Bhajan: Mirabhajan, "Saya Dukhiya re Ame, Nathi Sukhiya"

Selected Performance

Mirabai bhajan performed by Mohanlal Rayani and accompanied by unidentified musicians on the dugal (hand-played kettle drums similar to the tabla) and ramsagar (a two-stringed drone instrument) and two unidentified men playing hand-held/swung cymbols and recorded in 1960. The melody is described as rag Madh (also known as Mand) and tal Kaherawa (8 beats). The text is sung in Gujarati. Hindustani: A Panorama of North Indian Music (Vanguard Everyman, Nomad Series SRV-73010).

Bhajan texts often describe the complications of being a devotee, although the texts also might also be thought of as describing the vagaries of life in South Asia in general.

"Saya Dukhiya re Ame, Nathi Sukhiya"

Dhruvapada: I am continually sad, unhappy.

I have been caught in a whirlwind and blown over into this world,

though really I belong to another place.

I am not a dweller in these shallow waters and cannot survive here as
I am a creature of the great unfathomable ocean.

Truly I am in love with that great One of the other world.

Here I am a foreigner. My eyes are swollen with my constant gazing at Him.

Mïrabai says that (she) has an unswerving faith in His excellence, and as a result,
she has become blissfully happy by the mere repetition of His holy name.

January, 2000