A compilation on Lalon, Bauls, and Mysticism.
1. The Bauls of Bengal
The smell of materialism is not too distant from it, yet here among the disciples of Lalon we see the issues of property, money, possessions not given the highest importance. Practically no one talks of making more money, no one even bothers about the value of the clothes that one wears. In the attire, there is an austere uniformity-here among the Bauls all that is important is the search for one’s inner self.
The Bauls of Bengal are spiritual sect of traveling minstrels whose songs of joy, love, and longing for a mystical union with the divine have captivated audiences for the past century. They are saffron-clad folk singers who traditionally live in the huts of rural Bengal though they can be found traveling, dancing, and singing their way around the world. Their livelihood depends entirely on donations which have been given to them freely over the centuries. They are teachers and spiritual gurus and they are a peace loving people that embrace all and quarrel with none. In fact, Bengalis are known to be among the most friendly and intelligent people in Indian Subcontinent..
The Bauls are the folk heroes of Bengal. "The popular romantic imagination everywhere seeks expression through its chosen bards: we have our Bob Dylans and Leonard Cohens, the Bengalis have thier Bauls. These wandering minstrels carry with them from village to city the soul of Bengal, perhaps of India, and every Bengali knows it even if today he is becoming uncertain what that soul really is" [Charles H. Capwell and others]. The Baul tradition cannot be characterised by any known or distinct doctrine. According to Edward C. Dimock, Jr. the term baul encompasses "a wide rage of religious opinion, traceable to several Hindu schools of thought, to Sufi Islam, and much that is traceable only to a man's own view of how he relates to God.
All Bauls hold only this in common: that God is hidden in the heart of man, and neither priest nor prophet, nor the ritual of any organised religion, will help man to find him there. The Bauls feel that both [hindu] temple and [muslim] mosque stand across the path to truth, blocking the search. The search for God is one which everyone must carry out for himself." Capwell thinks that "the Baul tradition is a fusion of elements from Buddhism, Saktism (worshippers of goddess Kali - the source of all energies), Vaisnavism (worshippers of Lord Visnu) and Sufi Islam, may well have its roots in the tantrik Buddhism of Bengal in the 9th and 10th centuries
Mystic singers, wandering minstrels, the Baul of Bengal preserve one of the oldest and fascinating Indian tradition. Born from the meeting of different religious expressions, such as Tantrism, Buddhism, Sufism, Vaishnavism they consacrate their existence to dance, music and singing, conveying intimate joy, universal brotherhood, discovering of divine in man’s heart.
At that time, Buddhism was first taking root in Tibet while it was dying out in India, and much Buddhist literature that might otherwise have disappeared in oral tradition. Within this literature are collections of songs written in the newly arisen vernaculars of northern India rather than in Pali and Sanskrit, traditional languages of Buddhism. One of the oldest of these collections - an anthology of caryagan - contains the earliest significant examples of the Bengali Language. The texts are strikingly reminiscent of songs like gosdi ebar porebi phyare; that is, they transmit the insights and mysticism in the homeliest of metaphors. The structure of the poems - couplets with a refrain - suggests that their musical form might also be similar to that of Baul songs today. For, in the Baul songs, a refrain generally recurs at the end of each stanza, the stanzas are roughly divided into two musical phrases, the first of which tends to hover around the lower tetrachord of the basic octave range, while the second reaches up to the higher tonic before descending again to the refrain that cadences on the lower tonic.
The origin of the Baul can be traced back to the 16th century to the time of the advent of leader Chiatanya Deva (1486-1533). Although they embraced many of the influences of Shri Chaitanya Deva, they quickly became known as a unique, free-thinking group. They tended to incorporate theory and customary interactions from the many different religions in the region, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sufism, giving rise to new theories that became known as the Baul philosophy. Without prejudice, both Muslims and Hindus were attracted to the Baul ways and were graciously included within their sect. Many of these people changed their names, taking on Baul names, to proclaim their devotion to the Baul philosophy and way of life.
Even as simple street musicians, the Bauls were considered important teachers in lessons of human life and philosophy. As philosophers and sadhaks, song was their teaching instrument as they continued their search for God. They were known as performers 'mad' in a worshipping trance of joy - transcending above both good and bad. Though fond of both Hinduism and Islam, the Baul evolved into a religion focused on the individual and centered on a spiritual quest for God from within. They came to believe that God lives within each of us: translated simply, they believe the soul that lives in all human bodies is God.
In the ancient and traditionally strict religious Far East, their way tended to stimulate some controversy. Consequently, for at least the last 600 years, both orthodox Hindus and Muslims have branded them as 'mad'. These orthodox religions see their unconventional modes of worship somewhat offensive as Bauls tend to reject the rigid rituals and the social mores generally found to be acceptable in their mainstream society. Hence, the name 'Baul' was given to them, which is derived from the Sanskrit word 'batul' which literally means 'afflicted with the wind' or 'mad'. It is this brand as 'mad' together with their acceptance of all men regardless of race, creed, or religion that sets the Baul apart from most in this tortured and war torn region. Another interesting meaning for the name Baul comes from the Persian word 'aul' meaning a 'very important person'. Indeed as teachers, gurus, and proponents of universal brotherhood, this latter definition is very appropriate.
The great Buddhist, saint Saraha remarked, 'In my wanderings, I have visited shrines and other places of pilgrimage, but I have not seen another shrine as blissful as my body.'
The Baul embraced elements from Hinduism, Tantric Buddhism, and Sufi Islam, discarded what did not suit them and developed their own unique belief system from what remained. With this eclectic approach to spirituality, they seek to distill from all religious disciplines the simplest, most natural, and direct approach possible to God. They believe that authentic worship of God takes place only deep within each person where 'God' the divine 'man of heart' is enshrined. Hence, the essence of Baul belief is that God is hidden in the heart of man and neither priest nor prophet, nor the rituals of any organized religion will help man to find God there. They believe that church, temple, and mosque only stand in the way and impede this search. To the Baul, our bodies are the temples - the shrine of the soul
They believe that the God within them is the same as the God within all human beings. Therefore, there is no reason not to be at peace with all of mankind regardless of how one chooses to recognize their version of the 'Supreme Being' or practice their faith. The music of the Baul minstrel tries to focus on the importance of the human soul or the 'maner manush' which they perceive to be nothing less than the true God within us.
'Why do you run after the mirages? Look within yourself to get your peace. Peace and tranquility do not come from outside. You can't discover them by owning the world.'
There is no beauty more true than the beauty of God in the universe that lives within our souls.Their songs are of joy and love, and of their deep longing for mystical union with the divine within. Their language is simple and the deepest of their thoughts are clothed in home spun words and metaphors common to country-side village folk. Yet, amidst the simple language, the songs of the Baul contain an extensive, meaningful philosophy that connects to all of their life and aspirations.
The Baul are unpretentious, free-thinkers seeking their own personal enlightenment through their songs. They do not preach or seek to convert but rather they seek to soothe, share, and provoke thought. The songs they sing and the accompanying dances are spiritually meaningful meditations focused on the soul with this goal in mind.
From the Sufi's, they took the practice of dance and song as a teaching tool. The Moslems believe that all are on a path to God and that true closeness will be achieved after death and the final judgment. Many Sufi sects throughout the world use poetry set to song, with instrumental music and dance like movements they call 'spiritual concerts' (sama) to explain and teach their doctrines
Lalon Shah’s name should not be new to us. His songs that propagate the philosophy of self-understanding have a large following. But, as most people just appreciate Lalon’s songs for their inherent messages, there are those who actually want to exercise Lalon’s philosophies in their own lives. They want to pick up the life of a Baul, wander from place to place, sing in praise of the creator and ask others to keep on searching for truth and happiness from ones own soul.
Bauls are not new in Bangladesh and despite the saturation of material values the number of Bauls who renounce all common beliefs are on the rise. Now, this actually opens up the road for a novel sociological study involving the spiralling trend among rural singers who opt for a nomadic life in search of spiritual bliss.
Before Rabindranath Tagore, the Bauls were not regarded well by the Bengali society, for most considered them vagabonds and beggars as Bauls lived itinerant lives wandering from door to door in rural Bengal mostly subsisting on meagre foods offered by householders. Tagore, who in his youth knew Lalon Fakir - one of the greatest Bauls that ever lived, was much influenced by the Baul music and philosophy in his poetry, music and thought. He "changed all that as he did so much in Bengali society, by acknowledging his debt to what the Bauls stand for and to their music. Many of his own songs he categorised as Baul; and in most of his plays there is a Baul character - an unspoiled man who sees clearly and deeply, his vision uncluttered by the swirling bits and irrelevant particles of life. The Baul is also the man who can express what he sees with equal clarity, his imagery and metaphor drawn from everyday things, the river of life, the marketplace of the world, the once majestic house of the body crumbling into decay" [Dimock].
One, who is devotee to his Preceptor,
can accomplish everything.
Canal, swamp or river
same water everywhere
crossing all of ‘em, the Preceptor
splits into human soul.
Divine intelligent only knows that
the shape-less light got a shape,
At the modern age humans become avatar.
Debates only kill time,
but faith begets resources.
Mentor Siraj summons Lalon
that he never deals with bad debates.
Among the baul singers Tuntun Shah Fakir, Chhota Rob Fakir, Abdur Razzak Shah, Fakir Alauddin Bishwas, Muktar Fakir and Ramjan Fakir performed. The other singers were Fakir Takbir Shah, Fakir Bhentu Banarjee, Fakir Nazrul Shah, Aklima Fakirani and the Close-up 1 star Rinku.
Besides his interpretation of Lalon’s philosophy of humanity scripted in the lyrical works of Lalon, Darvesh Abdur Rob Shah rendered the song Sahaj manush bhoje dekh na mon dibya gyanane. He explained how the baul philosophy brings the people to ‘Realm of Lord’ by serving humanity. He also sang Milon hobe koto dine aamar moner manusher shoney and explained the urge of the honest people to meet their moner manush or the Almighty Lord. The sound of the traditional music instruments, namely the ektara, dortara, duli-tabla, sarinda, khamak, banshi and mandira created an enchanting ambience to captivate the aficionados of authentic baul songs (New Age, January 25, 2008).
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Jasim Uddin first published an article on Lalon Shah in Bangobani, Calcutta, in 1926. Rabinranath Tagore writes, "These people roam about singing their songs, one of which I heard years ago from my roadside window, the first two lines roaming inscribed in my mind: People ask, what is Lalon's caste? |
Jasim Uddin, Baul, 1999 |
“Lalon has established the humanist aura in us, the Bengalis, encouraged us to think beyond communalism. Lalon is today being poisoned by the venom of communalism.
The removal of sculptures and the display of the muscle power of the Mullahs have angered many middle class Bengali Muslims. They are trying to voice their protests in a feeble way.”
1.1. Lalon in Danger
Lalon has established the humanist aura in us, the Bengalis, encouraged us to think beyond communalism. Lalon is today being poisoned by the venom of communalism.
Its not only for Lalon but a cursed event for the whole nation. [..] The nation is being completely harassed by some people in religious cloths. Our government is silent. The people with conscience are dead.” Journalist Jahangir Alam Akash reminds that the country is under state of of emergency. However these (fundamentalists) are given the impunity by the government.
A new controversy rattled Bangladesh last week. Authorities in Bangladesh were forced to remove five sculptures of Bauls (mystic folk singers) including Fakir Lalon Shah in front of the Zia International Airport in the face of protests from an Islamist group. They formed a sculpture prevention committee which pressed that they do not want any sculptures in the airport area where the hajj camp is located and they do not want Muslims to start their journey to the Hajj pilgrimage seeing the sculptures. Islam does not allow worship of objects/depictions that represent God or his messengers, or saints. However sculptures are part of the different cultures the Muslim world represents and can be found in every part of the world. The removal of the sculpture and the inaction of the government has sparked protest across Bangladesh.
An airport is the gateway for a nation. Every country will want to display its arts, cultures and traditions here. Is Lalon display of any religion? Will my country be identified as a fundamentalist country from its secular image because of some (mighty!) persons?”
The Mullahs and Politicos combine wish us to be reactive and replicate their reactionary character. We do not consider them ‘worthy opponents’ or ‘worthy adversaries’ or even ‘worthy Comrades’. All we say is let us be – for we did not in the first place as a fraternity ‘demand’ or ask for any Monuments to our glorious ancestors, our forefathers……did we?
Those who have already commenced their ‘protest’ do not have either the bAUL’s or Bengal’s schools of socio-spiritual thoughts as an objective to further. Indeed, their objective and aspirations are narrow – as they wish to piggy-back on the bAUL issue to aspire for even narrower political expediency – the capture of state power – made even more complex give the restlessness prevailing in the country.
This is the oldest game known to mANKIND and epitomized in many bAUL songs:
Go tell the thief to steal
Go tell the peasant to catch him
Why do you then call the children of hUMANs - sINNERs?
[..]
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Abandoning the sculpture project How long will we allow religion to be so misused?
The removal of five baul sculptures, including that of Lalon Shah, from around the traffic intersection in front of Zia International Airport under threats from a group of zealots flies in the face of our commitment to age-old cultural and religious values and pride in our national heritage. There may have been genuine questions about the aesthetic deficit, flawed design or lack of proportion in the cluster of structures raised, but the real reason for which these have been ultimately pulled down is far more insidious and unacceptable than any artistic naivete or design fault. This is pure genuflection before the forces of orthodoxy topped off by some ulterior political motives that the nation needs to take guard against.
“Its not only for Lalon but a cursed event for the whole nation. [..] The nation is being completely harassed by some people in religious cloths. Our government is silent. The people with conscience are dead.” Journalist Jahangir Alam Akash reminds that the country is under state of of emergency. However these (fundamentalists) are given the impunity by the government. |
Oct 18, 2008 (BBC Monitoring via COMTEX) -- Religious bigots have threatened to demolish all statues and sculptures no matter if those are of illustrious persons or dedicated to the war of independence. The zealots at a press conference under the banner of Islami Ain Bastabayan Committee on Friday [17 October] said sculptures and statues were "against Islamic values" and asked the government to remove all such statues or, they threatened to take the matter in their own hands. 
