By Haroonuzzaman, *Understanding Baul language* - The Daily Star - Dhaka, Bangladesh; Saturday, May 14, 2011
Baul bard Lalon says: Kiba Ruper Jhalak Dicche Dvidale ; Ache Adi Makkah Ei Manab Dehe (What beauty flashes on the two-petaled lotus / the original Mecca is in this human body).
Radharomon, another baul, says: “Manush tare chinrey vaibey, tor dehey majhe biraj kore ke?” (Know the man who exists in your body?)
“Deher majhe guru thuiya shishyya hoilai kar?” (Having Guru in the body, who do you become disciple of?)
Hason Raja, a mesmeric mystic, in one of his songs says: “Tare keu dhoritey na pare; shokol ronger manush ek thake mor ghore.” (No one can catch Him; a person of many colors stays in my room.) “Ami dhoritey na pari go tare, chinitey na pari go tare; ke re samailo mor ghore.” (I can't catch Him; I can't even recognize Him; who stopped in front of my house?”
Baul songs, stuffed with enigmas and codes, sum up the Baul philosophy of Dehattaya (Truth in the Body), probably the central theme of Baulism, outlining the aphorism, 'Whatever is in the universe is in the receptacle (the body)'.
In many ways, Bauls' body-centric philosophy is connected t to the thinking of controversial Iranian Sufi thinker, teacher and writer Monsur Hallaji's “Anal Huq” (I am God), to the transcendentalist Emerson, the American poet, who in his poem Gnothi Seauton said :“Take this fact unto thy soul, God dwells in thee”, to Sufi saint Jalauddin Rumi's “Everything of the universe derives from my body”, to Upanishad's “Attamanong Bidi”, and to the monotheistic Vaisnavism of “I am Bramha”. Also, Tagore has a number of songs that talk about the Supreme Being, expressed through the physical existence of a human being.
In fact, all of them hold the view that the body is the microcosm of the universe, and since everything is contained in the body, all worship should be centered on the body.
The Bauls, like tantrics, locate cities, mountains, rivers, pilgrimage places, virtually everything on the map, in the human body.
Therefore, to understand the body-centric Baul songs, conscious efforts should be made to decode the songs, filled with language riddles, using imagery from daily life-activities, such as fishing, farming, sailing, trade and even robbery, foreclosure, and litigation as spiritual metaphors. But before demystifying the inscrutability of the songs, we must look into what Bauls think about the body.
Like tantrics, they hold that the body is the only instrument for gaining liberation and conquering death. Moreover, like tantric tradition, the Bauls do not believe in going against man's nature by suppressing sexual instincts; rather, through sexual union involving yogic practices of breath control, they seek to regain the state of cosmic unity that existed before the creation of the universe.
The Bauls, like other tantric yogic practitioners, conceive of the body as having two forms: the first form is the material or gross body (sthu!a sarira) made up of the skeleton, muscles, organs, etc., which has nine or ten openings or doors which are ears (2) nostrils(2), eyes (2), mouth(1) anus(1) and sexual organ(1). In the Baul tradition, the tenth door may refer to the female sexual organ or to the two-petaled lotus located between the eyebrows. The second form is also an invisible subtle body, called suksma sarfra. The Baul conception of the subtle body for the most part resembles that of the Hindu tantras and of other yogic texts.
The Bauls adopted from the Hindu tantras the system of chakras (centers) arranged along the spinal column from the perineum to the top of the head. These chakras are visualized as lotuses of varying number of petals and are often referred to in Baul songs by the number of petals.
The seven principal chakras in ascending order are as follows: the muladhar chakra at the base of the spinal column, with four petals; the svadhisthan chakra in the region of the genitals, with six petals; the manipur chakra at the level of the navel, with ten petals; the anahata chakra at the level of the heart, with twelve petals; the visuddha chakra in the region of the throat, with sixteen petals; the ajna chakra between the eyebrows, with two petals; and the sahasrar chakra at the top of the head or above the head, with a thousand petals. Muslim Bauls also describe the body in terms of mokams (Arabic maqamat), "stations" or "stages."
The Sufis of Bengal equate the four mokams with the muladhar, manipur, ajna, and anahata chakras. In addition, the Bauls include another mokam, the la mokam, equivalent to the sahasrar or ajna chakra. La mokam, literally meaning "no place," is so called because it represents transcendent space where all dualities are reintegrated into the Supreme.
The subtle body contains a network of numerous channels or naps that serve as conduits for breath. As in Hindu and Buddhist tantrism, three naps are of prime importance in sadhana. The Bauls refer to them by the Hindu tantric terms ira, pingala, and susumna: The ira is to the left of the spinal column, the pingala to the right and the susumna is in the middle. These naps are identified with the holy rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvati. The place where they come together in the muladhar chakra is named the Triveni which is an important locus in Sadhana.
