Religion in India has always provided free paths of worshiping for people from all strata of the society. The more staunch and orthodox the “mainstream” religions have become, more the number of sub sects and groups that have emerged through the ages. The same applies for Bengal as well, where centralization of power in the hands of the upper class forced “mainstream” Hinduism and Islam to evolve into different sub sects of worshipping which included Sufism, Auliya groups, Baul and many mores.

The Baul groups have a philosophy of their own (Dehatatwa) – that the human body is where everything resides, including the Supreme Being (Snai) as well as their man of heart (Moner Manush). These wandering baul groups throughout Bengal sing beautiful songs devoted on these philosophies of Dehatatwa and Snai. They also sing songs of universal equality and brotherhood.

It is also very evident that the early Bauls were the so called low castes like weavers, fishermen and farmers from rural Bengal. One might also understand that in the same way as those who cover Bob Dylan can not be called Dylans, all who sing Baul songs are not Bauls. Baul is a philosophy of leading life with music being an essential part of it.

Thus was the social backdrop when the master Baul of Bengal, Lalon Shah, was born somewhere in rural Bengal, in 1774. His place of birth and the identity of his parents or their religion are unknown. Around the age of sixteen he was found floating by the bank of Kaliganga River, suffering from smallpox, which resulted in his losing one eye. He was saved by Seraj Shah and his wife Matijan, who also brought him up. Lalon has always praised Seraj Shah through his songs by giving him the same respect as Shnai. Infact in his later years Lalon signed Seraj as his father in a legal document. He lived in the village of Cheuriya which now falls in Kushtiya district in Bangladesh; but like Rabindranath Tagore, he is one of the few people whom a mere political boundary cannot take away from his lovers and admirers in “Indian” Bengal . Lalon was neither a follower of Islam nor Hinduism. What he truly followed was a mixture of the postulates and philosophies from both these religions and very truly. “He was none of these so he was both”. In the long course of his life he attracted a large number of followers, both Hindus as well as Muslims, mainly from the then demarcated lower strata of the society through his songs of universal equality and Dehatatwa.

Lalon always kept silent about his origin so that he does not get typecast into any particular religious group. He was observant of the social conditions around, and this reflects through his songs which spoke of day to day problems, in his simple yet deeply moving language. It is said that he had composed about 10,000 songs of which 2000-3000 can be tracked down today while others are lost in time and hearts of his numerous followers. Most of his followers could not read or write and so unluckily for the lovers of Baul, very few of his songs are found in written form. Lalon had no formal education as such but his songs can educate the most educated of minds throughout the world. Long before free thinkers around the globe started thinking of a classless society, Lalon had already composed around 1000 songs on that theme.

As one knows the proverb “Great men think alike”, it would not be unwise to point at the similarities between Sant Kabir and Lalon Fakir at this point. However Lalon was much more mystic in his ways of encapsulating deep and allegorical messages in his songs which are filled with layers of understanding and metaphors. On the outside these songs may appear as naive and simple, attracting thousands of common rural men and women, but the inner layers speak of something very profound and meaningful. Lyrical mysticism apart, even on the front of artistic quality Lalon had a special style in his composition. All his songs carry his name and this is one of the means through which his songs are tracked now. The language is simple, crisp and bereft of linguistic ornamentations, even though purists may not find them to be grammatically correct. The melody of the songs, with its simple and rural based tunes, also has generates a deep appeal to folk music lovers.

Many a times Lalon, through his songs, has hinted various organs of the human body, metaphorically and in a very mystic and extremely subtle ways. The basic senses are termed as “6 thieves”, and the Snai as “The Man of Heart”. Even in the first of the translated songs (below), one can see the allegorical references of a house with eight rooms and nine doors which is nothing but the human body itself with various major organs and senses being compared to the doors and rooms. In the second translated piece below you can see the human body compared to a house where one can easily find the neighbor Shnai very near to his house, but Lalon is sadly lamenting that still now they have not meet.

A Strange Bird

Look, how a strange bird flits in and out of the cage!
O brother, I wish I could bind it with my mind’s fetters.
Have you seen a house of eight rooms with nine doors
Closed and open, with windows in between, mirrored?
O mind, you are a bird encaged! And of green sticks
Is your cage made, but it will be broken one day.
Lalon says: Open the cage, look how the bird wings away!