Sculptors, painters, artistes and writers on Saturday joined the teachers and students of Dhaka University in a street protest against the removal of baul statues from the airport road roundabout under pressure from religious zealots.(The Newage) They demanded re-installation of baul sculptures in front of the Zia International Airport and threatened to go for a tougher movement if the government failed to safeguard the artworks and monuments symbolising the nation’s glorious independence war and rich cultural heritage.Battle for the Soul of Bangladesh
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The struggle between cultural activists and pseudo-Islamists over the pulling down of the baul sculptures in front of Zia International Airport on October 15 cuts to the very heart of who we are as Bangladeshis and what kind of a country we wish to live in. Long live our cultural heritage and long live freedom of art. |
1.2. Baul Music - A Masterpiece of Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO
In a fascinating essay, Professor Anwarul Karim discusses the history of the Baul culture of Bengal and sheds light on their sacred initiation rituals. Baul music was declared a Masterpiece of Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in Paris on November 26, 2005.
In Bangladesh there is a category of Sufi mystics, male and female who travel from place to place carrying with them folk musical instruments and a begging bag made of torn and castaway cloth called ‘anchla.’ They are known as Bauls.
They are neither Hindu nor Muslims. In Persia, the place of their origin, the Bauls were obscure as a sect because of their free spirited approach to life. They are known for iconoclasm, disregard of caste and social formalities. They worship Man as the centre of all creation and preach humanism. They love music, which speaks of human body as the microcosm and soul as an elusive bird or the unattainable man of the heart. Their songs are mystical, symbolic and full of rural analogies and images taken from their surroundings or from religious experiences. In many places of Bangladesh, they have shrines or ‘Akhra’. Here they halt overnight or stay for a short- while sharing bed and food and singing devotional mystic songs. They also take ‘ganja’ or marijuana.
Bauls are not born in a family but are inducted into the cult by the ‘Guru’ or ‘Shain’ at a certain stage. The Baul guru or ‘shain’ is similar to the ‘pir’ of the Sufi sects — in the traditional sense of the word — and they have also such names as ‘murshid’ or ‘darvish’. The category of ‘Guru’ or includes both entombed historical figures and living practitioners. The Baul guru also enjoys the role of a religious leader of his community. He has innumerable followers or shisya who consider him to be very powerful in changing their fate because of their belief that he has mystic contact with the spirit world. In all their activities concerning life and property the impact of the Baul guru is thus tremendous. I know a number of Baul gurus who have amassed huge property in the form of ‘Najrana’ (special kind of respect payable through gift both cash or kind or both).
The word ‘pir’ is being used in all categories of the Muslim mystics to denote spiritual leader but the ‘guru’ is only used by the Hindu – Buddhist mystics and also by the Sufi Bauls in the subcontinent. The Hindi ‘Baura’ represents the same denomination as of the Bauls. The Baura spiritual leader is also called the guru. The Bauls, however, use some other Sufi terminology as ‘murshid’, ‘darvish’ and ‘shain’. In Sufi mysticism as well as in Baul cult ‘shah’ is commonly used to identify their class. The word ‘gosain’ refers to the Vaisnava religious sect. Although, the Bauls claim that they differ greatly from the Vaisnava, they, however, have many things in common with each other.
In Bangladesh, the Pir and the Guru phenomenon have also given birth to a kind of sub-culture. The pir, however, enjoys a special and wide-cultural milieu between the ulema; the most learned in religious teachings and the shaikh who has attained the mystic height in the Sufi religious tradition. The word ‘awliyah suggesting a friendly and mystic attachment with the creator is often used to denote a ‘Shaikh’.
The ‘Pirs’ as holy men in the mystic hierarchy, used to enjoy a sort of authority similar to those of the Brahmins who hold the highest position in the Hindu religious order. During the Mughal period, the Pirs and the mystics in the name of ‘faquir’ exerted tremendous influence in the political arena also. Of late, a certain ‘Pir’ has played a key position in the political scenario of Bangladesh. The Zaker party is one of any such examples.
The Bauls of Bangladesh today enjoy a sort of power structure as they shape themselves into a religious community with Lalon Shah as their spiritual leader. Every year they arrange two religious festivals like ‘urus’ of the Sufis but the Bauls call these festivals as ‘sadhu-sangho’ or sadhu-sheba or ‘motsob’ or ‘mossob’ corrupt of mohotsab. One of such festivals is held during the ‘ dol-purnima’ in line with the Vaisnava and the other one, on the occasion of the death anniversary of Lalon Shah which is held on the first day of Bengali month Kartik corresponding to October 17, 1890. The word ‘mohotshab’ may refer to grand or gala festival of the Bauls. Actually the festival stands as the congregation of the saintly persons, known as ‘Sadhu-Sangho’/ Sadhu-Sheba. Thousands of the Bauls, male and female, attend the religious festivals and stay in the mazar for three consecutive days singing and feasting.
In Bangladesh the majority people here are Sufi biased and they have great adoration for the Sufi Pir. They take Khawaja Muinuddin Chisty as a direct representative of the creator, a Wali. According to his followers, though he is dead and buried in a mazar, he has the power to solve the problem of his followers. I have seen tens of thousands visiting the Mazar of Khawaja Muinuddin Chisty for their troubles. They include many Hindus, Buddhists and Christians. Such is the picture with other mystics of the Sub-continent. And Lalon Shah was no exception. But he deviated from other sufi mystics so far as the search for the inner soul is concerned. Unlike other Sufis, he believed in Deha-bada or the philosophy concerning human body and soul. His is an erotic approach to life. It is why womanhood forms the most essential part in his cult. His followers also take him as the demi-god and take him as the be-all and end-all in their life.
In fact, Lalon Shah, it is held by a section of researchers, was born in a Muslim family in a village named Harishpur under Jhenidah district. He later changed his faith to Baul Sufi cult that does not comply with all the Shariah rules in Islam. The conservative Hindus also did not like him. Lalon Shah and his followers were tortured by the orthodox Muslims during his lifetime, especially when he was finally settled in Seuria village under Kumerkhali Thana in Kushtia district. In fact, when I was a student in the Kushtia College my friends who had been living in Seuria village asked me not to be involved with them as their way of life were different from others. In the 50’s when I visited them a number of times, I found the conservative Muslims living in Seuria and other neighbouring villages did not keep any contact with Lalon Shah’s followers for what they thought to be their peculiar practices. These people kept women with them as their companions.
Each Baul had more than two women with them as their companions. This practice has been continuing even today.
The local weekly journals like ‘Hitakari’, edited by a noted poet and journalist Kangal Harinath Mojumdar and ‘Gram Barta Prokashika’ once edited by a noted writer Mir Mosharraf Hussain, initially published articles condemning him and his followers for anti-social activities. But they were, however, drawn towards the songs of Lalon Shah so much so that Kangal Harinath Majumdar formed a musical group in the name of Fikir Chand Baul and composed a number of Baul songs. Mir Mosharraf was one of the members of the team. Lalon Shah was very popular among the low caste and poor community during his lifetime for his universal approach and humanism. His songs, however, have gained much popularity even one hundred years after of his death. This is, of course due to the patronage of the government and recent globalisation of the cult which caught the attention of international people including scholars.
The Baul’s religion accepts every body. The forsaken, the widow or socially outcaste girls find a secure place in the cult. Rabindranath Tagore was the first among the Bengalis who collected their songs and published them in Bengali journals including the monthly ‘Probashi’. Lalon Shah caught his attention when he came to Kushtia as the landlord of the Tagore Estate at Shelaidah. He spoke of Lalon Faquir in many of his lectures which he gave both at home and abroad. He accepted the religion of the Bauls as the Religion of Man. He loved their philosophy which they preached through their songs. He was so much influenced by the Bauls that he composed his ‘Gitanjali’, in line with the Baul theme and philosophy.
It was largely responsible for earning him the Nobel Prize. The world was thrilled and excited when he read out his ‘Gitanjali’ to his friends in England. The philosophy it preached was quite unknown to the western mind. The globalisation of the Baul cult thus was initiated by Rabindranath Tagore. It may be pointed out here that Rabindranath was impressed by the Bauls outwardly. He discovered that the songs of the Bauls and Lalon Faquir had similarities with the Upanishads and the Veda. Many of his novels, poetry and drama have Baul characters and philosophy. He, however, was quite ignorant of their internal way of life.
Rabindranath visited the Mazar of Lalon Faquir and met his followewrs. He also collected his songs from his followers directly. His brother Jyotirindranath Tagore made a portrait of Lalon Faquir when he took him for a river cruise along with others of his family on 5th May, 1889. This suggests that Lalon was very close to the Tagore family. But Rabindranath never disclosed that he ever had met him.
Of late the Bangladesh government has set up a cultural complex at the cost of about Tk 4 crore for the preservation of the songs of Lalon Shah and studies on them.
This study is an attempt to explore the religious cult, in the context of our cultural heritage. In Bangladesh there are various Sufi sects with their respective Pir heads. They are considered not only holy but also they are believed to have power to play a decisive factor in the life present and the life hereafter of the devotee.
These Pir have both rich and poor, high and low as their followers. The Bauls on the other hand consist mostly of poor, low caste, forsaken men and women, divorced or widowed. But nowadays, the middle class and the youth are also found joining the cult. In fact, the Bauls have gained tremendous popularity over other religious cults or sects. This paper is also intended to identify the strength of the cult, which has made it a popular or folk religious community in Bangladesh. It appears that the Bauls largely belong to the Muslim community but they do not observe the Muslim Shariah and, on the other hand, they are more close to Sufi beliefs and practices. There is no doubt that the cause of their attraction to the Baul cult is their music, apparently plain and simple but it has undoubtedly a peculiar lifestyle. The Guru, however, enjoys an elevated position among his disciples and maintains solvent life.
Abdul Wali, a sub-registrar of Shailkupa and Harinakundu under Jhenidah subdivision tried to explore the causes of such popularity. He presented a paper titled, On Currious Tenets and Practices of a Certain Class of Faquirs in Bengal in a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1898. It was later published in the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay in 1900. Wali wrote :
In the Districts of the 24- Parganas, Nadiya, Jessore and Khulna and probably in other parts of Bengal , a class of mendicants is to be seen who are called by different names, and whose peculiar habits, unshaven hair, and repulsive manners are as much a curiosity to a stranger, as the rigid secrecy they maintain with regard to their tenets and practices (sic) is inexplicable. What these men believed and practised are only known to the members of the ‘mystic cult,’ but never to others, even to those intimately connected with them. Diksha or initiation ceremony:
A baul is not born, he is made. If anyone is willing to accept the Baul faith, he or she is inducted into the Baul cult after being properly initiated by the Baul Guru. In fact, initiation or diksha is considered sine qua non to the baul faith. When a Baul is initiated, a ceremony is arranged for him or her or for the couple who are initiated jointly, by other Bauls. The joint initiation is desired most by the cult as it considers man and woman as partner to each other (jugal or couple). The woman plays the most vital part in the Baul cult. Without a woman partner the cult loses its significance. The woman is also considered a ‘chetan guru’ or one who is awake or conscious of all activities in the cult.
Lalon says :
Kothae acche re din daradi shain
lalon bole, chetan guru sango loye khabir karo bhai
Loosely translated: Where is my lord of life
Identify Him with the help of your guide who is always awaken and takes care of you.
(Shain is here taken as consort or husband, Swami Shain)
The initiation or Diksha ceremony is called by the Bauls and followers of Lalon Shah as ‘bhek’ ceremony. It refers to one’s induction to the ascetic life.
The initiation changes the whole life pattern that the person previously followed. They are separated from the life they were leading with their children and others. They can not maintain social intercourse. The persons who intend to be initiated are taken to a secluded place or hut. It is called the ‘secret chamber’. The guru or their spiritual guide then comes to them and give them necessary instruction not witnessed by others. Only three, the guru, the man and woman are there. Here the persons to be initiated undergo certain process or rituals with the guru which is never disclosed to others. On the following day, the couple is taken to a purifying bath either in a river or in a pond.
A ‘khilka’ is a new white cloth which stands as the symbol of ‘kafon’ as used by the Muslims for a burial cloth, is given to the couple who undergo initiation process with this end in view that the persons who are being initiated are also taken as dead to the life which they led previously. They are now considered dead while still living. In Baul terminology, it is taken as ‘jyante-mora’. ‘Jyante’ is one who is alive or living. And ‘Mora’ is taken as dead. The couple are next taken to the shade of a big ‘chadoa’ or cover which is held by four persons, of them, two are women, taking the four corners of the ‘chadoa’ or shade while the others who are already initiated help the initiating couple dress in a ‘khilka’. The male initiate is then covered with a ‘pagree’ or turban.
Underneath his outer garments the initiate is then made to wear a very tight-fitting underwear known as ‘dor-kowpin’ or ‘kapni’.It is a tiny loin cloth worn by the ascetics of India and Bangladesh. This consists of a cord which is tied round the waist and over which a yard-long piece of white cloth about six to eight inches wide is draped in front of the genitals and pulled between the legs and over the cord in the back. The remainder of the cloth is then secured by twisting it round the part passing the buttocks. The initiate is then given a shoulder – strap cloth bag known as ‘anchla-jhola’ to carry small items.
The initiate receives a kind of necklace or ‘tasbi’ (a rosary) from the guru. He is also given a water pot and a stick. His female partner known as his ‘sheba-dashi’ or one who is always ready to serve the male partner is then dressed.
She however receives the assistance of female Bauls who dress her in a white sari without border together with ‘khilka’. The male counterpart uses a white ‘lungi’. The dress of the initiates is called ‘bhek’, the garb of ascetics. The guru then takes the pair to the secret chamber and confers ‘vij-mantra’ or ‘kalma’, a mystic word or words which the initiates recite as is instructed by the guru. The guru then offers ‘prem-bhaja’ consisting of a flour mixed with four fluids of the human body (urine, male semen, and menstrual blood of women or phlegm and faeces).This prem-bhaja is sometimes made into the shape of small marbles while at other times it is formed into small round cakes.
The guru also instructs them on different methods of sex-yoga sadhana leading to birth control because after they are initiated they are not be allowed to have children .The initiates then take the name of Allah, Hari, Muhammad, Krishna, Karim and Kala. The intiate and his female partner also are asked to drink ‘pancarasa’ (a mixture of urine, menstrual blood, semen, human milk and faeces).
As the two are initiated, they are brought out from the secret chamber blindfolded with both hands tied with a white strap. Then a mock funeral procession is held.
The couple are led by the guru to the Mazar of either his dead guru or to the mazar of another senior guru. Generally the ‘Diksha’ or initiation ceremony takes place during ‘urus’ of Lalon Shah at his Seuria Mazar located at the Lalon Academy premises.
They now move around the mazar seven times singing mourning or funeral song, a kind of dirge which recounts how the initiate and his female partner have forsaken or renounced once for all their previous life. They also sing in the name of one Bharati Goshain, who in her life renounced rich and aristocratic life and took begging for her livelihood that they will move from door to door begging as they do not care for anything worldly.
