Dadu - The Compassionate Mystic

Dadu, a sixteenth-century mystic who lived in Rajasthan during the reign of Akbar, the Mughal emperor, was a cotton carder by profession and Muslim by birth. He was called dayal, "the compassionate one," because he showed love and compassion to everyone, even to those who abused him. His poetry teaches that the human body is the door to salvation but that ego stands in the way of God-realization; that our mind can be controlled through meditation; and that only from a perfect Guru can we learn the secret of this inner meditation practice. Through translation of many of his lengthy poems, the reader sees Dadu's use of strong images to contrast our over-involvement in the world with the fact that death is fast approaching and only the Lord's love will sustain us.