Meera Temple — Attraction in Rajasthan

Chittorgarh’s association with Meera Bai, who was the most famous female Hindu spiritual poetess and whose compositions are still popular, cannot be forgotten…Her poems follow the Bhakti tradition and she is considered to be the most passionate worshipper of Lord Sri Krishna. Meera was born in 1498 AD in a village called Medata in Pushkar and was given in marriage to Prince Kunwar Bhoj, son of the Mewar King Rana Sanga. The wedding paalki (palanquin) procession took seven days to travel all the way from Pushkar to Chittorgarh. After eight days into wedding, Meera, being a staunch devotee of Lord Sri Krishna, performed puja to the Lord in her private palace. Legend has it that the Lord appeared to her in person and engaged Himself in conversation with her, overhearing of which, one of her servants complained to her master, who had the door to her palace broken open and her husband saw her prostrating before the Lord! From then on, her wedded husband took her to be a Devata (a divine being) and not an ordinary person he got married to! The King thereupon gave permission for a special temple to be built in Chittorgarh - and that remains till date as “Meera Mandir”! It was an interesting story how Meera got associated with Lord Sri Krishna: When she was a three year old child, once she accompanied her mother to a wedding being celebrated in her village. When she saw the bridegroom, she asked her mother who he was, and the mother replied he was the Dulha (the bridegroom). Not satisfied, she went on pestering her mother to explain to her what was meant by “Dulha”…The mother, getting considerably disturbed, retorted that one day when she grew up she would also get a Dulha… With Meera’s continued pestering her mother got terribly irritated and dumped a little doll of Sri Krishna in her lap and pronounced: “HE is going to be your Dulha…”! Meera from then onwards never parted with that most sacred gift from her mother and she went on talking to everyone around about her marriage having already taken place with Sri Krishna! In fact, she carried the same idol in her pallu (saree frill) all through her wedding procession lasting seven days! Meera identified herself with the ordinary class of people and did not like the palace luxuries, pomp and the paraphernalia associated with a princely life. She confined herself mostly in worshipping her “Giridhar Gopalji” in the mandir built for her. This infuriated the royal household – more so, her own brother-in-law Vikramaditya who had conspired once to get black cobra’s poison administered to her, which she drank most willingly but the poison, instead of killing her, turned out to be Amrit – nectar! This became an affront to the royal family and Meera was expelled from Chittorgarh, which immediately set the downfall of Chittorgarh. When Udai Singh became the king, there were several droughts and unfortunate incidents taken place in his kingdom. When he was informed that his brother got Meera expelled, he had deputed some brahmins to persuade her to return to the kingdom. Though she had resisted initially, she had agreed to return if only to avoid incurring the wrath of the brahmins and the sin for being the cause of their death, as they had threatened to fast until death, failing in their attempts to bring her back! At that time she was in Dwaraka, whose priest had also accompanied her to Chittorgarh. Strangely, on that day, when the priest had opened the door of Sri Dwarakaadheesh, he saw the normally small idol of Lord Sri Krishna appearing to be far too big! Such was the power of Sri Meera Bai’s devotion to the Lord! Folklore says that her love for Krishna was epitomized by her final disappearance in the temple of Sri Krishna in Dwarka. She is believed to have entered the sanctum sanctorium of the temple in a state of singing ecstasy after which the sanctum doors are believed to have closed on their own! When they were later opened, the sari of Meera Bai was seen enwrapped around the idol of Lord Krishna, symbolizing the culmination of her union...

Mirabai – when we say Mirabai we say it with a lot of regards, we automatically connect her with Lord Krishna. Yes, Mirabai venerated as Saint Mirabai, she was a 16th century Hindu Mystic poetess And an ardent devotee of Shri Krishna. She was born in Royal Rathore family of Rajasthan in Kudki town to Raja Rattan Singh in 1498 and spent her childhood at Merta with her Grandfather Rao Duda ji. Since her childhood Mirabai was deeply inclined to Krishna Bhakti. Princess Mirabai came to Chittoor after her unwillingly marriage to Bhoj Raj, the Crown Prince of Mewar in 1516. In 1518 her husband was wounded in battle field and he breath his last in 1521. After becoming widow Mirabai did not follow any rules and regulation and continued her devotion and love towards Lord Krishna to whom she treats like her husband. She requests her father-in-law Rana Sanga to built a separate temple of Krishna where she can pray personally. Maharana Sangram Singh (Rana Sanga) built a small Krishna temple on the same ground where Maharana Khumba built a Varah or Vishnu temple name Khumba Shyam Temple in Chittoor Fort. Later people called this temple as Mirabai Temple because Mirabai used to sit here, composed and sung bhajans for the praise of her lord.

As per the legends, after the death of Rana Sanga, Vikram Singh became the ruler of Mewar. He tried to killed her many times. Once He send a glass of poison and telling her a nectar to drink. Mirabai drank the same by remembering Krishan and with the grace of Lord Krishna poison became holy nectar and she was saved. Once he sends her a basket putting snake in between flowers but snake turned a Krishna idol when basket reaches to Mirabai. Though the temple is a small structure as compared to Khumbha Shyam temple, but anyone can feel the divine vibes and peace here in temple premises. When you will start to explore this scintillating site of historical and religious value, you will notice the intricate carvings on the walls & pillars of temple. These carvings are depicting the stories of bhakti ras and art of that era.. The Mirabai temple’s architecture is similar to Indo-Aryan style with an elevated base. The sanctum-sanctorum of Mirabai temple has a beautiful Idol of Lord Krishna along with a small idol of Mirabai. To the left side of Mirabai temple is a small Chhatri dedicated to Shri Ravidas ji of Varanasi who is believed to be Mirabai’ saintly Guru (Mentor) the saint’s foot-prints are marked on the floor of this...

Jesus gave message of ‘Love’, 2000 years before present days, for seekers to attain enlightenment. Before Jesus only male person from higher sections of society were able to get enlightened. Jesus pioneered attainment of enlightenment by female and lower section of society people. Kabir, Dadu, Raidas, Rabia, Gorakhnath etc followed it. Just 500 years before, Meera Loved Lord Krishna so much so that her life’s only wish was of getting married with him. She was so mad in Love that even after getting married with King of Chittorgarh, she refused to accept him as her husband. As per my information, She came to know about an enlightened mystic named Raidaas or Ravidas, so she met her at his ashram at Nathdwara. There just by a glimpse of devotion and love towards God in her eyes, Raidas accepted her as his disciple. He gave her a ‘mantra’ to recite so that she can discover her godliness and only then her wish could be fulfilled by God. The mantra was ‘Payo ji maine Ram ratan dhan payo’. Now Meera was yearning for Girdhari/sanwariya (Krishna was remembered by Meera, through these names only because that time a wife could not call her husband by his name) and in this mantra there is nowhere his name, she resisted but Raidas remained firm. Hesitantly she started reciting it with great difficulty. Over a period of time she got awakened and understood that her mistake was that she was treating Ram and Krishna as two while there is no difference in any creature in existence! She had ‘seen’ ‘the one’ in all that day. She felled in feet’s of Saint Raidaas, and recited the famous song ‘Payo ji maine, Ram ratan dhan payo...’. Still it is being recited by near about every famous singer to remember her. There is no difference in Ram, Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, Mahavir, Nanak etc. The difference is because our mind enjoys duality and reality could be understood when this duality vanishes to become one and still it is not one ie Krishna or Ram or Jesus all are one! Namaste is its depiction by joining two hands to become one in you but still it is not one too. There are three temples of Meera. Apart from this, One at Merta city, her birth place. Another at Nathdwara, place where she became...