Religious experience, ineffable as such, can be transmitted only by means of similes, of symbols, and rituals, which like so many languages, are different not only in every country and  civilization  but even more  within the same  religious system, in conformity  with  the various levels of human understanding, a matter not merely of intelligence, but rather of the heart. The Gita has, therefore, acknowledged a number of approaches to God -- whatever we may understand under this term -- but has likewise insisted on the primary need of selfless love to God  and to all life emanating from  Him.

This  is the role of all great saints, to set the pattern for shaping our own human lives within the limits  of our own individuality, our own strength. But for this very reason we have to understand their personalities and may thus be forced to extricate the real greatness of their effort from the cheap sentimentalities of popular hagiography. Meerabai, the Rajput  princess turned into one of the greatest saints and singers of India, nay of mankind, is such a case. Her life reveals the struggles of a wonderful personality on her way to the beloved Lord of her heart. And this recreated personality has, helped me immensely  in my own life.

A great poetess? No, much more, a saint, a wonderful human being, living in this world, and yet shrouded in the invisible presence of her Divine lord! We know only of one other personality of whom the same could be stated. Jesus, the Christ. If poetry is inspired by the Divine, she was the greatest poetess of India during the last millennium, because she was extraordinary personality, a saint, one of the loftiest and purest of mankind.