Baul Mystiks

Baul Mystics

 The word Baul means "afflicted with the wind disease", minstrels, uncaring travelers, selfless wanderers, lost in search of their souls, street walkers, ones with no fixed address, ones who find happiness in richness of their minds, etc. Much of the Bengali society looked upon the bauls as strange people who forsake all comforts and binds of the family life and chose streets as their home and austerity as the way of life. Customs and traditions they leave behind on the wayside.

Regarding the origins of the sect, one recent theory suggests that Bauls are descendants of a branch of Sufism called ba'al. Votaries of this sect of Sufism in Iran, dating back to the 8th-9th centuries, were fond of music and participated in secret devotional practices. They used to roam about the desert singing. Like other Sufis, they also entered the South Asian subcontinent and spread out in various directions. It is also suggested that the term derives from the Sanskrit words vatul (mad, devoid of senses) and vyakul (wild, bewildered) which Bauls are often considered.

Like the ba'al who rejects family life and all ties and roams the desert, singing in search of his beloved, the Baul too wanders about searching for his maner manus (the ideal being). The madness of the Baul may be compared to the frenzy or intoxication of the Sufi diwana. Like the Sufi, the Baul searches for the divine beloved and finds him housed in the human body. Bauls call the loved sain (lord), murshid (guide), or guru (preceptor), and it is in his search that they go 'mad'.

Baul music celebrates celestial love, but does this in very earthy terms, as in declarations of love by the Baul for his bosh-tomi or lifemate. Baul devotional music transcends religion, criticizes the superficiality of religious divisions:

Everyone asks: "Lalan, what's your religion in this world?"
Lalan answers: "How does religion look?"
I've never laid eyes on it.

Some wear malas [Hindu rosaries] around their necks,
some tasbis [Muslim rosaries], and so people say
they've got different religions.

But do you bear the sign of your religion
when you come or when you go?

(A small town chorine had theatrical ambitions. Her parents finally agreed to allow her to try New York City, but on two conditions: first, no men were allowed in her apartment, and second, she had to call home at least once a week. "Remember," said her mother, "I will worry about you, so please don't forget to call."
Armed with a letter of introduction, she went to see an agent. He agreed to help her and started squiring her about town. At the end of the week she called home. It was late and mama was perturbed.
"Honey," she said, "you know the bargain we made about no men allowed in your apartment, and I hear a man's voice in the background."
"Oh," said the future actress, "that's my boyfriend. But don't worry," she hastened to assure her mother, "we are in his apartment. Let HIS mother worry.'')

The famous Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore was greatly influenced and inspired by Bauls. Here is a famous Rabindra sangeet (Tagore song), heavily influenced by Baul theme:

The man of my heart dwells inside me.
Everywhere I look, it is he.
In my every sight, in the sparkle of light
Oh, I can never lose him --
Here, there and everywhere,
Wherever I turn, he is right there!

(amar paner manush achhe prane
tai here taye shokol khane
Achhe she noyōn-taray, alōk-dharay, tai na haraye--
ogo tai dekhi taye Jethay shethay
taka-i ami je dik-pane)

Baul Gadgets

Bauls use a variety of indigenous musical instruments to embellish their compositions. The "ektara", a one-stringed drone instrument, is the common instrument of a Baul singer. It is the carved from the epicarp of a gourd, and made of bamboo and goatskin. Other commonly used musical paraphernalia include "dotara", a multi-stringed instrument made of the wood of a jackfruit or neemtree; "dugi", a small hand-held earthen drum; leather instruments like "dhol", "khol" and "goba"; chime tools like "ghungur", "nupur"; small cymbals called "kartal" and "mandira", and the bamboo flute.

Rabindranath Tagore and 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 on the work of Rabindranath Tagore

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 fulfillment 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 fullness of vision

in gladness of heart.

(The above is a translation of the famous Baul song)

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.

Baul Jokes

 (The nervous passenger was standing with the pilot of the river steamboat as he twisted and turned the wheel.
"Don't you worry none," said the pilot. "I have been running boats on this river so long, I know where every snag and sandbar is."
Just then the boat struck a submerged snag with such force that the whole boat shivered from stem to stern. "There," said the pilot triumphantly, "that is one of them now.")

(Osho speaks on Baul Mystics

Osho Says “A Baul is a flowering. A Baul is a flowing energy. The Baul is not a seeker, the Baul is one who has found. The Baul is a SIDDHA: one who has looked into life and realized that all is available and there is no need to seek. One has just to participate in this mystery called life. He dances, he sings, he enjoys, he is blissful for no reason at all.”

Bauls are mystical musicians from Bengal. They sing from the Heart and pour out their feelings and emotions in their songs. Their music reflects bonds of the heart, subtly revealing the mystery of life, the laws of nature and the ultimate union with the divine. Baul is a mystic nomad dealing with human relations, emotions and spontaneously expressing their spiritual ideology through music & dance.)

