www.babukisha.org (copyright 2018 -2030)

www.babukisha.org (copyright 2018 -2030)
WWW.BABUKISHAN.ORG Copyright, All Rights Reserved, Do not copy these stories or part of these stories, for your books or blogs, All Rights Reserved. 2010 -2030

Friday, August 16, 2024

Baul Tantra, 'Tantra Mantra Gopi Yantra'

                               

Mystic Baul Tantra, Tantra Mantra Gopi Yantra

Copyright all rights reserved, this was written many years ago.

Babu Kishan's 4th book on Baul to be released soon.

BabuKishan.org

Copyright, no poaching. All rights reserved by Babu Kishan, no copying and taking the names of the stories off, no using by any pretendian Bauls. There is a huge problem of fake Bauls, with fake Baul Guru's and made up fake lineages stealing the intellectual property of this indigenous lineage. What do they steal, the songs, dress, style of dance and instruments, what this lineage has already accomplished by taking their names off and pretendian they are the ones? No integrity, no truth NO BAUL, Satya (truth) is the first tenant of Baul. Seriously what more can we do except mentioning names. Once again, repeat, repeat, it appears to make no difference, some fake Bauls have no integrity or morals, they are actors?

No poaching by pretendian Bauls or people who using this indigenous ancestral lineages, songs, stories, style, where they go and what they have already accomplished. Thank you, however, Baul is complete it was preserved over a 60 period by Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul. Note: Das Baul and Dasi and Khyapa (kepa, Khepa Baul or Baba) only originate from this lineage. (Ektara, Baya (duggi) drum tied around the waist, and Nuppor ankle bells encased in metal only originate from Nabani Das Khyapa Baul? Baul is not one or two generations based on a poet or random Guru's, it is a long ancestral sampradaya. The copy and paste and the' intellectual theft' of this lineage, and Babu Kishan's songs is astronomical and all will be qualified and reclaimed one by one, those who are Masters at appropriated be for-warned all will be revealed, you can fool some of the people some of the time but not all the people all of time.

A tribute: 'The Bauls of Bengal' since the 1920's when Nabani Das Khyapa became a part of the free Indian Movement, where Nehru asked him to sing on stages around Bengal and India as an opener for his speaches. Nabani sang at the inauguration of India in 1947. His son Purna Das Baul being the first to do Baul Cultural Programs as a famed Indian singer first in Russia in the 1950's. Then in the USA starting in 1967 with his brother Laxshman Das Baul and his group called, 'The Bauls of Bengal' pioneering historical living lineage for over 70 years now, in the 1970's Babu Kishan composed the music, recorded and released over 80% of his fathers most famous music, the music all Bauls sing today. 

All (pretendian) Baul have followed this one and only lineage, through their songs, style, history and through everything Babu Kishan has written since the 1970's even copying his teaching at Universities around the world,  his music recording, his 40 year career in Indian Cinema, and his 12 years of being a monk in the Ramakrishna order, whatever he has completed, what his father has complete and what Nabani has completed has been copied. Baul history is complete, you can not remake the wheel of Baul history and herstory, and that includes Babu Kishan's mother Manju Das whose name has been deleted along with Brajabala Dasi and Radharani Das as the only legendary Baul women, whose story was complete decades ago. Trying to remake the wheel of Baul history at this point is cultrual appropriationg and riding on the coattails of this lineage, deleting this history and replacing it for personal fame is wrong, especially when we are talking about an already marginalized indigenous ancestral people. 

This at least documented 13 generations introduced Baul to India and the world without them, no one in this world would know about Baul.                         

by Trishula Sandra Das and Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul 


Nabani Das Khyappa Baul, photo by RabindraNath Tagore

The Bengali Tantric Saint Sri Ramakrishna Parmahamsa saw Baul as the ultimate. It is said that Ramakrishna told his wife Sri Sarada Devi  that in his next life he would be reborn as a Baul as his ultimate desire. 

Babukishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul born into this ancient  lineage of Tantric Vaishnava Baul is a rare Baul because he is the only Baul to be a monk in Ramakrishna order in Calcutta for 12 years. Babu is the first Baul to be educated at the Calcutta University with a Masters in Indian Music. A Master of Indian Music folk, classical, Bollywood, bhajan, kirtan and Baul he has composed over 150 scores for Indian Cinema. 

While he was at the Ramakrishna Order the older monks knew Babu Kishan's grandfather Nabani Das Khyappa Baul they knew he was huge well respected mystical source and delighted in telling him stories that only an insider could know about Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna thought Baul was a complete university, that Baul was the most advanced path of tantric sadhana. Lineage Baul's know the tantra to easily connect to the supreme power to pull this power into every moment as if they have their finger on the light switch.  

"I tell you, O friend! What is in my heart? I cannot live without a sympathetic heart. The man of the heart is recognized by his look. He is rare; he swims in bliss and is steeped in love. The man of the heart trades in love. Where can we find the man of the heart, Who carries only a tattered rag under his arm" He does not say a word; he travels the high road.  by Ramakrishna regarding Baul 

"The siddha (perfect individual) of the Shakta Cult is called a kaul. According to Vedanta, he is called a paramahamsa. According to Baul Vaishnavas, he is a Sain. There is none beyond the Sain. A Baul becomes a Sain when he is a siddha. For him, there are no differences in the world. One half of his necklace is made of cow bones and the other of the tulsi plant."  Ramakrishna Kathamrita

Bauls are storyteller, mystic spiritual bards, philosophers, poets, tantrics, singers, dancers the path of the Avadhut. Baul is both dual and nondual.

The Vaishnava Bhakti Tantric Baul's of Birbhum respect and worship 'puja' shakti the feminine divine first, they worship Radha first then Krishna, and simultaneously will worship Kali first then Shiva. Saraswati (Sarada Maa) is very important to the Bauls.

Bauls were sattvic with long hair pulled up into a top knot, women wore their hair long and pulled back. Nabani Das Khyappa Baul was a rare Baul he wore his hair in jata or dread locks because he truly was an Avadhut, and the one and only Tantric Baul who lived his life completely as a Mystic Baul.

There is a reason that a sadhu has jata or (dreadlocks) it is not just style, drawing attention or for show. Sadhu's have Jata because they are always in deep sadhana they don't have time to decorate or clean their hair they spend years in sadhana in the mountains or in caves far from people.

