Baul Tantra, Mantra, (Gopi Yantra) vs Neo Tantric Sex?
Baul Tantra, Mantra Yantra - (Gopi Yantra)
vs Tantra as Sex.
I was having a conversation with BabuKishan this morning about this description of Bauls that says,
"Many of them ( Bauls) practice a type of psycho-physical manipulation or tantric yoga which emphasizes control of sexual union, the purpose of which is to enable the couple to achieve a break with phenomenal existence, to escape the endlesscycle of death and regeneration, and to achieve a state of eternal stability or samadhi. This practice involves the retention of semen during intercourse and the ingestion of bodily secretions..."
This is not the focus of what Baul is?
There is nothing wrong with this description of Sacred Sexuality, however, you will see this over and over like a broken record as if this is the only focus, of what Baul is, it is not. People from all over the world and India flock to Shantiniketan searching for this freedom and wanting to meet Bauls. This can prove to be dangerous for many unsuspecting innocents. Listen Baul is extinct do not waste your time, many fakes are taking advantage.
There are many false things written about the Bauls, it is really difficult to get to the truth or to know who is a real Baul. If sex is all writers seem to write about Baul then Bauls will be extinct faster than thought, Baul is a huge tradition, a Baul should be lightening and a genius in all matters. There are new Baul singers using Baul and this lineage duping people into thinking either they are Bauls or changing this beautiful ancient Lineage of Vaishnava Baul that originates in Ekkachakra Birbhum Bengal. There is no other Lineage of Baul, (period) and that should be your first clue to fake. Nobody ever used Lineage in regards to Baul until I started to write. Babu wrote 3 Books on Baul in the 1980's he also, wrote about HIS lineage. Ask Babu questions he will tell you who is who? It is better to ask than waste your time.
www.babukishan.org
babukishanproductions@gmail.com
(Brajabala Dasi) Babukishan's beloved Grandmother raised him until he was 8. When Nabani Das Khyapa Paul his Guru and Grandfather passed away in 1969, Brajabala sent him to Calcutta to be with his birth father and mother Purna Das Baul and Manju Dasi. His mother and father sent him to the Ramakrishna Mission as if he were an orphan. He lived it, he has many incredible stories. In retrospect in Babu Kishan's mind he only knew Nabani Das Khyapa Baul as his father.
www.babukishan.org
babukishanproductions@gmail.com
Brajabala knew all the stories as she spoke oral Sanskrit and was also, from Ekkachakra she passed on much of the lineage to Babu from birth until she passed when Babu was about 40 years of age.
Brajabala Dasi was very much a guru to Babu Kishan as was Nabani and Purna Das Baul. Babu had many Guru's including Sitaram Das Omkarnath, Anandamayi Ma, and all the Swami's at the Ramakrishna Mission. There are many more to include right now.
Baul is a beautiful ecstatic mystical bhakti lineage and most of the PHD holders took their research from this lineage in which they have been given only a very limited point of veiw. This is an oral tradition it is almost impossible for an outsider to try to teach what Baul is because it is more indepth than what appears to the eye?
Baul can only be taught by a lineage Baul. It takes years and years if not a lifetime to learn Baul philosophy, Baul songs, Baul poetry, it is not simple or easy. There is one new Paul women singer that says it only takes women 3 years to learn Baul, that is not the truth, if Brajabala Das, Radharani Dasi or Manju Dasi were alive they would shut down that kind of talk.
Just as real Yoga is not simple or easy. The Tantra Bauls practice has nothing to do with the Neo Tantra of the West. Baul is a mystical shamanic tantric sadhana not sexo magic. Baul is an internal sadhana. It is about learning what is inside, a sort of Daoist qigong, energetic mystical tradition, the path of Radha where Radha and Krishna reside in the heart of the beloved. I hear people focus on the sex part over and over, the four moon practice, deha sadhana, is not the focus of what a Baul is.
This one and only Lineage of Bauls is called 'The Rasa Lila Mystics' because they capture the (Rasa) or juice and hold it inside of themselves, they distill or grind this juice into Love, they keep what works and grind and polish it into a beautiful play.
Bauls are poets, philosophers, singers, dancers, they are not 'afflicted by the wind,' they are wind catchers, they practice what they call 'vayu dharma' or pranayama. The are only mad wild crazy for the divine, they worship Radha and Krishna in their heart, in their soul.
