Transcript
WEBVTT
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Hello and welcome to the Bearded Mystic Podcast and I'm your host Rahul N Singh.
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Today we will be continuing on with this series called Wisdom of the Mystics and as you know last month we looked at the teachings of Ravidas Ji and today we will be looking at the teachings of Mirabai Ji who was also a disciple of Ravidas Ji.
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It was from Ravidas Ji that she was able to see her Lord everywhere.
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So, let's get started with this and there's lots to grasp from Mirabai Ji's teachings.
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Again, it's through the form of poetry.
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And we'll go through the poem and then line by line.
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The first poem.
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My friend, I went to the market and bought the Dark One.
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You claim by night, I claim by day.
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Actually, I was beating a drum all the time I was buying him.
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You say I gave too much, I say too little.
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Actually, I put him on a scale before I bought him.
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What I paid was my social body, my town body, my family body, and all my inherited jewels.
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Mirabai says The Dark One is my husband now.
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Be with me when I lie down.
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You promised me this in an earlier life.
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So this is poetry that takes things to a new level and it's well known in the bhakti movement to utilize the Lord as your husband and to refer to yourself as the bride, as a seeker, as a disciple, as someone wanting to unite with the husband or with the Lord.
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Let's go into these lines.
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They're very hard to understand without context.
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And what we can understand of Mira Baiji was that she was a princess.
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She was married to a king and she was part of a royal family, a royal dynasty.
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And you can imagine if she is carrying a murti of Sri Krishna everywhere, and she's saying that this is my husband.
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That's not going to go down well.
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But in her devotion, in the fervor of her devotion, this is what she was saying.
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So she said, my friend, I went to the market and bought the dark one.
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So she bought a murti of the dark one.
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You claim by night, I claim by day.
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She goes, you know, whenever we brought it, it doesn't really matter.
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And then she says, actually, I was beating a drum all the time I was buying him.
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So, what is that drum?
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The way I was trying to think about this, because I was thinking, what does this really mean?
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You know, beating a drum all the time.
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I was thinking the heartbeat.
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You know, the heart was beating all the time.
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When I was buying him and if we think about when our heartbeat is racing and we're going towards somebody we really adore and love, our heart will be racing, we can hear the beat of our heart.
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And so she's saying that she doesn't know if there's like day or night actually because her heart's beating all the time because she's in that fever of love and devotion towards the Dark One.
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The dark one here is Sri Krishna.
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And we know that Krishna means the dark one.
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So she goes, my friend, I went to the market and brought the dark one.
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You claim by night, I claim by day.
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Also, the difference here is that night can imply that ignorance or there is something not right with what she's doing and by day she's claiming, well it's in daylight, it's in full illumination that I brought him.
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The accusation can be that someone can be accusing her of sleeping away with somebody else and she's saying, I didn't do that, I did it by day and everyone can see what I'm doing.
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I'm worshipping in the day.
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Everywhere, you know, I go, I'm worshipping this one murti, this of Sri Krishna.
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And then because she brought it and they're saying you're ignorant because you're in darkness.
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You brought it at night.
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They claim that you say I gave too much.
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So they claim that you pay too much for this.
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The murti is not worth that much value and she says, I say too little.
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How can you put some value on my Lord is basically is what she's saying.
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And she says, actually, I put him on a scale before I bought him.
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Says, you have no evidence of what you're saying.
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I'm telling you, I put him on a scale.
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I can tell you, I brought him for too little.
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He's worth so much more.
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Then she says, what I paid was my social body, my town body, my family body and all my inherited jewels.
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I've given everything to my lord.
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That's how much its value is.
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That's the real value.
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And then Mirabai says, the dark one is my husband now.
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What you've done now, by saying that I'm sleeping around or you're accusing me of such things, because you're not understanding my lord, and my love for the lord, my devotion to the lord.
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That is my husband now.
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Do not say that I have another husband.
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This is what she's saying.
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So she says the dark one is my husband now.
