This essay was first published in the conference proceedings by the Independent University, Bangladesh and is being republished here courtesy of the author. Cover image: photo of Limantour beach, California, by Tracy Allen.
The spiritual metaphors of the American transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and the obscure imagery contained in the Baul philosophy of Dehattaya (Truth in the Body), probably the central theme of Baulism, outline the aphorism that “Whatever is in the universe is in the receptacle (the body).” Although Emerson and the Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg (1926-1977) and the Bangla Baul poets are separated by geographical distance and ethnic diversity, many of their poems reverberate the instinctive voice of the common spirit and forge on the objective of esoteric understanding of the idea of “God in Man.” Aside from the prominent similarities of the poets of the two geographies, Western metaphysics also strikes the same chord as that of the mesmeric mystics of the East. A close look at Emerson and Ginsberg will reveal the spiritual metaphors that tie up the two geographies together to understand the synthesis of the two approaches of the essential Supreme.
Both Emerson and Ginsberg had a natural and sublime vision of God. Emerson, after reading the Vedanta; (Vedanta is the philosophy that evolved from the teachings of the Vedas, the world’s oldest religious writings. The term “veda” means “knowledge” and “anta” means “end.” From the philosophical standpoint, Vedanta is non-dualistic, and from the religious position, it is monotheistic. Vedanta philosophy asserts the essential non-duality of God. Much of Emerson’s writings have strong shades of Vedanta non-duality philosophy as found in his concept of the eternal ONE) and Ginsberg, after reading the poems of William Blake and specially his commitment to Buddhism after his trip to India during 1962-1963, came to the realisation that “Ja nai echo bhande, ta nai bushwha bhromandey,” What is not there in the human body doesn’t exist in the world, a maxim that also sums up the mysterious philosophy of the Baul’s Dehottaya.
In the first stanza of his poem “Gnothi Seauton,” Emerson says: “Take this fact unto thy soul, God dwells in thee.” In the second stanza, he reiterates the same sentiment in a different way:
But thy world knows him not.
He is the mighty Heart
From which life’s varied pulses part.
Clouded and shrouded there doth sit
The Infinite
Embosomed in a man.
On the other hand, “the fondness and appreciation of Baul songs and poetry led Allen Ginsberg, the poet of “Howl” and “Kaddish” to believe that poetry held the key to mystical experience and spiritual awakening,” (Bhattacharaya 452-454). This a major shift in Ginsberg’s radical objective of cleansing the society of hypocrisies and inhibitions which greatly influenced the Calcutta-based Malay Chowdhury-led hungryalist poets who challenged the canons of middle and upper-class literary establishments. It is known that Ginsberg’s poem is a “howl” against everything mechanistic in our civilised world which kills the true spirit of life. The Buddhist notion of karma impacted many of his poems as well. During his nine-month-long visit to India, Ginsberg struck a great friendship with Malay and his brother Samir Roy Chowdhury who were instrumental in introducing Ginsberg to Indian culture. During this time, Ginsberg came in contact with Noboni Das Baul, a famous Baul, in Sheuri, West Bengal, and he found a new meaning to his enquiry of Divinity. “Buddhism made him realise that the Divinity he was searching within external sources actually resides within human body. This experience led him to realise how the occidental quest for immortality and the oriental quest for eternity are linked,” (Bhattacharaya 452-454).
To seek out eternity, that is Truth in the Body, is probably the central theme of Baulism. Bangla Bauls in their Dehattaya songs, full of enigmas and codes, hold the view that the body is the microcosm of the universe, and since everything is contained in the body, all worship should be centred round the body. A realisation of Baulism can lead to a deeper understanding of Emerson and Ginsberg.
