Your face, I have become an idolater.
Because the wine is from Your cup, I have become a drunkard.
ln the existence of Your love, I have become nonexistent.
This nonexistence linked to You is better than all existence."
~Rumi
Mira the Bee:
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: Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems, versions by Robert Bly and Jane Hirshfield. Boston: Beacon Press. P. 46
Close the language door and open the love window.
~Rumi
Her Breath is like honey spiced with cloves,
Her mouth delicious as a ripened mango.
To press kisses on her skin is to taste the lotus,
The deep cave of her navel hides a store of spices.
What pleasure lies beyond, the tongue knows,
But cannot speak of it.
(Srngarakarika, Kumaradadatta, 12th century)
From the beginning of my life I have been looking for your face, but today I have seen it.
Today I have seen the charm, the beauty, the unfathomable grace of the face that I was looking for.
Today I have found you, and those who laughed and scorned me yesterday are sorry that they
were not looking as I did. I am bewildered by the magnificence of your beauty,
and wish to see you with a hundred eyes.
My heart has burned with passion and has searched forever for this wondrous beauty
that I now behold. I am ashamed to call this love human, and afraid of God to call it divine.
Your fragrant breath, like the morning breeze, has come to the stillness of the garden.
You have breathed new life into me.
I have become your sunshine, and also your shadow. My soul is screaming in ecstasy.
Every fiber of my being is in love with you. Your effulgence has lit a fire in my heart,
and you have made radiant for me the earth and sky.
My arrow of love has arrived at the target. I am in the house of mercy,
and my heart is a place of prayer.
~Rumi
The Time Has Come
The time has come... the time has come
to break all my promises
tear apart all chains
and cast away all advice
disassemble the heavens
link by link
and break at once
all lovers' ties
with the sword of death
put cotton inside
both my ears
and close them to
all words of wisdom
crash the door and
enter the chamber
where all sweet
things are hidden
how long can i
beg and bargain
for the things of this world
while love is waiting
how long before
i can rise beyond
how i am and
what i am
~Rumi
Some people abandon their homes.
Others abandon hermitages.
All this renunciation does nothing,
if you’re not deeply conscious.
Day and night, be aware
with each breath,
and live there.
(Lalla: Naked Song, translated by Coleman Barks, p. 49)
Incurable Desire
Is there any cure for desire-disease?
Oh, Sakhi! Please tell me of one.
Desire in the morning,
Desire in the night,
Desire throughout the day.
If I forsake desire,
Desire nonetheless comes to catch me
Another way.
Better would be the funeral pyre,
Then, at least, the whole man would burn;
But the fire of desire
Kills not, just sears, keep on searing.
Sarat sings:
Oh, lovely Radha,
In the end you stand lonely,
Except for the desire;
Is it the one who heals
The wounds of all worldly desires
The one you desire?
~ Sarat
Die! Die!
Die in this love!
If you die in this love
your soul will be renewed
Die! Die!
Doen't fear the death of that which is known
If you die to the temporal
you will become timeless
Die! Die!
Cut off those chains
that hold you prisoner
to the world of attachment
Die! Die!
Die to the deathless
and you will be eternal
Die! Die!
and come out of this cloud
When you leave the cloud
you will be the effulgent moon
Die! Die!
Die to the din and the noise
of mundane concerns
In the silence of love
you will find the spark of life
~Rumi
I held the reins secure on my mind
and made the breath one column.
Then the new moon’s clear
nectar descending into me,
nothing pouring into Nothing.
(Lalla: Naked Song, Translations by Coleman Barks, p. 69)
“Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”
~Rumi
Here Mirabai is sharing with a friend the depth of her understanding of the relationship between passionate love and devotion, between longing and union. She recognizes how the human form, and specifically the female form, is the ideal vessel for this deep desire to bring spiritual awakening. Mira does not back away from her pain and resistance, but goes towards it, ever deeper, til that which keeps her up at night transforms her into the deepest awakening.... (from What the Yoginis and Dakinis Know)
"Listen, my friend, this road is the heart opening,
Kissing his feet, resistance broken, tears all night.
If we could reach the Lord through immersion in water,
I would have asked to be born a fish in this life.
If we could reach him through nothing but berries and wild nuts
Then surely the saints would have been monkeys when they came from the womb!
If we could reach him by munching on lettuce and dry leaves
Then the goats would surely get to the Holy One before us!
If the worship of stone statues could bring us all the way,
I would have adored a granite mountain years ago."
Mirabai says: "The heat of midnight tears will bring you to God."
"Because the idol is Your face, I have become an idolater.
Because the wine is from Your cup, I have become a drunkard.
ln the existence of Your love, I have become nonexistent.
This nonexistence linked to You is better than all existence."
