Fakir Lalon — an advocate of humanism
Alaul Alam :
Fakir Lalon Shah who established the philosophy of Baulism was a prominent spiritual ideal of Bengal. His religious thinking is deeply rooted in connection with humanity and worship of human beings. His songs correspond to the philosophy of humanism. In his philosophy we find the mixture of Sufism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Vaishnava thoughts. If we look at the community where Lalon was born, was full of confusion and chaos. A kind of biasness existed there under the name of religion.
Lalon was born in 1772 at Harishpur in Jhenaidah district although some sources claimed that he came of a Kayastha family at a village called Bhadra in Kumarkhali of Kushtia district.
In his songs he represented the conflicts of religions and social disharmony. Through his songs he protested class oppression, superstitions and many more misperceptions originated among different religious people. The prevailing sceneries of the then communities would shock him profoundly.
Authentic sources revealed by Lalon researchers claim that during his boyhood, Lalon went for a holy bath with his village companions and on returning from the pilgrim he was attacked with small pox. His companions thought him dead and threw his body into Kali River. When his floating body reached the shore of a locality, the wife of Malam Shah discovered the body alive and brought him to her house where he was given motherly affection by Motijan Bibi (wife of Malam Shah).
When he was restored to health, he returned to his native village and his wife and mother were so happy to see him but the society did not allow him to live with his family, rather he was compelled to leave the community because he took food and shelter from a Muslim family. That incident gave him a great shock as well as a message that was religious disharmony among the people with different religions.
Lalon believed that no religion should be followed where humanity is denied or neglected. According to him, human beings should be the center of any religion. Studies showed that he was capable of establishing humanitarian spirit by preaching his doctrine regarding religion among his disciples. Throughout his life he was a relentless devotee whose only aim was to search the spirit of infinity within the inner self.
To search Moner Manush or Inner Self was the philosophic aspect of his songs. Lalon sings, “Kacha rvitor ochin pakhi komne ase jai
Tare dharte parle mono beri ditam pakhir pay.”
In searching of ‘Moner Manus’ Lalon did not get himself engaged in any religion, rather he went beyond the religious, communal and racial conflicts and believed in the humanity. Again, in one of his songs by raising a pertinent question he challenged the orthodox systems that brought religious conflicts. Through his famous song he asks, when people take birth, do they bear any sign of religion? or when they depart from this world , do they say which religion they will bear ? And most interesting to say that the people from different religions make them purified using the same water.
In this song, Lalon states that there is no religion except humanism. Lalon earnestly requests the mankind to own and respect the humanity and that will make them reach on the right track of religion and they will get the taste of infinity in order to have a connection with the inner self. He believes that the inner soul of man is not limited to a particular caste, class, religion, community, and nation or country.
To this end, Lalon’s mystical and spiritual songs talk of communal harmony and tolerance and can be a good example to establish a universal humanism. He longed for a united society where people of different castes and creeds would live together. His philosophy towards uniting people universally has made him a frontline humanist. These days following the ideology of Lalon’s humanism let’s ensure communal harmony and establish an example of humanism.
(Alaul Alam teaches
at Prime University).
