Featuring Parvathy Baul, one of the few performing female bauls, the 71 year old Narayan Chandra Adhikari all in saffron, The patchwork tapestery of the bearded Shyam Sunder Das Baul and the Sreekhol (percussion) sophistry of young Bidyut Rajbongshi.
What does Baul mean? Rootless, with no attachment? Air, like the very deep breath of meditation that takes us to divine salvation? Or is it just madness, a crazed, unconditional love for the One that sustains us all? Like all means of finding truth within and without, the tradition of Baul is an organism that encompasses all those answers.
Baul has its roots in West Bengal, India, and is of the same brand of rising-above-religion mysticism as Sufism. Hindu Baul practitioners have had fakirs for gurus and vice versa, enabling this form to truly look at the individual soul placed in the larger picture without the constraints of popular religious dogmas. Its very roots lie in a rebellion against the horrors that the caste system entails. This is truly a community for anyone, woman or man, rich or poor, Guru or shishya. It doesn’t matter if the words, performance, or energy draw you to the Baul.
Unlike the moth to the flame, the light that they live in and so eagerly share is one that can lift us beyond the limitations of our existential angst. The light that can help us touch beatitude. The light of life, love and the infinite.
0 Comments
You can be the first one to leave a comment.