Fakir Lalon Sha

Curtsey & source: (Based on an interview by Prof Maria Mies with Farhad Mazhar in
Dhaka on January 28, 2004) NEW AGE EID
SPECIAL 2005, 04 November 2005
http://www.newagebd.com/2005/nov/04/eidspecial05/non-fiction06.html &
http://www.kumarkhali.com/

Fakir Lalon Sha

Lalon‘s origin is not known. No one knows where he was born, who were his
parents, which religious, ethnic or cultural communities he belonged to. A
farmer found him in the Kaliganga river, a tributary of Ganga, used to flow
through Kushtia, but now dried out; he was a child of fifteen or sixteen years
of age when he was found, nearly dying from smallpox when Malam, a
farmer/weaver in Cheuria village, Kumarkhali under 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 to life.

That his life began by surviving in between soil and water, in between
elemental realities of material being but as a non-being, arouses very deep
symbolic meaning among Lalon’s followers. That is 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 yetl unknown since he was
almost dead and what Malam received was a being hanging in between the
mud in the river and splashing water.

Except for the above, the apparent 'real story' of his ‘birth’, nothing is known
about him.

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Malam and Matijan had no children. They felt deep affection for the child who
was by then nadly affected physically by a deadly bacterial attack of small
pox, particularly to his e face. Lalon even lost an eye from the disease. The
care and love Lalon received from Malam and Matijan helped him recover
and for the rest of his life, the couple was his only 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 shine he drew many disciples. But it is
Matijan, it seems, that was the first devotee to grasp Lalon's message. In
recognition of her wisdom, love and motherly care, Lalon instructed that
Matijan be buried next to him. It is important to note here, hat Lalon’s shrine
should be named as the Matijan-Lalon shrine – and that was the wish of
Lalon; but his wishes could not realise due to 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; Malam is buried
along with Lalon’s other close disciples, outside the main shrine.
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. One has 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 icon or sign of asceticism;
white never implies denial of life in Lalon’s teachings.

He lived a very healthy life, taking care of of very meticulously developing 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 are also symbols and elements of
language. One should avoid meat if animal in any culture is metaphorically
seen as a being unable to control inherent desires or biological propensities.
He was not an ascetic and not a vegetarian. Vegetarianism in Bengal was

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associated with Brahmanism and Lalon did not believe in the food regime of
‘pure and impure food’ of the higher castes.

To 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 ‘abirbhab’; 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, rather it is the appearance of wisdom in
biological forms. Our capacity to transcend the natural given biological being
is 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 called ‘Lalon’ appeared as the symbol
of wisdom, we instantly realise that an event has been born in time, place
and in specific being in flesh and blood. 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 more deeper than the
preceding Vaishnava movements known as ‘Shahajiyas’ but retaining the
truth of the biomateriality of the ‘body’.

Shahaj Manush appears in the real material body, and no abstract spirituality
is attached to the notion. Lalon was thoroughly am materialist, and was
never believed in the so called ‘spirit’ or spirituality’ beyond the domain of
the body.

Hindus claimed Lalon as belonging to their religious sect and so 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 a reason he never revealed his identity.

His followers were humble people and their protests went unheard because
of intense communal claims by both 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 seek contacts with the middle or upper class. He did

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not even want to be anywhere near Rabindranath Tagore, because Tagore
came from a Zamindar (large land owners) family. However 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.

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
and division of social space by which who can accept food and water from
whom is determined ), class, patriarchy, religion and nation.

Lalon was not a nationalist, despite the fact the anti-colonial nationalist
movement was fermenting 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. Imaginary identities may appear as real and could
become a serious hindrance to resolve human conflicts and can not move
beyond the apparent differences 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 women-men

relationship playing on the margin between biological and the social
construction of this relation.