Lalon says:
“In slippery quay of the Triveni
waves surge without wind.
The dumb speak, the deaf hear,
and a halfpenny tests as gold.”
The aim of Baul Sadhana is to reverse the cosmic process that is to return to the Sahaj state which is the original condition of non-duality that existed before Creation. Male and female principles, Puruja and Prakrti or Sakti, are contained within the microcosmic body of each person, mirroring the macrocosm. The male principle, equated with semen, resides at the top of the head in the highest chakra, the Sahasrar. Here the Supreme exists in a state of perfect unity without any qualities or form; here he is the Atal lswar (the motionless Lord). Since in the Sahasrar everything is integrated into the motionless Lord, there is no duality between the enjoyer and the enjoyed, between God and the devotee.
For Sadhana to be successful, it is necessary to bring under control the six enemies (lust, anger, greed, infatuation, vanity and envy) and the ten sense organs (the five organs of perception and the five organs of action). Unbridled lust (Kama) personified by the god Kama (also called Madan) is man's worst enemy. In order to effect the transformation of lust (Kama), into true love, Prema, the male practitioner, imagines himself as a woman. By "becoming a woman," it is felt his union with a woman will no longer be motivated by desire for physical pleasure.
The active form of the Supreme, called the Sahaj Manush or Adhor Manush becomes manifest in the lowest chakra i.e. the Muladhar, during a woman's menstrual period. It is at this time that the Bauls perform their Sadhana to "catch" Him.
Baul songs say: "In the Muladhar is the mother of the world, and in the Sahasrar is the father. If the two are united, you won't die or be born again."
Sexuality plays an important part in the Bauls' search for Adhor Manush, the ultimate truth. Like the Tantrics, the Bauls believe that the means to experience divine love is through the union of the physical forms of man and woman.
Bauls call divinity by a number of names, reflecting their eclecticism, such as Allah and Ahad ("the One"), Krishna, Man of the Heart. The other names of the divinity are : Uncatchable Moon, Unknown Man, Natural Man (Sahaj Manus), Uncatchable Man, Golden Friend, Unknown Bird, or simply Lord (Shai).
In quest of Moner Manush, Lalon in one of his songs says:
Milon hobe koto dine amar moner manusherei shoney. (When will I be united with the Man of my Heart?).
Searching for the 'Man of the Heart, Radharomon says: “Moner manush na pailey, moner kotha koiyo na.” (If you don't get Moner manush, don't speak your mind.)
Talking about 'Golden Friend', Hason Raja in his song says:
“Shona bondher lagiya mone loy shob teyagiya tar kachhe thaki giya.” (I'll give up everything for my Golden Friend and I'll go and stay with Him.”
Whatever ways the divinity has been expressed, the intentional use of enigmatic language, however, poses an impediment to common understanding. To comprehend Baul songs, it is important to decode the technical terminology that are often composed in an ambiguous style, characterized by code words with several layers of meanings, obscure imagery, erotic symbolism, paradoxical statements, and enigmas. At the most basic level of the ambiguous style is code words or phrases that are the building blocks of the esoteric songs.
Baul songs are composed in an ambiguous style that resembles the Shandhya Bhasa (intentional language) of the Buddhist tantric Caryagiti or Caryapad, the oldest extant texts in Bengali, as well as the enigmatic language of many other esoteric Indian traditions with a tantric background, such as the Sants, Naths, and Vaisnava Sahajiyas.
Bauls do not like to let others know their words, objectives and works related to their worship. The techniques related to their austere devotion, their regrets, suggestions, beliefs and their appeal and surrender to the Creator are expressed in special terms. Bauls have used these special expressions in their songs. Not only did they use their own terminology, but also they assimilated them from Buddhist, Hindu, Sufi and Vaisnab Sadaks (people who practise ascetic austerities) communities into their terms.
The language of their songs is intended to veil their ritual significance from the unskilled who would find these esoteric practices objectionable, and at the same time to reveal to the initiated the ineffable truth which defies logic and cannot be communicated directly through ordinary discourse.
Bauls have made the words of their meditation incomprehensible for some definite reasons:
1) It is because of the prohibition of the Guru
2) It is because they think it to be unwise to express those lingoes to someone who has not been introduced to the secret knowledge
3) It is because their meditation is woman-centered
4) It is because of the fear of the persons who are versed in scriptural knowledge
5) It is because they believe that the efficacy of their practices of ascetic austerities will disappear if they let their secret things be known to all.
