Poet Saints essays

Poet Saints essays Teachings of the Poet-Saints Mira generally speaks of "the importance of the name of God and praises the True Guru in her poetry" (Hawley, 1977). Her poems are not complex in nature, and very fluid. The emotions explored in her work are those related to women; typically Mira explores the same type of issues, especially those related to a "young brides, marriage and woman's relationship to Krishna" (Mirabai, 1977). Mira often portrays herself as married to Krishna or Krishna as yogi in her work. Her poems somewhat defy different ideas in Hinduism however. Mira imagines her marriage to Krishna as a "liaison between two Yogis'" which goes against standard Hindi belief, because a yogi must leave behind his/her family and former life, therefore two would not be married to one another (Hawley, 1977). Many of these ideas are expressed in poem no. 177 by Mirabai. The poem begins with Mirabai exalting the Yogi, to be interpreted as Krishna, and she refers to him as "my friend, the clever one/ whose mind is on Siva and the Snake." Mirabai portrays herself in this poem as a yogini to the yogi. She talks of coming home, which can be interpreted as going with God, an idea that is prevalent in much of Hinduism. The themes of God and love are also very present throughout the poem. In line 8, the poet states "take me, guard me with your guardian mercy/ please." The message of this poem is that the author would do anything to be with the all-knowing yogi, including giving up her mind and body. God is all powerful and very loved according to the author in this poem. Images used in this poem include visions of prayer beads, jewelry, yogi cloth and rain. She uses these images to define her image of self in the poem, comparing the image of herself to the image of yogi. She talks of becoming a yogi in the following stanza: ...