The funeral procession then moves to the village afterwards returning again to the Mazar where a feast is arranged by the initiate and his female partner for all the Bauls present. It is called ‘sadhu-sheba’ or service to the mystics or sadhus. After the feast the initiate and his female partner are required to stay with their Guru for seven days during which time they learn from him their new way of life. Henceforth the initiate and his female partner can not return to normal life. They can not conduct normal social life or participate in any social activities. They have no claims or responsibility towards the members of their family which they have forsaken. If they suffer in life they can not complain.
It may be pointed out here that in the secret chamber when the guru ceremonially gives ‘Vij-mantra’ to the initiates they sit on the ground facing the guru.
They are then instructed to look into the eyes of their guru through the gap in their own hand created by fixing palm and fingers in a triangular sign symbolising the female genital organ. They then prostrate before their guru. After that the guru takes initiates’ right hand, lifting the thumbs and pressing them against each other. The initiates then repeat certain sacred mantras after which the guru offers them a few grains of rice and a glass of water known as ‘chal-pani’.
Sadhu-sheba
Among the Bauls, Lalon Shah or shain is held in high esteem. He is the oldest Baul spiritual leader who died 113 years back at the age 116 in the village Seuria where his mazar is now located. The Sadhusheba was introduced by him when he organised annual Baul festival on the occasion of Dol-Purnima, a festival observed by low-caste Hindus and the Vaisnavas on the full moon night in the month of Bengali month Falgun corresponding to English spring season.
Lalon Shah used to call his festival as ‘massava’ or ‘mahotsava’. On the occasion, people belonging to low caste group and Muslims used to visit him. For three days, the festival continued. The food he served and the rituals connected with it was called ‘Sadhu-Sheba’ or service to saints. In the Baul cult meat of all kind is strictly forbidden. Fish, vegetable, curd are served. The meals are served three times a day. In the morning a sparse breakfast is served. It is called Balya –Sheba. Lunch and supper are called ‘Purna-Sheba’. These two are full meals. When taking meals together the Bauls will pronounce Alek Shain or Allah alek shain jointly in one voice.
The Baul Song
The Baul Song is the religious song of the Bauls. It is now the most popular folk song of Bangladesh. The Baul songs have points of similarities with the Carya songs of the Buddhist Sahajiya mystics, the earliest specimen of Bengali language and literature.
The Sufi songs, Sama, are in many ways similar to Baul songs. In Persian literature, the Baul belongs to an obscure religious cult because of its excessive focus on sex and deha-vada in its philosophy of life. Dr. Mohammad Moin, a professor of Persian language and literature in the University of Tehran in his ' Persian Dictionary' (1978), mentioned the Baul as one who was infatuated or madly in love. This Baul was known as a wanderer in the desert singing songs in a carefree manner. In Arabic and Persian language the word Baul is also used as consort. It is derived from a Hebrew word 'Baal' that refers to a fertility god, named Baal. He was a popular god but was severely condemned in the Bible and the Quran.
The Baul as a Sufi sect was not unknown in the history of Bengali language and literature. The word first appeared in a book named ' Yusuf-Zulaikha' written by Shah Saghir and ' Laili Maznu' by Daulat Uzir Bahram Khan. Both the poets belong to early fourteenth century.
The author is the Treasurer at the Islamic University in Kushtia and the director of the Folklore Research Institute.
2. Instruments used by Baul
Baul songs are usually solo songs although often accompanists and members of the audience (normally, handfull of villagers gathering around the Bauls) to join in the refrain and repetition phrases of the verse. Instruments used by Bauls include the following:
· Khamak - A rhythmic instrument with one or two strings attached to the head of a small drum. The strings are plucked with a plectrum and they are alternatively tightened or slackened to generate an amazing array of rhythmic and tonal variations.
· Tabla - A pair traditional Indian drums called 'baya' (the left hand drum) and the 'daina' (the right hand drum). The left drum has a clay based shell whilst the right drum has a wooden shell. Heads of both drums are covered in animal hide, the centre of which is applied with a layer of (dry) pulp mix. Tonal variation are achieved by adjusting tension of the skin head.
· Mridanga or Khol - A barrel-shaped clay drum with two heads - sort of a combination of the baya and daina of tabla as described above.
· Harmonium - A small keyboard instrument with hand-worked bellows - not unlike accordian.
· Ektara - A plucked single string drone - fingers and thumb are used.
· Khanjani - A tabourine without jangles.
· Mandira or Kartal - Small bell-shaped cymbals.
· Ghoongoor - A garland of bells tied around the ankle - played with rhythmic movements of feet. ·
· Ramchaki - A pair of wooden clappers with jangles.
3.Lalon Shah
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Poet Rabindranath Tagore in his Hebart Lecture in London (1933) first applauded Lalan Shah as a mystic poet who discovered 'soul' and the meaning of 'man'. Tagore said that I discovered that 'man' from the songs of Lalan who said that "(ai manushe ase se mon....) "....) the 'man' is within yourself where are you searching Him (Folkore, II, Calcutta, 1961).
Tagore through his Estate-Assistant Bamacharan Chakravarty managed to copy nearly 150 songs from his akhra (residing place) Seuria from which only a few songs were published in the monthly Probashi as 'Haramoni' in 1920. Soon after, search for similar songs were undertaken by various collectors including Md. Mansur Uddin. 'Haramoni' (1932) the preface of which was written by Tagore said that here, in these songs, Hindus and Muslims have been united under the same sky------ there is no barrier of caste or creed...'
Tagore wrote that it is a fact that I infused the tune of Baul (Lalan) in many of my songs and dramas. Dusan Zbavitel, a Czeck Folklorist wrote that 'it is my firm belief that if Tagore had not stayed in the countryside (Selaidah), he would not have become, what he was as a man or a poet. Now the scholars are discovering the Baul-motifs in his songs, dramas and poems, which needs elaborate discussion (Folklore, II, Calcutta, vol. 14,1961).
Lalon Shah, one of the greatest mystic poets of this sub-continent was born in the year 1774 in the village Harishpur, under the present District of Jhenaidah in Bangladesh. Ultimately through many ups and downs of life, varied experiences and devotional pursuits, he settled in Seuria, a village near the present district headquarters of Kushtia. There was a time when Muslim sufimendicants covered almost all the areas of the then Bengal and many of their memories have now been turned to sacred legend. As for example, Shah Sultan Rumi, Hajrat Shah Jalal, Shah Sultan Makka, Shah Sultan Mahishwar, Khan Jehen Ali, Shah Ismail Gazi, Shah Makdum, Hajrat Jalal Uddin Tabreji and many of their followers can be mentioned.
Fakir Lalon Shah's calibre lies in his ability to raise some universal questions in simple craftsmanship. And the verses, which the cult calls as Kalams are the doctrines of the devotional rites of Ohedaniat (the belief that glorifies humanism), which they follow. According to the experts, Lalon composed about two thousands verses, which were noted down by Fakir Maniruddin Shah, a direct disciple of Fakir Lalon Shah. He was authorised to do manuscripts, which were composed by another disciple Fakir Manik Shah.
At that stage verses were considered simply as the manifestation of discourse of Ohedaniat. Subsequently, Fakir Maniruddin Shah, and his disciple, Fakir Khoda Baksh Shah, attempted to put these Kalams into a particular frame of music. Khoda Baksh's disciple, Amulya Shah, was a reputed musicologist who set Baul songs, especially Lalon songs, to music. These songs were further developed by his disciples. Baul songs generally have two tunes, one for the first part of the song and another for the second. Towards the end, part of the second stave is rendered again at a quick tempo.
The first and middle staves are very important. The first stave is often called dhuya, mukh or mahada. In songs with a fast tempo, the first stave is repeated after every second stave. Some songs have ascending and descending rhythms, while others are accompanied by dancing, believed to have originated from the rural narratives.
· Like the other Baul traditions two major aspects in Lalon songs are -- dehotatta (analysis of the form of human body) and longing for maner manush (the ideal being). According to the belief, maner manush guides one to become a perfect human being.
· Every song may be interpreted in two ways: inner meaning and surface meaning in terms of human love and in terms of divine love.
· These verses can be catagorised in five ways: Dehotatta, Nabitatta, Chaitanyatatta, Krishnatatta and social issues.
Shahajia, Shahaj Manush, Simple Man
Fakir Lalon Shah is unique in that he had blended different traditions of devotional rites such as Shahajia of Buddhism, Shahajia of Vaishnavism, Sufism of Islam and several other traditional beliefs and thereby interpreted dehotatta in his own way. Lalon in many of his verses on dehotatta has implicitly given guideline on physical analysis to be beyond 'physical state' to the metaphysical.
To find its root we have to go back to the era of Charyapada, 8th-12th century Buddhist poems from eastern India which provide early examples of Assamese, Oriya and Bengali languages. In the verses of the Charyapada the poets created an enigma to veneer their secret devotional practices based on sexual free mixing. Shahajia followers believe in the simple way of life to feel the sahaja or innate reality that is present in every animate or inanimate object. The followers of this cult think that a simple, direct way is the best means to experience this feeling. The Sahajiya believe that knowledge is synonymous to worship, and this knowledge resides within the self, not outside it. They believe that this knowledge cannot be acquired through study of books, but only apprehended through the advice of preceptors and the indoctrination of sahajasadhana (worship to be simple). Perhaps that's why Lalon, in his verses suggested to search for a maner manush and who will guide one to be a Shahoj Manush (simple man). Lalon followers believe that nobody can get peace only in physical love but rather in divine love.
3.1. The mysticism of Lalon songs
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The mysticism of Lalon songs largely remains unrevealed and unexplored till date. This is so because Lalon's songs, which are countless, were passed on orally through his disciples and were mostly unwritten. Only a limited number of songs that could be preserved were later transcribed by his followers. |
3.2. The voice of the eternity, eternal pangs of human soul with the fullest devotion
The old Bengal lyric tradition of which the oldest extent was found in the Charya-poems of the Siddas. Natha mendicants attended in the post-Muslim times to the Baul songs on one hand and the Vaishnava-padas songs of Vaishnavas on the other. With a dash of Islamic spirit these became, Muslim Baul songs which are heard from Muslim Bauls over Bengal"…
Lalan Shah was a Baul as well as a mystic mendicant whose allegiance could be discovered in the sophistic ideals. The subject and motifs of his devotional songs are varied, he gathered these reference from his precepts as well as of his own experiences, while traversing the long-stretched devotional path-a-path paved by both the Islamic theology and the continental traditions mentioned earlier. Lalon, a powerful and gifted instrument, it may be safely said, echoed the voice of the eternity, eternal pangs of human soul with the fullest devotion, sincerity and ecstasy. There was not a single Baul throughout the country who was not influenced by Lalon or his songs. He composed thousands of mystic songs- which were not only sung and recited but were also responsible for uplifting the eternal human pangs, which bleed with the sorrow and pathos of human destiny.
You are Allah, the preserver, and the protector.
You can make the floating sink and the sinking you can bring ashore
You touch me with your hand and I call out your name.
You made the Prophet Noah cool the fury of the flood;
And then in compassion you made the flood to recede.
Have pity on me, the mighty Lord, of the Universe."
Where is the key of the devotional knowledge? Lalon replied:
The key to my door is held by others I cannot open the door and see the treasure.
Gold lies piled up in my room, But the transaction is made by another;
I am gravel-blind and cannot see him.
If one day I can reach the watch-man,
He will give me charge of the door.
I cannot say I know him not,
And I follow the path of depravity.
Oh, mind, this key-holder,
is the jewel of a man
Says Lalon, I got the treasure
but was unaware of its value.
Where lies this mystery of human soul? Where from I came and where shall I go? Lalon's answer:
How does the strange bird
flit in and out of the cage,
If I could catch the bird
I would put it under the fetters of my heart.
The cage has eight cells and nine doors.
With laten
opening here and there,
Above is the main Hall with a mirror chamber
O my mind, you are enamoured of the cage;
little knowing that the cage is made of raw bamboo,
and may any day fall apart
Say Lalon, forcing the cage open
the bird flitted away, no one knows where.
Lalon died in 1890, and his mortal remains rest in Seuria, now the holy pilgrimage of Bauls and the lovers of Bauls songs. Amazing is this that he was born on 1st Kartik and died on the same date.
(Dr. Ashraf Siddique, The Independent, October 30, 2003)
3.3. On Fakir Lalon Shah origin
Lalon‘s origin is not known. No one knows where he was born, who his parents were, which religious, ethnic or cultural communities he belonged to. A farmer found him in the Kaliganga river, a tributary of Ganga, that flowed through Kushtia, but has since dried out; he was a fifteen to sixteen year old boy when he was found, nearly dying from smallpox when Malam, a farmer in Cheuria, Kushtia, discovered him early in the morning lying between the muddy edge of the river and the splash of the water flow. Malam called his wife Matijan and took Lalon to their house, treated and took care of him and brought him back to health.
That his life was surviving in between soil and water, in between elemental realities of material being but as non-being, arouses very deep symbolic meaning among Lalon’s followers. That’s the reason why the symbolic narrative about the origin of Lalon became integral to Lalon’s philosophy as well: his birth is both known and unknown. It is known because he came from water, from Kaliganga river, but he is still unknown since he was practically dead and what Malam received is a being hanging in between the river mud and slash of the water. Except this real story of his ‘birth’ no one knows where he belonged.
Malam and Matijan had no children. They both felt deep affection for the boy who was by then affected badly by the deadly bacterial attack, particularly in the face. Lalon lost an eye to small pox. The care and love Lalon received from Malam and Matijan helped him to recover well and for the rest of his life the couple was his family. Matijan and Malam’s household became his place of re-searching, learning and articulating the wisdom of life. When the wisdom of Lalon started to become obvious he drew many disciples. But it was Matijan, it seems, who was the first devotee to grasp Lalon. In recognition of her wisdom, love and motherly care Lalon did instruct that Matijan be buried next to him. In fact, and it is important to note, Lalon’s shrine should be named as Matijan-Lalon shrine – and that was the wish of Lalon; but this wish remained unfulfilled because of the dominance of patriarchal culture in the society, despite the fact that to the Lalon followers it is the shrine where Lalon and Matijan are sleeping side by side and Malam is also buried along with Lalon’s other close disciples.
‘I am going’
Lalon died at the age of 116 years. On the first of the Bengali month Kartik (mid October). The day he was ready to say good bye to his disciples it was a kind of celebration in songs and joy. Lalon did not believe there was anything beyond death, but death was a personal event, an experience that remained beyond language. No one could taste death for others. So he was anxious to develop a cultural encounter with death to destroy its theological spectre.