Some metaphors in Baul songs are common to the language of Tantric texts, such as "sky" for the Sahasrar Chakra and "moon" for semen and the Supreme. Others are peculiar to the Bauls; for instance, "new moon night" to signify menstruation, or "full moon on the new moon night" to indicate the appearance of the Sahaj Manus in menstrual blood.
Baul poets freely invent code words so that many of them are idiosyncratic, such as Lalon's "city of mirrors" symbolizing the Ajna Chakra. Moreover, the same symbol may have several meanings depending on the context, further complicating the task of interpreting the songs. Thus "moon," in addition to semen and the Supreme, can also designate the female, as in "the moon's new moon night" (that is a woman's menstrual period). Numbers are often used as cipher. For example, the number 16, whether it modifies "guards", "enemies", or "rich men," refers to the 10 senses and the six enemies. Sometimes more than one number can indicate the same concept; nine or 10 modifying doors stand for the nine or 10 openings of the body.
Sometimes an entire song is an extended metaphor. This is often the case with Dehatattwa songs. The body may be depicted as a house with two pillars, nine rooms (the Chakras; although the standard Hindu Tantric system lists seven; they can vary in number depending on the tradition), a basement (Muladhar), and an attic (Sahasrar) in which a madman, who is the Lord, sits; or a bird cage with nine doors (the body), housing an unknown bird (the soul); or a broken-down boat, constantly leaking water (semen); or a tree of beauty that produces moon fruit (offspring). The city of Mecca has also been used in Baul songs to symbolize the body.
Paradoxes in Baul songs are of two types: those that do not seem to have any esoteric significance other than hinting at the ineffable and paradoxical nature of the non-dual Sahaj state, and those that when decoded yield a hidden meaning alluding to secret doctrines. Besides, enigmas are occasionally created by using letters of the Perso-Arabic alphabet.
Lalon's "unknown man" who signifies the Sahaj Manus is described as "Zer on Aliph”, and “Zabar on Mim". "Zer" is the vowel marker “I”, and "Aliph" stands for Allah, while "Zabar" is the vowel marker “A”, and "Mim" symbolizes Muhammad. The solution to the enigma lies not only in the phonetic values of "Zer" and "'Zabar" but also in their positions and literal meanings. "Zer" is placed below a letter and means "inferior," whereas "Zabar" is placed above a letter and means "superior." Thus by referring to the "unknown man" as "Zer on Aliph, Zabar on Mim" Lalon is saying that this figure is "inferior" to or beneath Allah and "superior" to or above the Prophet.
It will be inappropriate if we don't quote some lines of Lalon in this connection:
I've heard telling of a man:
zer on alif, zabar on mim.
Although the meanings of the songs may sometimes be obscure, their simplicity, vigor, and felicity of expression, their humor and dazzling imagery, and their aphoristic statements that apply to a specific religious context as well as to everyday life makes them some of the best poetry in the Bengali language.
Haronuzzaman, a novelist and translator, teaches English at the Independent University, Bangladesh.
[Picture: Lalon's Shrine, Bangladesh. Photo: Wiki]
Monday, May 23, 2011
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Monday, May 23, 2011
Spiritual Metaphors
Baul bard Lalon says: Kiba Ruper Jhalak Dicche Dvidale ; Ache Adi Makkah Ei Manab Dehe (What beauty flashes on the two-petaled lotus / the original Mecca is in this human body).
Radharomon, another baul, says: “Manush tare chinrey vaibey, tor dehey majhe biraj kore ke?” (Know the man who exists in your body?)
“Deher majhe guru thuiya shishyya hoilai kar?” (Having Guru in the body, who do you become disciple of?)
Hason Raja, a mesmeric mystic, in one of his songs says: “Tare keu dhoritey na pare; shokol ronger manush ek thake mor ghore.” (No one can catch Him; a person of many colors stays in my room.) “Ami dhoritey na pari go tare, chinitey na pari go tare; ke re samailo mor ghore.” (I can't catch Him; I can't even recognize Him; who stopped in front of my house?”
Baul songs, stuffed with enigmas and codes, sum up the Baul philosophy of Dehattaya (Truth in the Body), probably the central theme of Baulism, outlining the aphorism, 'Whatever is in the universe is in the receptacle (the body)'.
In many ways, Bauls' body-centric philosophy is connected t to the thinking of controversial Iranian Sufi thinker, teacher and writer Monsur Hallaji's “Anal Huq” (I am God), to the transcendentalist Emerson, the American poet, who in his poem Gnothi Seauton said :“Take this fact unto thy soul, God dwells in thee”, to Sufi saint Jalauddin Rumi's “Everything of the universe derives from my body”, to Upanishad's “Attamanong Bidi”, and to the monotheistic Vaisnavism of “I am Bramha”. Also, Tagore has a number of songs that talk about the Supreme Being, expressed through the physical existence of a human being.
