Devotion

"Devotion" ~ By Shweta Mitra

This is my first original painting. It originally came to me as a vision during meditation. I was not sure how I was going to be able to make the vision into a painting. However, once I started, it flowed beautifully. The lady in the painting is Mirabai, who is considered to be the epitome of devotion, in India. She has been an inspiration to me in my spiritual path, and I am blessed to have had the opportunity to paint her.

I will end with a poem by Mirabai:

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