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

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Baul song from this lineage - The theif!



Copyright 2009 = 2040
All rights reserved, means do not copy and take the names off,
No poaching.

Baul song by Nabani Das Khyapa Baul

A thief fell upon the master's garden.
The master is absorbed in sleep.
The darwan has kept the key. 
( Darwan is the watchman.. the security)

The thief is so clever that
leaving the owner alone,
he catches hold of the watchman (the mind), He says, "Give me the key, fellow, otherwise you'll gasp for breath -- you'll go secretly to court."
__________
__________

 THERE ARE MAJOR DISCOURSES THAT WOULD GO WITH THIS SIMPLE SONG. THE SONG IS TO AWAKEN SOMETHING DEEP INSIDE, A GURU IS A MUST TO UNDERSTAND THE "ESSENCE OF BAULS DISCOURSES".

 Krishna is the thief & Hari implies "one who steals"-the heart and soul. 

The garden he is stealing from in this song is, 'the human body' which is controlled by an ego wrapped in the materialistic sleep of the senses. The Thief knows the gatekeeper (darwan) is the mind, has kept the key, and bullies him to hand it over, even threatening him with justice since he has abused his position. The mind will rationalize and do things that are not helpful.

Then the Thief goes away to the poet's "garden."

Baul song written by Sri Nabani Das Khyappa Baul

This song belongs to this Lineage when it is sung in Bengali and connected to the Essence of this Lineage, you should understand on a deep level and all your Chakra's should spin, a Baul song should take one to heaven and back in the moments of the song. Baul songs should lead to bliss if Baul essence is present. If the Essence of Baul is not present, the song is just another song.

Baul songs are Kundalini Yoga, there is not need to force anything that comes from the soul.




Friday, June 24, 2011

Pioneers of Bauls, the first Bauls to go oversea's, and the last Great original Baul of Bengal Sri Nabani Das Khappa Baul.. Reclaiming The Bauls of Bengal!..

Reclaiming the Bauls of Bengal !!
This is long and winding, has to be re-edited.
I use this Baul to share thoughts, it will all be part of Babu Kishan's 4th book on his one and only Lineage.
This was written way back in 2011 and now is 2022, re-editing is taking place. There is a lot of repeat in this article.

copyright, do not copy and paste, these stories belong to Babu Kishan. All rights reserved 2010 - 2040

Only a Baul, a true lineage Baul knows who or what a Baul is? Only a Baul knows where they come from. The code is stored in the Baul songs.. the songs are seeds of higher philosophy.

Scholars can only speculate, writers can only speculate.. and new Baul singers can only speculate Baul is from an oral living lineage and these Bauls know who they are!

They are Sanskrit speaking, poets, philosophers, based on Indian Philosophy with the rasa (juice) of Buddhism,  and Sufi added.... as time went on and Buddhism and Sufi flowed into Bengal so did they flow naturally into parts of Baul philosophy... which is based on Hinduism..  

Baul is an ancient oral living lineage and these Bauls know who they are!!! They are Sanskrit speaking, poets, philosophers, based on Indian Philosophy with the rasa (the juice) of Buddhism, and Sufi added.

There were and are so many different individuals and groups of wandering people around Bengal and many just started calling themselves Baul like a generic term to lump all wandering people together, lumping Sufi's, fakir's, sai, aul, dervesh all together and all the other groups and individuals wandering the county side calling them all Bauls but in fact not all of these people are Bauls. Fakir, Sai, Aul, Dervesh are NOT Baul.

This in fact was because of lack of understanding on behalf of the British and Muslim invaders of the time.

They did not like indigenous Indian people, or Indian people for that matter and saw them as pesks.. they thought all Indian people were uneducated and low, many Bengali's took on the same attitude, it was either survive and become like the British or be treated as one of these uneducated degraded beggars. 

However, the real Bauls were educated in the oral system of sanskrit meaning they had tremendous photographic  memories and were actually more educated than what any degree at Oxford University. 

Bauls most certainly were not beggars, they were like spiritual bards, they were the newspaper before there was a newspaper, their songs are how to be a yogi, how to live an enlightened lifestyle.. how to learn from nature, they were given Dakshina for their songs.  

These seed songs of higher Indian Philosophy were passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years in sanskrit and they sang in Bengali to the people of the village in the same way Tulsi Das translated the Hanuman Chalisa in the language people could understand. 