In fact, all of them hold the view that the body is the microcosm of the universe, and since everything is contained in the body, all worship should be centered on the body.
The Bauls, like tantrics, locate cities, mountains, rivers, pilgrimage places, virtually everything on the map, in the human body.
Therefore, to understand the body-centric Baul songs, conscious efforts should be made to decode the songs, filled with language riddles, using imagery from daily life-activities, such as fishing, farming, sailing, trade and even robbery, foreclosure, and litigation as spiritual metaphors. But before demystifying the inscrutability of the songs, we must look into what Bauls think about the body.
Like tantrics, they hold that the body is the only instrument for gaining liberation and conquering death. Moreover, like tantric tradition, the Bauls do not believe in going against man's nature by suppressing sexual instincts; rather, through sexual union involving yogic practices of breath control, they seek to regain the state of cosmic unity that existed before the creation of the universe.
The Bauls, like other tantric yogic practitioners, conceive of the body as having two forms: the first form is the material or gross body (sthu!a sarira) made up of the skeleton, muscles, organs, etc., which has nine or ten openings or doors which are ears (2) nostrils(2), eyes (2), mouth(1) anus(1) and sexual organ(1). In the Baul tradition, the tenth door may refer to the female sexual organ or to the two-petaled lotus located between the eyebrows. The second form is also an invisible subtle body, called suksma sarfra. The Baul conception of the subtle body for the most part resembles that of the Hindu tantras and of other yogic texts.
The Bauls adopted from the Hindu tantras the system of chakras (centers) arranged along the spinal column from the perineum to the top of the head. These chakras are visualized as lotuses of varying number of petals and are often referred to in Baul songs by the number of petals.
The seven principal chakras in ascending order are as follows: the muladhar chakra at the base of the spinal column, with four petals; the svadhisthan chakra in the region of the genitals, with six petals; the manipur chakra at the level of the navel, with ten petals; the anahata chakra at the level of the heart, with twelve petals; the visuddha chakra in the region of the throat, with sixteen petals; the ajna chakra between the eyebrows, with two petals; and the sahasrar chakra at the top of the head or above the head, with a thousand petals. Muslim Bauls also describe the body in terms of mokams (Arabic maqamat), "stations" or "stages."
The Sufis of Bengal equate the four mokams with the muladhar, manipur, ajna, and anahata chakras. In addition, the Bauls include another mokam, the la mokam, equivalent to the sahasrar or ajna chakra. La mokam, literally meaning "no place," is so called because it represents transcendent space where all dualities are reintegrated into the Supreme.
The subtle body contains a network of numerous channels or naps that serve as conduits for breath. As in Hindu and Buddhist tantrism, three naps are of prime importance in sadhana. The Bauls refer to them by the Hindu tantric terms ira, pingala, and susumna: The ira is to the left of the spinal column, the pingala to the right and the susumna is in the middle. These naps are identified with the holy rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvati. The place where they come together in the muladhar chakra is named the Triveni which is an important locus in Sadhana.
Lalon says:
“In slippery quay of the Triveni
waves surge without wind.
The dumb speak, the deaf hear,
and a halfpenny tests as gold.”
The aim of Baul Sadhana is to reverse the cosmic process that is to return to the Sahaj state which is the original condition of non-duality that existed before Creation. Male and female principles, Puruja and Prakrti or Sakti, are contained within the microcosmic body of each person, mirroring the macrocosm. The male principle, equated with semen, resides at the top of the head in the highest chakra, the Sahasrar. Here the Supreme exists in a state of perfect unity without any qualities or form; here he is the Atal lswar (the motionless Lord). Since in the Sahasrar everything is integrated into the motionless Lord, there is no duality between the enjoyer and the enjoyed, between God and the devotee.
For Sadhana to be successful, it is necessary to bring under control the six enemies (lust, anger, greed, infatuation, vanity and envy) and the ten sense organs (the five organs of perception and the five organs of action). Unbridled lust (Kama) personified by the god Kama (also called Madan) is man's worst enemy. In order to effect the transformation of lust (Kama), into true love, Prema, the male practitioner, imagines himself as a woman. By "becoming a woman," it is felt his union with a woman will no longer be motivated by desire for physical pleasure.
The active form of the Supreme, called the Sahaj Manush or Adhor Manush becomes manifest in the lowest chakra i.e. the Muladhar, during a woman's menstrual period. It is at this time that the Bauls perform their Sadhana to "catch" Him.