A message from Babu Kishan below!
Today 2017 people love Baul song due to my family and our dedicated lifetime work of pioneering Baul around the world for over 70 years before there was Facebook, can you even imagine how difficult it was.
Before my family nobody knew who and what Baul was, we are the only lineage of Baul going back thousands of years. We have always been around and in the villages of Bengal as Guru's and teachers the spiritual newspaper before the newspaper. The original Das and Dasi Hare Krishna singers and dancer. My Grandfather and Guru Nabani Das Khyappa Paul was part of the Freedom Movement in India singing before Nehru gave his speeches as Paul has always been known as the biggest attention intoxicating through the honey of their song.
Nabani Das Khyapa Paul sang for Nehru before all his talk all over India. Then my parents (Purna Das Paul and Manju Dasi) and myself (Krishnendu Das Baul aka Babu Kishan) did the same for Indira Gandhi and her son's Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi. We sang on thousands of stages all around India hundreds of times.
My parents and the women in my lineage were legendary, they are the first and we are the only Lineage of Baul. Nobody in Baul every said Lineage except me and now there are others making up stories that are not true.
"So please go in a smooth flow like a trance of river and sing for Moner Manush, just saying because I am watching someone's youtube who is singing my Grandfather poetry but naming a different poet? Don't be fake, we know you are, don't make people stupid or saying and setting up for preservation. Baul is already preserved my dear, that is why you are singing the songs from my Lineage.
Before my family nobody knew who and what Baul was, we are the only lineage of Baul going back thousands of years. We have always been around and in the villages of Bengal as Guru's and teachers the spiritual newspaper before the newspaper. The original Das and Dasi Hare Krishna singers and dancer. My Grandfather and Guru Nabani Das Khyappa Paul was part of the Freedom Movement in India singing before Nehru gave his speeches as Paul has always been known as the biggest attention intoxicating through the honey of their song.
Nabani Das Khyapa Paul sang for Nehru before all his talk all over India. Then my parents (Purna Das Paul and Manju Dasi) and myself (Krishnendu Das Baul aka Babu Kishan) did the same for Indira Gandhi and her son's Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi. We sang on thousands of stages all around India hundreds of times.
My parents and the women in my lineage were legendary, they are the first and we are the only Lineage of Baul. Nobody in Baul every said Lineage except me and now there are others making up stories that are not true.
"So please go in a smooth flow like a trance of river and sing for Moner Manush, just saying because I am watching someone's youtube who is singing my Grandfather poetry but naming a different poet? Don't be fake, we know you are, don't make people stupid or saying and setting up for preservation. Baul is already preserved my dear, that is why you are singing the songs from my Lineage.
Even though people are liking but they mostly do not have any training in Baul music or musical ability, of course they screwing the wonderful lineage of Baul!
We didn’t have internet back then and it was so difficult to communicate and travel around the world. The hard time we had a hard time we had was to make was to make a road very easier for new comers!!
From what I hear they (the new Baul singers) are not Baul Masters and need voice lessons, beyond voice lessons, development of voice quality, you cannot even sing in a cord or track! Just singing Sakhi re…… then what, or trying be more tourist attractions spinning hair around and theatrical Bauls then Sadhana? They need more and more practise, all my life I composed music for World's top musicians and recorded singer like Lata Mangaskar and Asha Bhosle and many other. You can call me egotistical but it is my lineage I am an award winning music composer. I know tone and pitch and you are way, way out of tune.
Be a Baul do great work, help people and inspire people but don’t make up 4 generations and sing the songs from my lineage giving other poets names it has already been recorded and documented before you were born. If someone gave you miss information that is not my problem it is yours.
Please do the practise and don't makeup stories and drama, just be true Baul!!
Love u all, my blessing with all my brothers and sisters, don't try to be Nabani Das Khyapa Baul or Baul Samrat Purna Das just salute them have a great respect for them they are the one who gave you a chance to be Baul!!
Joy Guru!! Don't even try to be them, you cannot even dream!! You don't even know how was hard to making this Baul from a village to International platform!! Not easy, and of course only are one which is the last oldest BaulLineage in Bengal and World!!
Don't make stories, first learn how to sing and do Sadhna of Baul!! Just keep focus on what you are doing! Who can sing like Purna Das Baul, Manju Dasi, Radharani Dasi, Brajabala Dasi or any of my lineage? We are the only lineage, I can tell you who everybody is and where they came from except for the new Bauls who are young and now I am seeing these bizarre stories.
