Lalon Shah: The great Sufi Baul of the East

Bangladesh this year celebrates the 250 years of Lalon Shah’s birth anniversary. He was the great Sufi Baul of the East. He was born in village Harishpur, Sub-division Jhenaidah under Jessore district. In course of time, he was found sick and unconscious beside Kaliganga River near Seuria village under Kumerkhali Thana in Kushtia district. He was picked up by a woman named Matijan of Seuria village when she discovered him as a young boy. His husband Malom Shah was a Sufi Faqir. Here Lalon was brought up and lived with Malom Shah as he did not disclose his identity. However, once Siraj Shah, the Guru or mentor to Malom, came to his house and here both Siraj Shah and Lalon could recognise each other. Siraj Shah, however, did not disclose Lalon’s identity on request. Siraj Shah belonged to Harishpur village of Jhenaidah sub-division where Lalon was also born. He was inducted to his cult and occasionally accompanied him in musical soiree in villages. Gradually he earned name and fame as a composer of Bhav-Sangeet known as Baul.
The Baul song was originated in Persia by a Sufi sect known as Baul. The meaning of the word Baul refers to one who is infatuated or madly in love with for someone. (Dr. Md. Moin: 1978). In Persia, there developed a story, Yousuf- Zuleikha in which Zuleikha was found madly in love for Yousuf, a young handsome and most beautiful in those days. The noted Persian writer, Ferdowsi and Jami used the story and the same was used by a medieval Bengali poet Shah Muhammad Sagir belonged to the reign of Sultan Ghiasuddin in the 14th century and composed the poetical work upon his direction, Here in the Yousuf -Zuleikha story, Sagir used the word Baul for the first time in medieval Bengali literature to denote a person, madly in love. The death anniversary of Lalon also takes place on October 17, 1st of Kartic, 1890. It would complete his 134 years of his death. It is hearsay that Lalon was born on the date as of 1st Kartic or October 17.
Lalon Shah and Rabindranath
Lalon Shah today has earned a worldwide fame. His mystic and Baul theme had left a tremendous impact in the modern mind. His songs are being studied in universities like Harvard. Rabindranath was the first who came in contact with Lalon in 1876 when he enjoyed the songs of Lalon at the Kuthibari of Shelaidah. His father arranged a program at Kuthibari where Lalon and other Bauls performed. Rabindranath came to Shelaidah with his father and then by his elder brother Jyotirindranath Tagore. Rabindranath further enjoyed the songs of Lalon in his young age at his Calcutta residence when the Bauls moved in the streets of Calcutta with songs of Lalon.
Khanchar bhitor Acin Pakhi komney ashey Jai
Aami Dhortey parley monoberi ditam Pakhir Pai
Translation:
Nobody can tell me whence the bird unknown
Comes to the cage and goes out
I would feign put round its feet the fetter of mind
Could I but capture it.
Rabindranath in his young age also wrote the first article on the Bauls in their family Journal Bharati. In 1888-89 Rabindranath came to Shelaidah, Kushtia as the zemindar of the Tagore Estate, founded by his grandfather Prince Dwarakanath Tagore from the British and Jyotirindranath Tagore made a pencil sketch of Lalon on the Padma boat over the Ganges (Padma) on May 5, 1889. Rabindranath was then the Zemindar of the Tagore Estate.