Some are creating archives trying to preserve Baul in the British mode in the model of the Western Scholar or interviewing new Baul singers but they actually do not have the details of the lineage in them. 

The new Baul singers are shortening songs or singing folk songs, Baul songs are not folk songs...There is a huge lack of basic understanding of the basics of what a Baul is or who the real Bauls are..

It is just one big mess now because everybody thinks they know what and who the Baul are?? In the past 100 or so years some Vaishnava orhodox new age British educated reformers have arrived to preach. 

It is through my extensive research I have come to understand who the real psuedo Vaishnava Asampradaya's are and it most certainly is not the Bauls, the Bauls have been an innocent pawn of this group since day one. It is this group who has become very degraded over the past 30 years using the Baul names such as  Das and Dasi

Ambitous preachers who called the Bauls degraded and other names due to their misunderstanding on who the Bauls are and on the say so of a few men. 

These new age Vaishnava reformers took the posture of the British and of course they were educated by the British oh yes they learned sanskrit and translated the texts but they had no roots and provided a very othodox British Christian monothesitic view of Vaishnavaism.

They made up their lineage and all sorts of stories regarding their ligitamacy as a lineage. I am not going to mention any names but they have big rich temples sell books and the ones on top live like kings, to think they are still putting down the Bauls writing all this non-sense collecting money, collecting devottee's. 

Everybody knows that the temple business is big business  with a heavy load of karma over their heads. 

They (the new orthodox Vaishnava from Bengal, then spread to Westerners around the world) worship Nityananda but do not even know who he is creating a story so fantastic it is amazing people believe it not all are bad but at times they act like the taliban of Vaishnavism. 

(Opinion by Trishula Das based on estensive research, over 2 decades.)

Baul is used by everybody, I do not really understand why but all these groups and people think it is ok to make Baul what they want or say nobody really knows what Baul is??

What an insult to the lineage Bauls (indigenous Baul) only a Baul who is a real Baul know what a Baul is.

 People do not understand what a Baul is they have no right to make statements such as this. Surely everybody understands karma and the destruction of the planet and all idigenous peoples of this earth. Indigenous people are Maa's and yes Radha/Krishna's children you can destroy them but there is a price to pay.


Sri Nabani Das Khyappa Baul, Babukishan's Grandfather was a Lineage Vaishnava Baul of Bengal who also was a Kali/ Shiva Sadhaka and remember if you know anything about Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma it is polytheistic. 

Nabani Das Baul was an Avadhuta, he walked in the footpath of his ancient ancestors. The lineage is that of the Great Vaishnava Saint, Sri Nityananda of Ekkchaka West Bengal who was Sri Chaitanya's best friend.  

Nityananda  was a Baul, Chaitanya was a scholar..Nityananda had been singing and dancing the Hare Krishna mahamantra for thousands of years.

These Bauls are from an oral living lineage thousands of years old. Why is there so much distortion?? again it is the new age reformers with big printing presses who chose to write against the Bauls perpetuating the British othodox view against Bengali people.

Perhaps it is because India had been conquered many times. Times were so different from when the scholar Edward Dimmock went to Bengal 1950's. 

This  American scholar had good intentions but only concentrated on bits and pieces of what Baul is. Along with some of the newer scholars this produced an intellectual liquidation and distortion of what Baul is.

 Their were also many writers on Baul from France who introduced Baul to the world through their scholarly writings, in those days no Baul would ever tell you the truth about Baul they had a long history of having their lineage being disected they protected themselves from outsiders by purposely misleading the scholars by action and word. 

The Bauls always included anyone could call themselves a Baul, real Bauls do not care and purposely mislead people to keep the insincere away. (Do not feed perals to swine.)   

Baul has nothing to do with the hodge podge the PHD's wrote about,  they recieved their Phd's taking all the bits and pieces of what they thought was Baul.giving a few rupees to the poor Bauls. Do you really think Bauls will give away easily their whole lineage sadhana. 

You can not buy Baul most of these phd's thought they could but they never gave anything back, just lecturing around the world as if they are the authority. They perhaps thought they were doing the right thing but this has led to so much distortion by ignorance and the destruction of a idegenous people of India.