Few famous song

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 Lalon fakir

‘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 says the world originated from women, implying her, she will be a sinner
of being a bad wife, since patriarchal rules were dominant. On the other
hand, if she says it is from the masculine principle, implying Shiva, she will
become a liar. So her ‘silence’ became her words, or her words are made of
silences. Silence is the feminine punctuation in the masculine discourse and
it could be read only through 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 both the dominant structure of the existing discourse and
the patriarchal relation.

Most importantly, Lalon indeed 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
patriarchal hierarchies between women and men. The famous song, ‘mayere
bhajile hoy tar baper thikana’ could be read from that perspective as well.
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 in other language. ‘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. Mother is both the Subject and 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.

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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.

Lalons’ shrine in Lalon akhra, Cheuria, Kustia

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 an unique formation where Islam in
the Eastern part of India grounded itself, encountered and mingled with
Jaina, Buddhist, Hindu 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 philosophies 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.

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 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

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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 three trio, 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
Nitynanda, 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 articulating the voice of the subalterns,
invariably refers to Nityanada as the Guru of all Gurus, wisest among the
wise, etc. 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 turning 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 major complain of the school
developed after Nityananda in Nadia and culminated in the figure we now
know as Fakir Lalon Shah. The Brindabon school is popular among middle
and upper classes and castes and acceptable to Brahmanism.

On the contrary, Nadia rejected Brahmanism all along. Brindabon as a

reaction has turned against Nadia; the profound philosophical turns in Nadia

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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. let’s say. Jalaluddin Rumi is 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’s 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.

One can not understand Lalon unless taking an historical account of Tantra
of Bengal.

It is very difficult to talk about Tantra because of its vulgar representation

and understanding in the west as a sexual art of maximizing pleasure. This is
completely opposite what Lalon would mean by it. Of course in this ‘exotic’
subcontinent there have been utterly perverse Tantric traditions that
attracted the tourists and the Orientalists. The consumerist 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, how could we respond to the enquiry is Lalon a Tantric? The
reply should depend what one means by Tantra or Tantric? Yes Lalon is a
Tantric but he is also not a Tantric as we understand Tantra now. He was
bitterly critical of Tantra as well, as named his practices as ‘Karan’ – literally
means practice.

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 that ‘I think
therefore I am’.

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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
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 in its unitary form.

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 is 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.

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 beings has also the
capacity to transform ‘kam’ into ‘prem’ – that is love, love for others. In
human bodies Kam and Prem stay together like poison and the nectar. It is
the task of the wise person to extract the nectar from the poison. One can
not taste love without the material impulse of the body, but love transcends
the body – and such transcendence 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 like 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

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‘Allah’ is what human beings experiences in their thinking bodies and calling
out for that being in their language and theologies.

He is misunderstood as Sufi because his songs are replete with Arabic and
Persian words and Islamic metaphors. However, careful readings reveal that
he not only criticized and distanced himself from Sufis, but offered a quite
original interpretation of the meaning of prophet hood 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
prophet-hood 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.

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. I will try quickly to make my point clear.

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.

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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 – did taste Krishna? How Radha felt 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 bangle 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 woman? Chaitanya claimed in the affirmative, yes, he said, 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 philosophical tradition.. Chaitanya
said, when you do not see your lover and bodily 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, Imaginations are 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. This is the great philosophical revolution in
Bengal. We can not go detail into other profound contribution of Chaitanya
but it must be understood that 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.
Through his desire and intense urge to taste his body he united the
masculine and femine in his material body, emotion and imaginations.
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 realized 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, i.e. incarnation of
Krishna.

