हरि तुम हरो जन की भीर।
द्रोपदी की लाज राखी तुम बढ़ायो चीर॥
भक्त कारण रूप नरहरि धरयो आप शरीर।
हिरणकश्यपु मार दीन्हों धरयो नाहिंन धीर॥
बूड़ते गजराज राखे कियो बाहर नीर।
दासि मीरा लाल गिरिधर दुख जहाँ तहँ पीर॥
Hari tum haro jan ki bhir,
Dropadi ki laj rakhi tum badhayo chir.
Bhakt karan roop Narahari dharyo ap sharir,
Hiranakashyapu mar dinhon dharyo nahinn dhir.
Budate gajaraj rakhe kiyo bahar nir,
dasi Mira Lal Giridhar dukh jahan tahan pir.
Meaning
Hari, take away your people’s suffering. You kept Draupadi’s honour by lengthening her cloth.
For your devotee’s sake you took the body of Narahari, the man-lion. You killed Hiranyakashipu; you could not wait.
You saved the king of elephants as he was drowning and pulled him out of the water. Meera, your servant, says: dear Giridhar, wherever there is sorrow, there you feel the pain.
About this bhajan
Three kathas in six lines: Draupadi’s endless sari in the Kuru court, Narasimha bursting from the pillar for Prahlada, and Gajendra saved from the crocodile. Each is a time the Lord came at once when called. Meera recalls them as a devotee recalls a friend’s past kindnesses before asking for one more. Gandhiji was fond of this pada, and it was sung at prayer meetings in his ashrams.
Meera padavali; text as on Kavita Kosh