Most of the books or writings about Baul were writen by western scholars for their PHD's, they probably never thought that a Lineage Baul would ever be an educated Baul with a BA in Indian Philosophy and MA in Indian Music from Kolkata University who could read and speak english would ever live outside of India.

Baul is a mystical SACRED ancient practice and there is such a lack of integrity from writers writing books, it is cut and paste writing books to make money, some can justify well I am a Phd doing research trying to preserve the ancient knowledge of Indian but at this point it is intellectual, spiritual, artistic liquidation of a culture that belongs to these people.

 Where is the integrity, do they give anything back to the Indian people who they took the knowledge from, or is it just for their own personal benefit, a way to make a living. Think about it?

It is an insult to have Baul preserved by anyone who is not a Baul or to take new Baul singers as the authority on Baul. 

Baul is a high philosophy.. and so degrading for it to be taken and writen about as if Baul is just a joke. Babu will write all the stories, this has been part of the down fall of this ancient tradition.

Mystical practices should always be secret and were always kept secret! Bauls knew that people use them, they already knew about intellectual liquidation of their Santana Dharma being mystic seers they always could see where the future has been leading.

It is no different for the new yogi's or the neo tantra, making money off of the Indian people and then arguing it does not originate in India.

Rabindranath Tagore the great poet, novelist, musician, playwright, and artist from Santiniketan, Birbhum, West Bengal, India, knew Sri Nabani Das personally, Nabani Das was the Baul who inspired Rabindranath. 

They were great friends, Rabindranath built Nabani a place to do his sadhana on his land, he made a statue of Nabani Das, he took pictures of him that you can see at the Royal British Museum in London. 
'
There was a long history between the two, and many stories to be told. Rabindranath Tagore knew a little bit about Bauls, and developed an interest learning more and more to finally be inititated into Baul by Babu's grandfather Nabani Das Baul. 

One may ask why is Nabani Das Baul's name not writen more about in Rabindranaths writings, it is because Nabani being a real Baul never wanted to be known. Rabindranath used names like khappa or  Mirror of the Sky.

Tagore used code names for Nabani Das Baul. 

There were also some other famous Bengal writers who were so connected and very close friends of Nabani Das Baul. English translations outside of Bengali are not accurate the writers made fairy sexual tales to attract people and now they are the one who are now acting as authority on Baul. 

Babu will write about all the foreigner that came to Bengal he will write about all the mishaps about everything that is destroying Baul including those in his own family and lineage. It really will be Baul unplugged.

Through this association, and over time Rabindranath became Baul. Nabani gave Rabindranath the name Ravi (Robi) Baul, and gave him a guduri (dress).

Many top poets from around the world would travel to see them, they were all intringued, thus Rabindranath started the Poush Mela in honour of Sri Nabani Das Kyappa Baul. Most people do not know this or the history because has not been written about.. and everything that is written is just repeated over and over.. the same story half of it not true.

Rabindranath named the bridge at the Pous Mela Nabani Das Setu. Nabani Das's name has not been preserved the way it should have been, now is the time to start to tell his story. 

At Tagore University outside the prayer room there is a tree where Nabani Das used to sit, it it preserved there to this day. There has always been some jealousy between Purna Das Baul and his family this has been a major cause of the Baul lineage being degraded and distorted. It is too bad that a son can not preserve the history of his father... they are just now talking about Nabani Das Baul and showing his picture.. Babu has tried to preserve his lineage but has found it difficult to fight against storm of jealousy. 

Nabani Das are you a mad maker machine, you have completely changed me with your song, dance, and your smile.

Rabindranath gave Nabani the name "Kyappa Baul" before Nabani no Bauls or sadhu's used the name Khappa, Babu will say there a few Bauls today that use the name but perhaps they knew Nabani Das. Rabindranath wrote about Nabani Das.  

Rabindranath Tagore used the tune from a Nabani Das Baul song for Rabindranath's song about Nabani Das Baul.

"Amare paraye paraye khepia berai".... Rabindranath Tagore wrote this song and dedicated to Nabani Das (Khappa Baul) " 

Baul is a mystical SACRED ancient practice and there is such a lack of integrity from writers writing books, it is cut and paste writing books to make money, some can justify well I am a Phd doing research trying to preserve the ancient knowledge of Indian but at this point it is intellectual, spiritual, artistic liquidation of a culture that belongs to these people.

