Bauls :-

Bauls are a religious and cultural group of India, best known for their songs and poems to the god who dwells within. The term "Baul" is usually understood to mean "madman" or religious ecstatic, and Bauls often describe themselves as crazy for God.

Bauls are found primarily in the state of West Bengal in India and in Bangladesh. The origin of Bauls is not known to any great degree of accuracy, but the word Baul has appeared in Bengali texts as old as the 15th century. The word is found in the Chaitanya-bhagavata of Vrindavanadas as well as in the Chaitanya Charitamrita of Krishnadas Kaviraj. Some scholars, however, maintain that it is not clear when the word took its sectarian significance, as opposed to a synonym for the word mad.

There are three major communities or lineages (sampradayas). The first is associated with the Birbhum District, which is traditionally considered to be the source of the Baul tradition in West Bengal. This community is in the western part of the state, and it inhabits the districts of Birbhum, Burdwan, Bankura, and Midnapore. It shows many influences, including Tantric Buddhism and Shaktism (goddess worship). The second community is known as the Navadvipa sampradaya, which shows strong Bengali Vaishnava influence and is found primarily in the Nadia and Murshidabad districts. The third group is the Muslim Bauls or fakir sampradaya, found primarily in Bangladesh.

Bauls may live as religious ascetics or as laypeople. The householder Bauls live as married couples and perform daily rituals in their homes. The ascetic Bauls take initiation, often as renunciant vows (sannyasa diksha), and may wander through the countryside or live in the ashram or akhara (monastery). These ashrams are frequently supported by the local villagers. Bauls who wander from village to village may also contribute from their earnings from begging (madhukari) or singing.

There are great gatherings of Bauls at festivals called melas or mahotsavas, at which hundreds of Bauls meet to sing and share stories. There are large tents and awnings, incense, fires, and flowers. Some of the largest of the gatherings are in Birbhum, in Jayadeva-Kenduli, Gopalnagar, Dubrajpur, and Bilvamangala. Baul singers are usually men, and they play a variety of instruments to accompany the songs. The most common is the gopijantra or ektara, a one-stringed instrument made from gourd and split bamboo. They may also play the dotara, a two-stringed lute with a long neck, as well as various drums, and sometimes small cymbals or a harmonium.

Bauls usually dress in orange or saffron, to show their association with the religious life. Men wear the alkhalla, a robe of coarse cloth, small bells at the ankles, long hair (often in a topknot), and beards, and sometimes rudraksha beads (sacred to the god Shiva). Women may wear simple white or saffron saris and no jewelry.

Bauls have a system of religious theology and practice that is characterized by the belief that God exists physically within the world, especially within the human body. This differs from more traditional Indian religious thought (both Vedic and dharmic) that understands the body as more Distant from the gods and emphasizes the importance of purity and transcendence of the physical world. For Bauls, the body is pure because the god is present. The teacher or guru is important because he can guide the student toward the vision of the god within (bhagavata darshan).

Baul religious belief and practice are expressed in song, there is no revealed text and no single founder. Some songs emphasize spontaneity (sahaja) and the states of religious ecstasy and creativity that come of their own accord, without effort. These states are highly valued by Bauls. Other songs describe the role of disciplined religious practice (sadhana), which seeks to induce the state of ecstasy (bhava).

Baul practice shows tantric influence, both in the importance of having a female partner and in its acceptance of Sexuality as a path to religious experience. The god is associated with creativity and is understood to dwell physically in the sexual fluids of the body. These fluids meet during sexual Ritual, which takes place when the male and female essences are believed to be strongest. At this time, the male and female aspects of the divine are understood to be fully present, and the god (often understood to be a divine couple, the god and goddess) can be perceived by the performers of the ritual. Many poetic metaphors are used to describe this process: the union of water and milk, catching the fish at high tide, the piercing of the moons. When the deity is fully manifest in the body, the body is recognized as a microcosm of the universe. As a Baul proverb states, "What is not in the body is not in the universe."