The end Babu Kishan !
Sri Nityananda of Ekkachaka Bengal India is part of this lineage of Vaishnava Baul, lineage of the Baul Avadhuta. This Lineage of Paul is the only lineage of Baul there is no other. Nityananda of Ekkachakra is where they come from.
The lineage Bauls from Birbhum are the origins of Vaishnavism in Bengal India. They are the original Hare Krishna singers and dancers of Bengal India thousands of years before this new Vaishnava movement began.
Baul is about 'Love and Devotion' Bhakti Yoga and deep sadhana, the real Bauls spoke Sanskrit as this is the way the oral traditions are transmitted, they sing their songs in Bengali so the villagers can understand, because the villages did not necessarily speak sanskrit.
The Vaishnava Bauls appear very simple but in actual fact they were way more intelligent than any western British educated scholars, their memories were astronomical as they had recorded in their minds all the stories of yoga, upanishads, stories of Krishna and Radha.
Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul and Grandfather Guru Baul Saint the Avadhuta Baul Saint, and Baul Guru Sri Nabani Das Baul, he is the Baul who inspired Rabindranath Tagore and initiated Tagore into Baul giving Tagore the name Ravi (Robi) Baul. They have a huge history and that story is for another time
Sri Nityananda also called Nitai was a Baul, an exalted Avadhuta, history was rewritten by modern day writers who were mostly orthodox or scholars who were not from inside the tradition. The stories of this lineage are within the songs of the lineage this is what an oral living lineage is, it is not a book translated lineage.
Book translations are usually distorted because most writers have a personal opinion or are on a mission for something, be it devotee's, preaching, temples or money from the sale of the books?
Book translations are usually distorted because most writers have a personal opinion or are on a mission for something, be it devotee's, preaching, temples or money from the sale of the books?
We are writing books to preserve all that has already been preserved by this lineage. We need to set the record straight but it is not an easy task and will perhaps take years. It should be noted that Baul does not need to be preserved by outsiders who are "now fundraising" in the name of Baul.
Baul is already preserved all it only needs translating into English. The songs have already been recorded going back into the 1950’s. I have no idea why new Bauls are now fundraising to preserve Bauls, oh my goodness what is going on.
Our personal mission is to translate as much as we can into English of our tradition and keep it as close to the truth of what a Baul is. This can only be done by someone actually in the tradition not by a new comer who has already taken Nabani Das Khyappa Bauls songs and attached other poets to Nabani's poetry. It is very strange to an owner of the tradition to have a new Baul singer making up stories, making up lineages.
The Bauls message is for all people and is especially necessary to today's world but that does not mean the message should be watered down or distorted.
Of course Baul also changes to adapt to the world but it is in desperate need of being preserved accurately.
Anytime you hear someone associate Baul with neo tantric
sex, you can be guaranteed this person or group does not have a clue what Baul is about. Or fundraising on behalf of Baul I warn you ahead of time they are not of any lineage. Baul has nothing to do with Bangladesh, I can qualify everything coming out of the fundraising team from Bangladesh and any of the new Baul tourist attractions. Fundraise for your own cause not for the cause of Baul, making people stupid.
Many call Baul Traditional Folk songs because the Bauls did not speak english and this was a category that foreigners could understand and people outside of Bengal.
Please understand that Baul songs are not folk songs, their songs are spiritual songs and this particular lineage is a lineage of Baul kirtan, many of their Baul kirtan's have been taken and used by others saying they are songs of their made up lineage but that is not so and we are archiving all the songs that belong to the Bauls, this should at least be credited to them.
Writers are focused on sex as sex sells easily and attracts curious people, there is a freedom this implies and it looks attractive to become a Baul, tantric sex all day, smoking ganja all day, singing, dancing and begging for money, no sadhana? This is definitely not Baul this is another huge distortion making the Lineage Bauls extinct. Also, many have become a tourist attraction with long dread locks, this is not Baul.
Bauls are free birds in that they are seeking ecstatic union (yoga) with their beloved Radha/Krishna, Shiva/Kali. This takes place through their lineage songs which are seeds of higher philosophy, this is where their union comes from, you can feel it, you can hear it and if you do not you are not listening to a Baul.
