Sant Mirabai was a Rajput princess and Krishna bhakti poet-saint who became the most ardent lover the Lord had ever found. How did a child in the royal household of Merta receive a small dark image of Giridhar Gopal and learn a devotion that no earthly marriage could tame?
The story begins in the court of Rao Duda Singh of Merta, where the young girl watches a wedding procession from a high window and asks her mother who her bridegroom will be. When a wandering Vaishnava sadhu gifts her a personal deity of Giridhar Gopal, she cradles the image and begins a lifetime of puja, arati, and devotional song. Even as the deaths of her mother and her grandfather clear away her earthly shelters, she learns from Rao Duda Singh that a Rajput can bow before Krishna and remain strong. The volume follows her through the strict protocols of purdah and dynastic alliance, leaving her on the day of her arranged marriage to Bhoj Raj of Mewar, stepping into her royal palanquin with the small dark image of the Lord held firmly in her hands.
- The royal court: a portrait of Rao Duda Singh as the man who modeled full worldly power and complete surrender to Krishna.
- Wandering Vaishnava sadhus: an account of the pilgrims and singers whose kirtans the young girl absorbed from the doorway after dark.
- Songs before words: the mystery of her earliest devotional hours, offering flowers and shaping her first padas.
- Formal dynastic betrothal: the ceremonies and alliance politics of Mewar experienced with the serene knowledge that her true marriage was already sealed.
Book One of The Bride of the Dark One: The Life of Sant Mirabai. Poison into Nectar details the persecution she faced from her royal in-laws and her absolute surrender to Krishna, while She Entered the Light examines her physical absorption into the Lord and her continuing place in the hearts of Vaishnava devotees.
Readers seeking the story of Sant Mirabai, her youth in the court of Merta, and her arranged marriage to Bhoj Raj of Mewar, who also want the origins of her lifelong devotion to Giridhar Gopal.