Tagore himself termed his Baul-influenced songs in the Gitanjali and Gitimalyaas ‘Rabindra Baul-er Gaan’
Tagore and Nobel award
Later Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1913. Rabindranath earned his Nobel Prize because of his ‘ Gitanjali ‘or the Song Offerings and these reflected a completely unknown and unexplored theme the world never had heard or experienced. So much so that the first edition of Gitanjali with its English version was exhausted as soon as it was published in 1912 by the India Society, London. Rothenstein the promoter of Rabindranath’s ‘Gitanjali’ had to give the second print immediately. The West was spell bound. Rabindranath had no knowledge of these. He was then in America enjoying moments with his son Rathindranath and his wife Promila. Rathindranath had then been studying agriculture in an Ameican University. It was surprising that Rabindranath was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1913 much to the ignorance of Rabindranath himself. He was then in his Visva-Bharati planning for a trip to Birbhum with foreign persons. Gitanjali superseded many of the top poets in the West for the coveted prize. How this could happen! What the new the Gitanjali had in it? Yes, Gitanjali contained in its songs such themes the world never ever had experienced or heard of. The Irish poet WB Yeats when went through the ‘Gitanjali’ of Tagore first time after Rothenstein handed it over to him for reading it before it was published in 1912, the Irish poet reportedly burst into a torrent of praise on reading the manuscript telling: ‘if someone were to say he could improve this piece of writing, that person did not understand literature’. Such was the comment made by WB Yeats. When he first enjoyed the songs of Gitanjali. Not only Yeats, Ezra Pound, Thomas Moore and many others were thrilled and excited after they went through it. In fact, the whole west was surprised with the unusual spiritual note they experienced as the theme which was detailed in the Gitanjali.
In fact, the songs of Gitanjali have a reflection of the songs of Lalon and other Bauls. Tagore himself admitted that he was deeply influenced by the songs of the Bauls and their philosophy while delivering his Hibbert Lecture, at the Oxford University in 1930. Rabindranath, later in his book, ‘The Religion of Man’, writes “…I have mentioned in connection with my personal experience some songs which I had often heard from wandering village singers, belonging to a popular sect of Bengal, called Bauls, who have no images, temples, scriptures, or ceremonials, who declare in their songs the divinity of Man, and express for him an intense feeling of love.’
Tagore was deeply moved by the lyrical beauty and tune of Lalon and the Baul songs. The spiritual romanticism of the Baul philosophy influenced Tagore so deeply that he went as far as calling himself Rabindra Baul. Rabindranath was thrilled when he could find the points of similarity of Lalon and Baul songs with the Upanishad, One of the central teachings of the Upanishads is that there is a ‘self’ within us that is eternal and unchanging. This ‘Self’ is our true nature, and it is awareness of this Self that allows us to find peace and happiness. The Upanishads also teach that there is a divine force or God behind all things, and that we can connect with this God by knowing and understanding ourselves. By studying the teachings of the Upanishads, we can develop a deeper understanding of who we are and where we come from. It is through exploring our own inner self that we can begin to find joy and happiness in life.
In one of his songs, Lalon says:
Aami key tai janley sadhon siddho hai
Aami kathar ortho bhari aami shey to aamar nai
This speaks of ‘self’ and to know the ‘Self’ is the key theme in the songs of Lalon and the other Bauls.
There is one more song sung by Lalon
Amar Ee ghar khanai Ke biraj kare
Ami Janom bhar Ekdin dekhlam naare
Translation: Who is He that resides in my room? I have not been able to see him even for a day throughout my life. There is an act of movement at the north east corner of the body. I fail to see him. The world market stands very close to me but if I intend to get in, it disappears. Everybody says it is life bird I listen and maintain silence. Is he, water or fire, earth or air? None speaks anything definite.
I know not my own room and I intend to know the stranger. Lalan says, this stranger; is the Lord of my life. But I know not what image does he have and what is of mine.
Self knowledge is the key point to Sufism and Tasawwuf. To know God, you need to know yourself.
The Bauls have mastered the techniques of Sufism as of ‘self’. The Sufi and the Baul texts all emphasize the study of ‘Self.’ It explores the inner recess of a contemplative exercise of zikr (remembrance). The Greeks knew quite well the benefits of recollection or anamnesis. It is a practice that a Sufi and the Baul conceive and it relates to the knowledge of ‘self’. “I must first know myself,” are the words Socrates uttered in Phaedrus. Upanishad repeats it. We wonder how the Baul singers like Lalon could acquire such kind of wisdom. Here Lalon is superior to Homer as an Epic Poet. He only speaks of the Trojan War and nothing more. But Lalon studied the human life and the universe. He became the wisest -the Magi