Baul songs say: "In the Muladhar is the mother of the world, and in the Sahasrar is the father. If the two are united, you won't die or be born again."
Sexuality plays an important part in the Bauls' search for Adhor Manush, the ultimate truth. Like the Tantrics, the Bauls believe that the means to experience divine love is through the union of the physical forms of man and woman.
Bauls call divinity by a number of names, reflecting their eclecticism, such as Allah and Ahad ("the One"), Krishna, Man of the Heart. The other names of the divinity are : Uncatchable Moon, Unknown Man, Natural Man (Sahaj Manus), Uncatchable Man, Golden Friend, Unknown Bird, or simply Lord (Shai).
In quest of Moner Manush, Lalon in one of his songs says:
Milon hobe koto dine amar moner manusherei shoney. (When will I be united with the Man of my Heart?).
Searching for the 'Man of the Heart, Radharomon says: “Moner manush na pailey, moner kotha koiyo na.” (If you don't get Moner manush, don't speak your mind.)
Talking about 'Golden Friend', Hason Raja in his song says:
“Shona bondher lagiya mone loy shob teyagiya tar kachhe thaki giya.” (I'll give up everything for my Golden Friend and I'll go and stay with Him.”
Whatever ways the divinity has been expressed, the intentional use of enigmatic language, however, poses an impediment to common understanding. To comprehend Baul songs, it is important to decode the technical terminology that are often composed in an ambiguous style, characterized by code words with several layers of meanings, obscure imagery, erotic symbolism, paradoxical statements, and enigmas. At the most basic level of the ambiguous style is code words or phrases that are the building blocks of the esoteric songs.
Baul songs are composed in an ambiguous style that resembles the Shandhya Bhasa (intentional language) of the Buddhist tantric Caryagiti or Caryapad, the oldest extant texts in Bengali, as well as the enigmatic language of many other esoteric Indian traditions with a tantric background, such as the Sants, Naths, and Vaisnava Sahajiyas.
Bauls do not like to let others know their words, objectives and works related to their worship. The techniques related to their austere devotion, their regrets, suggestions, beliefs and their appeal and surrender to the Creator are expressed in special terms. Bauls have used these special expressions in their songs. Not only did they use their own terminology, but also they assimilated them from Buddhist, Hindu, Sufi and Vaisnab Sadaks (people who practise ascetic austerities) communities into their terms.
The language of their songs is intended to veil their ritual significance from the unskilled who would find these esoteric practices objectionable, and at the same time to reveal to the initiated the ineffable truth which defies logic and cannot be communicated directly through ordinary discourse.
Bauls have made the words of their meditation incomprehensible for some definite reasons:
1) It is because of the prohibition of the Guru
2) It is because they think it to be unwise to express those lingoes to someone who has not been introduced to the secret knowledge
3) It is because their meditation is woman-centered
4) It is because of the fear of the persons who are versed in scriptural knowledge
5) It is because they believe that the efficacy of their practices of ascetic austerities will disappear if they let their secret things be known to all.
Some metaphors in Baul songs are common to the language of Tantric texts, such as "sky" for the Sahasrar Chakra and "moon" for semen and the Supreme. Others are peculiar to the Bauls; for instance, "new moon night" to signify menstruation, or "full moon on the new moon night" to indicate the appearance of the Sahaj Manus in menstrual blood.
Baul poets freely invent code words so that many of them are idiosyncratic, such as Lalon's "city of mirrors" symbolizing the Ajna Chakra. Moreover, the same symbol may have several meanings depending on the context, further complicating the task of interpreting the songs. Thus "moon," in addition to semen and the Supreme, can also designate the female, as in "the moon's new moon night" (that is a woman's menstrual period). Numbers are often used as cipher. For example, the number 16, whether it modifies "guards", "enemies", or "rich men," refers to the 10 senses and the six enemies. Sometimes more than one number can indicate the same concept; nine or 10 modifying doors stand for the nine or 10 openings of the body.
Sometimes an entire song is an extended metaphor. This is often the case with Dehatattwa songs. The body may be depicted as a house with two pillars, nine rooms (the Chakras; although the standard Hindu Tantric system lists seven; they can vary in number depending on the tradition), a basement (Muladhar), and an attic (Sahasrar) in which a madman, who is the Lord, sits; or a bird cage with nine doors (the body), housing an unknown bird (the soul); or a broken-down boat, constantly leaking water (semen); or a tree of beauty that produces moon fruit (offspring). The city of Mecca has also been used in Baul songs to symbolize the body.