The body has the God's and Goddess's in the altar of the heart. The body is the temple of the soul, this is the tantra, this is the technique, this is their samadhi, this is their God/dess intoxication comes from, they know the technique. Baul is about high level philosophy it is not about the mundane. The lineage Bauls I am talking about and there is only one lineage of Bauls.
Baul songs are not folk songs, they are seed songs of higher philosophy, one must know the discourses that go along with the song. Babu listens to what Bauls are singing they are either singing his family lineage songs or are singing folk songs, some sing his lineage songs but shorten them thus destroying the meaning.
Babu has also heard Bauls singing Bollywood songs that have nothing to do with Baul, in and of itself there is nothing wrong with this but to call the songs Bauls songs is wrong?
A real Baul usually will not tell you anything, therefore, this is a good opportunity for the new Bauls to dress like Bauls and when a scholar or a reporter comes to Bengal they usually have interviewed a new Baul on the, "philosophy of Baul" or the reporter and scholars usually focus on one aspect.
My question who owns the truth about the Bauls 'a scholar' or a New Baul singer who has created a tourist attraction and a fake lineage, OR 'a lineage Baul from within the lineage', who is the authority?
'Wikipedia or a lineage Baul?' or 'PhD's' or a tourist attraction making up a lineage?'
Should the authority on Baul be the lineage, or should it be the scholars, the problem is Baul is almost extinct there are only a handful of lineage Bauls left. I can tell you this family is the only family of Bauls who brought Baul to the world. Others just copy and follow, go where they go, do what they do.
It is a huge task to try to preserve this lineage, so in the meantime this leaves the door open for all sorts of nonsense.
These neo Bauls like the neo Tantrics and neo Yogi's of the east and west only tell the person a very limited view of Baul from copy and paste, they repeat the same thing over and over, copy, paste, copy, paste, singing only folk songs saying they are Baul songs.
The roots of Baul are in Sanatan Dharma the Bhagavad Gita, Radha and Krishna, the roots of Baul are not in Buddhism or Islam. They accepted Buddhist and Islam Sufi into their fold, because Bauls are the biggest peacekeeper. That does not mean they became them.
"Lineage Bauls are the origins of Vaishnavism in Ekkachakra Birbhum Bengal, they are the original Rasa Lila Mystics.
They are an oral (Sanskrit) tradition as all Indian Traditions were, they are not a book tradition of modern interpretations and personal opinion. What the Lineage Bauls know has been passed down through Sanskrit, many new age Vaishnava reformers have distorted the truth about Vaishnavism in Bengal and created cults which have done more harm to the Bauls."
It is surprising to Babu that even people he has known write the wrong stories about Bauls. Even more surprising the number of people he has taken to Bengal, talked about his lineage who have either made films or wrote books and they do not even thank him, cut him out completely and thank the western scholars.
There is one professor from the USA who had him sign papers to get university grants for her to study Bauls only to cut him out completely, everybody wants funding and what a great thing to do get the funding through a lineage Baul then interview Neo Bauls who have a very limited knowledge of the Bauls? This is very disrespectful and is creating such a distortion in the history of what Baul really is. There are very few real Bauls left, they are almost extinct. I mean really must you keep using the Bauls of India.
Tantra is shakti sadhana, tantra is the science of light, the science of life. Tantra is technique, on how everything is put together. Tantra Mantra Yantra, formula, for instance Babu is an expert of the Tantra of Indian.
Music and sound the technique using a scientific formula to bring the Dieties to life through sound. Same with the Bauls their songs are their sadhana, their tantra is through their songs this is why so many people are mesmerized with the Bauls because of the thousands of years of sadhana or Lineage of having the Lineage passed on from one generation to the next through Sanskrit.
How Baul got stuck on sex is perplexing? They do have mystical sadhana's but people have made it so dirty with all the fake Bauls taking advantage.
Babu is also a master the smashan grounds, tantra, mantra, yantra, as he was born into this sadhana from his grandfather (not all Bauls are this kind of Tantric, only the avadhuta's are.) Nabani Das Khyapa Baul was initiated by Bhama Khepa among others at Tarapith. He traveled all over India, Nepal and Tibet.
When talking Tantra in the west it is always about sex, why, because sex sells.
When talking Tantra in the west it is always about sex, why, because sex sells.