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Sri Krishna is my husband now.
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And then she says, be with me when I lie down.
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You promised me this in an earlier life.
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So she said in some previous life, you promised me this.
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Now grant my wish.
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Lie down with me.
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So it's a very beautiful poem, again showing the love and devotion that happens between the beloved and the seeker, the disciple, and this is what happens actually, when we are in that fever of devotion, when we are really feeling intense love for the one, and it does go beyond social norms, it does go beyond what is seen as acceptable in society.
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As she says, you know, I've paid my social body now, the social body that I'm a queen, I've sold it.
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The town body, that I belong to this place.
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I've sold that too.
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My family body.
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You say that I'm part of this family.
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I've sold that too.
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And all my inherited jewels, the things that is my inheritance.
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I've sold all that.
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How many of us could do that?
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That's the question.
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So, Mira Baiji is very wonderful in what she's saying and what she's doing is, she's stating the accusation.
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Then she's saying, well actually, this is my evidence.
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Poem number two.
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I give my heart without fear to the beloved.
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As the polish goes into the gold, I have gone into him.
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Through many lives, I heard only the outer music.
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Now the teacher has whispered into my ears, and familiar ties have gone the way of weak thread.
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Mira has met the energy that lifts mountains.
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That good luck now is a home.
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She says, I give my heart without fear to the Beloved, who's the Beloved?
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This Brahman.
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I give my heart without fear, there's no fear left, there's no, I'm not scared.
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Even if I lose everything, it's fine, because I have the beloved.
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And she says, this is wonderful, look at the line, as the polish goes into the gold, I have gone into him.
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Think of the intensity here, when the polish goes into the gold, the gold shines.
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So when Mirabai goes into The Lord.
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The Lord shines from her.
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The One shines from her.
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Brahman shines from her.
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This is what we need to do.
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So, as the polish goes into the gold, I have gone into him.
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When we use this knowledge of Brahman, when we...
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We use that Brahm Gyan and we allow that Brahm Gyan use that as a polish.
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We will enter into Brahman too, realizing we were always in Brahman, we were always in him.
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Then she says, through many lives, I have, I heard only the outer music, I only heard music around me, through many lives, I never learned the inner voice, the inner sound, the inner wisdom.
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I only heard wisdom outside, there is God outside, there is devotion outside.
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Then she says, Now the teacher has whispered into my ears, and familiar ties have gone the way of weak thread.
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Now, if you know, if there's a garment that's not sewn properly, we know that, that thread breaks easily and that garment is ruined, it, it, it breaks away.
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Now, she says here, Now the teacher has whispered into my ears, so now the whisper has entered into me.
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No outer music.
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Now I hear the inner music of the divine.
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Now I hear the inner music of divinity.
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Now I am completely absorbed in that sound of the divine.
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That's what she's talking about, who's her teacher, Ravi Das Ji.
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And familiar ties have gone the way, who I was associated with, who I was attached with, all there, they've all gone.
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They've all gone.
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They were not strong.
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Why?
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Because their way of linking with her, the thread, was weak.
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It was based on body and mind.
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But she is looking for that thread which is unbreakable, that cannot be breached.
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What is that?
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The thread of wisdom, the thread of Brahm Gyan.
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That's what she's talking about.
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Then she says Mira has met the energy that lifts mountains.
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That good luck now is her home.
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She's now gone towards that one which can do anything.
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Is now her home.
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That's where her abode is.
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She doesn't need any palace.
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She's living in the One.
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Whoever lives in this ultimate reality, do they need anything else?
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No! Because everywhere is their abode.
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Everywhere is the divine.
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Within is the divine.
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Without is the divine.
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Everywhere that surrounds her is the divine.
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She cannot escape it at all.
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So this is the beauty of Mirabai's poetry if you think about it.
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Let's go to the third poem.
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Mira dances, how can her ankle bells not dance?
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Mira is insane, strangers say that.
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The family's ruined.
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Poison came to the door one day.