Nabani Das Khyappa Baul wandered in the mountains up to Nepal and Tibet, he wandered to Vrindavan and all over India that is why he had Jata (dreadlocks) not for style or to attract people. When he stopped his wandering ways later in life he shaved his head then he didn't need Jata he was already a Guru, a Baul Saint (Sain) an accomplished adept siddha to the highest degree. He was an extraordinary person that is why all the top intellects, poets, writers, creative people, politicians including Rabindranath Tagore were around him all the time.


Nabani Das Khyappa Baul photo by RabindraNath Tagore

To be a tantric Baul one must have experience in everything in life and have no fear, it is not a beginners path of scholarly trying to interpret and figure out what scriptures mean. On first is an oral sanskritist. 

There are two types of Baul and Sri Nabani Das Khyappa Baul is both. 

1) Ghrihi Baul is a Baul who lives in a family inside the house, with community and sadhu sanga in community or home. This lineage is Vaishnava so they would live a Vaishnava lifestyle very sweet and sattvic vegetarian, they would have cows and be farmers. 

2) Udasi Baul is mostly male because of the culture of India it is easier for a man and wander away from home not so easy for a women. Udasi is a  person without family without community a free bird, free spirit as in wandering sadhu and in sadhu sanga but a different sanga from the householder. A sanga around the dumi doing fire puja they are more open than family.  

Babu Kishan and Guru Grandfather Nabani Das Khyappa BaulNo photo description available. 

                                            Rasa Tattva

"A Baul once came here. I said to him, “Are you finished with all the work of refining? Is the pot down from the fire?” The more you boil the syrup, the more refined it will be. First you have the juice of the sugar cane, next molasses, after which lumps, next sugar, then sugar candy, hard sugar balls, etc. It is being refined continuously." Ramakrishna Kathamrita

In the above Sri Ramakrishna is talking about the Baul Tantric technique called Rasa Tattva. 

Baul Tantra and more specifically the tantra of Rasa Tattva distills, grinds and churns everything inside into ecstatic intoxicating honey and juice then lets it flow. All experience, all shastra, all teachings are turned inside and the tantra is to create a beautiful rasa, creating a intoxicating juice that is distilled into a paradoxical sometimes maddeningly unambiguous or elusive song or poetry filled with riddle and allegory.

Through Rasa Tattva one song is a seed for a whole discourse, one song is the whole Bhagavad Gita. It all takes place through rhythm because as Babukishan says, "our life is based on rhythm". The Rasa Lila Mystics are the biggest trance music and dance, they believe in nature their instruments are made from nature, they take from nature and give to nature because there is a connection. 

Bauls were the spiritual newspaper and internet before modern technology, they never thought about copyright or protecting their lineage they just gave freely, they never foresaw that the world would change and the world of copy and paste would be a reality. They never for told of the watering down of their tradition, and that others would claim their lineage, dissect it and reduce it. Time has changed the Bauls must adapt also.

Tantra of Baul Music and sound

A Baul Yantra is not the same as the usual geometrical yantra's, you could say their tools for Tantra are different. A Baul Yantra is called a (Gopi Yantra) it is an ektara the one stringing instrument of peace and unity.They puja their tool the ektara infusing it through sadhana bringing spirit into it, much care and respect is given the ektara just as one would give a mala that has gone thousands of rounds. When a Baul plays any of their instruments they treat it how one would treat a Deity, they are playing the divine they are focusing on a inner divine formula or yantra.

Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul with his Gopi Yantra at Sivananda Ashram in Bahamas 2011

When Babu Kishan started his world travels in the early 1970's at a very young age he has visited Universities around the world teaching Baul first with his parents and then by himself . Babu always been a vocal adversary regarding all the wrong things that have been written about Baul, he is a Guru and scholar mystic of his tradition how can an outsider even claim to be an authority of his tradition because they have written a book or have a PHD on Baul. This is called cultural appropriation and a silencing of the tradition because more often than not it would require them to write a new book or update and they refuse to. 

Babu strongly feels that when a person is representing a community by teaching about Baul on any level, writing books the books should be accurate and truthful, you are representing a living tradition it is not meant to be chopped up dissected and put a box. They are not field work or monkey's in a cage. Books on Baul are not accurate.

No photo description available.Dear friends of Babu's and this lineage of Baul. George Harrison & Babukishan 1986. Ravi Shankar & Babu & Ravi's his son a friend of Babu's. In 1986  George Harrison and Ravi Shankar helped with the publishing of Babu aka Krishnendu's book on The Bauls of Bengal.

Someone recently asked me how can a Baul be Vaishnava Tantric or a tantric at the shamshan cremation ground as well as being Vaishnava? This is the Baul way it is called Sahaja spontaneous natural flowing they do not follow rules and regulations it varies for each and every Baul. Some Bauls lean more Vaishnava especially the householder, their practices are pure Vaishnava, they are poets, singers and dancers, living a simple sattvic life, they do simple right handed tantric techniques. Some are adept Bauls doing Tantric practices in cave and cremation grounds it can be a combination.

Babu Kishan his mother and father. Purna Das Baul, the late  (2010) Manju Dasi and Babu Kishan legendary Baul pioneers they traveled the world together constantly for 4 decades and played on the worlds biggest stages. Babukishan composed and recorded most of his father's music and was their manager.

Kirtan, yoga, tantra are indigenous to India we can gain a benefit but the feeling is different the bhava (emotion and mood) is different, respect is different. I never ever see someone in the west talking to a Deity, crying and pleading to a Deity, it is very rare to see someone speaking out loud to thin air or walking down the street singing out loud everyday. Some do but they are not advanced Yogi's or people who do Yoga in the west. This wild uncontrolled display of emotion is the Bhakti way not always nicey nice controled

How is a western mind to understand Baul Tantra? First one must take themselves out of a book, scholarly box or religious box, then one must take themselves out of a western mind box of thinking in a linear straight line. A Baul plays in the unseen world between the lines a shamanic world of mystery and all Baul Tantra is based on deep love and respect.

Hari is the lover of Love without Hari there is no Love. Babukishan

One must realize India and the Bauls are a paradox and meant to confuse so that the unauthentic or even the unprepared are kept far away. Baul does not reject intellect they have a razer sharp genius intellect at least they should.

Baul does not reject anything, except being tied to the corner of the room.  They are freedom seekers, free birds which I am sure does not mean the same thing as the western mind, when I say free bird here I am saying it in a mystical sense it does not mean anything goes as Bauls do have limits. 

"Bauls are the bird people we like to fly, we do not like to walk." Babu Kishan

No photo description available.

