I Cannot Live Without You: Selected Poetry of Mirabai and Kabir
Categories: Books, Literature & Fiction, Poetry



Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.29 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-13: 978-0995133334
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0995133336
Publisher: Attar Books
Print length: 122 pages
Publication date: January 11, 2021
subtitle: Paperback – January 11, 2021
author: Visit Amazon's Keith Hill Page search results Keith Hill
review: Editorial Reviews Review Indian spirituality with its richness and wisdom is the sustaining score of I Cannot Live Without You . A tripartite structure is created as two sixteenth century poets, Mirabai and Kabir, speak on either side of the two sacred Upanishads, Ishavashyopanishad and the Kenopanishad , found in the middle of the book. Reading these three parts of I Cannot Live Without You reminded me it's been an eternity since I was hungry for God, pure essence, no inner struggle, no argument over gender number culture. Hungry for the embodied experience of bliss, real meditational bliss, the golden light between the eyebrows that brings a thousand smiles. I Cannot Live Without You reignites a deep passion to see the face of God, even knowing that God has no face. Mirabai's poetry longs for Krishna in a way that a young woman longs for her lover; the longing is palpable from inside the walls of her palatial childhood home where she burned with an invisible flame. Her poetry, full of song and dance, fans the flames. "Mira has tied bells to her ankles, see how she dances! There's magic in her feet, and fire in her glances!" Perhaps, as she dances, all veils will fall, the veils that shelter her from true knowledge of God which cannot be known by any of her senses. Love for her beloved Krishna, invisible yet present, moves her to ecstasies little understood by our world. Mirabai sings, "Beloved I cannot live without you. I long for us to meet, yet what am I to do?" Her yearning itself embodies Krishna, and perhaps, is Krishna. After Mirabai, the description of the God force in the Upanishads is breath-taking. "Praise to the cosmos, the stars slung body." God is in everything, totally mixed like salt and water, swirled in each molecule of the world; yet "beyond the reach of the world is he whose command causes the life force to flare..." As to the nature of God, we are reminded that mind and speech can only try to comprehend, but they never, never can. The sages remark, "We don't even know how to teach about it. Yet, who thinks he well-knows... knows very little. You have yet to find what you know." This message is very calming, and after reading and contemplating the Upanishads, the reader feels softer, ready again for poetry. And next we find the poems of Kabir, claimed by both Muslims and Hindus. Kabir's poetry is more masculine than Mira's feminine bhakti, which is praise, longing and passion. Kabir calls on the guru continuously, praises yogic meditation, the breath, service, and the Word, in this case RAM, recommending they be practiced every moment of the day, when seeking the true essence of the Nameless. He exhorts, "...stay awake... don't allow yourself to fall asleep remembering God's name." In his own case, he dissolved like salt into water, and finally love, love, love pervaded everything. He asks, "...why am I still alive, why haven't I burned with my beloved?" Then he admits, "I found neither happiness nor you when ruled by the ego." In my life, I've found that phrase about the ego impeding happiness and one's Beloved, words to live by. Read this book and renew your hunger for your sacred flame. Judith Hoch, Ph.D. Author of Prophecy on the River, An Orisha Shaman's Journey in New Zealand