payo ji maine Ram ratan dhan payo
Oh, I have found it: the jewel-wealth of Ram's name.
पायो जी मैंने राम रतन धन पायोPayo Ji Maine Ram Ratan Dhan Payo
A short, joyful song about finding a wealth nobody can spend or steal, sung in Meera's name.
Sung by Lata Mangeshkar · LataMangeshkarVEVO on YouTube
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vastu amolak di mere satguru kirpa kar apnayo
My true teacher gave me something priceless and, out of kindness, made me his own.
janam janam ki poonji pai jag mein sabhi khovayo
I gained the savings of lifetime after lifetime, and let everything else in the world go.
kharchai na khootai chor na lootai din din badhat savayo
Spending can't use it up and no thief can steal it. It grows by a quarter every day.
sat ki nav khevatiya satguru bhav sagar tar aayo
In the boat of truth, with my true teacher at the oars, I have crossed the ocean of worldly life.
Meera ke prabhu Giridhar nagar harakh harakh jas gayo
Meera's lord is Giridhar, the graceful one. Full of joy, she sang his praise.
The lifter of the mountain
Giridhar means 'holder of the mountain'. When Indra sends a great storm against the people of Braj, the young Krishna lifts Mount Govardhan and shelters them under it.
Source: Bhagavata Purana, Book 10
Ask your elders
“Whose voice did you first hear singing Payo Ji Maine: someone at home, a temple, or a record on the radio?”
About the Payo Ji Maine Ram Ratan Dhan Payo
- Language
- Hindi with Rajasthani and Braj colouring
- Attributed to
- Traditionally attributed to Meera (Mirabai); attribution of individual padas is uncertain
- Period
- Meera is traditionally placed in the early 16th century; this song's date is unknown
- Verses
- 6
Meera, or Mirabai, is remembered as a Rajput noblewoman of the early 16th century (traditional dates are about 1498 to 1547) who gave up the life expected of a royal widow to sing about her love for Krishna. Much of her life story comes from later devotional writers rather than records from her own time.
We can't say Meera herself wrote this song. No manuscript from her lifetime survives, and songs in her name were passed on by singers, who changed them and added to them for centuries. That is true of individual Meera padas in general, and we have not traced this one to an early source. Its language reflects this: the sung form is close to Hindi, with Rajasthani and Braj colouring.
Today it is mostly known from recordings, with D. V. Paluskar and Lata Mangeshkar among the singers who made it popular. One thing puzzles new listeners: the song praises Ram's name, then ends by naming Krishna as Giridhar. In devotional songs of this kind, Ram often means God's name in general, not only the prince of Ayodhya, though listeners can reasonably hear it either way.
Sources
- Songs attributed to Mirabai, as commonly sung and printed
- Bhagavata Purana, Book 10 (Govardhan)
- John Stratton Hawley, Three Bhakti Voices: Mirabai, Surdas, and Kabir in Their Times and Ours (Oxford University Press, 2005)
- Parita Mukta, Upholding the Common Life: The Community of Mirabai (Oxford University Press, 1994)