Babu Kishan 2007 Fairfax California, this place is very special to us, as this is where we spent alot of time, Babu Kishan has had a long association with this place and all of California since the 1970's. Picture by Sandra Trishula Das

A small taste of Baul Tantra: a tiny synopsis and remember this only pretains to this lineage, there is no other lineage or sampradaya of Baul, random people have used Baul over the past decades, making up lineages and sampradaya's that do not even exist. This can all be proved.

Baul sadhana - one attains an inner vision, without inner vision one is blind to 95% of reality. You must be able to move freely outside of your body mystically, one needs a well developed GPS system or intuition and beyond. There are too many part of Baul sadhana to mention. One unique to Baul is  setting up the altar of your heart and being able to bring the Deities alive inside the human body. How to do Kali Sadhana and or Tara Sadhana, Shiva Sadhana, how to respect because without respect there is no Baul. Mantra, Music and sound healing. Learning all the stories of all Deity, they respect all as part of the whole in a natural spontaneous way. 

Baul darshan - the philosophy of Baul which includes all Indian Philosophies distilled into simple songs with discourses. 

The Sadhana of tattva's information about all the things in the universe samkhya philosophy, they include 108 tattva's where 25 and 36 are usually given. 

Manush sadhana(Manaba Dharma), practices that teach about humanity Bauls believe in being a good human first. Bauls are peacemakers understanding the human condition. Unity of all cultures, caste and creed, love and accept all. 

Guru tattva - things about the Guru, the Guru teaches through song, here one would also, learn the importance of respect, Joy Guru. 

Nayika sadhana partner sadhana - where all focus goes to the soul mate, sadhana of a partner constant connection, mystical love, strong attachment, all imagination and poetic thought is directed around the partner. Concentration and focus are needed a deep yogic focus as there are so many distractions in this world today. The partners feel each other deeply if one is sick the other feels the connection is strong, they are joined at the heart and above the head tied together no words are needed. This is soul to soul and has very little to do with the body. 

Rati car-dande sadhana, Kama and Kamini sutra, desire, again a mystical yoga not regular unconsious sex. Bauls use the word Rati Sangam for mystical union between soul mates or Monar Manush, a women Baul is called a Baulini. This sadhana is a higher level advanced mystical practice not for regular people. In most traditions we are taught to give up attachment but without attachments there is no deep love, this goes against the grain of what many are teaching. 

Love a love that is ecstatic, crazy, wild, love and a love in all the hearts bhava's (moods), then comes years and years of being a mystic, sadhana and meditation as a couple. To do the Rati practices you must be awakened and have all your energy channels open. Baul Kundalini Yoga is flowing waves of bliss (ananda larhari).

Udasi Bauls do not even need a partners they can easily reach to that level through their mystical sadhana of creating all inside their factory including their ideal women. 

Lila tattva, the love between Radha and Krishna and how the Rasa Lila is created in the body, the inner dance that takes place on the altar of the heart. This is a rare esoteric practice that takes years to Master it is a Vaishnava Baul Tantric practice and part of their lineage going back to the beginning of the story of Radha and Krishna.

Pra or Poro tattva - knowledge of other, including face reading, prasna, mystical ways of knowing, vastu ect.

Rasa tattva -  how to grind all of everything and make it into a juice. A very important practice for the Bauls I have described a bit of it above. Again, it is taught under a Baul Guru and takes years if not a few lifetimes. If someone is a Baul Master you can be sure they have spent lifetimes and this life is not the first time they have been Tantric or a Baul.

Atma tattva - techniques of self realization, God realization, samadhi and the different ways to achieve samadhi and the different kinds of samadhi. Knowledge about your soul your monar manush and atma (bliss, pure consciousness, and your eternal nature).

Vayu Dharma, pranayama, controlling the wind, the wind catchers, Hanuman-ji the son of the wind God, they have their own unique techniques and this is a very important part of Baul because the very name Baul comes from Vayu (wind).

Deha tattva - knowledge of the body, yoga, Nabani Das Baul was a legendary Yogi who meditated under water sometimes for a whole day, sankhya philosophy, elements, gunas, anatomy, the kosha's, energy centres aka known as Chakra's but the Bauls use different ones, a Baul needs to know how the machinery works, how all the joints, organs work, how the mind works emotional mind (manas), intellectual mind (buddhi), how the body is put together and all the layers of the body. Ayurveda Indian's system of healing, art and science of life itself. Remedies, healing herbs. All the tattva's things some systems say there are 25 others say there are 36, Baul has108 tattva's but also, says it is unlimited.

Shakti sadhana - the worship of shakti the feminine divine, women are held in the highest respect, as above so below, in the world not of the world, Joy Maa. There are many famous women Bauls they take their side as equal to their husbands. Tantric techniques of worshiping the Goddess of India Baul favorites are Kali Maa, Radha, Tara Maa and Saraswati, Mahavidya, Durga Maa

Samgita and nitya sadhana - music and dance, Baul learns the deep Tantra of Indian music and sound healing, how to connect to the divine through music. This is the highest Tantra. Perhaps because it is not easy to open your inner ear to a high level and become a master of Indian music.

Bhava sadhana - learning what the moods are, this is where I say Indian Bhakti is different from western because their moods and emotions are so very different. A person of European DNA which is our ancestral memory is different from an Indian's ancestoral memory. One is not better than the other but they are different so are their ways and emotions. 

Guruvada -  the talk of the Guru, learning from the Guru. Guru shishya parampara sampradaya.

Lila tattva the mystical love between Radha and Krishna and how this takes place in the human body. The dance the lila inside the soul.

Rasa tattva - all of the things a Baul must know about Rasa, the different kinds of juice.



                                                        Gopi Yantra

A Baul Yantra it is called the Gopi Yantra or Gopi Chand more commonly known as an Ektara the one stringed instrument that symbolised peace and unity to the Baul. 

The Gopi Yantra is the Bauls tool of focus, it is alive awake and spirit is infused in their Yantra. The Gopis were the lovers of Krishna, when Krishna would play his flute they would go mad with divine love and come running to Krishna they would drop everything and run to him. Baul Gopi Yantra can make one mad with divine desire of love and yearning it is a trance instrument. when Babu starts to play all the world disappears and days go by without my mind I forget what I am supposed to do, it takes one out of this world. The difference between classic tantra and Baul tantra is that the tools and techniques are different not all but some.


 TRIBUTE - 50 years ago the Bauls of Bengal came to America


Press photo 1967 Arrivals Calcutta airport

The legendary brothers Purna Das Baul and the late (2015) Laxman Das Baul arrived in America 50 years ago and arrived back home in Calcutta to a huge fan fare in their new suit coats. 