Paradoxes in Baul songs are of two types: those that do not seem to have any esoteric significance other than hinting at the ineffable and paradoxical nature of the non-dual Sahaj state, and those that when decoded yield a hidden meaning alluding to secret doctrines. Besides, enigmas are occasionally created by using letters of the Perso-Arabic alphabet.
Lalon's "unknown man" who signifies the Sahaj Manus is described as "Zer on Aliph”, and “Zabar on Mim". "Zer" is the vowel marker “I”, and "Aliph" stands for Allah, while "Zabar" is the vowel marker “A”, and "Mim" symbolizes Muhammad. The solution to the enigma lies not only in the phonetic values of "Zer" and "'Zabar" but also in their positions and literal meanings. "Zer" is placed below a letter and means "inferior," whereas "Zabar" is placed above a letter and means "superior." Thus by referring to the "unknown man" as "Zer on Aliph, Zabar on Mim" Lalon is saying that this figure is "inferior" to or beneath Allah and "superior" to or above the Prophet.
It will be inappropriate if we don't quote some lines of Lalon in this connection:
I've heard telling of a man:
zer on alif, zabar on mim.
Although the meanings of the songs may sometimes be obscure, their simplicity, vigor, and felicity of expression, their humor and dazzling imagery, and their aphoristic statements that apply to a specific religious context as well as to everyday life makes them some of the best poetry in the Bengali language.
Haronuzzaman, a novelist and translator, teaches English at the Independent University, Bangladesh.
[Picture: Lalon's Shrine, Bangladesh. Photo: Wiki]
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By Haroonuzzaman, *Understanding Baul language* - The Daily Star - Dhaka, Bangladesh; Saturday, May 14, 2011Baul bard Lalon says: Kiba Ruper Jhalak Dicche Dvidale ; Ache Adi Makkah Ei Manab Dehe (What beauty flashes on the two-petaled lotus / the original Mecca is in this human body).
Radharomon, another baul, says: “Manush tare chinrey vaibey, tor dehey majhe biraj kore ke?” (Know the man who exists in your body?)
“Deher majhe guru thuiya shishyya hoilai kar?” (Having Guru in the body, who do you become disciple of?)
Hason Raja, a mesmeric mystic, in one of his songs says: “Tare keu dhoritey na pare; shokol ronger manush ek thake mor ghore.” (No one can catch Him; a person of many colors stays in my room.) “Ami dhoritey na pari go tare, chinitey na pari go tare; ke re samailo mor ghore.” (I can't catch Him; I can't even recognize Him; who stopped in front of my house?”
Baul songs, stuffed with enigmas and codes, sum up the Baul philosophy of Dehattaya (Truth in the Body), probably the central theme of Baulism, outlining the aphorism, 'Whatever is in the universe is in the receptacle (the body)'.
In many ways, Bauls' body-centric philosophy is connected t to the thinking of controversial Iranian Sufi thinker, teacher and writer Monsur Hallaji's “Anal Huq” (I am God), to the transcendentalist Emerson, the American poet, who in his poem Gnothi Seauton said :“Take this fact unto thy soul, God dwells in thee”, to Sufi saint Jalauddin Rumi's “Everything of the universe derives from my body”, to Upanishad's “Attamanong Bidi”, and to the monotheistic Vaisnavism of “I am Bramha”. Also, Tagore has a number of songs that talk about the Supreme Being, expressed through the physical existence of a human being.
In fact, all of them hold the view that the body is the microcosm of the universe, and since everything is contained in the body, all worship should be centered on the body.
The Bauls, like tantrics, locate cities, mountains, rivers, pilgrimage places, virtually everything on the map, in the human body.
Therefore, to understand the body-centric Baul songs, conscious efforts should be made to decode the songs, filled with language riddles, using imagery from daily life-activities, such as fishing, farming, sailing, trade and even robbery, foreclosure, and litigation as spiritual metaphors. But before demystifying the inscrutability of the songs, we must look into what Bauls think about the body.
Like tantrics, they hold that the body is the only instrument for gaining liberation and conquering death. Moreover, like tantric tradition, the Bauls do not believe in going against man's nature by suppressing sexual instincts; rather, through sexual union involving yogic practices of breath control, they seek to regain the state of cosmic unity that existed before the creation of the universe.
The Bauls, like other tantric yogic practitioners, conceive of the body as having two forms: the first form is the material or gross body (sthu!a sarira) made up of the skeleton, muscles, organs, etc., which has nine or ten openings or doors which are ears (2) nostrils(2), eyes (2), mouth(1) anus(1) and sexual organ(1). In the Baul tradition, the tenth door may refer to the female sexual organ or to the two-petaled lotus located between the eyebrows. The second form is also an invisible subtle body, called suksma sarfra. The Baul conception of the subtle body for the most part resembles that of the Hindu tantras and of other yogic texts.
