Madal Urdal - A different angle

[Guest guest]

A lot of informative articles have appeared on this subject. One

person who did a Madal urdal of sorts was Meerabai. She was married

to the king of Chittaud when still a child. By the time she came of

age, the king had been killed in battle. She thus remained a virgin

with the Lord as her only lover till the end. She was put through

all kinds of harrasment by her in laws and high priest a Durga

worshipper, who felt his power threatened if the rest of the family

were to follow Meera and abandon Kali worship and goat sacrifices.

But even poison would not work. She was locked inside a temple

courtyard for days. Those temples were open and snakes crawled at

nights.

 

She wrote about this harassment to Tulsidas who replied that people

who are not devotees of Sita Rama are not to be considered relatives.

She then abandoned Chittaud and moved to Vrindavana. She decorated

herself sometimes as a bride (inspite of being a widow) and sometimes

as an ascetic complete with shaved head and saffron robes. She sang

once "Laaj, saram, Kul ki maryada sar se door kari" or "I have given

up decency, shyness and family prestige by giving up my "ghoonghat"

or cloth that covered the head and face. This is an extraordinary

feat in rural Rajasthan today not to speak of the 15th and 16th

centuries.

 

In another song she sings "There is no comfort or wealth that I have

not given up for You. There is nothing that I have left. Yet You

are not appearing before me...]"

 

Since a Paramahamsa Vaishnava was subjected to all sorts of torture

and thrown out of Chittaud, after she left, there was drought and

other natural disasters. People eventually realized the reason for

their continued misfortune and the king went to Vrindavan to bring

Meerabai back. Upon receiving his invitation, Meera said that she

needed Krishna's permission to return. She went into one of the

temples and there she saw the Lord not in His archa form but in His

Para Roopa and she was taken away from this earth along with her

body. While this happened the doors of the temple closed and opened

automatically when it was all over.

 

Jaganath.

PS. There is a movie made by Hema Malini as well as many books on

this subject. The movie and many books however take generous

liberties with the truth. What I have reproduced here is parts of

her life story that are told in her own songs and what I have heard

about her life from a pure devotee of Sriman Narayana.