~Rumi
Mira the Bee:
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: Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems, versions by Robert Bly and Jane Hirshfield. Boston: Beacon Press. P. 46
Close the language door and open the love window.
~Rumi
Her Breath is like honey spiced with cloves,
Her mouth delicious as a ripened mango.
To press kisses on her skin is to taste the lotus,
The deep cave of her navel hides a store of spices.
What pleasure lies beyond, the tongue knows,
But cannot speak of it.
(Srngarakarika, Kumaradadatta, 12th century)
From the beginning of my life I have been looking for your face, but today I have seen it.
Today I have seen the charm, the beauty, the unfathomable grace of the face that I was looking for.
Today I have found you, and those who laughed and scorned me yesterday are sorry that they
were not looking as I did. I am bewildered by the magnificence of your beauty,
and wish to see you with a hundred eyes.
My heart has burned with passion and has searched forever for this wondrous beauty
that I now behold. I am ashamed to call this love human, and afraid of God to call it divine.
Your fragrant breath, like the morning breeze, has come to the stillness of the garden.
You have breathed new life into me.
I have become your sunshine, and also your shadow. My soul is screaming in ecstasy.
Every fiber of my being is in love with you. Your effulgence has lit a fire in my heart,
and you have made radiant for me the earth and sky.
My arrow of love has arrived at the target. I am in the house of mercy,
and my heart is a place of prayer.
~Rumi
The Time Has Come
The time has come... the time has come
to break all my promises
tear apart all chains
and cast away all advice
disassemble the heavens
link by link
and break at once
all lovers' ties
with the sword of death
put cotton inside
both my ears
and close them to
all words of wisdom
crash the door and
enter the chamber
where all sweet
things are hidden
how long can i
beg and bargain
for the things of this world
while love is waiting
how long before
i can rise beyond
how i am and
what i am
~Rumi
Some people abandon their homes.
Others abandon hermitages.
All this renunciation does nothing,
if you’re not deeply conscious.
Day and night, be aware
with each breath,
and live there.
(Lalla: Naked Song, translated by Coleman Barks, p. 49)
Incurable Desire
Is there any cure for desire-disease?
Oh, Sakhi! Please tell me of one.
Desire in the morning,
Desire in the night,
Desire throughout the day.
If I forsake desire,
Desire nonetheless comes to catch me
Another way.
Better would be the funeral pyre,
Then, at least, the whole man would burn;
But the fire of desire
Kills not, just sears, keep on searing.
Sarat sings:
Oh, lovely Radha,
In the end you stand lonely,
Except for the desire;
Is it the one who heals
The wounds of all worldly desires
The one you desire?
~ Sarat
Die! Die!
Die in this love!
If you die in this love
your soul will be renewed
Die! Die!
Doen't fear the death of that which is known
If you die to the temporal
you will become timeless
Die! Die!
Cut off those chains
that hold you prisoner
to the world of attachment
Die! Die!
Die to the deathless
and you will be eternal
Die! Die!
and come out of this cloud
When you leave the cloud
you will be the effulgent moon
Die! Die!
Die to the din and the noise
of mundane concerns
In the silence of love
you will find the spark of life
~Rumi
In the orchard and rose garden
I long to see your face.
In the taste of Sweetness
I long to kiss your lips.
In the shadows of passion
I long for your love.
Oh! Supreme Lover!
Let me leave aside my worries.
The flowers are blooming
with the exultation of your Spirit.
By Allah!
I long to escape the prison of my ego
and lose myself
in the mountains and the desert.
These sad and lonely people tire me.
I long to revel in the drunken frenzy of your love
and feel the strength of Rustam in my hands.
I’m sick of mortal kings.
I long to see your light.
With lamps in hand
the sheiks and mullahs roam
the dark alleys of these towns
not finding what they seek.
You are the Essence of the Essence,
The intoxication of Love.
I long to sing your praises
but stand mute
with the agony of wishing in my heart.
~Rumi
I long to see your face.
In the taste of Sweetness
I long to kiss your lips.
In the shadows of passion
I long for your love.
Oh! Supreme Lover!
Let me leave aside my worries.
The flowers are blooming
with the exultation of your Spirit.
By Allah!
I long to escape the prison of my ego
and lose myself
in the mountains and the desert.
These sad and lonely people tire me.
I long to revel in the drunken frenzy of your love
and feel the strength of Rustam in my hands.
I’m sick of mortal kings.
I long to see your light.
With lamps in hand
the sheiks and mullahs roam
the dark alleys of these towns
not finding what they seek.
You are the Essence of the Essence,
The intoxication of Love.
I long to sing your praises
but stand mute
with the agony of wishing in my heart.
~Rumi