Sex is not Tantra and selling it as such is misguided, call it sacred sex. It is really disrespectful to the Indian people when Tantra is only referred to a sexual sadhana's, Tantra is technique.
Tantra is a Sanskrit word, it originates in India, so Tantra is Indian. If one wants to be a Tantric learn jyotish, sanskrit, ayurveda, mantra..Shakti Sadhana. If one wants to learn sex sacred sexuality, do not call it Baul or tantra.
Hard work and sadhana does not attract people, 12 years of sadhana with a Guru does not attract anyone. And if anyone tells you for women only 3 years, this is not true, it takes lifetimes. Brajabala Dasi, Radharani Dasi were Sanskrit scholars it comes from the soul and soil of Birbhum. They never would do or behave stealing the poetry of Nabani and this lineage making up stories and lineages that are not true. This is not the way of Baul women, being a tourist attraction show.
There are many Bauls smoking ganja who are addicted to it, however, their power and knowledge are gone because the ganja is smoking them.
There was a time when ganja was a sacred herb it was used to cure all sort of ailments and the real authentic avadhuta bauls in deep sadhana smoked ganja, however, the ganja did not smoke them. Ganja was used for sadhana, one never depended on it.
Yes sacred sexuality is part of certain Baul practices but this is only a drop of what is real Baul, just as asana and meditation are part of Baul. A Baul does not reject anything, they embrace all knowledge yoga ect. This practice as described as being Baul at the beginning of this article is meant to be between only sadhaka and sadhika, it is only meant to be between husband and wife never shared with others, it is private in a committed relationship of soul mates and really is not central theme of what Baul is?
Babu's grandfather the legendary Sri Nabani Das Khyappa Baul used to generate so much spiritual heat he used to meditate under water on the bottom of a pond. He was rare. As Babu say's don't try to be Nabani Das Baul or Purna Das Baul.
Fakir, aul, sai, derbesh, is sufi it is not Baul.
In the past many different groups were wandering around Bengal and they were lumped together under 'Baul', they were not Baul, however, the British had a huge disdain for all wandering people, they were treated badly and they all were called Baul, at the time even the British educated Bengali's did not understand, they were too busy trying to please the British and gain some sort of respectful life.
Fakir, Sai, Aula, Dervesh and Shah are not Baul but were lumped together with the Baul for terminology sake, however the Bauls are a unique and distinct sect, the oldest lineage being the Vaishnava Bauls who were sanskrit speaking people, they are brahmin and very educated in the oral tradition.
Baul is like modern Yoga being described as Asana, gymnastics ect.. The Body is not the sole organ of all experience and knowledge Parampara is, the Guru is.
The Guru to the Baul is the greatest but let me tell the Guru must be a Baul Guru and this is very difficult to get because the ones that are calling themselves Baul Guru are NOT. This can be proven and we see and know what is going on. We can give the whole history on most of the Bauls that are calling themselves Baul.
Baul is a 'Guru Parampara Tradition.' The oral tradition and Guru are the means to knowledge, the oral tradition has been transmitted for thousands of years through Sanskrit, the Bhagavad Gita all knowledge of Yoga, Bhakti Yoga is the sole organ of experience.
Babukishan, say's, "why come to Baul, go to sex education, why even come to Baul, do not destroy Baul by the misconceptions, mostly all Phd on Baul are completely wrong or they only have an aspect and they beat that aspect to death. "
Baul is inner connecting to the divine in a ecstatic mystic way, it is not about outer, grab a partner try some Psycho physical manipulation, this is such a gross misconception and it is really boring and a huge insult to the authentic Bauls. To a Baul the Guru is the path, the Guru passes on all knowledge through the oral living lineage that is thousands of years old.
You can feel the universe inside of you that is Baul, as above so below. The original authentic Baul will never tell you their sadhana, only paramapara. Bauls were the newspaper before the newspaper, singing Hare Krishna every morning to the villagers as a wake up call.
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Babukishan Das Baul and Trishula Das
'Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul'
Born into Lineage Baul Sampradya,
Sanskrit Scholar, 12 years as a Vedic Monk @ the Ramakrishna Order. BA Indian Philosophy, MA Indian Music Calcutta University.
40 years traveling worldwide promoting his ancient and only Lineage an Oral Living Lineage.
Master of Indian Classical, Folk, Baul & Bollywood Music