* They are the first Tantrics and Bauls to arrive in America. All Bauls copy and follow this lineage because this lineage has the historical roots of Baul not only for the Bauls but for the world. No one in India or outside would know about Baul if it were not for these pioneering Baul who brought Baul and Tantra to the world.

* Purna Das Baul is the first accomplished Indian Vocalist to arrive in America. 

* They are the first oldest living Lineage of Bhakti Yoga and Kirtan to arrive in America. 

                        A story about that first trip to America

It should be noted the Bauls first came to America on request of Allen Ginsberg whose Guru was Nabani Das Khyappa Baul, Ginsberg had requested that the Grossman's bring Nabani Das Khyappa Baul to America. Nabani was not well and did not want to leave India so he sent his two son's Baul Samarat Purna Das Baul and Laxman Das Baul. This is a story as told to Babu Kishan by his late uncle Laxman Das Baul. The Bauls of Bengal as a musical group came to America for the first time in late 1966, early 1967 they stayed at a home studio called "The Big Pink"in Woodstock New York this was the home studio for Bob Dylan and the Band. 

As usual upon awakening first thing in the morning the Bauls start their music  sadhana playing their Gopi Yantra (ektara) and Khamak (mystic drum) after a few hours Sudhananda Das Baul went to the kitchen to see if they could figure out what to do with this packaged food and frozen food source they were left with and had never seen in their life. They didn't have a clue how to open the packages or what the food was in the freezer even was, probably frozen packaged chunks of meat,  they were vegetarians. They were confused wondering we are hungry what do we do and also, wondering when Albert Grossman was coming back, they were just left at the house and told to help themselves? The scariest thing on their mind was if they went outside bears would eat them up, the place was called Bearsville.

As Sudhananda Das Baul was in the kitchen he glanced outside he was shocked to see at least 100 people enjoying and blissfully dancing right there on the lawn in front this house. They were not bears they were humans. The house was in the middle of farm land in a no where land in Woodstock NY. They had no idea what was going on or how these people came to be outside. Where did they come from? 

Simultaneously Robbie Robertson was driving by in his car past the property and saw all the people and wondered what heck is all the commotion,  he drove in asking the people what are you people doing here? They said, we heard the music I don't know what it is but we just were magically mysteriously drawn here, this sound is different, it is the first time we have heard this divine ecstatic music it has a mystical pulling power and it pulled us here, we were just drawn unconsciously like the pied piper pulled us here. 

John Wesley Harding – Bob Dylan's 60s Wildcard — Definitely Dylan

Bob Dylan – John Wesley Harding (1969, Vinyl) - Discogs

Bob Dylan the First Western Baul,  Purna Das Baul and Lakshman Das Baul, far left man unknown, 1966/67 Woodstock NY

The very next day on Robbie Robertsons request Bob Dylan and the Band show up with all their instruments. When the Bauls first saw them they were puzzled, they thought wow a new group is coming here I guess they are going to move us to another place. However, Bob Dylan and The Band had only come to the Big Pink at this time to jam with The Bauls of Bengal on Robbie Robertson's advice. 

Bob Dylan and the Band recorded the album, "The Bauls at the Big Pink" the Bauls did not know they were being recorded. It should be known that the Bauls never knew who Bob Dylan was and only Lakshman Das Baul spoke a few words of English.

After this Bob Dylan was named and started to call himself, "The first Western Baul”. Many others came out of the woodwork and called themselves the first Western Baul only Bob Dylan is the first western Baul by name only and I am sure he has better things to do than present himself as such. There is no such thing as a western Baul, to be a eastern or western Baul first you have to be indigenous to Baul, have some ancestry in Baul? Baul is extinct? You can not fake Baul, sorry, you may be able to fake many things today, having a million likes on social media and pasting your picture all over does not make you a Baul. The first tenant of Baul is Satya, tell the truth, no truth, no Baul?

Copyright all rights reserved, no poaching or name dropping on youtube videos of Babu Kishan's stories that only he knows and has told, they are his stories not yours to take the names off, and present as if you are the one that knows? 

There is no such think as a Baul Master or Baul artist, that is new way that pretendian Bauls appropriate this pioneering indigenous lineage, so they can use this lineage for shameless advertising? It is all very interesting how pretendian Bauls who said Baul was from Turkey, Baul is Buddhist now are decorated in Vaishnava  markings tilika never before and now they love Krishna? Do your research, they never mentioned Baul Kirtan now they  are? There has always been appropriation of this lineage but it has become a virus of copying proportions?  The songs of this lineage, appropriating Nabani Das Khyapa Baul style, you do the research. The blind leading the blind in a whirl of self promotion?

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Kepa, Khepa and then Khyepa. It was only Babu Kishan who spelled Kepa (KHYAPA) he told me to spell it that way for a reason!

 Vultures waiting to pick the bones off of this already lived and completed Baul history has increased over the past 30 years at least.

 This lineage pioneered Baul from the villages of Birbhum to all of Bengal, to all of India, and globally in all ways. This lineage is the first of anything Baul, you can not rework history and take the names of this lineage off, making them random and generic and then claim you did everything they had already completed as history decades ago?

 Babu Kishan has already preserved Baul over a 60 years period, it is complete, it has been done. Do not donate to those who are asking for donations to preserve Baul they can not preserve Baul, first they are not indigenous to Baul, 2nd Baul has already been preserved. 

Babu Kishan's book is done, it will be released within months and you can be sure he does not hide anything. It is time to stop the fakery, chaos, confusion and the astronomical appropriation, and cultural intellectual property theft, that fake pretendian Bauls have manifested. A major reason why authentic Baul is extinct.

"No poaching by pretendian Bauls or people who using this indigenous ancestral lineages, songs, stories, style, where they go and what they have already accomplished. Thank you, however, Baul is complete it was preserved over a 60 period by Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul. Note: Das Baul and Dasi and Khyapa (kepa, Khepa Baul or Baba) only originate from this lineage. (Ektara, Baya (duggi) drum tied around the waist, and Nuppor ankle bells encased in metal only originate from Nabani Das Khyapa Baul? Baul is not one or two generations based on a poet or random Guru's, it is a long ancestral sampradaya. The copy and paste and the' intellectual theft' of this lineage, and Babu Kishan's songs is astronomical and all will be qualified and reclaimed one by one, those who are Masters at appropriated be for-warned all will be revealed, you can fool some of the people some of the time but not all the people all of time."

Baul is not a Baul artist or Baul master? Baul is not an acting career where you construct a whole Baul lineage using everything from this lineage, their songs and style, where they go and what they have already completed? That is not the way an oral Sanskrit, ancient lineage works, that is not how an Sampradaya works. 