The five mesmeric mystics, the Bangla Bauls – Lalon Shah (1774-1890), Radharomon (1834-1915), Hadon Raja (1854-1922), Jalaluddin Khan (1894-1972) and Shah Abdul Karin (1916-2009) – all put emphasis on the importance of the human self. Lalon, for example, says:
Kiba ruper jalak dicche divadaley
Ache adi mokka ei manab dehe
[What beauty flashes on the two-petaled lotus
The original Mecca is in this human body]
(Selected Songs of Lalon 30)
Radharomon too repeats this idea of the divinity within the human body:
Deher maje guru thuiya shishya hoilai kar?
[Having Guru in the body, who do you become
disciple of?]
(Selected Songs of Radharomon 83)
Similarly, Hanson Raja says in one of his songs:
Tare dhoritey na parry
Shokol ronger manush ek thake mor ghorey
[No one can catch Him; none can get hold of Him
A person of many colors stays in my room.]
(Selected Songs of Hason Raja 101)
Jalaluddin Khan, an epicurean turned spiritualist, in his song says:
Kaj nai give mokka Goya kashi
Shodai se roop nehar kore apron ghore
[It’s no point going to Mecca, Goya, Kashi
Always he sees His image in his own home.]
(Selected Songs of Jalaluddin Khan 69)
Shah Abdul Karin says in one of his songs:
Apnake valobasi bishash kore hao shahoshi
Apon ghorey mokka-kashi ase goponey
[I love myself, be courageous believing it
In my own house is Mecca-Kashi residing in secrecy]
(Selected Songs of Shah Abdul Karim 59)
There is a striking similarity between the themes contained in these lines and in Emerson’s “Gnothi Seauton.” In stanza eleven of his poem, Emerson ushers his readers into the covert world of mysticism. He asks:
Shall I ask wealth or power of God, who gave
An image of himself to be my soul?
As well might swelling ocean ask a wave,
Or the starred firmament a dying coal,
For that which is in me lives in the whole.
In a similar vein, the Baul poets launch their audience into the secret world of spirituality: the individual search for moner manush, the man of the heart, and the importance of a person’s physical body. It is the within the human body that the Supreme Being resides. Baul philosophy is aimed at achieving this realisation of the Supreme Being through yogic and tantric practices.
The unconventional devotional tradition of the Bangla Bauls has been influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, but their tradition is different from the tree faiths. It is eclectic; its influence comes from Tantric (Sahajiya) Buddhism (Tantric Buddhism or Sahajiya means “naturally born together.” It is term used in Indian and Buddhist spirituality influenced by tantric philosophy. Yoga, in particular, has a quickening influence on Sahajiya tradition. Sahajiya meditation and worship in prevalent in tantric tradition common to Hinduism and Buddhism), Tantric Hinduism, primarily Vaisnava Sahajiya, (Tantric Hinduism or Vaisnava Sahajiya is a Hindu tradition of beliefs and meditation and ritual practices that seek to channel the divine energy of the macrocosm (godhead) into human microcosm to attain Siddi (supernatural magical power) and Moksa (Self-realization and self-knowledge) and Sufism (Sufism (Arabic Tasawwaf) is the inner mystical dimension of Islam, according to the adherents of Sufism).
Like tantric, Bauls hold the view that the body is the microcosm of the universe, and it is the only instrument for gaining liberation and conquering death. However, as in the tantric tradition, Bauls don’t believe in going against man’s nature by suppressing sexual instincts; rather, through sexual union involving yogic practices of breath control, they seek to regain the state of cosmic unity that existed before the creation of the universe. Since everything is contained in the microcosmic body, all worship not centered on the body is useless. In one of his songs, Lalon says: “Temples and mosques block the path to you” (Selected Songs of Lalon 36).
Bauls, like other yogic practitioners, conceive the body as having two forms: the material body (sthula sarira) and the invisible subtle body (suksma sarfra). The material body has nine or ten openings or door which are ears (2), nostrils (2), eyes (2), mouth (1), anus (1) and sexual organ (1).