It is said that he was singing a song when the time arrived for him to leave. ‘I am going’ – he said to his disciples. It is sung throughout a whole night. For Lalon, death was not something fearful, as theologians have made people believe. You have to prepare happily for death. This is a cultural preparation. Dying is like a marriage. Something you look forward to. Fear of death must be overcome. Therefore the white colour signifies the preparation for death, a cultural thing and not any so-called spiritual emblem.
He lived a very healthy life, taking care of health very meticulously and developed a food system which is unique in Bengal. It is inspired by the Vaishnavites of Bengal, but unlike Vaishanavs and Brahmins, Lalon rejected the idea of food hierarchies or in other words vegetarianism. If one starts making hierarchies in food system sooner or later it is reproduced as social hierarchies, into caste systems, or vice versa. His food system was based on metaphoric avoidance of certain food since food is also a symbol and element of language. One should avoid meat if animal in any culture is metaphorically seen as devoid of control of emotion and biological propensities. He was not an ascetic and not a vegetarian. Vegetarianism in Bengal was associated with Brahmanism and Lalon did not believe in the food regime of ‘pure and impure food’ of the higher castes.
Hindus claimed Lalon as their own as did Muslims
To the Lalon followers the proper name ‘Lalon’ is immortal and will generate a plethora of meanings if the name is evoked in any social context and will guide people to journeys to joyful lifestyles, although, bodily, he disappeared. Lalon appeared as an idea in flesh and blood and such appearance is known as ‘abirvhab’; accordingly the death or the disappearance is called ‘tirodhan’. These terms are full of philosophical implications.
It is interesting to note that the biological act of birth has no meaning as such to Lalon or Lalon’s followers, it is the appearance of the wisdom in the biological forms and our capacity to transcend the naturally given biological being, the event of ‘appearing’, that we should look for. This event is to be celebrated, not the birth. So Lalon has no birth date, no one knows when he was born. But when the proper name ‘Lalon’ appeared as the symbol of wisdom, we instantly realise that an event had been born in time, place and in specific being. This event could never be erased by death or time. This event is known in Lalon’s philosophy as ‘Shahaj Manush’, literally means ‘simple appearing of being’ but went deeper than the preceding Vaishnava movements known as ‘Shahajiyas’. Hindus claimed Lalon as their own as did Muslims. Both communities wanted to communalise him, after his name became a household word. Communalisation of his birth is a possibility he anticipated in his life time and that is the reason he never revealed his identity. His followers were humble people and their protests went unheard because of intense communal claims by two religious communities. Hindus said he was a Kayastha, adopted by a Muslim guru, and Muslims said he was a Muslim by birth. Yet Lalon never revealed his guru. He just continued to live with Matijan and Malam, who adopted him as their son and later as their Guru, throughout his life. He was not very widely known during his life time, although he was noted by many eminent writers and intellectuals of his time, such as Rabindranath Tagore. However, Lalon did not search contact with the middle and upper class. He did not even want to come near Rabindranath Tagore, because Tagore came from a Zamindar family. When Tagore invited him, he did not go; both lived around the same time in Bengal. Another famous man of that time was Ramakrishna.
But Lalon could never become like Ramkrishna, charming the elites of Kolkata. All his life he lived at the outskirts of Kushtia.
Father is revealed only through the naming the name of the Mother
Lalon was against all forms of socio-economic hierarchy, caste, class, and gender and any forms of politics of identity based on race, nationality, etc. He did not believe in divisions according to jat (caste), path (hierarchies by which who can accept food and water from whom), class, patriarchy, religion and nation.
Lalon was not a nationalist, despite the fact the anti-colonial nationalist movement was fomenting in the subcontinent. It does not imply that he is not against colonial oppression, of course he was; he was against all forms of oppression. However, when the oppressed constitutes an identity as a necessary tool to encounter the oppressor, the identity overtakes the universality of human beings. Perhaps he saw the danger in identity politics decaying into fetish. It is a hindrance to resolve human conflicts and go beyond the difference to celebrate the unity of the human beings.
When he was found by Malam and Matijan, Lalon was already a grown up boy and it is obvious that he knew about his family, his village and his community. Nevertheless, he never revealed his family background or the so called ‘identity’. This act of non-disclosure of his origin that Lalon maintained all of his life is highly political. Living in a society violently divided by caste, hierarchy and communal division, Lalon knew very well that the so-called natural origins or birth histories always create social meaning and produce politics of identities. He was vehemently opposed to caste, all forms of social and economic hierarchies, communal identities or all forms of social difference that might carry slightest potential to breed political division in the society. No wonder, he wrote many songs against caste, family status and hierarchy. He adopted the name ‘Lalon’, a curious choice – it could be a name belonging to any community and could also be a name of a woman.
Lalon is brilliant in raising very fundamental issues relating to woman-man relationships playing on the margin between biological and the social construction of this relation. The famous song ‘mayere bhajile hoy tar baper thikana’ is based on a story known in rural Bengal. Parvati, one of the great Hindu Mother-Goddesses, the wife of Mohadeva or Shiva, was once asked by her husband about the origin of the world. ‘Is it from the masculine or the feminine principle?’ Mohadeva asked Parvati. Parvati thought for a while, but decided consciously not to reply, she went into ‘silence’. Why? Because if she said the world originated from women, implying her, she will be a sinner for being a bad wife, since patriarchal rules were dominant. On the other hand, if she said it is from the masculine principle, implying Shiva, she will become a liar. So her ‘silence’ became her words, or her words are constructed by her silence. Silence is the the feminine punctuation in the masculine discourse and it must be rewritten as a methodology known in Lalon’s philosophy as the ‘nigam bichar’. It is the task of the sadhus or the saints to read the ‘silence’ and break the dominant structure of the existing discourse.
Most importantly, Lalon raised the difficult methodological question of addressing the biological difference between men and women and the social meaning they produce in different social contexts constituting various forms of patriarchal hierarchies between women and men. The famous song, ‘mayere bhajile hoy tar baper thikana’ is a brilliant example. The meaning of the Father is revealed only through the naming the name of the Mother and that is indeed the task of the real wisdom, he claimed. The philosophical twist of the Bengali word ‘bhajana’ is almost impossible to translate into other languages. ‘Mayere bhajile’ literally means ‘worshipping mothers’ but Lalon was meaning completely opposite of deifying the women as Devi, but inviting intellectual and meditative engagement to reveal the meaning of being Mother (not motherhood). Mother signifies the origin of all beings both as the ceaseless process (Prakriti), as well as the subject of the process. Father or Shiva is not an independent entity outside Mother, or Parvati, but integral to the notion of Mother. So, one knows Father only by knowing the Mother.
He did not use the concept nari (woman), but always referred to “mother-father“ dialectics. ‘If you want to know the father you have to worship mother’ – an unconditional submission to the feminine principle is demanded by his philosophy and the lifestyle.
He was familiar with Hindu as well as with Muslim religion and mythology and used both freely in his talks and songs. Thus, the Hindu god Krishna played a great role in his songs.
3.4. On Lalon’s philosophical and mystic school
Nadia’school of Vaishnavism
About Lalon’s philosophical and mystic school Chaitanya Mohaprabhu or Lord Sri Chaitanya
was born at Nabadwip, a small village in undivided Bengal and the district it belonged was known as ‘Nadia’. The present district of Kushtia where we have Lalon’s shrine was indeed part of Nadia. Nabadwip means New Island that rose from the river Ganga. Lalon carried the philosophical legacies of Nadia. It is not merely a geography, an administrative district, but the history of a unique formation where Islam in the Eastern part of India grounded itself, encountered and mingled with Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions and cultural practices and generated great literary, philosophical and the cultural movement Bengalis are proud of. Nadia was the center of learning, the great place for Indian Logic, Sankhya and Baisheshik philosophy and a strong oral tradition of dissemination of knowledge. The theoretical and the philosophical sophistication of Lalon was not surprising at all, if we remain aware of the glory of Nadia.
It is said that Lalon belonged to the ‘Nadia’school of Vaishnavism retaining all the legacies of Bengal’s Tantric tradition. It is partly true, but wrong because he is also a break in the Nadia school. Broadly speaking, there were two paradigms in Vaishnavism recognised by Lalon followers: the Brindavan school and the Nadia school. They would argue that after Chaitanya, the great spiritual leader of Vaishnavism left Nadia for Brindabon leaving Nadia in charge of Nityananda, the struggle against caste and social hierarchies continued. Nityananda is the great Guru of Bengal’s tantric, bhakti and socio-political movement of the most oppressed. He was one of the trinity, in Bengal known as ‘tin pagol’, or three mad men of Bengal, the other was Aidaitacharya. Needless to mention that they infused different elements in the Nadia school, but the movement took specific character under the leadership of Nityananda, followed by his son Birbhadra and a Muslim woman known as Madhab bibi. This is the reason why all the spiritual movements of Bengal that grew from the grass root and articulated the voice of the subalterns, invariably refers to Nityanada as the Guru of all Gurus of wisdom. Because, they claim, it is Nityananda and not Chaitanya, the great logician and master in linguistic and rhetoric or the great Brahmin scholar Aidaityacharya – both coming from the higher caste Brahmin family, was central to the great philosophical revolution in Bengal that started with Chaitanya’s appearance in Nadia. Even until today any subaltern socio-spiritual movement articulating in songs, known in Bengal as ‘bauls’ or ‘bayatis’ will first offer his or her song to Nityananda.
In contrast to Nadia, the Brindabon school appropriated the glory of Chaitanya to turn his teachings into a canonical ‘shastra’ (religious discipline) of Vaishanavism. Two types of transformations took place:
· (a) oral to the textual – the oral tradition of knowledge production through songs, theatrical performances and social mobilisation had been turned into canonical texts;
· (b) secondly, the religious texts were rendered lifeless, they were taken away from the popular knowledge practice and were written in Sanskrit. Brindabon is therefore a returning back to the caste ridden Hindu tradition to become an integral part of Hinduism.
Chaitanya was uplifted again to the upper caste, this has always remained the complain of the school developed after Nityananda in Nadia and culminated in the figure we now know as Fakir Lalon Shah.
The Brindavan school is popular among middle and upper classes and castes and accepted to Brahmanism. Nadia rejected Brahmanism all along. And so did Brindabon and the profound philosophical turns in Nadia has been systematically ignored and silenced by the educated elite of Bengal by simply referring them as ‘Lok Sangeet’ – folk songs.
Fakir Lalon and others are simply known as ‘bauls’ — a misused and abusive term by the upper caste and upper class elite implying that these philosophical utterances rendered in songs should simply be treated as musical performances by some lowly rural minstrel who resigned on life and has nothing to do in the real material world. Their musicals are overly sad overtures of some poor fellows that often break your heart!
Having said this, we must also say it categorically that Lalon was not a mystic, in the sense of, let’s say, Jalaluddin Rumi as a mystic. He is strongly grounded in the philosophical traditions of Bengal and one can easily make sense of him. To produce meanings of Lalon’s poetico-philosophical statements, that could also be sung, one must have some basic readings in Chaitanya teachings, an understanding of the difference between the Shakta and Vaishanava bhakti movements, Navya Naya (or Bengal’s logical systems), Shankhya philosophy and good command over Islamic philosophy and others. It is very difficult to talk about Tantra because of its vulgar representation and understanding in the west: a sexual art of maximizing pleasure, which is completely opposite what Lalon would mean by it. In this ‘exotic’ subcontinent there have been utterly perverse Tantric traditions that attracted the tourists and the Orientalists, of course. The consumer capitalist society has also discovered in Tantra a ‘spiritual’ or ‘new age’ justification to practice all kinds of sexual perversion and packaged them as commodities to sell in the market. Nevertheless, Tantra is a generic term and there are many Tantras. So, responding to the enquiry ‘Is Lalon a Tantric?’ the reply should depend what you mean by Tantra or Tantric? Yes Lalon is a Tantric but he is also not a Tantric as we understand Tantra. He was bitterly critical of Tantra as well, as named his practices as ‘Karan’ – literally meaning practice.
The universe is the body
To make our point intelligible, Lalon was a materialist, that is what Tantra meant to him, and he is situated within the tradition of Nityananda. It means that there is no truth outside the material body and separation of the human ‘body’ from its capacity to think is simply wrong or absurd. He would definitely reject the position of Descarte and the whole of western epistemological and ontological tradition for its false premise ‘I think therefore I am’. He would argue that the ‘body’ is given to us before we even start thinking; the obsession to be certain of the existence or certainty of the truth of a statement will have to be assessed by the desire behind such impulse. There is no truth as such, we become true through the use of our ‘body’ in a self determined way in the material-historical world – this is the meaning of his Tantra for Lalon. He will also reject western materialism that began with weird and mystical conception of ‘matter’ in order to reconstitute body and consciousness by that category remaining eternally forgetful that all these categories are products of his or her thinking bodies.
The ‘body’ is the universe and the universe is the body — it is the first axiomatic principle of Tantra. One can easily notice that there nothing about sex or sexuality in this basic premise. So ‘body’ is not an individual entity but a continuum, the challenge is to ‘taste’ the universe in and through the body as a material being, both as a means as well as the being of all knowing.
‘Allah’ is what human beings
To do it well one should remain healthy, must remain conscious about body and follow how the body behaves under different conditions and how it is related to our faculties, etc. Body has sexual impulses known in Bangla as ‘Kam’, it is natural. However, the body of the human being also has the capacity to transform ‘kam’ into ‘prem’ – that is love, love for others. In human bodies Kam and Prem is mixed together like poison and nectar. It is the task of the wise person to extract the nectar from the poison. One cannot taste love without the material impulse of the body, but love transcends the body – and it happens only in the case of human bodies – and that is his point. Lalon was not a Sufi at all. Sufi traditions do not have the same ontological or epistemological premise as Lalon, more so, since Lalon was never theological. Sufis, being a spiritual movement originated within Islam, can not but accept the existence of Allah before any other being. In love of Allah Sufis desire to be reunited with the Being of all beings. In contrast Lalon will never assume a Being outside the given ‘body’ of human beings. Allah is right here in the human shape to ‘know’ and ‘taste’ himself, Lalon would argue. Allah Ke bujhe tomar opar Lile
Tumi Apni Allah dako Allah bole
O Allah who could decipher your endless play
You are the Allah but calling for Allah yourself
‘Allah’ is what human beings experiences in their thinking bodies and calling out for that being in their language and theologies.
