The Bauls of Bengal in Australia 1973

Rainbow Dreaming  

The Bauls of Bengal

The Bauls of Bengal with John Allen, Aquarius Festival, Nimbin, 1973 
Image: © Darcy McFadden/Northern Star

A Glimpse of a Dream

“Between the existent
and the non-existent
the space is love...”
Baul song

All those of us who have lived through the sixties have caught the glimpse of a dream. It was inescapable. The Beatles sang it; rock music and films explored it in a thousand ways.

The dream was everywhere and the dream was simple – love your brother, discover yourself and lower the barriers. Stop playing games, see through the roles and realise that you are all one with another.

Then came the seventies. If the sixties were the decade of the dream, the seventies were to become the decade of disillusion. After all the explosion, the personal glimpses of a new way, of a new life on the planet, what were we left with? Still the Vietnam war lingers on. 

The great majority continued in their jobs by day, nurtured by the opiate of television in the evenings. . .

But the dream continued - often underground, often damaged and wounded, sometimes nostalgic, sometimes ridiculed. But the dream continued. What else could it do? Once a whole generation has glimpsed, if only for a moment, the promise of salvation, it must follow that glimpse for the rest of its life.

It is for these reasons that the May 1973 Aquarius Festival is important to me and to many others. Our lives are largely determined by the mythology we create...There is something wrong with the mythology of the dollar. We badly need a new mythology.

What is this mythology? It is a simple one: 5,000 people can meet together without violence, without destruction, in peace and in love. If 5,000 people come as tribes, prepared to combine to build their own structures to live in, to feed themselves, to explore their creativity in theatre and music, we will have a festival the way they should have been from the beginning. If we all create this mythology,

 if you believe it and tell your brother and spread the word, it will happen. “Mankind’s future”, says Bucky Fuller, “is whatever man chooses to make it”. The energy of 5,000 people is almost unlimited. Between us, really working together, we can achieve anything.

The only limitation on reality is our imagination. It is up to us to choose whether the dream is to be lost until a more courageous generation is ready for it, or whether we ourselves can participate in the dream.

Festivals are about dreaming...

Johnny Allen, Director, Aquarius Foundation,
Australian Union of Students, 1973

John Allen in 1973 Australia with Purna Das Baul and his wife Manju Das, Far right Bhakto Das Baul a T series Baul singer. Nabin Koyal, Jiban Mondol long time associated with Purna Das Baul and Manju Das. Jiban played in Bauls of Bengal in 1967 they have been associated with Purna Das Baul for 40/50 years. Nabin Koyal is one of Bengals top devotional singers. These Bauls and singers have been so devoted to Baul.

Purna Das Baul and group including Babukishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul in Shantiniketan Pous Mela, Purna Das Baul was always the biggest attraction. The Pous Mela was created in honour of Nabani Das Baul by Rabindranath Tagore. What is going on at the Pous Mela today is not what is was meant to be it is completely ruined, the originality it totally gone. Purna Das and group do not show up anymore, and probably other original Baul do not show up because it has become something different.. The days of the orginal are gone.

Manju Dasi, you can call her legendary, she was the first Women Baul to travel over seas starting in the early 60's and unlimited times around the world. She is what legends are made of, she played on the biggest stages around the world.

This is a picture of Nabani Das Khyeppa Baul on the cover of The Bauls at Big Pink a recording made in 1967 @ Woodstock New York, with Purna Das Baul and group. 

This is the picture of a Lineage Baul a "Vaishnava Baul" from Birbhum Bengal India. Nabani Das Baul was a Baul saint who wrote an unlimited amount of Baul poetry, he inspired Rabindranath Tagore. 

This picture was taken by Rabindranath Tagore himself. 

All Bauls follow this lineage, they dress as they dress, they follow them around the world, they sing their songs.

Manju Dasi the first and only Baul women to travel the world, Babukishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul and Purna Das Baul.

Brajabala Dasi Babukishan's beloved Grandmother, a Baul women of the highest. She is a legendary Baul women, a lineage Baul and probably one of the last great women Bauls to walk this earth.  She was Nabani Das Bauls wife and mother to Purna Das Baul.

                                   Young Purna Das Baul and hi#facebookindia #facebooknews #facebookpost #hastagkdbabukishan #europe #canada #usa #russia #australia #thehindu #indianexpress #saregama #anandabazarpatrika #toronto #california #delhi #westbengal #kolkata #mumbai

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#hindustantimess father Nabani Das Baul

Hansraj - 1976 Film of the Life of Purna Das Baul, Babukishan's father.

BabuKishan.org

Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das has preserved this lineage, no one else ever mentioned any of this or remembered. Babu Kishan is the only one who has documented all, so if you plan on using any information from this blog, please state where you got it from and give credit.

Babu Kishan aka Krishnendu Das Baul worked on both of these movies as an assistant to the director, Hansaraj and Tagari.

You saw if here first, you did not do the research or the documentation. No poaching or taking the names off.

Copyright all rights reserved by Babu Kishan

The movie is a twist on Purna Das Baul's life.

Note. they are dressed 60's style but it was more like the 1940's, this is a movie about Purna Das Bauls life coming to Kolkata at a very early age, his struggles and bringing Baul out of the village to the world.

