94
Popular Culture Review
patches and let their hair, beard, and moustaches grow. About wearing ochrecolored clothes they say: “Can color show outside, unless the inside is first
tinctured? Can the fruit attain ripe sweetness by the painting of its skin?v13 The
Bauls feel no worldly obligations and perform no rites de passage. They
congregate in their own chosen places near about the holy days of Hindus and
Muslims, but perform no worship. They mark the spots of their gurus and
masters, but again no worship takes place.
The tradition of the guru remains strong among the Bauls and from him
they learn their living philosophy, beliefs, and practices. The guru also helps
them perform the needed tantric rites. The bond between the guru and the
disciple, though, is loose and mutual expectations and obligations are not well
defined. The Guru is not considered divine but is held in much esteem and all
rites start with an invocation of the guru. Baul poetry, at times, refers to other
phenomena as a guru is someone from whom one learns the lessons of life.
Note, for example, the following:14
Would you make obeisance to your guru, O my heart?
He is there at every step, on all sides of the path,
For numberless are your gurus.
To how many of them would you make your obeisance?
The welcome offered to you is your guru, the agony inflicted
on you is your guru.
Every wrench at your heartstrings that makes the tears to flow
is your guru.
The Bauls sometimes also refer to shunya, or Abstract Supreme, as
guru, but the main focus remains on a human guru of all the gurus.
The Baul Tradition
Origins of the Baul tradition are unknown, as the sect has no written
history and is not interested in creating one. The Bauls simply follow the sahaj
(natural) way of life15 and want to leave behind no trace of it. They say: “Do the
boats that sail over the flooded river leave any mark? The true endeavor is to
keep oneself simply afloat in the stream of devotion that flows through the lives
of devotees."16 About the lives and works of other men before them, they say:
“Are we dogs that we should lick up the leavings of others? Brave men rejoice
in their own creation. Only the cowards are content with glorifying their
forefathers because they do not know how to create for themselves.’’17
One way to trace the history of the Bauls is through their 6