Socio-historical role to emancipation
He is misunderstood as Sufi because his songs are replete with Arabic words and Islamic metaphors. However, careful readings reveal that he not only criticised and distanced himself from Sufis, but offered a quite original interpretation of the meaning of prophethood and the spiritual mission of Islam – to rediscover Allah in the human body. He never deviated from the Nadia School, but encountered and absorbed the great Sufi traditions as well as Islamic philosophy resolving the questions raised by those traditions within his system of thought.
Nevertheless Sufis were his close allies. He never undermined the spiritual strength of Islam and one is simply astonished to note how the converging and often conflicting trends are being resolved and absorbed by him. He wrote plenty of songs for Mohammed and similarly plenty for Chaitanya and Nityananda. His songs interpret the philosophical meaning of Chaitnaya over and above the appearance of a historical figure. These are known as songs deciphering ‘Gourtattya’. Similarly, he interpreted in ‘Nabitattya’ – the meaning of the arrival of the last prophet, explained the significance of the prophethood of Muhammed, the messenger of Islam. Through these songs he brilliantly positioned himself as the great philosopher explaining the idea of the ‘wise’ and the ‘wisdom’ and the necessity in every epoch of the arrival of a Guru — the wisest of the wise — who in flesh and blood must re-interpret all texts and utterances that went before her or him to remind the human beings their mission of becoming true through their socio-historical role to emancipation.
The imaginary pain of the heart
It is profoundly important to understand Lalon within the Nadia tradition or as the apex of the philosophical schools within ‘Nadia Parimandal’ (circle of Nadia) and not as Sufi tradition, despite the fact that Sufis are allies to Nadia, otherwise one could completely miss the contribution of Lalon to philosophical discourse. Let me try to make this point clearer.
Krishna and Radha.
Let’s go back to Chaitanya. Chaitanya did not want to become a Brahmacharya (a celibate). He was married. He accepted celibacy only after he decided to become a Sanyashi (determination to give up all worldly affairs). He is one of the famous Indian logicians. But in the day to day rhetoric with his wife his intelligent philosophical mind concluded that the neither Logic nor rhetoric is the way to truth; in the same degree intellectualism is not the ideal human practice to become true.
Chaitnaya’s philosophy is based on the love story of Krishna and Radha. Chaitanya started to claim that when Krishna as a man made love with Radha he tasted the ‘body’ as a masculine being. But how did Radha – the feminine – taste Krishna? How did Radha feel the ‘body’? Taste here is used in a very literal and sensuous way but at the same time in a highly philosophical sense. The actual Bangla word is ‘ashwadon’. In the western philosophy taste as faculty of knowledge has hardly any role and pathetically undermined in the hierarchy of senses.
But Chaitanya, biologically is a man. Is it possible for the man to taste the body as a woman does? Chaitanya claimed yes it is possible and thus he made the first philosophical revolution in the history of Tantra. To Tantra or to the pre-chaitanya Tantric tradition body is material in the sense of materialism in the western sense. Chaitanya said, when you do not see your lover and physically feel the loss — the feeling, the imagination of the loss of the lover, the imaginary pain of the heart are at the same time the pains of the body. What Chaitanya was arriving at is the role of imagination in human history.
Imagination
Imagination is real, and human beings can transcend the body by imagining himself as woman. Femininity can not be locked in the biology. Chaitanya transformed his bodily desires as the desire of Radha for Krishna. But neither Radha nor Krishna are real beings. Desiring the imaginary as the object of sensuous love opened up a new philosophical horizon is the great philosophical revolution in Bengal. Chaitanya’s practice is both a practice of the body as well as the imagination. He used to be called ‘Gour’ or ‘Gora’ meaning fair. He was very handsome and very attractive. The legend goes that through his practice he incarnated both Krishna and Radha in his body. Philosophically it implies that imagination can take material form and human history can not be explained without taking account of the human dreams and imaginations, including revolutionary or radical departures.
Lalon accepted Chaitanya but with a reservation. He realised that Chaitanya brought the desire for the imaginary non-being of love-object at the center of human objective and this unfolded the immense possibility of the human ‘body’. However, in his songs he argued, Chaitanya must also be understood in epistemological terms and not simply as a metaphor, e.g. incarnation of Krishna. So he metaphorically raised the first brilliant question. If Chaitanya is the incarnation of Krishna, why is he not ‘black”? Why is he ‘fair”? In Bangla Krishna means black. Well because Chaitanya is both Krishna and Radha in one body, he is both male and female. If so, why did Krishna re-incarnate again in Bengal? The reply from Lalon is that he had three incomplete tasks. What were these tasks? One could decipher the tasks from the activities of Chaitanya.
1. To destroy the dominance of male or masculine principle and erase the gender divide, biology should not be the determinant of our desire for the good life or should not be the hindrance for emancipatory imaginations.
2. To develop the will to transcend worldly affairs, to cultivate authentic human desires; implying to do away with the ego and the private property.
3. To transform the personal love into universal love for all and to be a self conscious ‘slave’ to the community (all non-Brahmanical desires).
I am interpreting his famous song, ‘moner katha bolbo kare ami moner katha bolbo kare / mon jane ar jane maram mojechi mon diye jare…'
(Based on an interview by Prof Maria Mies with Farhad Mazhar in Dhaka on January 28, 2004 )
4.Lalon Shah, the Bauls and their Practices
In Bangladesh there is a category of Sufi mystics, male and female who travel from place to place carrying with them folk musical instruments and a begging bag made of torn off cloths called 'anchla'. These people are better known as Bauls. In Persia, the place of their origin, the Bauls were obscure as a sect because of their erotic and esoteric approach to life. They are neither Hindu nor Muslims. They are known for iconoclasm, disregard of caste and social formalities. They worship Man as the center of all creation and preach humanism. They love music, which speaks of human body as the microcosm and soul as an elusive bird or the unattainable Man of the Heart. In many places of Bangladesh, they have religious resort or 'Akhra'.
Here they halt overnight or stay for a short- while sharing bed and food and singing devotional mystic songs. They also take 'ganja' (cannabis indica). The Bauls are not born in a family but are inducted to the cult by the 'Guru' or 'Shain'. At a certain stage, The 'Guru' or 'Shain' is similar to 'Pir' of the Sufi sects and they have also such names as 'Murshid' or 'Darvish'. The category of 'Guru' or ' Pir' includes both entombed historical figures and living practitioners.
In Bangladesh, the Sufi tradition bears the name of 'pir' who are known as spiritual leaders. These people have a number of followers known as 'murid' or disciples. In Baul-Sufi category as it is found in Bangladesh and Indian part of West Bengal, however, the disciples are known as 'shishya'.
The word 'Pir' is being used in all categories of the Muslim mystics to denote spiritual leader but the 'Guru' is only used by the Hindu - Buddhist mystics and also by the Sufi Bauls in the Subcontinent. The Hindi 'Baura' represents the same denomination as of the Bauls. The Baura spiritual leader is also called the Guru. The Bauls, however, use some other Sufi terminology as 'Murshid', 'Darvish' and 'Shain'. In Sufi mysticism as well as in Baul cult 'Shah' is commonly used to identify their class. The word 'Gosain' refers to the Vaisnava religious sect. Although, the Bauls claim that they differ greatly from the Vaisnava, they, however, have many things in common with each other.
In Bangladesh, the Pir and the Guru phenomenon have also given birth to a series of sub-cultures. The Pir, however, enjoys a special and wide-cultural milieu between the Ulema; the most learned in religious teachings and the Shaikh who has attained the mystic height in the Sufi religious tradition. The word 'Awliyah' suggesting a friendly and mystic attachment with Allah is often used to denote a 'Shaikh'.
The 'Pirs' as holy men in the mystic hierarchy, used to enjoy a sort of authority similar to those of the Brahmins who hold the highest position in the Hindu religious order. During the Sultans and more particularly in the Mughal period, the Pirs and the mystics in the name of 'faquir' exerted tremendous influence in the political arena also.
The Bauls of Bangladesh today enjoy a sort of power structure as they shape themselves into a religious community with Lalon Shah as their spiritual leader. Every year, they arrange two religious festivals like 'urus' of the Sufis but the Bauls call these festivals as 'sadhu-sangho' or 'motsob' or 'mossob' corrupt of mohotsab, one during the ' dol-purnima' in line with the Vaisnava and the other on the occasion of the death anniversary of Lalon Shah in the month of October. The word 'mohotshab' may refer to grand or gala festival of the Bauls. Actually the festival stands as the congregation of the saintly persons, known as 'Sadhu-Sangho'. Thousands of the Bauls, male and female, attend the religious festivals and stay in the Mazar for three consecutive days singing and feasting.
They are now an organized group centering on the Mazar of Lalon Shah. In Kushtia, the Bauls who live in Seuria village where Lalon Shah once lived and then died there have been playing a key role in the administration of the Mazar and the Baul community.
The Government has set up a cultural complex spending around Tk4 crore for the preservation of the songs if Lalon Shah and their study. A section of the Bauls apparently followers of Mantu Shah opposed the construction of the cultural complex within the Mazar premises because they considered it as an intervention in their religious freedom
The Baul Guru also enjoys the role of a religious leader like the Pir of Sufi sects. He has innumerable followers or Shisya who consider him very powerful in changing their fate because of their belief that he has mystic contact with the spirits and underworld. In all their activities concerning life and property the impact of the Baul Guru is thus tremendous. I know a number of Baul Gurus who have amassed huge property in the form of 'Najrana' (special kind of respect payable through gift both cash or kind or both.).
This study is an attempt to explore the religious cult, in the context of our cultural heritage. In Bangladesh there are various Sufi sects with their respective Pir heads. They are considered not only holy but are also believed to have power to play a decisive factor in the life present and the life hereafter of the devotee. These Pirs have both rich and poor, high and low as their followers. The Bauls on the other hand consist mostly of poor, low caste, forsaken, divorced or widowed women. But now-a-days, the middle class and the youth are also found joining the cult. In fact, the Bauls have gained tremendous popularity over other religious cults or sects
This paper is also intended to identify the strength of the cult, which has made it a popular folk religious community in Bangladesh. It appears that the Bauls largely belong to the Muslim community but they do not observe the Muslim Shariah and, on the other hand, they are more close to Sufi beliefs and practices. There is no doubt that the cause of their attraction to the Baul cult is their music. The Guru, however, enjoys an elevated position among his disciples and maintains an economically otherwise solvent life.
Diksha or initiation ceremony
A Baul is not born, he is made. If anyone is willing to accept the Baul faith, he or she is inducted into the Baul cult after being properly initiated by the Baul Guru. In fact, initiation or diksha is considered sine qua non to the Baul faith. When a Baul is initiated, a ceremony is arranged for him or her or for the couple who are initiated jointly, by other Bauls. Woman or female plays the most vital part in Baul cult. Without woman partners the cult loses its significance. Woman is also considered a ' chetan guru' or one who is awaken or conscious of all activities in the cult. Lalon says:
"kothai acche re din daradi shain lalon bole, chetan guru sango loye khabir karo bhai"
Where is my lord of life
Identify Him with the help of your guide who is always awaken and takes care of you.
The Initiation or Diksha ceremony is called by the Bauls and followers of Lalon Shah as 'bhek' ceremony. It refers to one's induction to the ascetic life.
The Initiation changes the whole life pattern of the persons. They are separated from the life they were leading with their children and others. They can not maintain social intercourse.
The persons who intend to be initiated are taken to a secluded place or hut .It is called the ' secret chamber'.
The Guru or their spiritual guide then comes to them and gives them necessary instruction not witnessed by others. Only three persons, the guru, the man and woman are there.
Here the persons to be initiated undergo certain process or rituals with the guru that is never disclosed to others. On the following day, the couple is taken to a purifying bath either to a river or in a pond. A 'khilka' is a new white cloth which stands as the symbol of 'kafaon' as used by the Muslims for a burial cloth and is given to the couple who undergo initiation process with this end in view that the persons who are being initiated are also taken as dead to the life which they led previously.
They are now considered dead while still living . In Baul terminology, it is taken as 'jyante-mora'. 'Jyante'is one who is alive or living.And 'Mora' is taken as dead. The initiating couple then taken to the shade of a big 'chadoa' or cover which is held by four persons, of them, two are women taking the four corners of the 'chadoa' or shed while the others who are already initiated help the initiating couple dress in a 'khilka'.The male initiate is then covered with a 'pagree' or turban. Underneath his outer garments the initiate is then made to wear a very tight-fitting underwear or a catche-sexe known as 'dor-kowpin' or 'kapni'.It is a tiny loin cloth worn by the ascetics of India and Bangladesh.
This consists of a cord which is tied round the waist and over which a yard-long piece of white cloth about six to eight inches wide is draped in front of the genitals and pulled between the legs and over the cord in the back. The remainder of the cloth is then secured by twisting it round the part passing the buttocks. The initiate is then given a shoulder - strap cloth bag known as 'anchla-jhola' to carry small items. The initiate receives a kind of necklace or 'tasbi'(a rosary of beads) from the Guru. He is also given a water pot and a stick .his female partner known as his ' sheba-dashi'or one who is always ready to serve the male partner is then dressed in a similar fashion. She however receives the assistance of female Bauls who dress her in a white sari without border together with 'khilka'
The male counter part uses white 'lungi'. Lungi is a long loin-cloth usually worn by the Muslims. The dress of he initiates is called 'bhek', the garb of ascetics. The Guru then takes the pair to the secret chamber and confers 'vij-mantra' or 'kalma', a mystic word or words which the initiates recite as it is instructed by the guru
The Guru then offers 'prem-bhaja'consisting of a flour mixed with four fluids of the human body (urine, male semen, and menstrual blood of women or phlegm and feces ).This prem-bhaja is sometimes made into the shape of small marbles while at other times it is formed into small round cakes. Sometimes female juice called ' rasa' as it oozes out is also mixed with human milk in the making of 'prem-bhaja'.
The Guru also shows them different method of sexo-yoga sadhana leading to birth control because after they are initiated they would not be allowed to have children .The initiates then take the names of Allah, Hari , Muhammad, Krishna, Karim and Kala
As the two are initiated, they are brought out from the secret chamber blind folded with both hands tied with a white strap. Then a mock funeral procession is held.
