Meera's longing to see Hari

1.

O Hari!! I wonder where you've gone

leaving me alone on the path of love.

Having kindled my love for you,

whose care have you left me in?

Why have you abandoned me

alone in this ocean of the pain

of separation?

Meera's Lord! When will you come?

Without you I can't stay alive!

2.  

My love! It's you I'm devoted to.

Only you that I remember day and night.

I pray, day and night, using the clay lamp of my body,

burn the wick of my mind

with the oil of my love.

I comb the hair of worldliness 

with the knowledge that my Guru

Imparted, thus, 

I adorn the parting with pure intellect, and offer my riches 

and youth at your feet.

I adorn my bed with flowers, and 

wait for you!

The night passed counting stars in wait

my God has still not arrived!

The monsoon came, it rained,

but there's no sign of you!

Please come and wake me up 

if you find me asleep.

Make me complete 

like you are, my Lord!

Appease my anguish 

and accept me as yours.

3.

It is a connection only in name,

and the one I can never break.

I have turned pale like a dead leaf, people think I've contracted jaundice.

I've renounced the world to be

with my Ram.

Father sent for a doctor.

The foolish doctor doesn't understand.

Go away doctor, there's no need to check my pulse.

Not being with my beloved is my illness.

There's no medicine for it.

My skin lacks lustre, the tongue 

has receded into my throat,

the ring on my finger fits 

on my arm.

O! wicked cuckoo! Stop singing 'piya,

piya'

If a lonely lover hears you

She will give up her life in despair!

There's emptiness in the temple, emptiness in the house, and 

emptiness everywhere!

I roam love struck 

No one cares.

Hey crow! Take my heart away 

to where He is, feast on it

while he looks on.

I have a relation in name only

Nothing more than that!!

Meera is languishing!

Lord! Please come!

 

4.

Except Shyam who will understand

my songs?

Without Shyam, my house is dark, 

the lamp has engulfed the wick,

my tears have made me blind

turning them into uniformly dark

There's no worry or desire left

dispassion enters my heart.

I'm in love with him since childhood.

I don't know anything else but him.

If I'd known the pain of separation 

I would have gone with him.

Give me poison, kill me if you wish

I can't forget Govind!

The whole world knows

Meera's love for her Govind!

Separation (Viraha) and its manifestaions

Devi Meera's whole life was a reflection of this separation with her beloved Krishna. Her life was an expression of this pain of separation or viraha. Not only this, until her final union and dissolution in the divine form of Sri Krishna, her Giridhar Nagar, she had experienced all the stages of love and separation, description of this can be found in her poetry. 

The foundation of love is separation. Love without separation is meaningless like body without life. Only in separation can we really experience live in its true form. 

Separation has been said to be of three types: future separation, present separation and past separation.

1. That beloved will leave in the future, this results in pain - is 'future separation'. In union, there is always anxiousness due to the ever impending departure of the beloved. As the time passes by, the anxiety intensifies making one restless.

2. We experience heart rending pain  when the beloved leaves - this is called 'present separation'. When the beloved is with you there is supreme bliss, the time flies by. But alas! the days of togetherness are soon over! The world ceases to exist in the presence of beloved, and today, he is ready to leave. One has given everything and even oneself away to the beloved and now the beloved is going away. The eyes will no longer see the divine countenance. Ah!! What will happen now? Such thoughts trouble the mind and every pore of the being cries out. The heart is torn in thousand pieces or, the heart is broken in two parts and one part is bring taken away! This pining gets unbearable with every passing moment.

3. When the beloved has long gone, the pain that results thereby- is 'past separation'.  Two persons bound by love remain united by this bond however distant they might be from each other. This bond of love become s immortal. In separation, the dear memories of beloved sustains love. But these memories sometimes become so potent that one cannot be at peace without seeing the beloved. One loses patience but even in this state of hopelessness, the liver never loses hope that the beloved will surely come back sooner or later. One desires a brief glimpse from far, if only. In such state, one feels neither alive nor dead. This pining and longing gives rise to several mental and behavioral states.

There are said to be ten such states.  These are:
 

चिन्तात्र जागरोद्वेगो तानवं मलिनाग्ता ।

प्रलापो व्याधिरून्मादो मोहो मृत्युर्दशा दश ।।
 

1. Worry  2. Sleeplessness  3. Anxiety 4. Loss of appetite  5. Lack of interest in dressing up. 6. Crying 7. General malaise 8. Laziness. 9. Losing consciousness 10. Death

Meerabai'so poetry contains a depiction of all these mental states. 