Where is the integrity, do they give anything back to the Indian people who you take this knowledge from, or is it just for their own personal benefit, a way to make a living. Think about it?

To have Baul preserved by anyone who is not a Baul or to take new Baul singers as the authority on Baul. Actually it is an insult to yoga also. 

Baul is a high philosophy and it is degrading for it to be taken and written about as if Baul is just a joke and through speculation?

Babu will write all the stories, this has been part of the down fall of this ancient tradition. 

Regarding Allen Ginsberg, will be told by Babukishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul, he knew Allen Ginsberg from 1985 or a 12 year period until Allens's death in 1997. 

Babu would visit Allen many times as he started to visit America about once a year, he would listen to stories when Allen spent time in Bengal and with his grandfather. 

Baul is like water in the dessert, Bauls are mirages, you can never catch a Baul, you can think you finally have the Baul or the story only to get there to realize it has disappeared, it is the same with Baul knowledge it is endless and has deep roots, just when you think you have captured it, it has another layer upon layer.

Babukishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul.

Sri Nabani Das Khyappa Baul, Babukishan's Grandfather was a Lineage Vaishnava Baul of Bengal. Nabani Das Baul was an Avadhuta, he walked in the footpath of his ancestors. The lineage is that of the Great Vaishnava Saint, Nityananda Mahaprabu.  Nityanada from Ekchakra West Bengal was a Baul.. These Bauls are from an oral living lineage thousands of years old.

Nityananda Baul Avadut,
Jai Nitai
 Jai Guru Nityananda was a Baul!
The Narrative of who this lineages Ancestors are has been stolen by the orthodox.



                              
Sri Nabani Das Khyappa Baul

 
Before Baul Guru Sri Nabani Das Kyappa Baul, sent his 2 sons oversea’s in 1967 for several months this varies from according you talk to form anywhere to 2 and half months to 7 months. At that time there were not many people outside of India who had ever met a Baul from Bengal.  Purna Das had previously traveled outside of India to Russia in the 1950's, and this was the first time Bauls had ever gone overseas. They created history and inspired a whole new generation of Bauls to cross the ocean.


Babu has been preserving his oral living lineage for 60 years, he has written 3 books on Baul the last one being published by Ravi Shankar and George Harrison in 1985 now out of print but to be re-released soon.


As an authority by sadhana and scholarship Babu is a living lineage holder,  he finds it absurd when he reads writer, writing and spreading all sorts of mis- information on Baul. 


Bauls have been distorted, used and maligned for centuries. 


There are many well meaning people trying to preserve Baul but unfortunetly they are talking to all the wrong Bauls, the Bauls who are not versed in the lineage, the Bauls who do not even know the Baul songs, they are singing folk songs or some even Bollywood songs?? This is the way with all indigenous people and it leads to extinction.


Babu Kishan has preserved Baul since the 1960's, Baul is preserved, those who are asking for donations now are cheaters. They are using Baul to become a Baba or Maa, such a terrible shame.


Sri Nabani Das was very sick and on his death bed, and he never wanted to leave the soil of Bengal, he was one of the last of real authentic Bauls and there was no way that he would ever leave India even if it were not for the fact that he was so sick. 


Nabani instead sent his two sons, Purna Das Baul who was Nabani's eldest son and who was the first Indian volcalist to travel orverseas, Purna Das very famous Baul singer in India, millions of people had already listened to him sing across India, along with his came his younger brother Laxshman Das Baul a light hearted, magical mystical singer, you could call him the Bob Marley of Baul, also Hare Krishna Das Baul, Sudhananda Purna Das's his relative, and Jiban Das.


Ashok Fakir the tricky translator who was named as Purna Das Baul's secretary brought his wife and young daughter, telling Purna Das Baul that he could not bring his wife Manju Das. 


To A Baul it is important that their wife goes everywhere with them, this is part of their Sadhana. Those months that Purna Das and his group spent in Woodstock created a real hardship for Purna's wife and family and the other Bauls families. 


Purna's wife Manju Das had 3 little sons, and their servant Madan Das. They did not have any money, they did not know when Purna would come back home. 


The servant Madan Das arranged to help them. This was a very real and damaging time for Purna Das's family they never had a ruppee and were suffering in Kolkata. 