The Bauls adopted from the Hindu tantras the system of chakras (centers) arranged along the spinal column from the perineum to the top of the head. These chakras are visualized as lotuses of varying number of petals and are often referred to in Baul songs by the number of petals.
The seven principal chakras in ascending order are as follows: the muladhar chakra at the base of the spinal column, with four petals; the svadhisthan chakra in the region of the genitals, with six petals; the manipur chakra at the level of the navel, with ten petals; the anahata chakra at the level of the heart, with twelve petals; the visuddha chakra in the region of the throat, with sixteen petals; the ajna chakra between the eyebrows, with two petals; and the sahasrar chakra at the top of the head or above the head, with a thousand petals. Muslim Bauls also describe the body in terms of mokams (Arabic maqamat), "stations" or "stages."
The Sufis of Bengal equate the four mokams with the muladhar, manipur, ajna, and anahata chakras. In addition, the Bauls include another mokam, the la mokam, equivalent to the sahasrar or ajna chakra. La mokam, literally meaning "no place," is so called because it represents transcendent space where all dualities are reintegrated into the Supreme.
The subtle body contains a network of numerous channels or naps that serve as conduits for breath. As in Hindu and Buddhist tantrism, three naps are of prime importance in sadhana. The Bauls refer to them by the Hindu tantric terms ira, pingala, and susumna: The ira is to the left of the spinal column, the pingala to the right and the susumna is in the middle. These naps are identified with the holy rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvati. The place where they come together in the muladhar chakra is named the Triveni which is an important locus in Sadhana.
Lalon says:
“In slippery quay of the Triveni
waves surge without wind.
The dumb speak, the deaf hear,
and a halfpenny tests as gold.”
The aim of Baul Sadhana is to reverse the cosmic process that is to return to the Sahaj state which is the original condition of non-duality that existed before Creation. Male and female principles, Puruja and Prakrti or Sakti, are contained within the microcosmic body of each person, mirroring the macrocosm. The male principle, equated with semen, resides at the top of the head in the highest chakra, the Sahasrar. Here the Supreme exists in a state of perfect unity without any qualities or form; here he is the Atal lswar (the motionless Lord). Since in the Sahasrar everything is integrated into the motionless Lord, there is no duality between the enjoyer and the enjoyed, between God and the devotee.
For Sadhana to be successful, it is necessary to bring under control the six enemies (lust, anger, greed, infatuation, vanity and envy) and the ten sense organs (the five organs of perception and the five organs of action). Unbridled lust (Kama) personified by the god Kama (also called Madan) is man's worst enemy. In order to effect the transformation of lust (Kama), into true love, Prema, the male practitioner, imagines himself as a woman. By "becoming a woman," it is felt his union with a woman will no longer be motivated by desire for physical pleasure.
The active form of the Supreme, called the Sahaj Manush or Adhor Manush becomes manifest in the lowest chakra i.e. the Muladhar, during a woman's menstrual period. It is at this time that the Bauls perform their Sadhana to "catch" Him.
Baul songs say: "In the Muladhar is the mother of the world, and in the Sahasrar is the father. If the two are united, you won't die or be born again."
Sexuality plays an important part in the Bauls' search for Adhor Manush, the ultimate truth. Like the Tantrics, the Bauls believe that the means to experience divine love is through the union of the physical forms of man and woman.
Bauls call divinity by a number of names, reflecting their eclecticism, such as Allah and Ahad ("the One"), Krishna, Man of the Heart. The other names of the divinity are : Uncatchable Moon, Unknown Man, Natural Man (Sahaj Manus), Uncatchable Man, Golden Friend, Unknown Bird, or simply Lord (Shai).
In quest of Moner Manush, Lalon in one of his songs says:
Milon hobe koto dine amar moner manusherei shoney. (When will I be united with the Man of my Heart?).
Searching for the 'Man of the Heart, Radharomon says: “Moner manush na pailey, moner kotha koiyo na.” (If you don't get Moner manush, don't speak your mind.)
Talking about 'Golden Friend', Hason Raja in his song says:
“Shona bondher lagiya mone loy shob teyagiya tar kachhe thaki giya.” (I'll give up everything for my Golden Friend and I'll go and stay with Him.”
Whatever ways the divinity has been expressed, the intentional use of enigmatic language, however, poses an impediment to common understanding. To comprehend Baul songs, it is important to decode the technical terminology that are often composed in an ambiguous style, characterized by code words with several layers of meanings, obscure imagery, erotic symbolism, paradoxical statements, and enigmas. At the most basic level of the ambiguous style is code words or phrases that are the building blocks of the esoteric songs.