(Translated by Azfar Hussain)

The land of mirrors

A neighbor is always staying there.

But alas! Not even for one day could I see him.

There is one land of mirror very near to my house…

Perhaps the greatest influence that Lalon has had was on India’s greatest literary and renaissance figure and poet, Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore visited Kushtiya in 1892 just two years after Lalon’s death and for the first time in his life experienced folk culture as a representation of society. In fact, Tagore managed to write and compose nearly 150 songs, influenced from those of Lalon, at his akhra (residing place) Cheuriya, from which only a few songs were published in the monthly Probashi as ‘Haramoni‘ in 1920. Tagore said that here, in these songs, “Hindus and Muslims have been united under the same sky - there is no barrier of caste or creed…”

Tagore wrote that it is a fact that he infused the tune of Baul (Lalan) in many of his songs and dramas. Dusan Zbavitel, a Czeck Folklorist wrote that ‘it is my firm belief that if Tagore had not stayed in the countryside (Selaidah in Kushtiya), he would not have become, what he was, as a man or a poet. Now the scholars are discovering the Baul-motifs in his songs, dramas and poems, which merit elaborate discussions (Folklore, II, Calcutta, vol. 14, 1961).

Tagore was the one who made Lalon known to the so called elites through his own songs based on Lalon’s humanitarian doctrines .Though he never ever came face to face or in contact with Lalon, his respect for him was such that he asked the master painter of his era Nandalal Bose to draw a picture of Lalon based on the portrait drawn by Rabindranath’s elder brother Jyotirindranath who is said to have met Lalon personally during a visit to the Tagore estate in Kushtiya.

In his Hebert Lecture in London (1933), Tagore applauded Lalon Shah as a mystic poet who discovered ‘soul’ and the meaning of ‘man‘. Tagore said that he discovered that ‘man’ from the songs of Lalon who said that “ai manushe ase se mon…” (The ‘man’ is within yourself where are you searching Him) (Folklore II, Calcutta, 1961).

Perhaps it would be better cite a song written by Tagore himself to show the similarities between their doctrines.

“Amar Praner Manush Ache Prane
(He who is my soul-mate lives in my soul itself)
Tai Heri Taye Sakal Khane
(Thus I see him everywhere)
Achhe Se Nayan Taraye, Alok Dharaye
(He exists within my eyes, he exists in the stream of light)
Tai Na Haraye
( So he is never lost)
Ogo Tai Heri Taye Jethaye Sethaye Takai Ami Jedik Pane
(So he is visible for me here there and at all places wherever I cast my eyes)

(Translator unknown)

American humanitarian and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg was influenced by Lalon’s doctrines and wrote a poem named “After Lalon”. Allen even followed Lalon’s writing style by including the poet’s name in his workings – which was essentially a form of Lalonesque so to speak.

Farida Parveen from Bangladesh, folk bands like Dohar and Bangla, and quite a few Bengali singers from India are doing noteworthy works now in recording different Lalon songs and bringing them to everyone’s ears. If one remembers Lennon pieces like “Imagine” or “Give peace another chance”, which also speak of classless society, he can easily appreciate how much ahead of his time Lalon was.

At the site of his shrine (Bengali: Akhara) in Bangladesh, a mausoleum and an academy of study on his work have been built. Thousands of his admirers visit twice a year – once during Holi and a second time on his death anniversary during October. There is a song festival (Mela) held on October’s occasion which goes on for 3 days during which Bauls, Fakirs, people from rural and urban places all pay tributes to this great mind of Bengal.

Bengali Folk music is incomplete without Lalon and so is the Bengali renaissance which started with him, as a movement to abolish the darker aspects of our society, including doing away with demarcation with respect to religion or caste. Long before any of the eminent social personalities started to speak on these, Lalon sang about them in powerful yet simple verses. Tagore was deeply indebted to him for opening his horizons to rural and real Bengal. So, one can very well understand, the great difficulty of penning down Lalon’s enormous contribution in one sentence.

The least one can say is, Lalon Is Bengali Folk Personified.