Purna das and group were recording record after record with the hope of at least making some money to bring back home. To this day they have never recieved a ruppee from any of the recordings or royalties. and you wonder why the Indian people are upset about the intellectual aritist musical liquidation of their culture. Think about it??  


There is a whole set of stories of how they suffered in America also, the cultual differences, the food, the cold, lack of understanding.


None of these Baul could speak english putting them at the mercy of Ashok Sakar (Fakir) he was a clerk in kolkata not a journalist and he had other plans. He told everyody he too was a Baul and a Fakir a Tantric, he mislead and decieved everybody. This is nothing new the Bauls have always been used by many people using Bauls to become famous, it is the story for many indigenous cultures. 


Interestingly enough Ashok Sarkar ended up living in Vancouver, B.C. Canada, and passed away in April 2009. Ashok saw Babu at the local Hare Krishna temple and wanted to talk to Babu but for some reason Babu did not talk to him. 


Babu only realized it was him when he read the local Georgia Straight article about Ashoke Fakirs death in April of 2009 only to realize Ashok had passed away only weeks after they first made eye contact... Ashok became a very colourful person in Vancouver and had also raised a family here. Babu has since been in conversation with his son in Santa Barbara.


Nabani was a very intense Baul Tantric Sadhaka, and to the eye he may have appeared like a wild, mad man, he was not mad in the regular sense, he was God/dess intoxicated mad.


 He was a mystical avadhuta with a magical smile, he was wild and ecstatic with love, mad for God, he was a true Baul, and a great Poet, he knew everything in the oral tradition, all the stories, all the songs. 


Most of the Bauls today are singing Nabani Das Baul songs, they do not even know who wrote the songs and should give some credit to this very rare Baul who is was the last of the  great Bauls.


George Harrison (Beatles), and Allen Ginsberg (The American Beat Poet), were some of the first famous foreigners to arrive in Santinekitan, they started to learn about the Vaishnava Bauls. Both becoming great friends, and supporters of this lineage.


Allen Ginsberg went back to America, and told Albert B Grossman about Nabani Das Baul and his ecstatic, blissful, magical, mystical song, and dance from Bengal. Albert B Grossman, (Bob Dylan’s manager at the time) was searching for different kinds ethnic musicians, as The Woodstock Committee had appointed him in charge of the ledgendary first Woodstock's ethnic department. Babu learned all this from the legendary father of Rock Journalism


Al Aronowitz... (Rolling Stones, Village Voice, Washington Post and New York Times.) 

Al Aronowitz was the man who introduced Bob Dylan to the Beattles and Allen Ginsberg... 


When Alen Ginsberg shared his recording of Nabani Das Baul aslo showing his pictures to Albert Grossman, Grossman was impressed, and intrigued, he said it would be great to present have Nabani Das at Woodstock.


Ravi Shankar, was slected as Indian’s first insturmentalist to come, and Nabani Das Baul was selected a Indian vocalist. Albert B Grossman with his wife came to Kolkata in 1967 this is when they met the Bauls and Nabani Das Baul the Baul who Allen Ginsberg had been talking about for years. 


This is how the Bauls arrived in America through Albert and his wife because of Allen Ginsbergs talking about Nabani Das Baul.. The Bauls arrived first in San Francisco then after some concerts went on to Woodstock staying for months jamming with Bod Dylan and The Band. This was a shock to Purna Das Baul and contingent because it was cold and food was not what they were used to.. They were in the wilderness of Woodstock and did not speak english.


Bob Dylan had never heard of Baul before, for him this was a new kind of music.


Purna Das Baul, and Laxman Das Baul jammed with Bob Dylan and The Band, jamming for some months in Woodstock New York. 

 

Dylan respected Purna Das, but was more friendly with the younger fun loving Laxman Das Baul (Bob Marley of Baul), perhaps because they were closer in age, and Purna Das being the older more serious one.


Years later in 1985 Babukishan would travel and perform with Bob Dylan on his cross the country US tour, and became really good friends, and exchanging music. No other Bauls ever met Bob Dylan or any or the Band members. It is only Babu Kishan who had a long many decades relationship with them, after the 1967 first initial meeting with Babu's father, it was Babu who kept the relationship going. I don't know why people (journalists) and writers on Baul just say 'Baul even knew Bob Dylan', that is a complete generic watering down and appropriation of Babu Kishan's life and story?