Baul is not a 'fake it til you make it' career or 'riding on the coattails' of everything this lineage has already completed. 

Baul history is complete it is impossible rework Baul and take credit through unverified stories coming if you are from a middle class life, just because you became interested in Baul and decided you liked Baul, so you would sing some Bauls songs and start to travel in the footsteps of this lineage? 

Baul is indigenous to the soul and soil of Birbhum West Bengal India, to a particular soil meaning indigenous after a long period of time in an ancestral lineage of people who lived it, preserved. However, this does not mean you can not follow Baul, many have for generations, but they have not ridden on the coattails of everything this lineage has done so completely that it is obvious what the game is

Only the indigenous people of that land who are Baul have a right to self-determine who they are, not you just because you decided to make up a new lineage based on a one generation poet, that is not how it works. This lineage only introduced Baul to all of Bengal (it can be proven) then all of India and then pioneered Baul worldwide, they did all the work, while others have taken their names off and replace their already lived and documented Baul history, but yet some pretendian Baul called Baul Masters and Baul artists which never existed only Baul Guru existed, they will morph and change their stories for self-promotion. 

I have noticed an obvious poaching and false teachings regarding Baul, and documented all the changes over the past 18 years, it is beyond belief the fakery going on? Babu Kishan always encourages others, what he didn't expect was a complete cultural appropriation and actor Bauls who have twisted and reworked Baul? 

This one and only lineage of Baul aka Guru Shisya parampara Sampradaya based on ancestry, at least 13 generation of ancestry to the 11 the 12 century. They introduced Baul to all of Bengal, then to all of India and pioneered Baul worldwide, today their names are taken off and others are insinuating they did, no they did not they copied and used this lineage. Names such as Rabindranath Tagore, Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Pranab Mukerjee, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Ramakrishna, Vivekanda, the Ramakrishna Mission, Gaudiya Math, and Osho are only associated with this lineage, never with any fake pretendian Bauls oroutsiders who are ' so called know it alls' who do not know the actual story of OSHO and how he only relates to Nabani and Babu Kishan. 

This lineage were major fundraisers for these the Ramakrishna mission worldwide only because of this lineages part in the Ramakrishna Mission because Babu Kishan was a monk for 12 years in the Ramakrishna mission. Babu Kishan is only Baul who taught at Universities around the world as a paid lecturer on not just Baul but Indian Philosphy, Sanskrit and Indian Music, no other Baul is even qualified to teach at a University, so then why is it advertised that they do, why do they pretend they are part of Indian Cinema (Bollywood) when it is only Babu Kishan who had a career in Bollywood, it makes no sense? 

One by one they are trying to cover everything Babu Kishan has already accomplished, the question is Why? What has already been accomplished is Baul history, but why act and pretend you are the one, tracking and redoing everything this lineage has completed, presenting it as if you are the one and the first and the only legendary, when in fact you are not even a Baul, you may be inspired by Baul, however, to take their names off and replace their names by someone who is not Baul but copied everything this lineage did, a lineage is a long line not one or 2 generations based on a poet or a random?

The truth of how this lineage has been used and abused, the lying of fake lineages and fake Baul Guru's who were mere copiers of everything this lineage has completed has pushed me to now tell stories of how this so called fake Baul Guru was jealous and tried to poison Babu Kishan's father and almost succeeded at the Joy Dev Mela, making it so that it was too dangerous for this lineage to attend anymore. This will be in the book, I have given away too much already, everything must be copyrighted because of how many steal the intellectual property of this lineage, take their names off and rework it as if they know, this is they have poached the history of this lineage? 

We have proof, right down to the advertising they do and trying to align themselves with everything this lineage has already completed even trying to be associated with Babu Kishan's 40 years career in Indian Cinema, Ramakrishna, just everything without giving credit poaching, watching waiting for new information so they can morph to be a Baba or Maa, next they will add Maa to their names and wear Vaishnava tilika and proclaim their love for Krishna?? Baul is not learn it as you go and morph as you go? One minute Baul is from Turkey the next it is from Persia, one minuet Baul is Buddhist now your are Radha or Krishna the constant spreading of false narratives and inconsistencies, trying to be inclusive and include everything others have said is not Baul?

There is no such thing as Baul Master or Baul Artist, never ever, with Baul extinct it is wrong to change the unchangeable. Baul is not changeable at this point all the indigenous Baul can do is preserve their history accurately without speculations by outsiders. Baul history is complete and has been unchangeable for decades. Yet these fakes and colonized academics completely create false narratives, no other indigenous people on the planet would allow this, the United Nations has determined that no one has a right to self determine any indigenous people except the indigenous people, indigenous people are the people of the land, Bauls are only indigenous and synergistic to Hindu Sanatan Dharma. Sorry Bauls are not Muslim, aul, sai, dervish, or Fakir and if you knew anything you would know this is true, the problem is nobody has understand and then they speculate creating chaos and confusion. I have written a whole chapter on this in Babu Kishan biographical history book on Baul explaining with proof.

 I know this may sound crazy to many of you, but this is exactly what is happening and has happened, to this one and only ancestral indigenous LINEAGE or Sampradaya. Everything has been documented by myself over an 18 year period and over 60 years regarding Babu Kishan, all with proof, will be revealed, enough is enough.

The Vaishnava Sahajiya Tantric Bauls of Birbhum became famous by this lineage and Baul became known only through the hard work of Nabani Das Khyapa Baul, Purna Das Baul and Babu Kishan. If not for their pioneering work regarding the songs of this lineage of which 80% of Purna Das Baul songs were produced by Babu Kishan including alot of his own poetry that has been poached and the poetry of this lineage? 

This lineages style, dress, dance, stories and instruments and it should be known Nabani Das Khyapa Baul is the first Baul in the history of Baul to sing on stages then Purna Das Baul. Nabani's style Ektara (Gopi Yantra), Baya (duggi) the drum tied around his waist, and his own style of ankle bells (nupoor) enclosed in metal were appropriated, their songs, style and what they have already completed as history as a documented lived history. You can not remake and act as them or compete with Purna Das Baul that history is complete. This lineage has been been over appropriated. This is intellectual property theft, the first tenant of Baul is tell the truth, Bauls are truth talkers. Interesting, when new fake lineages and Baul Gurus have been made up and acted out. Babu Kishan knows, because he knew everybody, he tried to help many, he didn't expect his work and what he himself have accomplished would be tracked and used by other who have not done the education at the University level to teach at Universities, who have not put in 12 years living in the Ramakrishna Mission to teach at the Ramakrishna Mission, he fundraised at the Ramakrishna  for decades for them around the world, he taught Baul to them because he was a monk in the RamaKrishna Mission for 12 years, he is the only Baul and his Grandfather Nabani Das Khyapa Baul knew Vivekananda.