So he raised the first brilliant question, albeit metaphorically: if Chaitanya is

the incarnation of Krishna, why is he not ‘black”? Why is he ‘fair”? In bangla
Krishna means black. If Chaitanya is was ‘balack’ when he was Krishna, why
he is now fair? Well because Chaitanya is both Krishna and Radha in one

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body, he is both male and female. If so, why Krishna had to re-incarnate
again in Bengal? The reply from Lalon is that he had three incomplete tasks
and therefore he had to incarnate to accomplish these tasks. What were
these tasks? One could decipher the tasks from the activities of Chaitanya.
Interpreting Lalon;s famous song, ‘moner katha bolbo kare ami moner katha
bolbo kare / mon jane ar jane maram mojechi mon diye jare…we could
easil;y decipher what were the tasks of Krishna in the incarnated body of the
‘Gour’ (Chaitanya). These tasks according to Lalon:

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 affair, 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 self
conscious ‘slave’ to the community

One could easily note that these are all non-Brahmanical desires. One may
also sense that the philosophico-political turn of Bangladesh could only begin
with Fakir Lalon Shah.

Lalon's songs have been classified into :

1. Hymns
2. Devotional songs
3. Self-knowledge
4. Body-mystery
5. Ultimate knowledge and
6. Enquiry

The classification seems to be a little arbitrary, as neither in tone nor in

imagery there is anything in particular which may help distinguish a hymn
from an enquiry or a devotional song from a song on ultimate knowledge.
The common images suggest a limited mind-which indeed Lalon Shah was.
The images of fish and stream, of solitude and helplessness, of the sinner
and the wrong-doer, and of creation and death occur in almost all the song,
however, different their themes.

Nevertheless, within this limited range, Lalon Shah is able to attain a fine
religious fervor, a certain subtlety of perception, and an easy style
remarkable in a man of little formal education. The thought-content in these
songs is something to take notice of and the felicitations ease with which the

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complex-ities of theology and mysticism are disentangled is admirable. Lalon
Shah has a clear and an intense vision coupled with a highly developed
imagination. The devotional poems of Tagore show the influence of Lalon
Shah-which the poet generously acknowledged. Lalon Shah’s background as
a common man and concern for the spiritual bettermen of humanity are both
clearly revealed in these songs. The fisherman, the boatman, and the farmer
figure prominently in some songs and the frequent use of the word
“Summons” suggests that in the region in which Lalon Shah lived going to
court in his time was not an uncommon experience. The idle rich, the
depraved, and the erring are all solemnly admonished and the depraved,
and the erring are all solemnly admonished and the impermanence of
earthly possessions is constantly pointed out. The positive aspect of Lalon
Shah’s belief is that salvation lies in the ceaseless exploration of the Ultimate
Being and in complete dependence on him. One must, Lalon Shah believes,
unwearyingly strive to find out the meaning of existetence and the mystery
of creation and never swerve from the path of Truth-however difficult it may
be to follow.

Hymns:

1) "Elahi Almin Go Allah Badsha Alampona tumi"

You are the Lord, Allah, the Preserver, and the Protector.

You can make the floating sink and the sinking you can brig ashore,

You touch me with your hand and I call out your name.

You made the prophet Noah face the fury of the Flood,

Then in compassion you made the flood recede.

Have pity on me, the mighty Lord of the Universe.
Nizam, the cheat, was immersed in sin,
You gave him the light of reason and showed him the path of truth,
And the became saint through Your mercy.
Those who disown the prophet and are rank disbelievers.
Will easily followed the primrose path of damnation.
Will they be granted redemption?
The mendicant Lalon Shah trembles at his own future.

2) "Hok nam bol roshona

J nam soron a jabe jothor jontrona"

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Invoke the name of the just,
And the torments of hunger will be no more.
The summons lie heavy on the head
And may enmesh you any moment
But you are immersed in loss and gain oblivious of everything else.

Several times in around

a man is born.
This time be careful
to remember the name of Allah.
Friends and Brothers of the world
remember you will have no companion when you depart.
Says Lalon, “Spend the night, you Man of religion
In the contemplation of god”

3) "Khodar kache achi ami boro denadar

O tai akhite ghum nai amar"

Turn my mind to virtuous thought,

At your feet is my salvation.
One who is deprived of your mercy.
Harbors evil intentions.
You are in charge of the mind’s chariot
I go wherever you lead me.
You are the prompting of the mind
You are the mentor of all rites and rituals
You orchestrate the music
If you stop, the music ceases.