No other Bauls ever had any association, so they can stop using Babu Kishan's story.


Years later in the early 80's after Babu was sending letters back and forth to Al Aronowitz the father of rock journalism, Babukishan the ever dutifull son made his way to New York by himself to meet with Al Aronowitz at the Rockerfeller Centre.


 Al told Babu to meet him at the Rockerfeller Centre they hit it off and became close friends...Al set up meeting with Allen Ginsberg, this is when Babu also became good friends with Allen Ginsberg, all arranged everything.


Then on November 14th in New York Babu brought his parents all the way from Indian as he had arranged a surprise meeting for his father to reconnect with Bob Dylan. 


Babu brought him all the way to the USA and met with Garth Hudson to also re-record a new recording of the Bauls and The Band fusion music, in which Babu composed all the music for 8 songs. 


Babu organised the recording with "The Band" the Baul of Bengal fusion album, it was Babu's composition, he arranged the album but the album disappeared....hmm, .. 


Babu remembers he also brought 3 guys from New York to Wookstock for this recording  a local New York Indian Tabla player named Badal Roy, Badal was the  local Raga restaurant Tabla player, and he brought  2 other guys from the Brooklyn Iskcon Temple, Lakshmi Das and Vaiyasaki Das they worked in the Hare Krishna kitchen department.. 


Babu brought them to particapate in the album and they really wanted to meet, "The Band." Vaiyasaki played the kartals as did Lakshmi Das. Al Aronowitz said to Babu, "oh Babu why did you bring those Hare Krishna guys?' Al Aronowitz thought they were just too much, he wasn't into their trip.


A year later Babu got a letter from Garth saying he was releasing an album called "Sea to the North" Babu was so surprised his compositions from the year earlier recording in Woodstock with Garth had Babukishan listed as a percussionist, he was surprised that he was not listed as a composer of the track. To this very day 2022 Babu talks to Garth Hudson who is not in good health, they have remained friends and he talked to Levon Helm until his passing too. 


It was not easy to bring his parents and himself to USA and again with no value for their music Sea to the North is not Babu's composition but what he is saying they used Babu's composition on the album without giving him proper credit or letting Babu know that they are using his tracks Garth Hudson knows the truth, Babu had brought this to his attention.


Babu took Purna Das inside Bob Dylans concert at Madison Square Gardens as a surprise to meet Bob Dylan after all those years with the help of Garth Hudson and Al Aronowitz and he was very thankful and all Bob Dylan said to Purna Das Baul was how was Laxshman Das Baul, everybody loved the carefree younger brother of Purna Das Baul. In 1985 Babukishan would travel and perform with Bob Dylan on his cross the country East West US Tour.


Babu is grateful to Al Aronowitz because he made it all happen. It had been almost 18 years since there was contact between the Bauls, and Bob Dylan The Band, or the Grossmans, and Ginsberg. Babu had listened to his parents for years talk about what they had lost out on that first trip because those people in America never paid any royalties or not a single ruppee to the Bauls music but they were selling records and when they would go to Europe they would hear their music being played, Babu thought if he could meet them they could re-record.. 


There were many people that Babu set up meetings and reconnections with the help of Al Aronowitz to reclaim some of there royalties but the music producers disappeared. Babu's Dad told him to contact Peter K Siegel and others Peter was the music producer for these albums, "Indian street Music" from Nonesuch.. 


"The Bauls of Bengal" from Electra, and "The Bauls at Big Pink" Buddha Records. None of them would meet with Babu they were selling music recorded by the Bauls and not just any Bauls but his family making money, they probably never  thought a Baul would come to America educated and speaking english and wanting to know why his family is not profiting of any of these albums? People use the lyrics of the Bauls, the music of the Bauls but for some reason do not feel they owe them anything?


 Babu contacted all the record companies as Babu at the time was Asia's (India's), CBS music label manager and consultant, he had been releasing all the top music of the world in India for Bob Dylan, Micheal Jackson ect... all these American artists were receiving royalties from oversea's so why not the Bauls of Bengal's, where were their royalties.. 


