The Baul Tradition:



Baul is a folk-sect, who especially lives in West Bengal and Bangladesh. They do not have any organized religious affiliation, though they may be Hindu Vaishnav or Muslim Fakir. Therefore, their belief is an amalgamation of Hinduism, Sufism, yoga, and tantra. Bauls don’t belong to any particular religion mainly because of the rigid, orthodox aspects associated with each religion. Many Hindus,Muslims and people of marginalized and untouchable class converted into Bauls only to escape the tortures inflicted upon them, by people in the name of religion.
Therefore, one is not born Baul ,but rather becomes Baul. It is also believed that the Bauls are the successors of an Iranian Sufi sect called ‘baal’. Though there have been no substantial evidences to validate the fact. Most popular and accepted belief about the origin of the Baul tradition lies in the Vaishnava Bhakti tradition. They practice sahajiya philosophy. The term sahajiya means simple. They prefer to explain the human condition using a simple yet metaphorical language in their songs.  Subsequently, sufi philosophical tenets were also assimilated in Baul Sahajiya philosophy. Bauls do not have any caste or creed. It was Lalon Fakir (1772-1890) who rejected all distinctions of caste and creed and promoted the idea of religious tolerance. In one of his songs it becomes obvious-
Sob loke koy Lalon ki jaat sopngsare
Lalon bole jaater ki rup, dekhlam na e nazore.
There are two basic aspects of Sahajiya philosophy, one is a Guru or Murshid and the second is Deha Sadhana. The sahajiya philosophy expounds that Life is an eternal yearning of a human being to reconcile his soul with the ‘moner manush’. This Moner Manush(the man of the heart) or murshid(guide),according to bauls resides right inside the mind of a human being. The journey of life is a quest to find this moner manush, which is metaphorically used to denote God or the Omniscient Spirit. Their song is known as Baul songs. Baul songs have always aimed at narrating complicated human experiences in an enigmatic language but in a simplest way. The word ‘Baul’ is derived from the Sanskrit words vatui(mad) and vyakul (restless and impatient)Therefore, bauls are the wisest madmen who are non conformists and iconoclasts. These mystic minstrels earn their living by ‘madhukari’ or seeking alms in exchange of songs.(Cultural Diversity,p.48)
The language, used in the baul songs is simple, yet enigmatic and infused with an aura of mysticism. Rabindranath Tagore explains the language in the following words,
  Its words are so simple that it makes me hesitate to render it in a foreign tongue, and set them forward for critical observation. Besides the best part of the song is missing when the tune is absent for thereby its movement and its colour is lost, it becomes a butterfly whose wings have been plucked. (Rabindranath Tagore, English Writings of Tagore: Plays, Stories and Essays, p. 523)

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