Baul songs are composed in an ambiguous style that resembles the Shandhya Bhasa (intentional language) of the Buddhist tantric Caryagiti or Caryapad, the oldest extant texts in Bengali, as well as the enigmatic language of many other esoteric Indian traditions with a tantric background, such as the Sants, Naths, and Vaisnava Sahajiyas.
Bauls do not like to let others know their words, objectives and works related to their worship. The techniques related to their austere devotion, their regrets, suggestions, beliefs and their appeal and surrender to the Creator are expressed in special terms. Bauls have used these special expressions in their songs. Not only did they use their own terminology, but also they assimilated them from Buddhist, Hindu, Sufi and Vaisnab Sadaks (people who practise ascetic austerities) communities into their terms.
The language of their songs is intended to veil their ritual significance from the unskilled who would find these esoteric practices objectionable, and at the same time to reveal to the initiated the ineffable truth which defies logic and cannot be communicated directly through ordinary discourse.
Bauls have made the words of their meditation incomprehensible for some definite reasons:
1) It is because of the prohibition of the Guru
2) It is because they think it to be unwise to express those lingoes to someone who has not been introduced to the secret knowledge
3) It is because their meditation is woman-centered
4) It is because of the fear of the persons who are versed in scriptural knowledge
5) It is because they believe that the efficacy of their practices of ascetic austerities will disappear if they let their secret things be known to all.
Some metaphors in Baul songs are common to the language of Tantric texts, such as "sky" for the Sahasrar Chakra and "moon" for semen and the Supreme. Others are peculiar to the Bauls; for instance, "new moon night" to signify menstruation, or "full moon on the new moon night" to indicate the appearance of the Sahaj Manus in menstrual blood.
Baul poets freely invent code words so that many of them are idiosyncratic, such as Lalon's "city of mirrors" symbolizing the Ajna Chakra. Moreover, the same symbol may have several meanings depending on the context, further complicating the task of interpreting the songs. Thus "moon," in addition to semen and the Supreme, can also designate the female, as in "the moon's new moon night" (that is a woman's menstrual period). Numbers are often used as cipher. For example, the number 16, whether it modifies "guards", "enemies", or "rich men," refers to the 10 senses and the six enemies. Sometimes more than one number can indicate the same concept; nine or 10 modifying doors stand for the nine or 10 openings of the body.
Sometimes an entire song is an extended metaphor. This is often the case with Dehatattwa songs. The body may be depicted as a house with two pillars, nine rooms (the Chakras; although the standard Hindu Tantric system lists seven; they can vary in number depending on the tradition), a basement (Muladhar), and an attic (Sahasrar) in which a madman, who is the Lord, sits; or a bird cage with nine doors (the body), housing an unknown bird (the soul); or a broken-down boat, constantly leaking water (semen); or a tree of beauty that produces moon fruit (offspring). The city of Mecca has also been used in Baul songs to symbolize the body.
Paradoxes in Baul songs are of two types: those that do not seem to have any esoteric significance other than hinting at the ineffable and paradoxical nature of the non-dual Sahaj state, and those that when decoded yield a hidden meaning alluding to secret doctrines. Besides, enigmas are occasionally created by using letters of the Perso-Arabic alphabet.
Lalon's "unknown man" who signifies the Sahaj Manus is described as "Zer on Aliph”, and “Zabar on Mim". "Zer" is the vowel marker “I”, and "Aliph" stands for Allah, while "Zabar" is the vowel marker “A”, and "Mim" symbolizes Muhammad. The solution to the enigma lies not only in the phonetic values of "Zer" and "'Zabar" but also in their positions and literal meanings. "Zer" is placed below a letter and means "inferior," whereas "Zabar" is placed above a letter and means "superior." Thus by referring to the "unknown man" as "Zer on Aliph, Zabar on Mim" Lalon is saying that this figure is "inferior" to or beneath Allah and "superior" to or above the Prophet.
It will be inappropriate if we don't quote some lines of Lalon in this connection:
I've heard telling of a man:
zer on alif, zabar on mim.
Although the meanings of the songs may sometimes be obscure, their simplicity, vigor, and felicity of expression, their humor and dazzling imagery, and their aphoristic statements that apply to a specific religious context as well as to everyday life makes them some of the best poetry in the Bengali language.
Haronuzzaman, a novelist and translator, teaches English at the Independent University, Bangladesh.
[Picture: Lalon's Shrine, Bangladesh. Photo: Wiki]
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