Everything exists for the humor of God.
It exists because God created the universe to enjoy.
—Khepa Lee
Who are the Bauls?
For centuries the Bauls of Bengal were an obscure clan of bards, yogis, heretics, and mystics who wandered the dusty roads of northern India. Going from village to village, these rebels—who courageously went against the status quo—sang songs and danced with joy to uplift the ordinary person above the daily grind for survival and into a direct experience of the sublime.
Far from the clamor and complexity of today’s Kolkata, with its fast-paced, thick amalgam of modern and ancient ways of life, the Bauls of Bengal have flourished despite poverty, hardship, and criticism for their way of life, in which they refused to live by the caste system or religious dogmas. In more recent times, the Bauls have come into wide-spread recognition, thrilling their audiences—both East and West—with their evocative songs, symbolic garb and ektara, enigmatic spirit and unique style.
Who are the Bauls, that they so easily capture the imagination? Their iconic image is unmistakable, but this is only the surface appearance of a profound way of life.
Sahaja—an innate blueprint of dignity, beauty & wisdom
Parvathy Baul with Ma Devaki at Yogi Ramsuratkumar ashram
Walking the razor’s edge between joy and sorrow, love and loss, the Bauls have a way of life that has endured at least five hundred years and carries a vitally necessary message—like a refreshing wind—to our current times, when the need to rediscover the timeless truths of ancient cultures is so crucially important.
Baul teachings lead to a reconnection with the true nature of a human being, discovered within—the sahaja (a Sanskrit term meaning innate, primordial, natural, spontaneous) that is already present inside every individual. The journey toward freedom from the dilemma in which human beings are mired is a way of life through which each person begins to remember the primordial essence underlying the habitual social conditioning of every human being. Such a path leads to natural ecstasy and ultimately to wisdom.
The Baul spirit arises in all cultures, in all times and places throughout history. “Baul” is a word that means “mad,” or “taken by the wind.” It refers to a phenomenon of consciousness that is often called “divine madness”—what seems like madness to conventional views is a liberated and creative individual. In diverse cultures and times throughout history, there have been those in whom the heart of a Baul beats softly or wildly—artists, healers, poets, musicians, great spiritual teachers, geniuses, leaders in any field.
Many of these inspiring people show the strains of the iconoclast, the rebel, the lover, the mystic, the visionary, the radical prophet. For a traditional Baul, these qualities are actively cultivated and ultimately aimed toward the fulfillment of one purpose—to gather honey for the love of the Lord, or the Supreme Reality as imagined by human beings in many forms.
Lee Lozowick was attracted to the Bauls in the early 1980s, when he first read about them in some of the rare (at that time) writings on the little-known Bengali sect. In the path and practices of the Bauls, Lee recognized his own realization and path, teachings and recommended practices. As this recognition deepened, Lee began to reveal just how deep this connection went.
Lee’s felt resonance with the Bauls was so powerful that in 1985, in answer to a new student’s question—“What should I say is our tradition?”—he said, “Tell them we are Bauls.” It was a turning point, in which that statement—part declaration, part prophecy—not only named but provided movement and fuel to the development of the Bauls in the West, also known as the Hohm Community.
At first the connection seemed very mysterious, but as the years passed and the Hohm Community evolved over time, the similarities became clearer. On a pilgimrage to India in 1986 with twenty-five of his students, Lee made the first of many contacts with Bauls, in particular establishing a life-long relationship with the revered late Baul, Sanatan Das Thakur.
Western Bauls
God is Real—a direct relationship with the personal Beloved or chosen deity (ishta devata).
Sahaja—trust in the innate, pristine nature of the human being as divine.
Grace—cultivating faith in the guru principle, divine influence or blessings; reliance on the guru or spiritual preceptor and lineage (both in form and in formlessness).
Kaya sadhana—a way of life and spiritual practice rooted in the innate sahaja, organic innocence and wisdom potentials of the human body.
Bhava and rasa—the cultivation of divine mood (bhava) and divine nectar (rasa) as an invocation or flow of communion with the personal Beloved.
Beggary—the foundation of a life surrendered to Divine Will.
Beauty, art and aesthetic appreciation—dharma encoded in poetry, song, literature, painting, sculpture, dance, food, and other forms of creative expression.
Like all Bauls, Lee was extraordinarily devoted to his own guru, Yogi Ramsuratkumar (1918-2001), the revered beggar saint of south India, with whom Lee shared an intimate and loving relationship. As the years progressed, over many visits with his master in India, the subtle nuances of this relationship was also expressed in three large volumes of poetry written by Lee to his master. Extraordinary as well was the fact that Yogi Ramsuratkumar blessed Lee’s teaching work unequivocally, including his lyrics, music, and rock & roll bands as well as his affiliation with the Bauls of Bengal and his relationship with Sanatan Das Baul in particular.
Today, the Western Bauls are a loosely organized (and unorganized) spiritual clan of sadhikas and sadhakas dedicated to the spiritual Path as it was transmitted to them by Lee. In general, a true Baul defies definition and concept by remaining fluid and authentic to the awesome raw potential of the moment at hand.
The vastly different milieus of culture and era create notable differences between the Bauls of the East and West, in terms of the way these essential teachings and practices are lived. And yet, there are common threads of teachings among all Bauls, expressed below in Western Baul teachings:
Bhava—divine mood
Seeking to attract the Beloved or Supreme Being, certain nuances of bhava or mood become vitally important: devotion, humility, beauty, integrity, clarity, kindness, compassion, generosity, gratitude, and praise. Bhava is cultivated through practices that generate rasa, or the many flavors and tastes of the Divine manifesting on Earth. For the Western Bauls, this includes music, feasting, committed monogamous relationships, friendships, and the parent-child relationship, as well as creativity and all artistic endeavors, love of nature, aesthetic appreciation, contemplation, meditation, and prayer within the ordinary and extraordinary experiences of daily life. Over time, practice becomes the texture of experience as an individual grows to embody the essential and timeless Baul spirit.
To learn more about the Bauls, both East and West, see The Baul Tradition: Sahaj Vision East & West, by M. Young, available through Hohm Press.