I am born-blind,
You are the alert physician,
Lalon says in all humility,
Let my eyes emit the sings of knowledge.

4) "Shuvab dao amar mone

Tomar choron jeno vuline"

Turn my mind to virtuous thoughts,

At your feet is my salvation.
One who is deprived of your mercy.
Harbors evil intentions.
You are in charge of the mind’s chariot
I go wherever you lead me.
You are the promptings of the mind

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You are the mentor of all rites and rituals
You orchestrate the music
If you stop, the music ceases.

I am born-blind,
You are the alert physician,
Lalon says in all humility,
Let my eyes emit the sings of knowledge.

5) "Modinay rachul nam a k elo bhai

Kayadhari hoye keno tar chaya nai"

In medina once arrived a man called Mohammad.

Although a mortal, still peerless.
Northing in this World
Can be fittingly compared with him.
When the sun is ablaze
The cloud gives him a shade.
His body has no shadow
Any yet his shadow can be seen throughout this World.
Try to understand
The meaning of this riddle.
Where there is a body there is a shadow,
But the man Mohammad is shadow less
Says Lalon, “I am afraid to tell of his might”

6) "Tomar Moto Doyal Bondhu Ar Pabona

Dakha Di a O he Rasul Chere J O Na"

No Friend can match your compassion.

Never leave us, oh Prophet, Now That you are with us.
You are the friend of God.
And the Pilot of the voyage beyond
Without you, the other shore
can scarcely be reached.
With the might of heavenly laws
You put us on the right path,
Don't leave us today
Keeping us in the dark.
We are the people of Medina
but we were like the denizens of the forest,
you illumined our minds
you gave us comfort.

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Without your benign presence
what will happen to us poor men?
Says Lalon, "Such a light
will never burn again".

7) "Oparer Kandari Nobijee Amar

Vojon Shadhan Britha Nobi Na Chine"

My Prophet is the Pilot of the other World.

All meditation useless if the prophet is not remembered.
He is the beginning and he is the end
and he changes shape and from according to his own pleasure.

The sky, the earth, and the wind together with water
are all born of his luminous spirit.
Tell us of the seat of the Prophet
and of the shape the Prophet had
when these things were born.
God and the Prophet are the twin miracles.
Tree and seed we see as they are,
Now you employ your discerning mind,
and choose between the tree and the flower.
One who is enriched by self-inquiry
can determine the subtle difference.
God assumed the shape of the Prophet,
The slave Lalon says,
"Seraj became a dervish
because of the quality of his Master".

8) "O Nobi Diner Rasul,

O Nam hoy na jeno vul"

Oh, my Prophet, the friend of the poor,

Your name I will never cease to utter.
If this holy name is forgotten, fall is inevitable
and both the Worlds will be lost.
First, he is the light of Allah,
secondly, the flower of repentance,
Thirdly, he is the garland round the neck
of the bird of Paradise,
Fourthly, the lord of the stars,
Fifthly, a peacock.

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in water, earth, fire and ash
the Lord shaped a mortal called Malek.
fail ignobly.
From the Prophet's main stem
has sprung five flowers.
Lalon gets beyond his depth thinking of the miracle
that is Mohammad.

9) "Chol sokole jai nobir sodone

Dakitechen doyal Nodi modhur bochone"

Come, let's all go to the prophet's

He summons us in sweet tones.
Come the tired, come the worried, come the sinners
At his presence there is calm.
My youth is a light burden, and easy to carry
In the presence of the Prophet I fell no hunger.
One who sees the prophet never feels any thirst
ever flowing in the mind is a stream of manna.
One who is guided by the Prophet
alone knows the sublimity of love
Seraj tells Lalon, such a man
Possesses the gift of peace.

10) "Pare loye jao amay

Ami oper hoye achi bose Ohe doyamoy".

