Mirabai's practice of singing and dancing in public temples, defying royal seclusion, used devotional expression as a boundary that protected her autonomy while creating new forms of spiritual togetherness.
A royal woman of her time was expected to remain hidden, confined to the palace. Mirabai's devotional practice required her to sing, dance, and worship publicly—an act that violated her family's honor and control. Her spiritual autonomy depended on a clear boundary: she would not be contained, not even by those she loved. The boundary itself was devotional, not defensive; it enabled her to stand in relation to Krishna rather than be absorbed into family expectation. In Autonomy and Togetherness, boundaries often feel like rejection, but Mirabai's model shows they can be expressions of love. By publicly claiming her devotion, she created new forms of togetherness—with other saints, with ordinary worshippers, with the divine—while releasing herself from togetherness that required her self-erasure. This concept invites practitioners to examine their boundaries: do they protect genuine autonomy in service of deeper love, or do they merely defend against intimacy? True boundaries, like Mirabai's, create space for authentic connection.
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