They are led by the Guru to the Mazar of either his dead Guru or to the Mazar of another senior Guru. Generally the 'Diksha' or Initiation ceremony takes place during 'urus' of Lalon Shah at his Seuria Mazar located at the Lalon Academy premises. They now move around the mazar seven times singing mourning or funeral songs, a kind of dirge which recount how the initiate and his female partner have forsaken or renounced once for all their previous life. They also sing in the name of one Bharati Goshain, who in her life renounced rich and aristocratic life and took begging for her livelihood. Then, go from door to door begging, as they do not care for anything worldly. They cannot conduct normal social life or participate in any social activities. They have no claims or responsibility towards the members of their family, which they have forsaken.
Sadhu-sheba
Among the Bauls, Lalon Shah or Shain is held in high esteem. He is the oldest Baul spiriutual leader who died 113 years back at the age of 116 in the village Seuria where his Mazar is now located. The 'Sadhusheba' was introduced by him when, he organized the annual Baul festival on the occasion of Dol-Purnima.
Lalon Shah used to call his festival as 'massava' or 'mahotsava'. On the occasion, people belonging to low caste group and Muslims used to visit him and, they were also entertained by him. For three days, the festival continued. The food he served and the rituals connected with it was called 'Sadhu-Sheba' or service to saints (sadhu).
In the Baul cult meat of all kind is strictly forbidden. Fish, vegetable, yogurt are served. The meals are served three times a day. In the morning a sparse breakfast is servevd. It is called 'Balya -Sheba'. Lunch and supper are called 'Purna-Sheba'. These two are full meals. When taking meals together the Bauls will pronounce: 'Alek Shain or Allah alek shain' jointly in one voice. Prof. Anwarul Kqarim, The Independent, October 2003)
5.Praise the creator through songs and a novel path
Mysticism is a type of human experience, which cannot be explained in terms of materiel estimation. Lalon Shah was a mystic person- a Baul poet. So much has been Lalon’s influence on Baul philosophy and Bauliana in Bangladesh that every year hundreds of devotees and admires come to Lalon’s Mazar from all over Bangladesh, The centre of the ‘Baul Shamrat’ is 240 kilometers away from Dhaka. Lalon belonged to the Baul community- a group of supplicant singers noted for the catholicity of their religious views. Baul means a class of unorthodox religious devotees singing devotional songs in a special mood. Lalon Shah composed numerous songs and his songs mainly focused on hymns body mystery, self-knowledge and the search for ultimate knowledge. Most of the people say Lalon Shah was (Bauls Shamrat) a royal personage of the Bauls.
Baul-culture is not very easy to realize, as it has rather elaborate levels of philosophy and understanding. Though a few basic qualities are common among the Bauls: they leave regular life and embrace the life of a wanderer and live in comparatively harsh situations among detachments. They lead a life searching for truth in the mystic domain of Baul philosophy.
They periodically give feasts, in which a large number of the devotees are invited. The host and hostess receive every guest with due reverence. Their feet are washed as they arrive, and they are then conducted to their seats.
Fish, vegetables, and sweets are consumed; ganja and bhang freely smoked; mystic songs sung; and musical instruments, such as Saringi, dugdugi, and Khunjuri are struck and played upon.
In this Mahatsab- or Sadhu-Seba, as it is called- the devotees, in their mystic language, discussed how much each has acquired in the domain of spiritualism or sanctity
The first and preliminary injunction they give to the would be disciple is to give up ordinary dress for Gerua- basan, (Gerua- a piece of cloth dyed scarlet) Kapni, (a small piece of cloth used instead of breeches by devotees and labouring people) or Khika (a sleeveless long coat used by the devotees and in imitation of the loose garment of the dead.) to wear iron bala (bracelet) on the wrist, not to shave and let the hair grow, take a long smoking-pipe, a cimta or pair of pincers for taking fire, to drink water out of Kisti, to give up prayer (namaz and fasting), to use narcotic drugs, bhang and ganja, and to recite or repeat their mystic formula many times as an act of worship.
Lalon Shah had a liberal attitude to all religions. Even paganism was acceptable to his receptive mind. However, there is controversy about the precise religious faith of Lalon Shah. Some claim that he was a Hindu and others maintain that he was Muslim. But the question of the religious persuasion of Lalon Shah is not so important as to the quality of the songs written by him.
Lalon Shah’s background as a common man and his concern for the spiritual betterment of humanity are both clearly revealed in the songs. Lalon Shah believed that one must strive to find out the meaning of existence and the mystery of creation and never swerve from the path of truth. This thought of course, is not stunningly original, but the processes through which Lalon Shah arrives at his path continues to attract people who renounce common social settings and come out in search of truth
(Monirul Alam, The Independent, October 2003)
6. Lalon Fakir and the search for the Achin Pakhi
Mysticism has always been an integral part of the thoughtful Bengali psyche. However modern we claim to be, every Bengali worth his or her salt feels the pull of the roots and the quest for something beyond the material world is always present. Religion plays an important part in our lives but organised religion sometimes fail to provide the right answers for the innermost questions. It is perhaps the major reason why the more orthodox form of Islam found it extremely difficult to find a foothold in this region. It is the mystic Sufis like Shah Jalal, Khan Jahan Ali, Shah Makhdum, Mahi Sawar, et al who were more influential in the spread of Islam.
Now, Lalan Fakir is not a traveller in their paths. He is more like the other great sage of the sub-continent, Kabir. Like the dohas of Kabir, Lalan’s song speaks about the special bond that exists between the creator and creations. Both hit out against the self-serving clergy and their message transcends religion. Today, his followers belong to all religion. But more than that, Lalan songs are greatly appreciated by the educated urbanites.
. Many who do not believe in the Baul philosophy are also moved by Lalon’s melody. The well-known intellectual Serajul Islam Chowdhury is one such person. "I am a materialist. I believe in this world and the other one interests me but little. However, I love the music of Lalon for its sheer lyrical quality. The keen interest that modern Bengali literati have for Lalon is nothing new. Rabindranath Tagore’s profound interest in the mystic poet is quite well known. But, more of that later. To understand Lalon, we have to know about his beginnings.
Lalan Fakir was born around 1774 in Harishpur, Jhenaidaha - a district of Bangladesh. Many today question whether he was a Hindu or a Muslim. It was a question that would have mattered very little to the man in question. Yet the fact is, he was born in a lower cast Hindu family. According to all indications he apparently led an unremarkable life until during a pilgrimage he caught the dreaded small pox. His condition rapidly deteriorated and even his friends left him thinking that he was dead. Then happened one of the almost miraculous incidents that seems to be common of many great personalities.
A Muslim woman brought him to her home and she and her husband nursed him back to life. They introduced him to the mystic Muslim saint Siraj Shai. This religious personality had a deep impact on Lalan’s mind and in several of his songs we find him mentioning Siraj Shai. As he was in better health he went back home. But a rude shock awaited him there. His family refused to accept him as back because of his staying in a Muslim home and eating with Muslims.
There is no evidence to suggest that Lalan converted to Islam. In any case the Muslim clergy never accepted Lalan as a Muslim. These incidents developed in Lalan’s heart a marked disdain for orthodox religions. An important part of his message has been directed against the hypocrisy surrounded with religion. He expressed his belief in the universal message of God and against petty rituals and rigidity. He expressed his beliefs through his superb songs and through his music he pretty soon built up a large following.
He had become a mendicant by travelling on foot and singing of love, humanity, and God. Later on he settled down in Chhenuria, Kushtia. Now, interestingly the family of Rabindranath Tagore were the zamindars (land lord) of that area. Rabidranath was looking after the family estate and regularly visited the area. He was introduced to Lalan and developed a deep affinity toward the man. Many of Tagore’s songs have the stamp of Lalan’s philosophy. Lalan died in 1890 at Kushtia. More than a century has passed after his death. Yet Lalan and his message are still relevant.
US Embassy and Pally Baul Samaj
The Cultural Centre of the American Embassy has initiated a project in collaboration with Pally Baul Samaj Unnayan Sangstha (PBS) in order to promote and preserve our folk tradition. Folk and Baul songs reflect our traditional values, heritage and spiritual dimension, invite people irrespective of castes and religion and colour. These are the songs that provide the concept and vision of an indiscriminate society and a non-violent approach towards mankind. The Sufi-mystics--both male and female--travel from place to place in gerua attire, carrying musical instruments like ektara, dotara, khanjani and dhol and a bag called anchala: they are the traditional bauls and boyatis (musicians). They are the ancient community with melodious voice and gifted mind. But the existence of these artistes is now at stake because of poor institutional support unemployment and financial security.
'The younger generation of the country are drifting away from our own cultural tradition and have very little idea about our folklore heritage and the travails of the artistes related to this field', said Ferdousi Najma, the president of Pally Baul Samaj Unnayan Sangstha. 'For reviving the folklore tradition we need massive campaign, support and patronage from the countrymen', she continued. The PBS has already started working on conservation of the folklore lyricists, musicians, singers and their works in pure form. The organisation is collecting information and manuscripts of folksongs and endeavouring to develop the value of the artistes by providing them financial assistance (Daily Star, October 31. 2004).
7. Bauls - A Unique Tribe of Wandering Minstrels
"I am He whom I love, and He whom I love is, I,
We are two spirits indwelling one body,
When thou seest me, thou seest Him,
And when thou seest Him, then thou doest see us both."
- Mansur Hallaj (The Great Sufi saint and martyr)
It is not unlikely that you, my esteemed reader of the instant article, will be travelling someday in a train on the relatively obscure Sahebgunj loop of Indian railways connecting Bihar through the districts of Burdwan and Birbhum of West Bengal. As is natural for your scholastic bend of mind and your never satiated urge for more knowledge, you are keen for a quick visit to Santiniketan, known world over as a place of learning with a marked difference, made famous by Gurudev Rabindranath, the first Nobel laureate of Asia and his illustrious father Rishi Debendranath Tagore. Also, with your never ceasing curiosity and leaning to always take a feel of the rhythm and pulse of life of the common people wherever you go, you have selectively boarded a local train which stops at every station in its own leisurely fashion and shows not much of any inclination to leave with haste.
Or may be your are heading further west for a visual acquaintance with the famous Kali temple of Tarapith near Rampurhat, distinguished as one of the greatest shrines of this country by the holy memories, in the ancient time by Rishi Bashista and in the relatively recent time by the great mystic and worshipper of the tantric cult, Bamdev, more widely known as Sadhak Bamakhyapa. Or even may be on your journey for a still further west shrine at Nalhati, one of the 51 Satipiths lying scattered all over India and even beyond its present boundaries, for paying your homage to Mother Kali, the creator and destroyer of the universe. All these places alongside the Sahabgunj loopline of the Indian railways are located within the district of Birbhum, about 200 Km west of Calcutta (Kolkata).
The train has stopped at a small station, say Bataspur, Sainthia or Swadhinpur and suddenly overlapping the clamors of your never silent co-passengers or the cacophony let loose by the never subdued hawking vendors, a lone but distinct voice of a singer, rustic in flavor but singularly sweet and melodious in character, becomes audible to you as a pleasant surprise. The physical features of your entertainer are yet to be unveiled for you as he is still struggling his way forward through the crowd of the travelers in your compartment. You can't surely take him amiss for a common beggar as, with your discerning ears for talent, you have already awarded multiple credit points to him, acknowledging his proficiency as a vocalist and a musician.
The sweet melody of his voice catering a devotional type or a folk based song, mostly pensive in mood or though seemingly joyful in its outer fabric, actually sad in its inner ambience, is made sweeter and more melodious by the occasional sounds from a stringed instrument. You are listening with rapt attention and craning your eyes above the wall of the crowding passengers in a bid of impatient waiting, to have a look at your itinerant vocalist who has assured you already of a class of his own. Yes, here he is now at last! Like the uniqueness of the quality and character of his song, he is also an object of distinction in his appearance, to be treasured up in your mind in the years to come or to be photographed carefully from different angles. You are more lucky if you are travelling with a handheld movie camera or a latest digital type for, like his pleasant song he is decidedly pleasing also to look at, dancing in a suave, gentle gesture to the rhythms of his own song, at times swirling in a complete circular motion on the spot where he has now reached, on one foot, the small metal bells (ghungur or ghunroo as they call in the local language) tied around the ankles of his feet emitting a supportive sound. This is surely not all. Look he has in his right hand a one-stringed improvised instrument which they call 'EKTARA' literally meaning an instrument having only one string.
He has also another one-stringed instrument in his left hand known as 'Gupijantra' which, when played with the help of a polished piece of coconut shell, scoops up an uncommon, never heard before sound, peculiar to hear isolated but suitable when played as an accompaniment, mainly a filler or interlude music for his song. No, he can not play the 'Ektara' and his 'Gupijantra' simultaneously as the later instrument demands employment of his both hands when played. But wonder of wonders! Look! Like a one-man orchestra, he is taking access to yet another instrument when he is not using his 'Gupijantra'. This is a small sized drum type instrument, an indigenous version of a locally made percussion, the size of your palm, held in his left hand and slung with a string from his shoulder. Surely, he is playing this together with his 'Ektara' simultaneously, to provide occasional beats to one of his fast paced songs.
May be you are keen to collect one or all of these accompanying instruments, the 'Ektara', the 'Gupijantra' and the miniature drum to keep them as your memento or even with a distant ambition to learn and sing like him in one of the coming days. Be advised and become wise to spare yourself of the trouble of a fruitless hunting. You can not purchase any of these in any musical shop of the world. Most probably, the instruments are self-made or made at the exclusive guidance of the singer himself, by a village artisan living next door, meant for the exclusive use of his brother musician and gifted to him as a gesture of love and appreciation. He is not a professional and most probably he will decline to make another set for you even if all the money you have is proposed to change hands. But lose not your heart as there is still a chance for success and not a very difficult one. Go and befriend the singer in a bid of genuine affection and he will be a lifetime friend of yours as he has a heart made of pure gold flowing with the milk of love and compassion for mankind walking the face of the entire earth which is the real inspiration of his angelic song. The instruments being now used by him will be all yours after the song is over.
This way you will find yourself placed beside your all time favorite, the great Bob Dylan, who has become an ardent admirer and life long friend of Purnadas Baul of Golemale, Golemale Pirit Korona or Amar Jemon Beni fame. If your present singer is now singing one of these songs, do you feel drawn to lend an extra ear to be not very remotely conscious of an affinity of the mood and mode singing of his song with that of Dylan's famous number Slow Train Coming or How Many Roads Man Must Walk Down? Don't blame yourself as being over fanciful. There is substance in your fancy as the both sets of songs, being ethnic in character, belong to the same category of folk/country type songs having common roots, as the musicologists and researchers in primitive arts and culture have now almost unanimously opined. They are distant members of the same brethren.