 Babu Kishan never advertised this, he never bragged about this, I am the one who started to talk about RamaKrishna and his association because he had not and I was shocked how others are using all to promote themselves, when he is the only Baul who put in the time and lived it. 

No one would even know, it is just that I have watched over an 18 years period and disgusted at how now that I am writing about some social media pretendian Bauls are peeing and marking their territory over ever single area of Babu Kishan's already lived Baul history?

Now with the book coming out, be prepared because if he doesn't speak about it I will, I am very protective of my husband and know and have seen all the "fake it til you make it' and the non-indigenous Bauls who have only presented themselves as if they are the ones while,'riding on the coattails of the lineage', stealing his intellectual lived property and songs?

Babu Kishan told me to spell Khepa (KHYAPA) as a way to trace who is copying us, now it is spelled that way all over.. LOL Everything Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul and his lineage have pioneered has been copied and reworked as if others are the ones, their songs, style, dress, instruments, where they go and what is already their lived Baul history, you can not even make this up anymore? If you were indigenous to something and it is copied would you not call this intellectual property theft, especially when you songs are stolen and re-recorded for personal fame, with no credit being given. Babu always encouraged all to follow Baul, what he did not expect was more than 80% of his Baul music he recorded to be lifted, the game is to call this lineages songs anonymous, or to say, Bauls don't care who the poets are? Think about if you did all the work for generations, if everything you did was used, reworked and taken credit by outsiders pretendian Bauls posing and using Baul? Think before you react and say, what I am saying is ridiculous, think is someone took all credit for what you ancestors gave their lives for, how would you feel?

 Nabani Das Khyapa Baul was the only Khyapa Baul or Khyapa BABA as the villagers called him, he was never self-titled.

The Vaishnava Sahajiya Tantric Bauls of Birbhum are from (indigneous) the soul and soil (the land) of  Birbhum based on ancestry, their bones are in Birbhum. There is no other lineage and lineage is always based on ancestry, google lineage. This lineage is the only Guru Shisya Prampara Sampradaya regarding Baul, yet somehow they have been made generic and random replaced by others, while this family are the only Bauls who pioneered Baul, they did all the work. They are the only people who pioneered Baul as servants of the villagers for 13 generations and many more before this 13 generations.

This pioneering lineage has pioneered Baul from the villages to Birbhum, to all of India, Nepal and Tibet, then to the world. This is their brain, starting with Nabani Das Khyapa Baul who is the first Baul to ever sing on a stage, then Purna Das Baul in the 1950 when he went to Russia, it is insane what is going on today, how every corner of what this lineage has accomplished is tracked, copied and peed on like an animal marking their territory. 

From everything, their music, to all of Babu Kishan's first for Baul, teaching at Universities, producing music for all the temples of India, to being the only and first Baul to spend 12 years at the Ramakrishna mission as a monk, educating them about Baul and fundraising for the Ramakrishna mission worldwide over 5 decades? Every story taken and make generic from all of this lineages and Babu Kishan's association including a 40 year career in Indian Cinema aka Bollywood, only this lineage had anything to do with Indian Cinema? 

To Babu Kishan's personal stories about Osho, no other Baul ever had anything to do with OSHO only Nabani Das Khyapa Baul and Babu Kishan, however their names are taken off and so-called experts on documentaries are acting like they know?

To stories poached right off this page about Nabani that only Babu Kishan knew, thus they are only stories he can tell.

Here is the lastest a huge insult to Nabani Das Khyapa Baul the only Baul to be called Khyapa Baul and mostly Khyapa Baba. Here is the latest perhaps it has been going on a while, but only I have spelled Kepa - Khyapa on Babu Kishan's suggestion?

If you pay attention long enough, and note the changes people make over time you will understand what I am about to say: 

LineageBaul.blogspot.com - The spelling of kepa / Khepa, was first spelled Khyapa by Babu Kishan, why are others using it this way now, he told me to spell it this way to keep the others who were using it different from Nabani who the villagers of Bengal and Rabindranath Tagore names Khyapa Baul or Bhyapa Baba, now others are picking the bones of this lineage like vultures?

First of all Nabani Das Khyapa Baul is the only Khyapa Baul or Khyapa BABA, Babu Kishan is the first to spell (kepa) Khyapa this way as an experiment to see who is copying us, there is a reason. Never before was Khyapa spelled this way!

His whole website was copied in the 1990 through to 2006, now what we write on lineagebaul.blogspot.com is copied and poached, his songs and songs of this lineage all taken without giving credit.

This is beyond bizarre, his stories and lived association all poached by pretend Bauls and others, stories of his lived experiences about Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, and Osho? No other Bauls or other 'know it alls' had anything to do with these people and no outisders knew the actual stories until I wrote it here first on these blogs? Yet the 'Know it all are name dropping these names and stories of Nabani that could only be known from this blog? Making false associations or suggestions that they know the actual story? All can and will be qualified. Babu Kishan and he is the only Baul in the history of Baul to have been a monk in the Ramakrishna mission for 12 years, now others are using Ramakrishna his hard work and his associations and peeing on every corner of Babu Kishan's lived life to show they too were associated with the Ramakrishna Mission through bizarre stories, did they do the sadhana NO, did they go to University to teach as Universities NO, Did they work in Indian Cinema NO, yet they pee on every corner of Babu Kishan's life, pee on every corner of Purna Das Bauls already lived life, and they pee on everything trying to look like Nabani Das Khyapa Baul using their style, songs and already lived history, they are vultures. you can not even make this up anymore, like animals marking their territory with already lived and peserved stories of this one and only lineage, yet making up fake Baul Guru's and lineages, how can this be and how can people be so ignorant?

Khyapa Baul and Khyapa Baba is only Nabani that is history in that it was Rabindranath Tagore and other personalities including all the villagers of Birbhum who called Nabani that KHYAPA BABA<he is not self-titled.  The spelling Khyapa was suggested to me by Baby Kishan to see who is copying him as all his work, songs and what he is the first in, that has been has been copied, name taken off, and social media fame gained by people who are not even indigenous to Baul?