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She drank it and laughed.
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I am at Hari's feet.
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I give him body and soul.
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A glimpse of him is water.
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How thirsty I am for that.
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Mira's Lord is the one who lifts mountains, he removes evil from human life.
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Mira's Lord attacks the beings of greed, for safety I go to him.
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This is so beautiful, such a beautiful poem and if we think about the devotion here, it's It's beyond words.
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It's so beautiful.
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She says Mira dances.
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How can her ankle bells not dance?
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If she's dancing, obviously the ghungroo, the ankle bells, are going to dance with her.
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Because she's moving, they move.
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Likewise, how can you say that...
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Mira should dance but the ankle bells cannot dance.
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People get disturbed by seeing the dance of those that cannot hear the music.
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We've heard this line by Nietzsche.
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And it's true.
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She's dancing, why?
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Out of pure joy.
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She doesn't need anything.
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She's in the absorption of the Lord.
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She doesn't need somebody.
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To give her happiness.
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She now has experienced that happiness that has no beginning, that has no end, that has no cause.
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That is Ananda.
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That is bliss.
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And she said Mira is insane strangers say that.
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The family's ruined.
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This is what society will say.
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Society will call you crazy.
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Society will say, look, the family's ruined now, look, they're, they're dancing like mad people, look at the way she's devoted, one way they praise devotion, but if they see it in front of them, then they'll condemn it, that's why people are hypocrites.
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It's just strangers say that, they don't know me, and people are taking their words seriously, they're strangers, they don't know me, they don't know the family, but they say the family's ruined, they say Mira is insane, they don't know me, they don't know who I am, they haven't asked.
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They just made these big claims and she said poison came to the door one day she drank it and laughed.
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People tried to poison her and she just drank it and laughed.
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The poison is the Lord.
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The water is the Lord.
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She says it.
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I am at Hari's feet.
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I give him body and soul.
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A glimpse of him is water how thirsty I am for that.
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She thought the poison was water, so she drank it and laughed because why a glimpse of him is water.
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How thirsty I am for that.
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She's laughing, she's in joy.
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She says I am at Hari's feet, at the Lord's feet, Sri Krishna's feet, Vishnu's feet.
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I give him body and soul.
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This is his body.
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The Atma is his too.
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What is mine?
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That type of surrender is required.
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That is true surrender.
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Not saying I've surrendered, but actually surrendering.
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A glimpse of him is water.
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How thirsty I am for that.
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A drop.
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A glimpse of him, a glimpse of the divine is water.
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She's constantly seeking the divine.
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You know, that's the, the fever of devotion that somebody has.
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They just want to be consumed by that One.
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A glimpse is all they want.
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You know, like those people that are so devoted that they can't wait to meditate in the day.
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They can't wait to remember this Formless.
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They can't wait to just be in meditation, be in satsang, be in joy, be in the remembrance of this Lord, to read the scriptures and absorb the message of the scriptures, absorb the essence of the scriptures, become the scriptures.
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They can't wait for that.
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That's true surrender.
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Then she says, Mira's Lord is the one who lifts mountains.
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He removes evil from human life.
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What is evil in front of the Lord?
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If he can lift mountains, evil is nothing.
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Just surrender to him and he will lift everything for you.
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What evil deeds, what evil thoughts, what evil feelings, he'll get rid of it.
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Just surrender to him.
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Be one with him and watch how it happens.
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Then she says, Mira's Lord attacks the beings of greed.
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For safety I go to Him.
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He is my shelter, he is my refuge, he is my everything.
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When people come to attack me, I'm going to go to Him.
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When people are greedy because they think I should give them attention, I'm going to go to the Lord.
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For safety is with Him.
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Can we say that we feel safe in Brahman?
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Can we say that when we are in adversity, when we're in fear that we'll go to Brahman?
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When we're in happiness and joy, are we always remembering we're in Brahman?
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People of the world can't take devotion.
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A lot of people don't understand devotion.
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They think devotion is for mad people.