Ask your singer his name and he will introduce himself as, may be, Sudhir Das Baul, a no less talented singer of Baul songs. If you are more inquisitive and insistent, ask him and be informed that he is presently on his journey back from Kolkata where he had been to record songs at Kolkata Television Center or the All India Radio, Kolkata and the songs are being broadcast or aired right at present and he is not at all bothered to hear himself singing. Give him a few coins and he will accept them with salutation in a humble but dignified gesture. No, he is not a beggar in the traditional sense but an adherent of a fast decaying religion which has mandated him to earn his living only this way, as the orthodox Vaishnavites do, following dictates of Madhukari which means sanction for begging strictly as little as necessary for a day's living only. Yes, Baul, in the true sense of the term, is not a class of singers or a class of songs as is commonly confused, but a non-Vedic religion dating back to not less than eight hundred years which has assimilated in itself ideas and beliefs from Buddhism and more
The term 'Baul' appears to have taken its origin from the Sanskrit word 'Byakul' meaning 'restive with emotion', 'forgetful of his material surroundings', 'disarrayed in dress, habits and behavior' etc. A synonym of this word is 'Aul' which has the same meaning as 'Baul', but seems to have originated from the word 'Akul' or may have taken its root from the Arabic word 'Wali' which in Sufi literature is applied for a man who has attained superior consciousness having known the Almighty. The Muslim Bauls who underwent marked and decided influence of Sufism, are called 'Aulias' to distinguish them from the 'Bauls' of the other class, the adherents of their ancestral Hindu religion by practice but essentially believers in the same faith. In West Bengal and also in the erstwhile East Bengal, now Bangladesh, they (the Muslim Bauls) are also known as Nerar Fakir, Besra Fakir or Marfati Fakir and Bedati Fakirs. 'Nera' means a 'shaven headed person'. Among the Buddhist monks, it was their practice as part of their religion to shave off their heads as a symbol of relinquishment of all fascinations for worldly attractions and stringency of living as well.
In the middle of the 8th century A.D, the first Gopaldev by a republican choice was elected to the throne of Bengal and he founded the Pal dynasty. At that time Tantric Buddhism was at its peak of influence in Bengal, having two opposing doctrines of preaching, viz., Bajrajan and Sahajjan. A large class of poor and underprivileged people at that time first adopted Sahajia Buddhism and subsequently got converted to Islam. Though Muslim by their religion they continued to carry some of their old religious practices and ideas. They would shave off their heads as in their past and kept on practicing and believing in many of the basic creeds of Sahajia Buddhism. They came to be known as 'Fakirs' or 'Nerar Fakirs'. They were also strongly influenced by Sufism and simultaneously, to some extent of the Vaishnavism of Goud, propounded by Sri Chaitanyadev.
Another down-trodden, poor class people which did not convert to Islam despite neglect and oppression meted out to them by the upper strata members of the contemporary society and had to stay aloof as outcastes, chose to espouse the new ideas of Vaishnavism but kept on adhering to some of the essential practices of the tantric Buddhism. To indicate their converted status from Buddhism to Vaishnavism, they would be known as 'Nera-Neri'. It is said that Biravadra, the son of Sri Nityananda, brought them under the fold of Vishnavism. The Bauls believe that Sri Chaitanya, the great proponent and preacher of the Vaishnav cult of Goud, was the father of their religion and the book named 'Chaitanyacharitamrita' by Sri Krishnadas Kaviraj is believed by them to contain hidden references of the basic concept of their religion. The communion of the eternal Masculine and the eternal Feminine, symbolized through the love and union of Radha and Krishna known to them as the Radha-Krishna creed is also synonymous to them as Sri Chaitanya creed.
The Bauls believe that Sri Chaitanya was the symbol of the ultimate union of the eternal Masculine and the eternal Feminine, viz., Radha and Krishna. This concept of the Radha-Krishna creed or the Sri Chaitanya creed also exerted strong influence upon the Muslim Bauls. They accepted Sri Chaitanya as a great prophet and since many of the ideas of Vaishnavism of Goud preached by him echo the same beliefs and religious emotions nurtured by them, many of their songs are found to have been composed on these ideas.
The Muslim Bauls were also greatly influenced by Sufism which believes that 'Noor' or the sublime glory of the Almighty Allah gets reflected in the 'Nabi' as the symbol of His all embracing love for the mankind and he exists in all men of the universe which He created. 'Nabi' according to their belief is the fullest manifestation of the power and glory of the Almighty. He is 'Insan-ul- Kamil', the complete Man." The expression Al Insan-ul-Kamil, literally meaning "The Perfect Man occurs for the first time in the writings of Ibn'ul'Arabi (Fasus-ul-Hikam) and it denotes the highest type of humanity. In other words it represents a Sufi who has realized his essential oneness with God. Ibn'ul 'Arabi bases his theory of the 'Perfect Man' on a pantheistic monism which regards: "the Haqq" or the Creator and the Khalq or the Creatures as complementary aspects of the Absolute Being". The 'Nabi', being the Insan-ul-Kamil, is the symbol of great spiritual inspiration for these Sufi Bauls like Sri Chaitanya who also exerted unmistakable influence on them, being a votary of the religion of man, the doctrine of realization of God through love and submission. The idea of spiritual egotism and oneness with God preached by the Sufi mystics find resonance in the Hindu concept of Atman:
"The spirit within me is smaller than a mustard seed,
The spirit within me is greater than this earth
And the sky and the heaven and all these are united.
It is Brahman."
So in the songs of these Muslim Bauls one discovers a unique secular approach in defining the mystery of the Creation, the bondage of divine love between Man and the Almighty, a generous acceptance of the both faiths of Vaisavism of the Hindus and Sufism of the Muslims.
The Bauls of the Hindu class usually dress like the Vaishnabs wearing a string of beads around their necks and adorning their foreheads with tilaks. They wear on their persons a loosely fitted overall like clothing either yellow or red. Many of them keep long hairs arranged as a topknot known as dhammil in their community but not all of them keep their hair in the same style. At the time of going on rounds for collecting their alms they take along a walking stick, a coconut shell cut in halves and a makeshift bag shaped out of a single piece of cloth called by them as 'Jhola' or 'Jhuli'. They keep long beards and moustaches. But some even take regular shaves. The Muslim Bauls, however, wear white overalls or a two piece dress, a white lungi and a white vest on the upper portion of the body.
Though some of the Bauls may have continued to remain a begging class, most of the others either cultivate or indulge in carpentry or livestock breeding for living. Some even have started business or have taken up job and they have completely relinquished the practice of begging which was once a part of their rituals and worshipping. From towards the end of the 19th century the proper nuances of the term 'Baul' started getting diluted. The 'Bauls' began symbolizing a particular class of folk type songs sung by a particular class of itinerant singers, either for a living or for an identity as entertainers of a distinct and different category. This is decidedly a departure from the true understanding of the word 'Bauls' and a misconceived approach to looking upon a unique class of adherents of a distinct religious faith having their own socio-religious customs and quest for the ultimate truth, i.e., realization of the Divine and the supreme manifestation of the powers and spirit of the Almighty reflected through the soul of all men on earth.
'Bauls' are, truly speaking, a religious sect and not a mere community of wandering minstrels like the French troubadours who roamed about in different parts of France and Italy in the 11th- 13th century singing love songs and heroic deeds of the knights. The 'Bauls', though now a decadent and a fast reducing community, have their own faith and philosophy, rituals of living and worship, vast experiences of religious journeys gained and transmitted down by the highest attainers of their faith and above all a definite attitude to life and the universe. As the 'Bauls' in the past were strongly influenced by the ways of the Buddhist Sahajiya class of 
worshippers, the word 'Sahaj', meaning in literal sense, the simple, finds repeated mentions and reference in the songs and customs of the 'Bauls'. The mention of the word is found to first occur in the Buddhist Sahajia texts. Then in the middle age we see use of the term in the compositions of the adherents and believers of the Bhakti as well as the yogic cults in the North-Western part of India like Saint Kabir and the Vaishnab sahajia worshippers.
The 'Bauls' strive for attaining the ultimate realization or the Nirvana, the highest form enlightenment, by reaching the 'Sahaj' state of mind like the Buddhist sahajias. This state of mind according to them is the ultimate goal of their worship, synonymous with 'Nirvana', 'Mahasukh(meaning the purest form of joy)', 'Sukhraj(meaning the princely state of pleasure)' etc. When this state of joy is attained by the worshipper, he loses all consciousness or sensitivity about the teller and the told, the learner and the learned, the consumer and the consumable. This state denotes the existence of the barrier of Vikalpajal meaning veil of Maya as opposed to nirvikalpa state of mind. By piercing through this Vikalpajal one attains the Nirvikalpa, the most sublime form of joy which is not dissolution of the ultimate but attainment of enlightenment in its purest and the final form through sahajia path of worship and meditation. In this state one crosses past in his quest all menace of doom and degeneration. 'Jahi Mon Pavan Na Sanchrai,/ Ravi, Sasi Nahe Pabesh (Where the mind and all manifestations of material living become stilled and where or in which stage even the Sun or the Moon is refused admission). After the advent of Sri Chaitanya a strong musical environment in Bengal established itself as a way of worshipping in the form of nam sankrittan (chanting of the names Hari & Krishna), Viashnab padavali krittan ( a semi or near classical form of Indian music sung by expert singers setting music to selected parts of Vaishnab Padabalis composed by famous composer like Chandidas, Gyandas, Govindadas, Joydev etc. The talas, meaning the beats applied, often tend to be of very difficult matrixes. These are extremely lyrical in character and mostly composed on the theme of love and separation between Sri Radha and Sri Krishna). For this reason, it got almost spontaneously and unanimously acknowledged that if any idea or emotion relating to God and Religion had to be expressed, it ought to be through song and music. Since the Bauls derived inspiration substantially from Vaishnabism, they also chose, in a way of natural selection, their songs to be the medium of expression for their faith and ideas.
The Fakirs of Sufi faith also used to assemble in solitude to exchange and express their religious ideas and experiences through songs and dances known as 'Sama'. The Bauls of the Hindu community and the Muslim Fakirs of Sufi faith met together separately in their respective joints (akhras or asthanas) away from the locality and would discuss details of their mystic faith and realizations, through songs. Songs were their mode of self expression and an inseparable part of their existence. It was around 1650 A.D which we may call the time of first evolution of Baul songs which flourished through the 18th century unto the end of the 19th century. Understanding the metaphysical through the physical or searching for the Reality behind the Appearance, constitutes the basic concept of the religious quest of the Bauls. This they call as the 'Rup-Swarup Tatta'. The mystic journey of the soul centering round the physical body for liberation from the bondage of physical and worldly attractions leading to the realization of the ultimate truth and joy of the highest kind, is the root of the essential spirituality of the Bauls. Holistically and simplistically speaking, this is the essential idea of the Tantric mode of worshiping developed in India in the long past and subsequently passed on to the Buddhists, both of the Bajrajan and the Sahajjan sect, the Vaishnab Sahajias and the Bauls of the later time.
The Bauls believe that the entire truth for the seeker of the ultimate realization can be traced in the body itself and not beyond. This exists in the form of a divine pleasure born out of the communion of the eternal Masculine and the eternal Feminine, Shiva and Shakti or in the other words, Pursha and the Prakriti. Union in love of the Pursha and Prakriti and pure joy created out of that is what the Bauls call the 'Sahaja' state of Nature and all existence. By rigorous and successful yogic practices under the expert guidance of a Guru (Preceptor, the religious guide) one can reach this stage. So the physical body is of the utmost importance for the quest of truth for the Bauls. It is the 'Bhanda (the receptacle) containing all and everything of the 'Brahmanda (the Universe)' in the miniscule form. This body centric approach of worshipping has been echoed time and again in the Baul, Murshidi, Marfati songs down the ages and can be traced back to the 800-1200 AD in the compositions known as 'Charyapad' which reflects the essential philosophy of Buddhism. In the following composition of Siddhacharya Lui Pa of that time this idea has been emphasized very briefly but very prominently:
" Ka A Tarubara Panchabi Dala,
Chanchal Chitta Paitha Kala,
Dirh Kariya Mahasukha Pariman,
Lui Bhanai Guru Puchhiya Jana"
Here the body has been imagined as a tree of which the branches have been equated with the six senses of the body. For the veil of Maya and absence of the true knowledge the fragile mind becomes restless and attracts as consequence several sufferings for the soul and the body. So one has to control the allurements of the material pleasures which, when achieved under the able guidance of the Guru, can bring joy of the highest kind. Long before the Muslims came to India, anarchism, licentious leanings and practices in religion, oppression for the poor and the common mass of people were let loose by Brahmanic Hinduism (Brahmanyabad) in the contemporary Bengal. The oppressed class reached the peak of their tolerance and their frustration. Consequentially, against this backdrop and as a weapon of protest, the religion of Lord Buddha laid its base and flourished in this part of the country exerting decided influence on the masses for quite sometime. Later in the 13th Century, invaders from Turkey took political control of the of the land and many devotees of the Sufi cult, Pirs and Darbeshes came in their trail and they, mainly the Sufis, preached as the basic doctrines of their faith declaring the soul of man to be the source of all powers. They assured all seekers, without discrimination, attainability of the joy of unification with the soul of the Creator through prayers and refinement. What they preached had affinity in its essence what the worshippers of the Buddhist Sahajia faith had said. The stock of the common people which descended from the Buddhist Sahajia clan but did not return to the Hindu fold by adopting as their faith , the Vaishnabism of Goud which was also conceived and propounded by Sri Chaitanya as a protest and religious option against the oppressive Brahmanism at the time, got converted into Sufism of Islam. Thus the community which had once established its own identity as adherents of a new and different kind of religious faith subsequently got divided into two separate branches of the same brethren. The Hindu followers became known as 'Bauls' and the Muslims as 'Ayuls', Marfati Bauls, Murshidi Fakirs, Bedati Fakirs etc. This is how their faith deviated from the preaching of Vedic Hinduism which puts emphasis upon ceremonies and rituals and worship of multiple godheads. Contrarily, the religion of the Bauls is man-centric and truly secular in belief and approach, imagining Man to be the ultimate reality as part of the supreme Creator, above all barriers of caste, creed and inhibitions.
