The transcendental: Baul Songs
We all have at some point of our life listened and loved that one song or part of a song in a language that we don’t understand. It’s true what people say about music that it knows no boundaries. Such an association I had with the Baul songs of the Bengal folkculure where I do not understand Bangla and hence, do not understand the meaning. Yet ironically, at the inception of my relationship with the Baul music lie the lyrics of many Baul songs. Unfortunately, it was through the translation, the English one and not the original one. Behold for instance these lines:
He who is able
To be born
At the door of death,
Is devoted eternally…
Die before dying,
Die living.
– Gosain gopal
Beautiful lines? Thoughtful? Yet the essence is lost in the translation. And lyrics sans music is then only a body minus soul. (Just try to read your favourite song in its translation in another language). Like any other great piece of music, in a Baul song the content, the intent, the singer, the way the song is sung together form the spirit of the song. The Bauls sing about love, god, spirit and beauty.
So exactly who are the Bauls? Bauls are called “mystic minstrels” of Bengal. They can be termed as nomads who are detached from the land and move from place to place singing in search for the god. Bauls have many sects constituting both Vaishnava Hindus and Sufi Muslims. You could mostly see a Baul with an iktara or dotara and dubki.
Bauls have a strange relationship with the god up there and the earth down here. At one place, they talk about a direct relationship with the god. On the other hand they also have a relation to the soil, however detached. It seems that with a close and intricate connection with the ‘element’ these Bauls wish to go beyond the ordinary, the mundane. The songs are deeply philosophical and introspective. They capture in their philosophy the world with its depth and at the same time look for transcendence. They talk simultaneously of the transient and the eternal.
On the other shore
Of the ocean
Of one’s own self,
Quivers a drop of fluid-
As the origin of all.
But who can cross the seas
To reach it?
The root of all
Is based in you.
Explore the base to reach the essence…
-Haude Gosain
Another one is-
A man unknown to me
and I
we live together
but in a void–
a million miles
between us.
by worldly dreams
cannot recognize him,
or understand.
– Lalan Fakir
The following lines on beauty illustrate Bauls’ engagement with both the carnal and the spiritual aspect of love. The song draws a line between the physical aspect of beauty and the spiritual part of the beauty.
Plunging deep into the sea
of beauty,
some can swim
and others sink.
The jewel encrusted
On the hood of a snake
Enriches the man
who can tame the beast.
Those unaware of the flavours of feelings
are bitten to death.
The jewel resting
At the bottom of the sea
Is gathered by the diver
To heighten his chance.
Those unable to dive to the depth
Choke and die.
Lust mingles with love
Like water with milk.
And a connoisseur as pure as the swan
Is able to distill it.
This last song has reverberations in some of the popular songs of the Hindi cinema. The beginning lines resonate with “ wahan kaun hai tera, Musafir”. Yet the treatment of the song must be quite different.
Who is there for you
To call your own,
My heart?
For whom do you shed
Your futile tears?
Brothers and friends-
Let them be;
The world is there.
Your own dear life
Is hardly your own….
You have come alone,
You will go alone….
Lalan Fakir
The songs and the tradition of Bauls has a lot more to it. This was only a sketchy piece on it. Why don’t you yourself give it a shot.
Link:http://gaana.com/artist/purnadas-baul
Sources:
All the songs have been selected from The Mirror of the Sky by Deben Bhattacharya
