Since time immemorial, humans have personified Forces of Nature and its many expressions, for it is impossible to describe this Force. It is easier to develop a relationship with The Force when we have personifications we can build a relationship with, no different than building a relationship with another person— at first 😉
With that said, on the topic of Love and true freedom, let us speak briefly about Mira Bai.
Courage in the face of Persecution
This is a fundamental that Mira Bai represents, however this courage in the face of persecution was a vehicle of her dharma, not the dharma itself.
Her dharma is Love, Love with a capital L.
I suppose, when entering a certain state of consciousness within ourselves, this may very well be the dharma for us all.
It has been said that when you reach a certain level of awareness about the truth of who you are (and you who are not), you no longer have to look for dharma — there’s no where that dharma isn’t. It’s everything, everywhere, everyone.
The Wisdom of Love - Awareness
The altruistic heart, the bodhicitta, is unconditional kindness towards all beings, ready to manifest at all times. It’s a way of being in the world for others that is cultivated until it permeates ones entire being.
It does not mean catering to the wishes and whims of others without discrimination, and it certainly does not mean wishing success to those who pursue harmful goals.
Love and compassion must be informed by wisdom. This is based on understanding the immediate and ultimate causes of suffering.
By suffering we mean not just the obvious sufferings such as disease, war, famine and poverty, but also their deep causes, namely the mental afflictions.
As long as our mind is clouded in confusion, hatred, attachment, jealousy and arrogance, suffering in all its forms will always manifest.
Buddha teaches that the source of these mental obstructions is ignorance of the natural of beings and things, which creates a gulf between our perceptions and real reality.
We take as permanent what is actually impermanent. What we take as happiness is often only a cause of suffering, for instance wealth, power, fame and fleeting pleasures.
These things appear as inherently pleasant or unpleasant, and beings as inherently good or bad. This mistake of the intellect leads to powerful reflexes of attachment and aversion, which ultimately lead to our suffering.
-Jai Dev Singh, Shining Jewel Eclipse Retreat, October 2023
The story of Mira Bai is an excellent example of this. Love requires discernment in order to survive in this world. However, we often get that twisted when we’re operating in fear and ego, internally translating it as:
“I’m gonna shut down to everyone until someone comes along who checks ALL the boxes and is perfect, never mind the work I have to do on myself, or that a perfect person doesn’t exist and is entirely subjective. Until then I will become a hermit or engage in dynamics solely to satisfy my desire for pleasure, but I will never let my guard down or let anyone get close to me.”
Sound familiar? This is how parasitic and deceitful dynamics are born, now commonly referred to as “situationships”, although I know plenty of marriages like this as well.
Onward:
I’ll share about Mira Bai briefly, you can find more information at the link at the bottom of the post.
Mira Bai was a bhakti poet and mystic from Rajasthan, India. She became known as the central poet saint of the bhakti movement during a period of warfare between Muslims and Hindus in India.
The bhakti movement is a spiritual path focused on the cultivation of a personal love for the divine. It is a devotional form of worship that believes anyone can have direct access to the divine, regardless of sex, caste or religion.
Mira Bai became the symbol of people’s suffering under the caste system and the persecution that ensued if anyone tried to defy social and political standing.
Her poems are lyrical padas, love songs using metric verses. They are widely known and cherished because they relate on an ultimate freedom that Mira Bai lived out in her love for Krishna (or, her personification for the Divine).
Mira Bai was a princess forced to marry a king, but she saw her true husband to be Krishna, and devoted herself to Krishna. This obviously caused a lot of conflict because she never conformed to the customs of what a wife is supposed to do, because she never willingly married her husband, and never viewed him as such.
Anarchist by Way of Love:
Her love pointed her toward the Divine, so that is who she remained loyal to. She did not recognize any other authority.
When her husband was killed in the war, and I believe he was fighting on the side of Islam against Hindus, she did not attend the funeral ceremony. Many attacks and attempts were made against her for her non-compliance to social customs, but it is said that the Divine (or Krishna) protected her each time.
It is a testament to the many layers of Love, and knowing how to discern Signal from noise. Knowing how to follow Signal and reject the barrage of noise in society, the endless voices and outlets that tell you who to be and what to do, regardless of the consequence, is what Mira Bai is an example of.
That type of courage is what leads to freedom, knowing what is true and right in your soul, and following that unwaveringly.
At the end of this passage, it asks a question.
What holds me back from expressing my truth?
There is an intention or declaration one may say:
Love is what sets me free. I am married to my own soul.
“Love isn’t ethical. Love isn’t bound by any idea of what’s socially acceptable.”
Often, the chains that bind us come from social programming/conditioning and the expectations we perceive and feel from those around us, beginning with our earliest memories.
We grow up, yes, but the voices we internalized in early childhood soon turn into the inner-narrator of our lives, AKA the voice we think is our mind.
When we’re listening to this voice, do we ever stop to question whose voice that is? Do we wonder who we are talking to? Or do we think we are the mind?
Good news is, we are not the mind. We are not even the body. Of course these are parts of us, but we do not stop there.
The practice and science of Kundalini Yoga deals with getting in touch with the part of us that doesn’t die — that which lives on, and magnifying it. Purifying all that is not us (social programming, conditioning, etc) and standing in all that truly is (soul).
Side note: since there is a lunar eclipse this evening, if you’d like to join for a free Kundalini Yoga webcast hosted by Jai Dev Singh at Life Force Academy, you can tune in anywhere in the world for free here at this link.
If you cannot attend live, the replay will be sent to your email, and you can practice on your own time.
“Love is what sets us free from the expectations that bind us. Love, in whatever way it finds us, asks us to stay true to our own soul.”
In order to leave the doors open and wide for all to have their own experiences, I am not going to share mine, as I am still in the middle of this myself.
I shared the Kundalini Yoga webcast with you because practicing that form of yoga is one of my greatest tools for "tuning my instrument” if you will. It is how I can access higher realms of consciousness and clear away static, fog, fear, anger, resentment, anything that is limiting.
This is not a practice of ignoring those things, it is a practice of allowing them, seeing into them, and transforming them. It is also an excavation of the subconscious.
It is getting in touch with the part of you that doesn’t die, and magnifying it.
The Truth of what Love wants from us lives within us all.
Think of a computer or a phone that isn’t running well anymore because there are too many old files on it that haven’t been deleted. Storage is maxxed out, you can’t process any new information, and it barely works.
Everyone is familiar with this, yes?
Our brains and energy fields are no different.
May you find all that you are, by allowing all that you are not, to be blessed and set free.
Note: The Oracle Card of Mira Bai and the written text surrounding her is by Meggan Watterson and Lisbeth Cheever-Gessaman. You can find the Divine Feminine Oracle deck anywhere, or here at this link.
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Excellent read, as always!
I think the last time I pulled a card from that deck, it was Mira Bai. It fit my situation then and still does. Definitely stuff I needed to read today, as always. I appreciate you, my friend. 💕