The laterite zone of the western part of the erstwhile undivided Bengal in the districts of Birbhum, Bankura, Burdwan is known as the home of some famous Bauls like Padmalochan, Jadubindu and in the recent time, Nabanidas Baul, the illustrated father of Purnadas Baul of global fame. Panja Shah of the middle Bengal is a famous Sufi Baul of all times who in his early youth kept close company with the Vaishnabs and his compositions echo positive influence of their cult. But Lalan Shah or Lalan Fakir is universally acknowledged as the most famous among the Bauls of the both categories of all times. He is accepted as a 'Siddha Purush (meaning one who has attained enlightenment of the highest order). He had substantial knowledge of the Vaishnabite faith and religion and simultaneously of Sufi cult and literature. His compositions still very popular among the singers and listeners and widely sung in the entire region of the present West Bengal and the erstwhile East Bengal, now Bangladesh, have greatly enriched the folk literature and the domain of poetry of the entire Bengal in both the spheres. He himself was and still remains a living example of unification of two faiths, Islam and Hinduism, a unique personification of equal love and respect for two apparently opposing religious concepts.
The life story of Lalan Fakir has always remained an interesting saga of fate and sudden turn of events any mortal may fall prey to. It has been a chosen, all time favorite subject for play, movie, novel and Jatras (rural form of drama acted on a open air stage with spectators sitting on all three sides keeping only one side closed for entry and exit of the actors) over the ages and popular T.V serials in the present.
Lalan was born, the story goes, in an orthodox Hindu family. When he was still young, he went out to visit some far off places of religious interest with some of his friends and associates from his village. They had completed their pilgrimage and were on their way back. Lalan, when still to cover some more miles from home, contracted small pox, then an almost incurable lethal disease. Lalan went into unconsciousness under severe spell of the malady and his fellow pilgrims taking Lalan to be dead, left him on the way, outside a village. An elderly kindhearted, childless woman belonging to the Muslim community found him in that condition when she was approaching a nearby canal to fetch water. Lalan, though almost dead by now, had not really died which the lady could have felt by her experience and motherly affection. One pirbaba (an enlightened hermit of Sufi faith) living in the village and believed by the villagers including the woman who was an ardent follower of the god-man, to have supramental powers brought Lalan to senses and ultimately cured him at the request of the woman. Since the woman and the villagers could not be sure of the religious identity of Lalan who had absolutely forgotten his past, though now completely recovered, was adopted as son by the childless woman and was initiated into Islam by the Pirbaba. Long after, when Lalan had by then acquired sound knowledge of Islam and particularly of the mystic faith of Sufism under the tutelage of the Pirbaba and had got back his memory of the past, he went back to his original village where his parents and wife lived. Under wrong information conveyed to them by Lalan's fellow pilgrims of the past, his kindred had by now taken him to be dead and had performed his last rites. Lalan's parents refused to accept him back into their family fearing social boycott and his wife also declined to accompany him and live with him in his new found home.
Lalan got back to his surrogate mother who was almost dead now with grief, missing his godsend child, was only overjoyed, hardly believing her luck for the second time. Lalan continued to live in the village and the prodigious possibilities lying latent in him as a poet and a religious visionary flourished into a full blown genius in time under love, affection and guidance of his parents and his Guru. For the rest of his life he kept alive in his heart his love for the religion he had acquired by birth which he successfully combined with his respect for the religion he adopted later. Thus he became a staunch believer and exponent of a new, secular faith that yearns to reach for the love of the Almighty by loving all men on earth irrespective of their caste, creed, race and religion. This magnanimity of his faith and understanding has been very aptly reflected in the following lines of his song, perhaps the most well known and the most popular among his compositions:
Sab Loke Koy Lalan Ki Jaat E Sansare
( All are anxious to know what religion of the world
Lalan actually belongs to)
Lalan Bole Jaater Ki Rup Dekhlam Na Ei Najore
( Lalan submits his ignorance and says,
" I have failed to visualize how one's religion looks like")
Jagat Jure Jaater Katha, Galpo Kore Jatha Tatha
(They, from all corners of the globe,
Keep on talking about religion
And indulge in idle chatting on the subject)
Jawa Kimba Asar Belai Jaater Chinha Roy Kare?
(But, who bears any mark of religion
When he is born or sets out for his last journey?)
My dear reader you have by now almost reached your destination and have known a bit about the descent, culture and religion of your new-found friend. He is also set to leave and you might be keen to know about and acquaint yourself with many more of his class. You are welcome and if you can make it next time, please note down in your travel book names of at least two places, viz., Kenduli on Ajoy river in Birbhum itself which is famous and known as the birth place of Kavi Joydev of Geet Govindam fame. An open air, nightlong Baul Mela ( a fair where many Bauls meet and dance) every year is organized here where many Bauls of the
Hindu and Muslim community meet together on the last day of the winter month of Poush of the Bengali calendar, to sing in honor of poet Joydev, known to be a great devotee of Lord Krishna. Another famous spot and a place of annual assembly of Bauls of another sect known as 'Kartabhajas' is Ghoshpara near the modern sub-divisional town of Kalyani in the Nadia district, located about 60 KM north of Kolkata. Here also many Bauls meet every year on occasion of a fair known as Sati Mar Mela (the fair in honor of Sati Ma). Sati Ma is worshipped by the members of the Kartabhaja community, a sect of the Bauls of Vaishnavite faith as a god-woman and the founder lady of their order. A nightlong fair is organized by them each year on the previous night of Holi (Doljatra) before the temple of Sati Ma, like the one in Kendubilwa (Kenduli), when many devotees of various faiths besides the members of the Kartabhaja community assemble and pay homage to her.
The Kartabhajas (literally meaning worshippers of the Head of the Community or Sect) have an interesting story of their origin, evolution and faith. But please don't tempt me to go in for that this time. Viswa Bharati also organizes a Baul Mela at Santiniketan each year as poet Rabindranath was an admirer of Baul songs and the philosophy and ideas underlying their traditional compositions are essentially in agreement with the spirit and ideals of Brahma Samaj which he belonged to and of which his father was a great proponent.
Dear reader, let me finish with a word of caution about the traditionality and the recent trend in Baul songs as very understandably you may be interested to collect some of them now as an admirer, for your listening in solitude when you go back to your place and also may be inclined to collect some as memento for your like minded friends back home who have not been fortunate like you to be personally present in the land of the Bauls.
Yes, Baul songs are available on cassettes, CDs and gramophone records. But most of them are from the amateur or professional modern composers and barring only a few, they are not traditional Baul songs from the old and enlightened Bauls who had vision and true inspiration, having progressed and reached milestones in their religious quest for the love of God. This trend for amateurish composition of Baul songs outside the true Baul community started towards the end of the 19th century at the hands of Sri Harinath Majumder who composed in the pseudonym of Kangal Harinath or Kangal Fikirchand and Sri Golok Chandra Bandyopadhyay who wrote using the nickname Deen Baul. These amateurs belonging to other vocations and never initiated as Bauls in the true sense added a new dimension to the stock of traditional Baul songs writing profusely on a variety of subjects, social, political, revolutionary ideals of the patriots towards the end of the British rule in India etc. Unlike them, the traditional Bauls restricted their compositions on the extremely limited themes of the philosophy of their religion, mystic journey of the soul imagining the physical body as the total embodiment of all mysteries of existence, the rigorous practices and preparations under the able guidance of the Guru for realization of the final truth and the like themes only. The modern Baul songs try to replicate the mystic trend in expression used by the traditional Bauls known as Sandhya Bhasa ( a double meaning language having an idea deep inside, resembling the appearance of a twilight, with its mixture of light and shade creating a sort of illusion. Sandhya means twilight and Bhasa means language). But what is there to do? Under the impact of rapid industrialization and other socio-economic factors the Baul community is on their path to fast extinction. The modern Bauls have kept alive atleast some semblance of a rich heritage and we may have no objection to the compositions of the amateur composers. Afterall, Gurudev Rabindranath also loved to imagine himself to be a Baul and composed quite a few songs in typical Baul fashion as in the following lines:
"Amar Praner Manush Ache Prane
(He who is my soul-mate lives in my soul itself)
Tai Heri Taye Sakal Khane
(Thus I see him everywhere)
Achhe Se Nayan Taraye, Alok Dharaye
(He exists within my eyes, he exists in the stream of light)
Tai Na Haraye
( So he is never lost)
Ogo Tai Heri Taye Jethaye Sethaye Takai Ami Jedik Pane
(So he is visible for me here there and at all places wherever I cast my eyes)
Gautam Sengupta June 22, 2003
8. Bangladeshi Baul musicians overwhelm Edinburgh
Four folk musicians from a remote village area of northern Bangladesh are proving a surprise hit with nightly shows on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and impromptu open-air performances on the streets of Scotland's capital during the day.
Led by the multi-talented A S M Shafi ,known as Baul Shafi Mondol, the group typify the ancient Baul heritage of itinerant musicians. Shafi Mondol comes from a Baul family and has music in his blood. Inspired by his parents, both of whom were popular Baul singers, and grandfather he won local renown with performances of songs based on the poems of the great Lalon and proficiency with the Dotara.
The group hails from villages in the Kushtia region not yet reached by electricity or other amenities of modern life. All the group's traditional wooden instruments are hand-carved from materials available locally. Shafi Mondol's prowess as a performer, lyricist and composer of more than 50 songs attracted the attention of another native of Kushtia making a home visit from his business in Dhaka. Md. Shahria of Ambee Pharmaceuticals persuaded Shafi that his talents deserved a wider audience. The result was a programme on Radio Bangladesh and appearances on Bangladesh Television and several private TV stations.
They also caught the attention of Edinburgh entrepeneur Tommy Miah on one of his regular visits to his homeland. In Edinburgh, Shafi Mondol acknowledged that the uncompromising passion for folk music of the three younger members of the band, Mukulur Rahman, Habibur Rahman Bishu and Taufikul Islam was a vital factor in his success. “Without them I am a tree without branches and beauty,“ he said.
Lalan Fakir and the search for the Achin Pakhi
Mysticism has always been an integral part of the thoughtful Bengali psyche. However modern we claim to be, every Bengali worth his or her salt feels the pull of the roots and the quest for something beyond the material world is always present. Religion plays an important part in our lives but organised religion sometimes fail to provide the right answers for the innermost questions. It is perhaps the major reason why the more orthodox form of Islam found it extremely difficult to find a foothold in this region. It is the mystic Sufis like Shah Jalal, Khan Jahan Ali, Shah Makhdum, Mahi Sawar, et al who were more influential in the spread of Islam.
Now, Lalan Fakir is not a traveller in their paths. He is more like the other great sage of the sub-continent, Kabir. Like the dohas of Kabir, Lalan’s song speaks about the special bond that exists between the creator and creations. Both hit out against the self-serving clergy and their message transcends religion. Today, his followers belong to all religion. But more than that, Lalan songs are greatly appreciated by the educated urbanites.
. Many who do not believe in the Baul philosophy are also moved by Lalon’s melody. The well-known intellectual Serajul Islam Chowdhury is one such person. "I am a materialist. I believe in this world and the other one interests me but little. However, I love the music of Lalon for its sheer lyrical quality. The keen interest that modern Bengali literati have for Lalon is nothing new. Rabindranath Tagore’s profound interest in the mystic poet is quite well known. But, more of that later. To understand Lalon, we have to know about his beginnings.
Lalan Fakir was born around 1774 in Harishpur, Jhenaidaha - a district of Bangladesh. Many today question whether he was a Hindu or a Muslim. It was a question that would have mattered very little to the man in question. Yet the fact is, he was born in a lower cast Hindu family. According to all indications he apparently led an unremarkable life until during a pilgrimage he caught the dreaded small pox. His condition rapidly deteriorated and even his friends left him thinking that he was dead. Then happened one of the almost miraculous incidents that seems to be common of many great personalities.
A Muslim woman brought him to her home and she and her husband nursed him back to life. They introduced him to the mystic Muslim saint Siraj Shai. This religious personality had a deep impact on Lalan’s mind and in several of his songs we find him mentioning Siraj Shai. As he was in better health he went back home. But a rude shock awaited him there. His family refused to accept him as back because of his staying in a Muslim home and eating with Muslims.
There is no evidence to suggest that Lalan converted to Islam. In any case the Muslim clergy never accepted Lalan as a Muslim. These incidents developed in Lalan’s heart a marked disdain for orthodox religions. An important part of his message has been directed against the hypocrisy surrounded with religion. He expressed his belief in the universal message of God and against petty rituals and rigidity. He expressed his beliefs through his superb songs and through his music he pretty soon built up a large following.
He had become a mendicant by travelling on foot and singing of love, humanity, and God. Later on he settled down in Chhenuria, Kushtia. Now, interestingly the family of Rabindranath Tagore were the zamindars (land lord) of that area. Rabidranath was looking after the family estate and regularly visited the area. He was introduced to Lalan and developed a deep affinity toward the man. Many of Tagore’s songs have the stamp of Lalan’s philosophy. Lalan died in 1890 at Kushtia. More than a century has passed after his death. Yet Lalan and his message are still relevant.
US Embassy and Pally Baul Samaj
The Cultural Centre of the American Embassy has initiated a project in collaboration with Pally Baul Samaj Unnayan Sangstha (PBS) in order to promote and preserve our folk tradition. Folk and Baul songs reflect our traditional values, heritage and spiritual dimension, invite people irrespective of castes and religion and colour. These are the songs that provide the concept and vision of an indiscriminate society and a non-violent approach towards mankind. The Sufi-mystics--both male and female--travel from place to place in gerua attire, carrying musical instruments like ektara, dotara, khanjani and dhol and a bag called anchala: they are the traditional bauls and boyatis (musicians). They are the ancient community with melodious voice and gifted mind. But the existence of these artistes is now at stake because of poor institutional support unemployment and financial security.
'The younger generation of the country are drifting away from our own cultural tradition and have very little idea about our folklore heritage and the travails of the artistes related to this field', said Ferdousi Najma, the president of Pally Baul Samaj Unnayan Sangstha. 'For reviving the folklore tradition we need massive campaign, support and patronage from the countrymen', she continued. The PBS has already started working on conservation of the folklore lyricists, musicians, singers and their works in pure form. The organisation is collecting information and manuscripts of folksongs and endeavouring to develop the value of the artistes by providing them financial assistance (Daily Star, October 31. 2004).
Images of Lalon-'Khachaar Bhetor Ochin Pakhi, Kamne Ashe Jae'…
Lalon and the power of his words and music hardly need any introduction, transcending the bounds of race, religion and the politics of identities. Lalon Mela, an annual celebration of Lalon Fakir's philosophies and music is organised by the Lalon Academy for three days around the time of his death anniversary in the Bengali month of Kartik (around November). The event is held in Cheuria, Kushtia, Lalon's birthplace where fans, followers of his philosophy, lovers of his music from all over the country and also from India meet, play music and have discussions and exchange ideas among themselves.
Courtesy- loving bengal