The Baul conception of the invisible subtle body resembles mostly the Hindu tantras and other yogic texts. From the Hindu tantras they adopted the system of chakras (centres) arranged along the spinal column of the perineum to the top of the head. These chakras are visualised as lotuses with a varying number of petals and are often referred to in Baul songs by the number of petals rather than by names. The seven principals chakras in ascending order are as follows: muladhar chakra at the base of the spinal column, with four petals; the swadhisthan chakra in the region of the genitals, with six petals; the manipur chakra at the level of the navel, with ten petals; the anahata chakra at the level of the heart, with twelve petals; the visuddha chakra in the region of the throat, with sixteen petals; the ajna chakra between the eyebrows, with two petals; and the sahasrar chakra at the top of the head or above the head, with the thousand petals.
The subtle body contains a network of numerous channels that serve as conduits for breath. As in Hindu and tantric Buddhism, three channels are of prime importance in sadhana. The Bauls refer to them by the Hindu tantric terms ira, pingala, and susumna: the ira is to the left of the spinal column, the pingala to the right, and the susumna is in the middle. These channels are identified with the holy rivers – Ganges, Yamuna and Sarasvati. The place they come together in the muladhar chakra named as triveni, which is an important locus in sadhana. Thus, Lalon says:
Trivenir pisol grate
Bina batashe othe dehu
[In the slippery quay of the Triveni
Waves surge without wind.]
(Selected Songs of Lalon 26)
Jalaluddin khan echoes the same sentiment:
Trivenir grate re mon boshe ekjon
Bajay ekti bhaver bashi
[Someone sits at the moorage of the Triveni
In contemplation, he plays the flute.]
(Selected Songs of Jalaluddin Khan 69)
Muslim Bauls also describe the body in terms of mokams (Arabic maquamat), “stations” or “stages.” In Sufism, there are generally four stations on the path to God: nasut (human nature), malakut (the nature of angels), jabarut (divine power), and lahut (divine nature). The Sufis of Bengal equate the first four mokams with the muladhar, manipur, ajna and anahata chakras, respectively. In addition, the Bauls include another mokam, the la mokam, equivalent to the sahasrar or ajna chakra, giving a total of five stations. La mokam, literally meaning “no place” is so-called because it represents transcendent space where all dualities are reintegrated into the Supreme.
The concept of the Emersonian eternal ONE refers to the idea of “The Center of Self” which is exemplified in Buddhism as the “navel” to serve as the connection between the microcosmic body of the individual and the Divine. Emerson’s essay “Over-Soul” notes the connection between the individual arts and the eternal ONE.
“We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime, within man is the soul of the whole, the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole of which these are the shining parts, is the soul.”
The aim of Baul sadhana is to reverse the cosmic process, that is, to return to the Sahaj state which is the original condition of non-duality that existed before creation.
In Baul philosophy, the male and female principles of pursuh and Prakrti or sakti are contained within the microscopic individual. The male principle, equated with semen, resides at the top of the head in the highest chakra, the sahasrar. Here the Supreme exists in a state of perfect unity without any qualities or form; here he is the atal iswar (the motionless Lord). Since in the sahasrar everything is integrated into the motionless Lord, there is no duality between the enjoyer and the enjoyed, between God and the devotee.
Emerson’s idea of the relationship of the divine soul and the human soul is similar to the idea of Bauls’ notion of moner manush. In “Gnothi Seauton,” for example, Emerson stresses the divinity in the human being: “The Infinte/ Embosomed in a man.” Similarly, Bauls are continually searching for the ever-elusive God within, the moner manush. Bauls call God by a number of names, reflecting their eclecticism, such as Allah and Ahad (the One) and Krishna (Man of the Heart). The other names they use are Uncatchable Man (adhor manush), Natural Man (sohoj manush), Golden Man (sonar manush) and Unknown Bird (ochin Pakhi), or simply shai (guru or marshal).
In quest of moner manush, Lalon in one of his songs says:
Milon hone koto diney
Amar moner manusheri shoney
[To meet with my Moner Manush
How long do I have to wait?]
(Selected Songs of Lalon 21)
Searching the “Man of my heart,” Shah Abdul Karim, a Baul from Sylhet, says:
O mon khujle na re mon dhekhle na re
Ridoybashorey re mon manush biraj kore
[Neither did you seek or notice
Man exists in the innermost chamber of my heart.]