It was the billagers in Birbhum who caleled Nabani Khyapa Baba not us, not him.Absolutely no one ever spelled it the way that Babu Kishan does, so now why are some using this name spelled the same way? Nabani Das Khyapa Baul is called that because he is the only Baul ever to be initiated by Bhama Kepa of Tarapith and that goes to show the way Khyapa is spelling Birbhum is Kepa or Khepa, so why would anybody copy the odd way Babu Kishan told me to spell it??? Many to see who actually would copy his spelling after having his stories and intellectual property stolen over decades.

The one and only Khyapa Baba or Khyapa Baul Nabani Das Khyapa Baba

If you watch long enough you can find out who people truly are? How is this possible that someone would actually copy the way Babu Kishan told me to spell Khyapa when no one did before?

The only Khyapa Baba - Nabani Das Khyapa Baul
No poaching! Coyright, all rights reserved.

Saturday, December 30, 2023

Critique: of the book Sri Aniravan, Letter from a Baul life within life.

SRI ANIRVAN

LETTERS FROM A BAUL LIFE WITHIN LIFE

Compiled by Lizelle Reymond


I have to wonder, did anybody ever read this book and do any sort of exegesis or purva paksha before accepting Sri Anirvan was a Baul? He was a great classically University trained English speaker.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anirvan


Baul is not ever Marxist. Baul is very specific, a Baul is never self-titled.  Narendra Chandra Dhar is not a sur-name for a Baul. The Bengali surname Dhar probably has its origin from “Dhar,” a word which, in Bengali, means “credit.” People with the “Dhar” surname were mostly zamindars or landowners. Bauls were never landowners in this sense or zamindars. 


This is an absolute necessity as there are hundreds of self-titled Bauls today, there are hundreds of documentaries that are vague, hundreds of academic scholars all with a different opinion and many speculations, many many new books, papers, articles and PhDs none of them are accurate. They may have a seed of truth, but when you comb through they are so far off base with mere speculations. 


It is no wonder Baul is extinct, why have Bauls fallen into a cultural genocide and people still keep making it up daily. One day Baul is Buddhist, the next day Baul is Radha. 


The pretendian Bauls have not got a clue, they make it as they usually see what others are doing or writing, making random connections that are not accurate. This has left the door open to constant pretendian experts who are trying to attain fundraising jackpots to preserve Baul, when Baul has already been preserved over 6 decades period by Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das. 


Baul does not collect people? Baul touched other peoples feet, it was a no no for Bauls men or women to enter the villages and have others touch their feet, that is not the Baul tradition and those that are displaying that merely are displaying their arrogance and acting all innocent, what they really want it to be a famous Maa or Baba and to fundraise? These people are using Baul.


There is no such thing as a Baul Master, this is a new construct to include some people who are not Baul, but are using Baul while making up fake lineages?


BabuKishan.org


Copyright all rights reserved, do not copy, poach, or tell these stories on your youtube channel, by name dropping as if you are the expert. 


Stop the cultural theft of Baul songs and stop telling Babu Kishan's stories, they are not yours to tell. Stop lying saying there are 20,000 Baul in Bengal. Baul is extinct and no pretendian Baul can do anything other than copy and create their own personal fame, either trying to be Nabani Das Khyapa Baul stealing his style or trying to be Purna Das Baul (that was a one off) these 2 are history, Baul is complete. Copying Babu Kishan by triying to be a music composer, poet and scholar or trying to be in Indian Cinema?


Do not donate to anybody who is fundraising collecting donations in the name of Baul to preserve Baul. We have already documented other pretendian Bauls false teachings, intellectual property theft, theft of Baul songs from this one and only lineage.


Baul did not sing on stages until Nabani Das Khyapa Baul, as he did for Nehru during the quit Indian movement to draw people to come together to listen to Nehru give his speeches all over India, and this was continued by Purna Das Baul, his wife and eldest song Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul who is the first indigenous Baul to be trained in the indigenous way and the classical way of a University education, he knows the difference. Babu Kishan is the first Baul to preserve Baul for over 60 years in modern times.


It is important to know that no one had an interest or knew about Baul until this family pioneered Baul around India and then worldwide, they were the first and Purna Das Baul songs were all recorded, this is how Bauls have songs to copy, they copied them from the radio.

Lineage ( is always based on a long line of ancestors) google lineage, know your own lineage, your own family, do not go around speculating making up fake lineages based on someone else's lineage? 


Lineage is not one or two generations? It is something you make up based on people who are not from Baul? Regarding Sampradaya there is only one Baul sampradaya it is Gosia Chand Das Baul and Dasi of Ekachakra Birbhum.


Because of the intellectual property theft of dress-up pretendian Bauls and nobody ever speaks out, with made up Baul Guru's, there are absolute distinctions that must be made. First of all Baul is indigenous to Birbhum to the soul and soil of Birbhum. 


 Baul looks simple but it not, it is based on powerful ancestors, it is based on specific qualifying questions that must be answered, it is not a performance of actors and singers or people acting like a Baba or Ma singing the songs of this lineage, that were lifted either from Babu Kishan's youtube channel or from past recordings of Purna Das Baul of which Babu Kishan composed over 80% of his fathers most famed music, this can all be proven and will have to be answered for. 


There is no doubt Anirvan was an intellect, well educated at the best ashrams and Universities, at that time no Baul was educated at a University or even spoke English. The first sign he was not a Baul but perhaps appreciated Baul and added it to his name.


 Do people actually accept that Osho was a Baul, he was not a Baul, he was inspired by Nabani Das Khyapa Baul and mistranslated what and who Baul is in his 3 books, Babu Kishan knew him and qualified, questioned, debated him. Osho told Babu Kishan that he would rewrite his books but he passed before he could, what he created had nothing to do with Baul. The only Bauls that ever knew Osho were Nabani Das Khyapa Baul who only met him and Babu Kishan composed an album and put his lectures on tap when he worked for CBS India, Osho was just another client of Babu Kishan's.


 There are too many acceptances of what and who is Baul, with no actual qualifications going on by anybody who actually knows and has preserved Baul over 60 years, speculation and false narratives by neophyte experts on Baul, it has become a joke, now everybody is getting in on this interview expert bandwagon acting as if they are experts and know who the Bauls are, using Babu Kishan's life stories?


 During the time that Anirvan lived he may have been inspired by Baul many people are but they do not self-title themselves as Baul. Of Course at the time Rabindranath Tagore was initiated into Baul by Nabani Das Khyapa Baul and Tagore added to the popularization of Baul because he was popular at the time.


Anirvan which is not a Baul name must of been inspired by Baul and self-titled himself a Baul showing no actual Baul Guru? 