Love and separation

Love and the pain of separation are closely related. Whoever enters the realm of love has to bear the pain of separation. Absolute affection is love. There is a deep desire to be with the beloved forever.
Until this objective is met, the spiritual aspirant undergoes the throes of separation. To be with the beloved is union and beloved's absence is separation or viraha.

The paths of practice of self-control and detachment have been propounded in Patanjali Yogsutra, Sankhya sutra, Srimad Bhagvat purana and other such works. This detachment and self-control gets established in the state of separation by itself without any effort on the aspirant's part, because the world loses its attraction for a lover. Her only desire is to be with the beloved. With the dawn of love the feeling of separation intensifies, and with this one's ego or mine-ness vanishes. With the banishment of ego one's heart becomes pure and one surrenders oneself to the Lord or Beloved.  Now one only wants to make the beloved happy. One enjoys giving and only knows giving the beloved everything that makes the beloved happy. One never wants to take anything as she has lost all desires except the desire to be one with God. When she has totally given herself to her beloved, the beloved has no choice but to reciprocate. In this way the two merge and become one because until they are One there is restlessness. Only this union can do away with the pain of separation. 

It is said: 

जब मै था तब हरि नहीं, अब हरि है मै नाहिं । 

प्रेम गली अति साँकरी, ता मे दो न समाहिं ।।

When I existed Lord did not, now Lord exists and I do not. 

The path of love is so narrow that there cannot be an 'other'. Love dissolves egos.
 

In his Bhaktisutra, rishi Narad states that experiencing this pain of separation is also a kind of Bhakti.  

Agonizing pain of separation can be felt by anyone. One does not have to learn it. Whoever loves deeply, dies to catch a glimpse of the beloved, cries incessantly and is ready to give up her life for the beloved is indeed worthy recipient of this Divine pain of separation or viraha.
 

There is a strange contentment in separation which is not found in union because in Union there is a fear of facing separation again which does not let one feel at rest. Separation is considered superior also due to the fact that in union only the beloved is visible, whereas in separation, the whole world stops and seems to be waiting for the beloved.
 

प्रेमपाश जो बँध गये, फिर नहीं टूटत तार ।

तड़पत सिसकत है तऊँ, सुमिरत बारंबार ।।
 

Meaning: those who have fallen in love will never fall out of it, for they cry and pine and are lost in remembrance of their loved one. 

Although in separation the two appear far apart, but in fact they are connected as one due to their love for each other. This bond of love is irrevocable because their hearts are united in love and are pining away.
 

The pain of separation only dawns in a true lover. You can also say that it appears only by God's grace. This becomes clear in these lines:
 

जिस पर तुम हो रीझते, क्या देते जदुबीर । 

रोना धोना सिसकना, आहों की जागीर ।।
 

Meaning: O my Lord, you only make the one you love sigh and cry with the pain of separation. 

During separation, a certain sweet ache and a sweet remembrance conjures up a strange world. In this the pure form of love is born and in this pining the lover gets a strange and inexplicable bliss. There is a sort of contentment in her anguished heart as the lover knows that the one person she fails to forget is her very own, however far he is. In short, only in separation can love attain a pure form and in this only it is safe. 

 

Viraha ( the pain of separation)

When we have undivided love, regard, affection for someone and are attracted to a unique quality of someone's character, we experience a feeling of sadness and heartache upon separation from them. This experience of dejection when separated from the beloved is called Virah or pain of separation. It is all the more praiseworthy and fruitful when it is experienced by a saint with respect to the Supreme One, the worshipped.

She is indeed blessed who has experienced this pain of separation. So many saints and swami cried, pined and drowned in this pain and having undergone this separation and love they experience the true happiness attain the true objective of being human. 

Compassion (Karuna)

ममैवांशो जीवलोके जीवभूत: सनातन: । गीता

Essentially, the self in this body has originated from me, hey Arjun, says Krishna.
 

The self is part of the higher self and as the higher self is blissful. This is why every being eternally strives for happiness or pleasure. When one tries to divide water with a stick, the two parts rebound instantly with double force to rejoin with each other. Likewise the self separated from its beloved tries every way to be united to its blissful nature, the Supreme Self. Once one realizes that the true happiness is to be with the Supreme Self, she surrenders herself to the supreme Lord, she pines and wastes away due to the agony of separation from Him.
 

In literature, this state of separation is depicted by the feeling of compassion. As water is present in the forms of bubbles, waves and vapors, so is the feeling of compassion is present in all human emotions.
 

We experience myriad of emotions, and in them the emotions of pleasure and pain affect us the most. And in these feelings of pleasure and pain, the feeling of sadness or compassion touches us most deeply. A poet has also said, 'Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.'