Carry me to the other shore

I'm in no state to make the crossing
oh, Merciful Friend!
I alone await the ferry
The Friend sits on are boat's planks
At this hour of crisis,
No one but you can save me.
I've neglected all my prayers
And never followed the Friend of the Fallen
That's why I Crave your mercy,
If you don't help one in a quandary
The title you bear will be a misnomer,
Lalon says, In that event
No one will Call you the Friend of the Fallen.

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Bhakti Sangit (Devotional Songs)

11) “Din Thakite Murshid-Roton Chine Ne Na

Ahen Shadher Jonom Boye Gelo Ar Hobe Na”

Seek to explore your Lord and His Treasure

Before your time expires,
Once this precious life-time is o’er
You’ll never get it back.
The Lord is the sum of all my belongings
He is the culmination of all my virtues,
At his feet lies the promise
Of the ultimate crossing.
In the Quran is clearly uttered
The guidance of the lord,
Your heart is impregnated,
With the lord’s presence,
If you can detect that presence,
You can enter the realm of the Unknown,
Lalon says, I ceaselessly wander
With my eyes closed.

12) “Murshid janay jare mormo sai janite pay,

Jene sune rakhe mone sha ki karo koy”.

He alone does know to whom the master reveals

And the pupil zealously guards the revealed knowledge.
The bodiless dwells in an unknown land
But he does not move without a form.
The constant friend, the eternal friend
Shapes everything as he likes.
I do not know the secret of this being.
One who has no form and yet dwells forever
Is hard to explore.
Wisdom is born on the shore of light,
And you mention water.
What kind of water is light?
Lalon thinks hard.

13) “Gurupode thakre amar mon,

Gurupode na dubile jonom jabe okaron”.

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Oh, my mind, be encompassed by the Lord-
Your whole existence will be of no significance
Unless touched by the Master’s Mercy
When the pupil is so linked to the Master
The Moon protects him and becomes his refuge,
Through the depth of the looking-glass
All the pupil is constant
And heels what the Master says,
Keeping his eye riveted on blind.

Gets the water visible,

Appear alien people, strange cities,
Seraj tells Lalon,
“Your Birth goes unrecompensed”.

14) “Akdin o parer vabna vabli na re,

par hobi hirer shako kemon kore”.

You never once thought of the vital crossing.

How will you, then, cross the bridge of diamond?
You cannot fell secure even for a moment
And you do not know when the Master
Will summon you.
What excuse will you give in the prison
When the summons come?
You can buy the merchandise free,
And meditatively utter the name of the master,
A sure cure for indolence.
Launch the boat of love
And let the master pilot it.
Then, says Lalon, you will safely
Reach the shore.

15) "Ay K Jabi Opare

Doyal Chad Mor Diche Kheya Opar Sagore"

Come whoever wants to reach the other shore

My kindly moon has begun the voyage
On the boundless sea,
Whoever remembers the Master
Is sure to get His mercy-
A man so kind
You will look for in vain in this World
He pilots, you through the barrier of the World free of toll.

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Leave aside all apprehensions,
And give him the charge.
Leaning on the master’s feet,
Leave on the Master’s feet,
Many unworthy beings have made the crossing.
Seraj, there is no end to your malady.

Deho-tatta(Body-Mystry)

16) “khachar vitor auchin pakhi kamna asha jay”

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 latticed openings here and there,
Above it 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 say fall apart.
Says Lalon, forcing the cage open,
The bird fitted away to no one knows where.

17) “Pakhi kokhon jani ura jay”

When an ill-wind blows

The bird flits out of the cage.
Collapses the cage’s tenuous support
And the bird has nowhere to stand on
That thought possesses my mind
And I fell a hectic fever all over my body.
Who owns the cage, and whatever is the bird.
For whom do I shed my tears?
The bird lives in my yard
And wants to veil my vision
If knew beforehand
The wild never gets tamed,
Then I would not have grown fond of the bird,
Now nothing has been left to Lalon except shedding tears.