There is a film called Tagari 1985, about BabuKishan's aunt, Radharani Dasi. Babu kishan was involved in both movies. This is the oldest living lineage of Baul, there is no comparison with any of the new Bauls who are making up stories about lineages ect.. these made up lineage do not exist it is all story. They are singing songs from this lineage,  therefore they come from this lineage or they are singing Bangladeshi folk songs, and that is not Baul

https://www.filmiclub.com/movie/tagari-1985-bengali-movie

Why I say this is because the Bauls dress like this lineage, they sing the songs of this lineage, to make up stories on Baul at this point is a ruining a tradition that is almost extinct. 

There were so many people wandering around Bengal and they all were lumped together as Baul and this is not so. Baul is different from Fakir, Sai, Aula, Shah, Dervish are NOT Baul.

Baul is Das Baul, Dasi Baul and anybody with the name Das Baul comes out of this lineage ONLY. There is not any other lineage, there is only people (Baul singers) who make up lineages using everything from this lineage.

Das Baul and Dasi are Vaishnava and only come from this lineage. 

They are not Fakir, Sai, Aula, or Dervish those are Sufi., they are NOT Baul.

Baul accepted Sufi not the other way around, sufi does not necessarily accept Baul. Sufi is Sufi.

 Baul is Baul and just because they accepted others, feeding people does not mean they became those people, they accepted and just because a random person says they are Baul does not mean they are?

A Baul accepts everybody, it is not necessarily so with Sufi, you do not often see a Sufi singing songs of Krishna and Radha talking about Krishna and Radha and Hinduism but you will see a Baul talking about Sufi, Christianity, Buddhism...

 Baul is based on Indian Philosophy, not Islam, it is based on the Bhagavad Gita.. and is as old as the Bhagavad Gita.

Mirror of the SKY, Nabani Das Khyapa Baul and Deben Battacharya,

Copyright 2000 - 2040

All rights reserved by Babu Kishan

Do not copy and take the names off, no poaching !

Baul Saint 'Nabani Das Khyapa Baul' was a renowned Baul of the "only" oldest living lineage of Baul. All Bauls follow this lineage, this lineage does not follow anybody.Today all Bauls sing his songs but do not even know who Nabani is, they copy everything this lineage does, if they go somewhere, the new Nakal Bauls will even follow, there has even been cases where an events or events have been booked and some Nakal fake baul will come along and under cut and say they can sing for less but they are not even Bauls, they follow, copy. It is sad to see Bauls making up stories of lineages and making Baul about neo tantra and smoking ganja, collecting women and cheating people. 

Baul is ancient they were the original Hare Krishna singers and dancers in West Bengal India. Baul comes from the soul there is no acting. 

One example Nabani Das Khyapa Baul obviously was a very good and deep friend of Deben Bhattacharya and they are friends of Babu's family, there is no reason for an outsider Baul to contact Deben or his family? Then they write about him as if he is their friend without giving any background. This is what they the Nakal Bauls do, they follow and culturally appropriate, these are the Make it til you fake it Bauls. I could mention names but I will leave this for Babu Kishan's book.

Babukishan has spent his life Archiving Baul including Nabani Das Baul songs and songs of the ancestors of this lineage to keep Baul in a context and to stop some of this nonsense of making up lineages and then behind the back singing songs from this lineage? 

Deben Battacharya and Baul Saint Nabani Das Khyeppa Baul were great friends. Deben Bhattacharya wrote a great article in the London Times 'NABANI DAS KHYAPA BAUL A MILESTONE of BAUL of BENGAL' early 1940's, he also wrote a small book on Nabani Das Baul, which has some inaccuracies in it.. especially the death of Nabani Das Baul.. it is a very simple book.

Baul songs are not folk songs, the term folk song became associated with Baul because the Bauls did not understand english and it was the easiest way to describe Baul to a foreigner or outsider, someone who is from outside the tradition. However, this does not mean a Baul can not sing Folk songs, or any songs, a Baul should display some kind of genius, whatever that may be.

Now Bauls have learned english and people have a greater understanding of yoga, so it is not necesssary to describe them as folk singer, they are sadhaka's and spiritual singer of the highest of Indian Philosophies.

When Nabani Das Baul introduced Baul to India there was only "one" lineage. He sang all over India as Nehru's singer during the Freedom Movement in India, Nabani's songs like a pied piper would draw the crowds before the speeches, this is the essence of Baul drawing people together, Babu Kishan along with his Father Purna Das Baul and mother Manju Dasi did this hundreds of times all over India for Indira Gandhi, Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi. 

Today new lineages are born with their new stories of new teachers, sometimes they will give their teachers name and it usually is not a Baul or it was someone who associated with this lineage and perhaps does not want to be associated anymore so they make up stories or even perhaps they want to create something new. 

Lineage is only over a very long period of time, it is not one or two generations.

Yet they are still singing the song of this lineage but with no acknowledgment of where they got the information from or who wrote the songs, everything has to come from somewhere, don't sing songs from this lineage then make up new lineage this is not in alignment with the soul. Bauls are indigenous to Birbhum and it is a complete cultural appropriation, a watering down, dumbing down, and reducing Baul to extinction. 

Bauls are soul singers, Bhakti Yogi's the Vaishnava Bauls or Birbhum are Tantric Bauls.

WWW.BabuKishan.org