 (Tagore & the Baul Tradition

Rabindranath Tagore wrote about the Bauls: "One day I chanced to hear a song from a beggar belonging to the Baul sect of Bengal...What struck me in this simple song was a religious expression that was neither grossly concrete, full of crude details, nor metaphysical in its rarefied transcendentalism. At the same time it was alive with an emotional sincerity, it spoke of an intense yearning of the heart for the divine, which is in man and not in the temple or scriptures, in images or symbols... I sought to understand them through their songs, which is their only form of worship.")

This longing to meet in the play of love, my Lover, is not only mine but yours.

Your lips can smile, your flute make music, only through delight in my love; therefore you are importunate even as I..

In love the aim is neither pain nor pleasure but love only.

While free love binds, division destroys it, for love is what unites.

Love is lit from love as fire from fire, but whence came the first flame?

In your being it leaps under the rod of pain.

Then, when the hidden fire flames forth, the in and the out are one and all barriers fall in ashes.

Eyes see only dust and earth, but feel with the heart, and know pure joy.

For he is the sea, he is the river that leads to the sea, and he is the landing-place.

I am the boat, you are the sea, and also the boatman.

I live in you whatever and however you appear. Save me or kill me as you
wish, only never leave me in other hands.

 ( About Bauls .. from yet another source …

only a connoisseur
of the flavors of love
can comprehend
the language of a lover's heart,
others have no clue.

honey is hidden within the lotus bloom
-- but the bee knows it.

dung-beetles nestle in dung,
discounting honey.

come if you wish to meet
the novel man.
he has abandoned
his worldly possessions
for the beggar's sack
that hangs from his shoulder.

he speaks of the eternal mother
(kali, the goddess of time)
even as he enters the ganges.

allah or jesus, moses or kali,
the rich or the poor,
sage or fool,
all are one and the same to him.

never plunge into the river of lust,
you will not reach the shores.
it is a river of no coasts where typhoons rage.

go to the home of beauty and form,
should you wish to see the man within.

his ways cross the sphere
where life lives with death,
and sense with insanity.

close your eyes and try to catch him.

he is slipping by between the doors
of birth and death,
stands yet another door,
wholly inexplicable.

he who is able
to be born
at the door of death,
is devoted eternally...

die before dying,
die living.

those who are dead
and yet fully alive
and know the flavors
and feelings
in loving;
they will cross the river.

gazing at
the stream of life and death,
they seek integrity.

they have no wish
for happiness at all,
walking against the wind.

you will see
what cannot be seen
only if you can be
the formless in you.

 

 

 THE BAULS’ TRADITION

Vedic tradition has seen many streams of living enlightened masters, out of which many streams have dried up. The streams which have an unbroken lineage of living enlightened masters are Vedanta, Aghori, Tantra and Bauls. The Baul Mystics are not well known as a mainstream tradition just because of their habit of not having any property. That is the only reason they are not well known, otherwise they have all the qualifications to be respected as living stream of enlightened masters. The Bauls have a strong belief that the moment you start staying in one place, corruption starts happening.

 Bauls are such a pure and uncompromising tradition that they don’t have an organization or even a permanent place to stay. The Baul sannyasis are not celibates or unmarried. They live like a breeze. They travel place to place, sometimes alone, sometimes together. They sing so beautifully. Each Baul can at least sing two thousand verses. Sometimes the verses are of their predecessors, the early masters, sometimes it is their own spontaneous compositions.

THE MAIN THEME

But the main theme which runs through the Baul tradition is the pure love towards everything that exists; to the river, hill, sun, moon, plants, trees, animals and to themselves. Whatever exists they flood it with love. That is why they are not socially accepted, because they are such a joyful species. I can say, Bauls and Tantrics are actually a different species altogether – one of the most endangered species on planet earth. They are an altogether different species. It’s a different life. The very word “Baul” means (it’s a Bengali word) ‘mad’. If somebody else calls you mad, there is every possibility that you may get hurt. If you yourself declare I am ‘mad’, you are liberated. It is a great liberation from the social image.

Or the song often rendered by great Bauls of Bengal

“Oh mother! Make me mad
I have nothing to do anymore with judgments or knowledge,
The entire crazy gather in the heaven, Jesus, Moses and Chaitanya,
They are drunk with divine love
Mother when will I join them? Singing and dancing in divine madness?”

Or you can listen to this song too…

“Oh my insane heart!
I did not find a soul of true madness
So I did not become mad.
Some are mad for worldly attachment called love
Some are mad for glory and pride,
Some are mad for material benefit, some mad for fame and power,
They do not know what they are looking for, always eluded by own mad desires,
They do not know the difference between the true and false,
True Mad was Shiva, he left his golden place
Came and sat down at the cremation ground
Always drunk in higher consciousness
Intoxicated in divine love and madness…”

 

 

BAULS’ KUMBHA MELA

Almost all Baul mystics, none of them are well known to society because they live such a beautiful life, such an innocent life that society cannot tolerate them. The collective unconsciousness cannot tolerate them so they don’t recognize the Baul mystics. The whole theme of the Bauls is only one line, ‘Say NO to social hypocrisy’.