18) “Chirodin kacha basher khacha thakba na

Pakhi jabe ure thakbe pore kau rakhite parbena”

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The cage of raw bamboo will not endure long
And the bird will flit away deaf to all entreaties
When the bird will leave the cage
Is your constant worry,
And you forget all about your Marker.
No one you call your own
Will go with you,
Suddenly will come the summons,
And the peremptory call
Must be answered.
Friends and relatives
Will be powerless to strengthen the fragile cage
So, mind, leave aside all doubts.
Fall at the feet of the Lord, Lalon,
And the fear of death will be no more.

19) “Amar a ghurkhanay ka biraz kora

Ami jonom dhore dekhlam nare”

The one who lives in this house of mine,

In all my days I never saw him.
If I turn and look at the north-east,
My eye cannot espy him,
The marts of this world
Are at whose command,
He eludes my grasp seeking to hold him,
Everyone talks of the bird of life
I try to conceal what I hear,
Is water, fire,
Earth, wind?
No one can say with certitude.
I don’t know what goes on in my own household
And yet aspire to know a stranger
Lalon may call one an alien,
One hard to know
What is his complexion, what is mine?

20) “Acha vober tala se ghure

J ghore sai bas kore”

The lock of thought is in the room

Where the Lord lives.
The lock of thought will yield only to thought,

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And then will be seen the inmate playing,
And the fear of death will be no more.
When the lamp of thought burns
The inmate is brightly revealed;
When this lamp is extinguished
The bright form become invisible.
Without thought reverence is ineffective
Pause and ponder .
Says Lalon, in all humility,
Thought reverals the truth.

21) “shorup rupe nayan tha ra mon

Dekhbi se ruper opurup”

Look at the Lord

And you will see beauty unmatched
Beauty effulgent.
It is vain to look for beauty
Separated from the Lord.
The devout will tell you
That this knowledge is the beginning of wisdom.
The loveliness of the female-charmer
Behold in the male-son,
Be silent whoever beholds it,
Such a thing mustn’t be broadcast.
One who beholds the beauty of Lord is free from fear,
Says Seraj, the friend, “Remember Lalon,
If you cease to behold this beauty,
You’ll be demned”.

22) “Jare Dhane pay na mohamuni

Ache ochin manus minrupe”

One who is beyond the reach of the mightiest saint,

That stranger dwells in water
In the form of fish.
He is a fish of wonderful colours
And encompasses the seven seas,
Within the grasp of everyone,
But is visible only to the blessed.
Find out the sea
And determine its currents and tides
And then if you can match one with the other
You’ll catch the fish.

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The fish gets caught with the right movement
It knows who is the true devotee.
Says Seraj, the friend, “Lalon, uf you stand so close
To the shore,
You may stumble into the sea”.

23) “Jal fele mach dhorbe jokhon

Katla pona chunochona
Kau baki thakbena tokhon”

When the net id cast

All fishes will be caught
The salmon and the shrimp.
How you fight and play and race
And shout and jump.
Soon the summons will come
And all this excitement end.
Now you swim and laugh
And live a life so gay,
But the Lord’s summons will not be delayed.
In earthly wsters
Grow a great variety of fishes,
And yet the Lord of the world
Remembers every fish.
Lalon, fall at the feet of Seraj, the fried.
Then you’ll not be afraid of the summons,
And avoiding the devil get peace.

24) “k vashay ful pramer ghate

Opar mohima sai fuler bote”

The flower consigned to the river of love,

Is a ceaseless marvel.
The flower wich creates the world is neglected.
So again and again
This earthly wandering.
The flower blossoms at the month’s end.
Where is the plant and where the root?
The light of this knowledge
Can pierce the mind’s gloom.
The root of the flower is known to him
Who is granted the Lord’s grace.
Lalon offers his worship
And begs for this.

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Shrine of Lalon fakir

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 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 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 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

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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.

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