(Selected Songs of Shah Abdul Karim 115)
At the most basic level of the esoteric songs lies the ambiguous meaning expressed in code words or phrases. Spiritual metaphors like “the Infinite,” “Heart,” “Inmate,” “Selfsame” are at the center of “Gnothi Seauton,” while enigmas define the mystical metaphors in Baul songs. Some metaphors common to the language of tantric texts, such as “sky” for the sahasrar chakra and “moon” for semen and the Supreme are central to Baulism. Baul poets freely invent code words so that many of them are idiosyncratic, such as Lalon’s “city of mirrors,” symbolising the ajna chakra. Numbers are often used as ciphers. For example, the number 16, whether it modifies “guards,” enemies,” or “rich men,” refers to the ten senses – the five organs of perception, also known as the organs of knowledge, ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose, and the five organs of action – mouth, feet, hands, organ of excretion and organ of procreation – and the six enemies – lust, anger, greed, infatuation, vanity and envy. Sometimes an entire song is an extended metaphor. The body may be depicted as a house with two pillars, nine rooms, a basement (muladhar), and an attic (sahasrar) in which a madman, who is the Lord, sits; or a bird cage with nine doors (the body), housing an unknown bird (the soul); or a broken-down boat, constantly leaking water (semen); or a tree of beauty that produces moon fruit (offspring).
The interplay of the Western and Eastern notions of religion contributes toward the development of modern mysticism in the 19th century. Western ideas of “religious experience,” introduced to Asian countries by missionaries, got fused into a new understanding of the Indian and Buddhist traditions of comprehending “God in Man.” Below are some lines from “Gnothi Seauton” that stress the relationship between the macrocosm (universal level) and the microcosm (the metaphysical level) and assert the idea that it is the human being who summarises the cosmos:
Who approves thee doing right
God in thee,
Who condemns thee doing wrong?
God in thee.
The lines also affirm the common canon of the Baul Dehattaya, which views the body as the microcosm of the universe. Thus the two geographies may be grouped together for the universal cause – the realisation of the Supreme. Although physical distance and the ethnic diversity divide Emerson, Ginsberg and the Bangla Baul poets, many of their poems resonate with the natural voice of the common spirit and advance the idea that the “Eternal One” and the individual merge into one.
Works Cited
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “The Over-Soul.” 7 Sept 2016. Web. <www.Emerson central.com/oversoul.htm>
- – – “Gnothi Seauton.” 7 Sept 2016. Web. <http://archive.vacuum.edu/english/engweb/ transcendentalism/authors/emerson/poems/gnothi.html>
Bhattacharaya, Rima. “The common Thread Between the Beats and the Hungryalists.” International Journal of English Language, Literature and Humanities (IJELLH), 2:1 (2014).
Haroonuzzaman. Selected Songs of Lalon. Dhaka; Adorn Publication, 2010.
Haroonuzzaman. Selected Songs of Radharomon. Dhaka; Adorn Publication, 2011.
Haroonuzzaman. Selected Songs of Hason Raja. Dhaka; Adorn Publication, 2012.
Haroonuzzaman. Selected Songs of Shah Abdul Karim. Dhaka; Adorn Publication, 2013.
Haroonuzzaman. Selected Songs of Jalaluddin Khan. Dhaka; Adorn Publication, 2015.
Haroonuzzaman (b. 13 January 1951) is a translator, novelist, poet, researcher and essayist. He has had around 32 years of teaching experience at home and abroad. Besides teaching English in Libya and Qatar for about 12 years, he has had 20 years of teaching experience in English Language and Literature at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB). In addition, he had been into print and broadcast journalism in Bangladesh and Qatar. Since 2005, he has to his credit several researches and a book on The Preservation of Endangered Languages of Bangladesh and a five-book Bangla Baul Series. These books have received rave reviews and wide acclaim.
