Dadu Dayal
Dadu Dayal (1544–1603), whose name means “the brother of compassion,” was a mystic in the Bhakti tradition. Originally a cotton carder from Gujarat, India, Dadu became a traveling ascetic as a young man. He ultimately settled in Rajasthan, where a community of disciples assembled around him. Dadu’s students compiled five thousand of his verses in the text Dadu Anubhav Vani, composed in the local Braj Bhasha language. Many of this poet-saint’s verses allude to the spontaneous bliss of the Self and teach how devotion to God transcends religious and cultural differences.