Notes from the Revolution

“Mirabai Devi is coming; maybe you would like to meet her—we’re going to do a dialogue for the web,” Andrew Cohen said to me. Who is Mirabai? I wondered. (The name was familiar—Mirabai was a famous medieval Indian poet and holy woman, but of course Andrew couldn’t have been referring to that Mirabai.) Knowing that I would be interested in encountering an enlightened woman—of my own generation no less!—Andrew told me about meeting her at the annual conference of the Association of Global New Thought this past October, 2005. 

True to her namesake, Mirabai Devi is a guru—someone who directly transmits a higher consciousness—who has been teaching for the past fifteen years. But she’s not Indian; she’s from South Africa. She’s probably in her forties, and travels extensively each year, holding satsang [a gathering in Divine Truth] and giving darshan [spiritual transmission] to thousands. I was certainly curious to meet her.

As I entered the room where she was sitting with one of her students named Eileen, I was struck by her presence—she was fully decked out in the most beautiful white Indian Punjabi outfit embellished in gold embroidery and sequins. I hadn’t expected that! But it wasn’t her dress that compelled me. The evenness and directness of her gaze, her lively interest and bold spirit were captivating. The combination of boldness and a kind of vulnerability was remarkable—making me realize how rare this is in a woman. I understood what Andrew meant when he had commented that she was straight—and I found that her directness seemed to hold in it a purity of interest and openness that is really unique. It made me reflect on how we women so often morph in response to the situation, rather than simply and fully bringing ourselves forward, into relationship and conversation. Perhaps that’s why, even as she has taken on the mantle of the traditional guru, she didn’t feel traditional at all. In fact, despite her Indian dress, she conveyed something completely contemporary. 

In their dialogue, Mirabai and Andrew explored what it means to be a guru at this point in time in our postmodern culture. Mirabai described her initial shock in coming to the US and discovering how intensely guru-phobic we are here.

They explored how this has to do with the postmodern resistance to hierarchy—and spoke about a new model of the guru-disciple relationship for our time. Toward the end of the conversation, Mirabai spoke about how she seeks to evolve and to leave behind the traditional Indian cultural and spiritual trappings.

It will be fascinating to see Mirabai Devi evolve her teaching, and herself, as she steps toward a more universal expression of spirituality. We’ll all have to stay tuned…