Authentic Baul in the day never went on vacation, this is coming from a English speaker as I am assuming Arivan was because to go to University in those days, one had to learn English. No indigenous Bauls spoke English back in the day at this time.


Questions to ask: how did a English women speak to Anirvan? She would not know how to speak Birbhum Bengali or oral Sanskrit? Of course she communicated in English, thus, Anirvan spoke English. 


"Madam Lizelle Reymond (1899-1994), a renowned European philosopher, first came to India with her husband Jean Herbert in 1937 in order to deeply explore the Indian culture and heritage. After few years they returned to Europe and planned to translate all the collated materials on Indian Philosophy and religion.


Reymond again came to India in 1947 after Independence and had a lot of experiences (1947-1953), which she admirably described in her two books— ̳My Life with a Brahmin Family‘ (1958) and  ̳To Live Within‘ (1969).


After many years Reymond herself compiled the book  ̳Letters from a Baul‘ from the Part II of the book  ̳To Live Within‘—mostly based on the letters of Sri Anirvan, a poet, philosopher and yogi and the recorded conversations that took place during her staying in the  ̳Haimavati Ashram‘ of Sri Anirvan in Almora;

 also the meetings with Sri Anirvan held in Assam and Bengal. 

She added here two new chapters— ̳Facing Reality‘ and  ̳Rambling Thoughts‘—two essays of Sri Anirvan. There are four more chapters in that book— ̳To Live Within‘, which were excluded by Reymond herself."


"His return to the Saraswat Sangha was a festive day for all the disciples. During each vacation that he spent at the Ashram, he had been for them all ―the beloved poet‖ illuminating the talks of the Guru, and making the work on themselves seen like labouring on the land to bring forth a garden of fruits and flowers."

In those days Baul had never been educated in University, he spoke English no Baul spoke English back them, as they were indigenous. He may have been inspired by Baul as Rabindranath Tagore was inspired by Nabani Das Khyapa Baul. Baul is indigenous, they only served the villages of Bengal as Seva, they would not have been on a vacation, it is not even a word they knew.

This is not Baul, especially at the time Anirvan lived, Baul is based on ancestry and oral Sanskrit, which is indigenous to Birbhum Bengal. Bauls did not live in ashrams they lived in akhara's. Bauls did not have a University education, they were not classically trained .
As a Baul, he took the name of Anirvan. (one does not take a name), you are born with a Baul name, Baul is based on ancestry) and who was his Baul Guru, you have to have a Baul Guru, his learning was classical. Baul is outside of grammer a Baul learns Sahaja outside of grammer in an Akhara not an ashram.

"It is no doubt Nirvacanīya becoming, with an ―a‖ privative, a-nir-vac-anīya, which corresponds syllable by syllable to in-ex-plic-able in English, the root meaning being clear in the former and figurative in the latter. In general, people called him ―Mahārāj,‖ and those who knew him: ―servant of the Rishis.‖
Although he never spoke of his past, through his letters we learn of some striking incidents in his life. 
As a Baul he simply disappeared, becoming a traditional wanderer through the Himalayas. He lived for some years in a cave at the foot of the Kamakhya Hill in Assam.
Later he was discovered apparently as an anonymous ―man walking through the market place.‖ This was in Delhi where, while working as a tutor, he was translating the books of Rama Tirtha because he thought that the Bengali needed to listen to his voice. 
He was reputed to have become a consultant on many difficult philosophical problems posed by scriptures ranging from the Bhagavad Gita to the Gathas of old Iranian Prophets.
Still later, some people from Ranchi called on him for help. 
They wanted to have a few chapters of The Life Divine of Sri Aurobindo translated into Bengali. This huge work had been written originally in English. 
Fascinated as he was by the text, Sri Anirvan accepted on condition that their Guru, Sri Aurobindo, would agree. 
The result was that Sri Anirvan retired for four years to Almora in order to give his whole time to translating the entire work.
Against his will, many people, including refugees, knocked at his door. They harassed him so much that a very simple kind of life was organized around him to protect him; it was devoid of encouragements to stay!
(iv)
When, in due course, Sri Anirvan came to translate the ―Third Mandala of the Vedas,‖ his work became even more intense. He needed more helpers as well as complete isolation. It was at this point that I, Lizelle Reymond, among a few others, came into his circle."

Although I must say that this book is a good book, and many of these writing letters are accurate without the nuances of the way a Baul would describe things, many things are on track and Anirvan was a great intellect trained classically. He was inspired by Baul and but not indigenous to Baul. One thing I can say is that he understood the intellect it take to be a Baul so sorely lost by the cultural genocide that academic scholars, writers, journalists have created by their speculations of calling Baul degraded, illiterate, and interviewing all the wrong people for their thesis? And by academic scholars perpetuating this false narrative of Muslim Baul and Fakir Baul. Bauls are based on the Vedas and Tantra.


"Shrimat Anirvan (8 July 1896—31 May 1978) had mastered the Astādhyayi of Pānini at a very early age. 


After completing his formal education he renounced the world and joined the Kapilamukh Ashram at Jorhat (in Assam) founded by his Guru Swami Nigamananda Paramahamsa where he was given Sannyasa and he became Nirvanananda Saraswati. But after a few years he dropped the ochre robes and changed his name to Anirvan by which he became known to the world at large. 


He spent a number of years in Lohaghat (Almora) where Madame Lizelle Reymond, a Swiss spiritual seeker, joined him and literally took him to the West through her books My Life with a Brahmin Family and To Live Within. He later shifted to Shillong in Assam and finally to Kolkata where he spent his last years. His first book was a Bengali translation of Sri Aurobindo‘s The Life Divine which was described as a ―living translation‖ by Sri Aurobindo himself and was published in two volumes between 1948 and 1951. 


Another sister- publication, Yoga-Samanvaya-Prasanga, based on Sri Aurobindo‘s The Synthesis of Yoga, was published in 1961. According to Ram Swarup: ―In translating Sri Aurobindo‘s works, he was paying his debt to an elder brother and old friend from another life, as Shri Anirvan once said.‖ 


But the centre of his studies was the Vedas on which he acquired a rare mastery over the years. 


His other published works include his magnum opus, Veda Mimāmsā, (published in three volumes), Upanisad-Prasanga (three volumes on Īsa, Aitareya and the Kena), Gitānuvacana (three volumes), Vedānta Jijñāsā and Pravacana (four volumes) to name a few."


Anirvan was a great classically trained scholar, but he was not a Baul, Baul is very specific with specific sadhana's originating in Birbhum Bengal.