Baul beliefs are derived from many sources. Tantric Buddhism was strong in Bengal from perhaps the fifth century A.D. until the Muslim conquest in the early thirteenth century. Sufism or Islamic mysticism then arose in the area and became intermingled with the rising tide of devotional Vaishnavism (in Bengal, focusing on the relationship between Krishna and his mistress Radha) and its tantric offshoot, Sahajiya Vaishnavism. Shakta religion, the worship of the goddess (in forms such as Kali or Devi), grew from an esoteric meditative tradition to widespread devotional love, and it was also a strong influence on the Baul tradition. Shaktism was incorporated in the Baul songs both as worship of the physical woman and as imagery from Kundalini yoga. In Baul song and poetry, the deity may be called Bhagavan, Radha/Krishna, Shiva/Shakti, Allah, the man of the heart, the unknown bird, the great bliss (mahasukha), or infinite light.

Today, Bauls are both religious practitioners and Entertainers, and they may sing both religious and secular songs. With the popularity of Christianity among Westernized Indians, some Baul songs now include Christian elements as well as more traditional ones.

Baul singers at Shantiniketan, during the colour festival Holi, Mar 2004

Baul music celebrates celestial love, but does this in very earthy terms, as in declarations of love by the Baul for his boshTomi or lifemate. With such a liberal interpretation of love, it is only natural that Baul devotional music transcends religion and some of the most famous baul composers, such as Lalon Fakir, have been of Muslim faith. The famous Bengali poet RabindranathTagore was greatly influenced and inspired by Bauls. Here is a famous Rabindrasangeet (Tagore song), heavily influenced by Baul theme:

AmAr prANer mAnuSh Achhé prANé
tAi heri tAye sakol khAne
Achhe shé nayōntArAy, Alōk-dhArAy, tAi nA hArAye--
ogo tAi dekhi tAye JethAy sethAy
tAkA-i Ami Jé dik-pAné

The man of my heart dwells inside me.
Everywhere I behold, it's Him!
In my every sight, in the sparkle of light
Oh I can never lose Him --
Here, there and everywhere,
Wherever I turn, right in front is He! <Rabindranath Tagore>

Their religion is based on an expression of the body, which they call deho-sadhona and an expression of the mind, which they call mana-sadhona. They concentrate much of their mystic energies on the chaar-chand (bengali for four-moons), i.e. the four body fluids, on the nine-doors or naba-dwar, i.e. the openings of the body, prakriti which implies both the woman and the nature, and a control of breathing, known as domo-sadhona.

Rabindranath Tagore and the Bauls

The songs of the Bauls and their lifestyle influenced a large swath of Bengali culture, but nowhere did it leave its imprint more powerfully than in the work of Rabindranath Tagore, who talked of Bauls in a number of speeches in Europe in the 1940s and an essay based on these was compiled into his English book The Religion of Man:

The Bauls are an ancient group of wandering minstrels from Bengal, who believe in simplicity in life and love. They are similar to the Buddhists in their belief in a fulfilment which is reached by love's emancipating us from the dominance of self.

Where shall I meet him, the Man of my Heart?
He is lost to me and I seek him wandering from land to land.

I am listless for that moonrise of beauty,

which is to light my life,

which I long to see in the fulness of vision

in gladness of heart. [p.524]

The above is a translation of the famous Baul song by Gagan Harkara: Ami kothAy pAbo tAré, AmAr maner mAnush Jé ré. The following extract is a translation of another song:

My longing is to meet you in play of love, my Lover;
But this longing is not only mine, but also yours.
For your lips can have their smile, and your flute

its music, only in your delight in my love;

and therefore you importunate, even as I am.

The poet proudly says: 'Your flute could not have its music of beauty if your delight were not in my love. Your power is great -- and there I am not equal to you -- but it lies even in me to make you smile and if you and I never meet, then this play of love remains incomplete.'

The great distinguished people of the world do not know that these beggars -- deprived of education, honour and wealth -- can, in the pride of their souls, look down upon them as the unfortunate ones who are left on the shore for their worldly uses but whose life ever misses the touch of the Lover's arms.

This feeling that man is not a mere casual visitor at the palace-gate of the world, but the invited guest whose presence is needed to give the royal banquet its sole meaning, is not confined to any particular sect in India.

A large tradition in medieval devotional poetry from Rajasthan and other parts of India also bear the same message of unity in celestial and romantic love and that divine love can be fulfilled only through its human beloved.

Tagore's own compositions were powerfully influenced by Baul ideology. His music also bears the stamp of many Baul tunes. Other Bengali poets, such as Kazi Nazrul Islam, have also been influenced by Baul music and its message of non-sectarian devotion through love.