Meerabai Jayanti Celebrated on 13th October 2019

Meera Bai (circa 1498-1547) was a great Hindu poet and ardent devotee of Lord Krishna. Meerabai Jayanti was celebrated in honour of Meerabai birthday.

Meerabai Jayanti - Legend:

Meera was born to King Rajput Ratansingh of Kurki, Udaipur, in the year 1499. She lost her mother very early. They taught him religion, politics and music. She was attended by her grandparents who were fiery devotees of Lord Vishnu. She also began to worship Lord Krishna. She was married to Bhoj Raj, the prince of Mewar in 1516. He was wounded in battle and died in 1521. Finally, her father and father-in-law died. Vikram Singh became the ruler of Mewar. From then on, many attempts were made to kill Meera Bai, but she remained unharmed. Her intense devotion to Lord Krishna was not favoured, and therefore he was mentally harassed. It is said that once a poisonous snake was kept in the flower basket from which she was picking flowers for Lord Krishna, however, the snake became a wreath when she picked it up. She was so immersed in her devotion to Lord Krishna that she believed she was married to Lord Krishna. Meera Bai went on a pilgrimage in Vrindavan. She composed some immortal lyric poems dedicated to Lord Krishna. In Vrindavan, she also met several devotees of Krishna. It is believed that she was a disciple of Guru Ravidas, Tulsidas and Rupa Goswami. In the year 1546, she went to Dwarka. According to legends, in 1547, Meera Bai miraculously disappeared into a temple when merged with an idol of Lord Krishna.

Lord Krishna was not an illusion, but true for Meera.

‘Humans are generally made up of body, mind and many emotions. This is the reason why most people cannot do anything without dedicating their body, mind and emotions. For some people, this surrender, beyond the body, mind and emotions, came to a totally different land, where it became the ultimate truth for them. One of those people was Mirabai, who believed that Krishna was her husband. Mira was so indispensable to Sri Krishna that at the age of eight, he had married her in the mind. The intensity of their expressions was so intense that Shri Krishna became a reality for them. There were no hallucinations for Mira, it was a fact that Krishna used to sit with her and wander around her. Meerabai's emotions are reflected in this poem.

Meerabai Jayanti Celebrations and Rituals:

There are no temples dedicated to Meera Bai. She is considered as an epitome of devotion. Every year, on the auspicious occasion of the anniversary of Meerabai's birth, Chittorgarh district officials, together with Meera Smriti Sansthan or Meera Memorial Trust, organize a three-day Meera Mahotsav, where eminent musicians and singers participate. The puja rituals, discussions, musical events are held during these three days. In other parts of the country, Temples of Lord Krishna organizes special bids and kirtans with the beautiful lyric bhajans of Meerabai.

At the age of 30, Mirabai went on a pilgrimage to Mathura, Vrindavana and finally to Dwarka. She spent most of her time praying and worshiping Krishna. Her touching devotional songs are sung in India even today. She was a saint in the tradition of the sixteenth-century Bhakti Movement who followed the path of salvation by devotion. Other saints of this movement are Kabir, Guru Nanak, Ramananda, Chaitanya.

Mirabai was a follower of the Saguna de Brahman worshiper class. They believed that after death, the Aatma (our soul) and the Parmaatma (the supreme Aatma or God) will combine. She considered Krishna as her husband, lord, lover and teacher. An exceptional feature of Mirabai's poetry is that she gave herself completely to Krishna's love with the use of subtle erotic images. Her writings were both spiritual and sensual. She firmly believed that in her previous life she was one of Vrindavan's gopis, deeply in love with Krishna. Like the gopis, her only reason for her life was spiritual and physical union with her Lord.

Traditionally, Mirabai's poems are called pada, a term that 14th-century preachers used for small spiritual songs. It usually consists of simple rhythms and contains a refrain within itself. Her anthology of songs is known as Padavali. She used Vraja-bhasha, a dialect of Hindi spoken in Vrindavan and its surroundings in her poems. It is popularly believed that in a state of ecstasy he disappeared at the Krishna temple in Dwarka and finally joined her lord.