Through brothel shadows walking,
Past temple curtains speaking,
In wisdom’s light awakening—
I found the Way.
Not priests’ words hollow,
Not merchants’ coins clinking,
But love’s voice calling—
I heard the Truth.
From chains unwinding,
Through grace ascending,
To freedom dancing—
I learned to fly.
*~ Mother Mari of Magadha
~*
Mari’s transformation begins
*Through brothel shadows walking, Past temple curtains speaking, In wisdom’s light awakening — I found the Way… *
Here Mari captures the moment everything changed - her first meeting with Lord Iesous in that Srinagar brothel cell. The physical details she told in her book are unflinching: her monthly bleeding had started early, the room smelled of stale wine and cheap incense, her cuticles were bleeding from nervous picking, monks and business people and lonely old men would come and go – use what they paid for to keep their souls – and come back next week. Yet through these very human details, divine light entered her life.
The progression through the three stanzas shows how transformation often begins in our most wounded places. Every morning when I prepare my stall, handling and gutting fish with careful attention, I think of how Mari found her path not by escaping her circumstances in her mind but by discovering wisdom within them.