Babu found out the royalities were going to the individual Producers account. These people know, who they are, they know what they took from the Bauls and we will be writing about this in our book with more details, so stayed tuned to the Bauls unplugged. Who would have thought a Baul would ever figure it all out? Who would have thought India would rise again and want to reclaim their spiritual, intellectual, property that had been liquidated by foreigners? 


Babu developed a very strong friendship with Al Aronowtiz until Al passed away in 2005 .It was Babu who reconnected to all these people and continued to  make a trip every year to keep everybody inspired about the Bauls of Bengal.


Any meeting with any of these people in the 1980's and onward was all due to Babukishan and his effort to help his parents reconnect. Babu as a one man show has continued to keep Bauls in the limelight with much effort and time. He worked tirelessly spending his own money arranging and making a trip every year to America.


Baul songs are not Folk songs..many today are singing Bangladeshi and Bengali folk songs, or they are singing only the very simple songs, and shortening down the songs to make them simplier. Baul is more than dressing like one, holding an ektara in one hand, and singing folk songs. It certainly has nothing to do with smoking ganga in a regular sense, some Bauls smoked ganja for certain sadhana's, most Bauls did not and it certainly is not attracting people with all this talk of tantric sex.


Baul women never ever had jata or dread locks, this is something new. It all sounds like a paradox Sri Nabani Das Baul was an avadhuta Baul, these types of Bauls are rare, yes he did smoke ganja like any other wandering sadhu, or shiva baba's, the ganja did not smoke him.. He did constant sadhana... The regular villiage Bauls did not smoke ganja.


The lineage is not about ganja or tantric sex as stated by many writers in which many imposters, or Baul singers have aligned themselves with. Perhaps Neo Tantri Sex has been the quest of many people who have wanted to learn about Baul or who used to hang around with the Bauls, you can usually tell by what they write. The writers who mention Baul is about some sort of neo tantric sex you can be assured they do not know what they are talking about or they have been mislead by some Bauls who were trying to attract people??


Bauls keep their knowledge inside. They keep there sadhana inside. They are lovers of Hari, if there is no love... Hari is not there. They are the mystics, they lived in a different world than ordinary people.


This is the short real true story of how Baul is known in the modern world outside of India. It is this family, this lineage that has travelled all over the world since 1966 trying to preserve this ancient oral tradition of Vaishnava Baul…otherwise who would know what Baul is???

Actually Purna Das Baul went to Russia in the 1950's. He has been traveling for more than 70 years, and Babukishan has been traveling for more that 40 years, preserving, educating about the Baul of Bengal.


This is the beginning of the story of the first Bauls to travel to North America. Purna Das Baul had already been to Russia, and won a Gold medal in IPTI musical youth festival for his singing.



Bob Dylan, and Purna Das Baul
George Harrison (Beatles), and Allen Ginsberg (The American Beat Poet), were some of the first famous foreigners to arrive in Santinekitan, they started to learn about the Vaishnava Bauls. Both becoming great friends, and supporters of this lineage.

Babukishan, his mother Manju Das, father Purna Das Baul and 2 brothers.
Years later in 1985 Babukishan would travel and perform with Bob Dylan on his cross the country US tour, and became really good friends, and exchanging music.


Young Krishnendu Baul playing Sri Khol 



All rights reserved, copyright material by Babukishan & Trishula Das

Monday, June 20, 2011

Krishnendu Das Baul aka Babukishan

Already Famous as "Krishnendu Das Baul in Bengal" as a composer, poet, film maker, promoter, personal composer and organizer for his father "Purna Das Baul's" career.. Although Krishnendu had already been working for years in Bombay in Bollywood (Indian Cinema) he was still living in Kolkata and traveling back and forth. He left Kolkata in 1989 and changed his name to Babu Kishan so that he could start new and that he did. 

He was R D Burman's assistant for 13 years up until R D Burmans death and while in Mumbai he composed 150 musical scores for Indian Cinema and 44 albums for top musicians and singers in Bollywood.

Some people in Bengal are now just realizing Krishnendu Das is Babukishan. If you have been wondering where Krishnendu Das Baul went and have tried to contact him over the years but were told by his Kolkata family "that they did not know where he is??? or that he was too busy??? or we do not have his telephone number??" please feel free to contact him at  babukishan@yahoo.com

The complete story will come in his upcoming book.. The Life of Babukishan...Baul unplugged..
Babukishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul is currently living in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Cananda... but will be back to India soon....