Soul singers, Mahalia Jackson and The Bauls of Bengal
Samarat Purna Das and Manju Dasi Baul
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahalia_Jackson
Mahalia Jackson loved Purna Das Baul, (Babu Kishan's father) aka Krishnendu Das, she was a visitor at their house in Kolkata.
Mahalia Jackson was a famous American soul singer, Baul Samarat (king of Bauls) Purna Das a famous Indian soul singer from Bengal.
Honestly I don't know where these new scholars get this from, perhaps, a Guru who is not a Baul but uses Baul??? Telling people that Fakir and Muslims are Baul, they are not?
Now they are going to rescue Baul??
Baul is already extinct and Babu Kishan preserved Baul decades ago??
The Poet Manohar Khepa a great poet and Guru, however he was not a Baul Guru! He used to stay at Babu's home in Calcutta and he always wanted Babu to compose music to his poetry. Rabindranath Tagore who was a great friend and associate of Nabani Das Khyapa Baul and the only Baul who initiated Tagore into Baul. Many stories to tell, yet some writers and new Baul singers claim they are associated when they are not.
Lalon Fakir was a poet he did not do Baul Sadhana, Babu Kishan is one of the first to compose music to Lalon Fakir songs, Fakir Sail aul dervish are NOT Baul as some new Baul singer say, This is the problem with new singers who want to be Baba or Maa copying wrong teachings, watering down Baul.
Purna Das is a legendary Baul singer and Indian Vocalist no Baul before or after has achieved what Purna Das has now almost 90 years old he has traveled the world for almost 80 years, he is the first to do what many Bauls today are trying to do today. He has played on the biggest stages around the world and is highly awarded singer.
He is a classical Baul singer and most of his successful Baul music was composed by his eldest son Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das starting when Babu was 9 years old.
Babu says his house was always filled with the who is who of legendary India music and film and guests from around the world.
No Baul to this day can sing like Purna Das, however, they sing the songs of his lineage, they dress like Purna Das who created his own style. I have read on the internet that the 'Bauls sang with Mahalia Jackson', only Purna Das has please use his name no other Baul sang with Mahalia Jackson.
This is what new Bauls singers do, they take credit for what this lineage has done, by saying generic Baul Masters, or Bauls sang with Bob Dylan ect.. they take the names off the story and make it random Bauls so that they can take credit for what has already been accomplished and they actually are not Bauls, they make up fake lineages and randomize Baul so that they too can be included, when they absolutely never had anything to do with anybody?
Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das brought all these singers from Bangladesh and was the first to record Lalon Fakir poetry to his composed music way back decades ago, now everybody thinks Lalon Fakir was a Baul, a Baul does Baul sadhana, Lalon Fakir did not, he was a poet??
Babu's good friend for decades Carol Solomon wrote a book on Lalon Fakir being a Baul, that is a very long story, she was wrong but now all scholars who copy and paste will copy and paste this??
I have seen many do this, it is appropriating and down right theft of either Purna Das Bauls stories or Babu Kishan's stories? Theft of this lineages legacy? They do not care, why would they, they are desperate.
I have read the Bauls are associated with Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Allen Ginsberg and in actual fact it is only this family who has associated or sang with these people. These names are Babu Kishan's stories not yours to put in a book and then say Bauls are associated with, while a picture of someone who never ever not in a million years had anything to do with nor met anybody?
But somehow they leave this out and new Bauls singers claim this history with out mentioning Purna Das Baul, Nabani or Babu Kishan???
They sing the songs from this lineage most writen by Nabani Das Baul or Babukishan and acestors without mentioning the authors or poets, when you see a poem by Rumi or any other Poet out of respect the name of the author is mentioned??
What most people do not know is that "The Bauls of Bengal" is the name of the group that traveled with Baul Samarat Purna Das, the groups name created by Purna Das when he first came to the USA to live at Bob Dylans back in the late 60's.
"The Bauls of Bengal" were called Vaishnava Bauls or Gosai Das Baul and Gosai Dasi Baul previous to Purna Das calling his group of traveling Bauls, "The Bauls of Bengal". He is the first Bauls to sing on the trains in India, the first Baul to travel outside of India. He is the first Indian Vocalist to travel outside of India starting in the 1950's.
When BhaktiVedanta Prabupad first came to New York USA, Purna Das Baul and his younger brother Laxshman Das Baul sang for Prabupada in Central Park in 1967.
Prabupada knew them personally he knew they were direct descendants of Sri Nitai and he knew they were the original Hare Krishna singers of Bengal. Bhaktivendanta knew they were the original Das and Dasi in Bengal but was ambitious and chose to give their names and their story away to promote Krishna Consciousness to the world.
He also chose to tell all of his disciple not to talk to his very own God brothers at Gaudiya Math telling them they were all jealous of hiim???.
He also knew Purna's father "Nabani Das Baul" and Purna's father inlaw Jogesh Das who was a good friend of Prabupada's from back in Calcutta. When we get back to Calcutta we have pictures of this history and will put them together, it seems a picture in todays world says a million words.
For at least 30 years this family sang for Krishna at Iskcon temples around the world, they were used as a fundraising attraction for the temples.
However, through my research I have come across very ApaVasihnava behavior now of disrespect and name calling starting from the leaders before Prabupada now printed and spread all over the internet the blatant putting down of the Bauls and name calling.
This is the lineage of Vaishnava Baul of Sri Nityananada of Ekkchakra Bengal India.
Nabani Das Baul (his father) was his Guru of course but in a Bauls lifetime they have other Guru's and one other being Sri Sitaram Das Omkarnath (he was a great Sadhu friend of Nabani Das Baul) whom Babu also loved and recieved many blessings from. It was Sitaram Das Omkarnath who encourage Purna Das to travel on the trains and sing for dakshina as at the time there was a famine in Bengal he used the money to feed his brothers and sisters.
Mahalia Jackson, Amala Shankar a great Nataraja Dancer and wife of Legendary Indian Dancer Uday Shankar ..
Ravi Shankar's brother Uday Shankar was the pioneer of Indian Dance who first brought Indian dance and his brother Ravi Shankar to the west.
Puna Das his wife Manju Das (the first Baul women to travel the world and the last Women Baul to travel the world since the 1960's through to 2010 RIP Manju Ma.
Mahalia Jackson, at Baul Samarat Purna Das Bauls house in Calcutta in the late 1960's early 70's ?
