page_title: Baul
section_title: Concepts and practices
hierarchical_section_title: Baul / Concepts and practices
caption_attribution_description: ek tara, with one string, common musical instrument of Bauls. Mamun2a 08:23, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
context_page_description: The Baul or Bauls are a group of mystic minstrels of mixed elements of Sufism and Vaishnavism from Bengal region, comprising Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Barak Valley. Bauls constitute both a syncretic religious sect and a musical tradition. Bauls are a very heterogeneous group, with many sects, but their membership mainly consists of Vaishnava Hindus and Sufi Muslims. They can often be identified by their distinctive clothes and musical instruments. Lalon Shah is regarded as the most celebrated Baul saint in history.
  Although Bauls comprise only a small fraction of the Bengali population, their influence on the culture of Bengal is considerable. In 2005, the Baul tradition of Bangladesh was included in the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
context_section_description: Baul music celebrates celestial love, but does this in very earthy terms, as in declarations of love by the Baul for his bosh-tomi or lifemate.
  With such a liberal interpretation of love, it is only natural that Baul devotional music transcends religion and some of the most famous baul composers, such as Lalon, criticised the superficiality of religious divisions:
  Everyone asks: "Lalan, what's your religion in this world?"
  Lalan answers: "How does religion look?"
  
  I've never laid eyes on it.
  
  Some wear malas [Hindu rosaries] around their necks,
  
  some tasbis [Muslim rosaries], and so people say
  
  they've got different religions.
  
  But do you bear the sign of your religion
  
  when you come or when you go?
  The famous Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore was greatly influenced and inspired by Bauls. Here is a famous Rabindra Sangeet heavily influenced by Baul theme:
  amar praner manush achhe prane
  tai here taye shokol khane
  Achhe she noyōn-taray, alōk-dharay, tai na haraye--
  ogo tai dekhi taye Jethay shethay
  taka-i ami je dik-pane
  The man of my heart dwells inside me.
  
  Everywhere I look, it is he.
  
  In my every sight, in the sparkle of light
  
  Oh, I can never lose him--
  
  Here, there and everywhere,
  
  Wherever I turn, he is right there!
  Their religion is based on an expression of the body (deho sādhana), and an expression of the mind (mana sādhana). Some of their rituals are kept hidden from outsiders, as they might be thought to be repulsive or hedonistic. Bauls concentrate much of their mystic energies on the four body fluids, on the nine-doors (openings of the body), on prakṛti as "nature" or "primal motive force", and on breath sādhana.
caption: Ektara, common accompaniment of Baul Gaan "Songs of Baul"
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