Mirabai's Krishn - Mandir , Jaipur

On the climb up to the Amber Fort in Jaipur, if you chance upon an ancient,beautiful temple,do break your ascent and go inside. The locals call it Mira ki Mandir and it is centuries old. Inside the cool, calm interiors is a black wooden idol of Lord Krishna-Mirabai's Giridhara Gopala. There is somehthing about this beautiful image that strikes you speechless and moves you immeasurably. I felt a strange kind of aweinspiring peace engulf me and was transported to some place in time that seemed to be beyond me and at the same time that embraced and acknowledged my "spiritual" being in its presence. The Pujari told me that this was the "very same" idol that Mirabai had held close to her bruised,tortured heart and worshipped with all her devotion.It took a while for this information to sink in and once it did I was lost in wonderment -
Being able to visit that Mirabai ki Mandir was an unexpected privilege and delight, something that came my way without any warning and no extra effort on my part and therefore all the more precious.To me Mirabai's bhakti has always seemd a very courageous, independent and private form of devotion - private but never hidden. She put her love for her Lord into the most moving poetry and shared it with all the world to feel and experience . And here, in this temple , her Lord Himself was enshrined for all to see and worship. When I spoke of this experience to a dear , young friend of mine he immediatley sent me one of Mirabai's most beautiful songs which i would love to share here.

Strange is the Path of love


Do not mention the name of love,
O my simple-minded companion.
Strange is the path When you offer your love.
Your body is crushed at the first step.

If you want to offer love
Be prepared to cut off your head
And sit on it.
Be like the moth,
Which circles the lamp and offers its body.
Be like the deer, which, on hearing the horn,
Offers its head to the hunter.
Be like the partridge,
Which swallows burning coals
In love of the moon.
Be like the fish
Which yields up its life
When separated from the sea.
Be like the bee,
Entrapped in the closing petals of the lotus.

Mira's lord is the courtly Giridhara.
She says: Offer your mind
To those lotus feet.



- Mirabai