The Bauls are an amazing people who really live with a backbone. Even the Zen tradition has missed one point – not to have a permanent place to stay. There are only two traditions which still maintain that –Aghoris and Bauls. Aghoris don’t have permanent address, but they have monasteries where Aghoris can stay temporarily and then go somewhere else. But Bauls have not even compromised to that level. Bauls are literally like butterflies. They happen, fly, spread colors, and just disappear; nothing else. The only truth the Bauls radiate is ‘Say NO to all social hypocrisy’.

(Taken from Nithyananda’s Morning Discourse on 14th August, 2010, Bidadi Ashram)

The way to the divine
Has been blocked
By temples and mosques.

As these words of a Baul song bear out, the wandering minstrels of Bengal have always been above the narrow confines of religion. Clad in flowing robes, strumming an ektara, the Bauls have long been an integral part of the regions lush landscape, wandering from village to village singing of a universal God. Their faith comes straight from the heart and refuses to be circumscribed by Hindu or Islamic tenets; it is instead a synthesis of the unorthodox Sufi strain in Islam and the Hindu concept of Bhakti, or devotion. That is why the purists have always been suspicious of these self-proclaimed fakirs; history records many instances of both Hindu and Muslim Bauls being ostracized by religious puritans.

Parvathy Baul, a Baul singer

Parvathy Baul is a singer, painter and storyteller from West Bengal. She is both trained in the Baul order and studied visual arts at the Kala Bhavan University at Shantiniketan.

Since 1995 she has performed all over her home state of Bengal, India, and internationally, her music enthralling audiences from the United States to Japan.

Baul’s mystic music constitutes a national music tradition stretching back centuries, that had a great deal of influence on the poetry and music of Rabindranath Tagore amongst countless others. In 2005 the Baul tradition was included in the list of “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intagible Heritage of Humanity” by UNESCO.

Parvathy Baul speaks …..

On Music 

‘Music’ exists in all of creation, in life and in death.

Music opens the heart; music can be a vehicle to transcend, to transform, to bring a direct experience of inner happening ‘here and now.’ In Sanskrit we find a sloka ‘Sheelpena Sangeetha Sreshthaha’ – ‘Music is the highest state of art and expression.’ A Baul would say that ‘I sing and dance to impress my beloved so my beloved will come and reside in my heart.’

In all our traditions of Music, the musicians were mostly Upasakas (spiritual practitioners), more precisely Naad (sound) Upasakas, In India Music is more than entertainment – great masters of music were not considered only as entertainers: music is believed to be a direct way to connect with the divine.

Baul crossed the barrier of performing only at village Satsang through Tagore, who introduced the urban intelligencia to Baul through the festivals like the Poush Mela he created in Shantiniketan, and soon after Baul crossed the boundary of Bengal and spread all over the world. Baul songs are the  reflection of the higher spiritual experiences of Baul Gurus who made a bridge between hearts through their songs of love. We go to a Baul concert to connect to that experience – a Baul singer won’t be able to deliver a Baul song properly unless he/she really cares about what he/she sings and is dedicated to Baul Sadhana for life.

There is a beautiful Baul song that says:

“Crazy! Crazy! Everyone says I am crazy!
But often I wonder is it the world or me?”

Bauls are the flowering of the Hindu tradition; they are the highest flowering. But to understand the highest becomes very difficult.

The higher a truth is, the greater is the possibility that it will be misunderstood. The lower a truth is, the greater is the possibility of its being understood. The lowest truth can be understood because everybody lives on that level. The highest reaches are beyond the clouds - only a few people reach. Those who reach, even they cannot relate to others what has happened to them; hence they are called mystics.

……..
Our words are so contaminated with our lies, with our pseudo lives, with our pretensions. Our words carry all the poison that we are. The moment we bring truth into our words it is no more the purity it was, it is no more the freedom it was. It is like: truth is a bird on the wing, and the moment we put it into a word, it is the same bird but in a cage. It looks the Same but it is not, because where is the freedom? That was the beauty. And where is that open sky? That was its soul, and all that is gone. A caged bird is a dead bird, it is a corpse; and a caged truth in a concept, in a theory, is a dead truth.

So another meaning of "mystic" is: something that cannot be said but which still can be transferred in an energy communication, in love, in intimacy... just like a flame that moves from one lit lamp to another unlit lamp.


Slowly slowly they have disappeared; very few Bauls are still alive. But the glory is gone because this country no more welcomes the real mystic. It still talks about mysticism, in fact talks much about mysticism, but its heart has become materialistic.