Baul

“… Albert Grossman- Bob Dylan's ex-manager invited me to the US to sing at a music festival in San Francisco. I toured the US singing at other music festivals and thereafter Grossman took me to Bearsville, Bob Dylan's hometown. Bearsville was situated in the township of Woodstock. Known world wide as the quintessential New England Village, Woodstock is a pretty tiny town and the Western pilgrimage for music lovers and artists. It's a desolate town in the downtown area you'll find quaint shops and galleries with spiral staircases. It's a unique experience to explore its alleys and hidden side streets. Its countryside is full of surprises with cosy farms, mysterious inns and hospitable country stores.

Bearsville gets its name from the bears, which were on the prowl there to eat apples from its orchards and grapes from vineyards. Thankfully I never came face to face with a bear. I would love to see deer rolling on the grass bed carpeted with apples. Rabbits would scurry about and birds would chirp all day.  When I was working with Bob Dylan I lived in a wooden house with an adjoining swimming pool in the hilly woods in Bearsville. Dylan was a very friendly young man. On coming to know that we could only eat rice he had sent over sacks full of rice to our home and said that we weren't allowed to leave until we had consumed all of it. Dylan loved Indian dishes. In fact he would often come over and taste my wife's khichri. She would add apples instead of potatoes as the fruit grew in abundance there.

The recording studio of Bearsville looked like a castle in the woods. It was an ideal fairy tale setting. My guesthouse was situated very close to the music studio. I could work at the studio whenever I wanted to and if I was not in the mood of composing music I could come home. I remember Dylan traversing the countryside on horseback and strumming his guitar seated on a barrel. I fondly recollect all the jamming sessions with him. Before long we recorded albums together. Dylan would call himself the 'baul of America'. He pointed out to me that he wore patchwork jeans very much like my pied guduri and we both sang songs celebrating humanity- so where did the difference lie?

Meeting Mick Jagger in Nice, France was an equally stimulating experience. It was the hippie age when I toured France. Nice is a city with great scenic beauty. Green pine forests fringe the deep blue shores of the Mediterranean and the landscape soon ascends into a rocky and hilly terrain. The museums of Nice and its intellectual ambience have attracted artists, painters, writers, sculptors and musicians.

Mick Jagger's manager had invited me to work at the Rolling Stones studio in Nice. Ironically I had no idea who Mick Jagger was at that time though his music company had invited me. The Rolling Stones building was on the seashore was of palatial grandeur. It resembled the Victoria Memorial and had a beautiful glass ceiling from which sunlight poured in. I would spend hours gazing at the crystal blue waters of the Mediterranean and the amazing aquatic life down below. The recording studio was underground completely cut off from any external sound.

When I first saw Mick Jagger he was on the seashore dancing to my music with the agility of a snake and then started strumming his guitar.  I was slightly far off singing, but we could see one another. Not knowing who he really was I told his manager that his dance was distracting me. His manager simply politely requested me to turn away from him and sing. 

To my surprise soon I got a dinner invitation from Mick Jagger. He was driving like crazy while taking us up the hill to his home. He had turned an old castle to his home set amidst grape vines. Rolls Royce and sports cars were parked in front of his house.  I was his special guest. Mick Jagger was then married to Bianca, a daughter was born to them, he specially requested me to bless and name his daughter, as I was a spiritual person from India.  I named his daughter Krishna.  Jagger treated us to a lavish banquet. Chubby, colorful pet cats roamed about in his house. Mick Jagger was a motorbike racer - had many bikes and a helicopter. He fast became friends with the youngest son who was a child at that time and showered him with gifts.  I recorded the album Jai Bangla with him.

I had taken just one picture with Jagger and when I got it developed at a studio in London, the person at the counter asked me how I had got to know him.  I said both of us were artists.  Right then the television in the studio started beaming Mick Jagger coming out of his home and travelling to the airport.  "This is Mick Jagger, one of the greatest musicians of the world."

I have toured many countries.  All my air tickets will form a huge pile.  Bauls are wanderers who can never stay at one place for a long time.  Every country of the world is my home.  Every country I have been to has been of special significance to me starting from Japan - the land of the rising sun to the far West.  I can visit the same country many times and every time I'll be enchanted by something refreshingly new.  I am also proud to be a cultural ambassador of India.  It was a great honor to me to sing at the Tennessee Folk Festival.  I have a Baul Academy in San Diego now and have to travel there often.  It's nice when foreigners come forward to touch my feet at airports saying they have been overwhelmed by my music. 

It has also been a pleasure travelling with my family; two of my sons are settled in Mumbai and Paris, so I visit those cities regularly.  My wife has accompanied me on most of my travels, she is a musician too, and both of us have many memorable travel memories. Santiniketan is a favorite travel destination of mine because it is so close to Kolkata and I have formed a Baul Society there.  It is true that urbanization is gradually creeping into Santiniketan - there are more streets, Internet cafes and high rises. Yet, it still has peace, sanctity and cultural ambience. 

Though I have a house at Dhakuria in Kolkata, I have no fixed address whatsoever. I am still a wanderer at 74 years of age. I'd like to share with you a few lines of my favorite baul song:

“Our body is like a vehicle always travelling fueled by water and wind. From dust we have come and after our travels are over we will return to dust.”

~  Purna Das Baul Samrat, (born 1933) is an Indian musician and singer, in Baul tradition. He has worked with artists such as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Mahalia Jackson, Peter Paul & Mary, Allen Ginsberg, Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Marley, The Band, Peter Gabriel and others. Purna Das has participated in many storytelling festivals, and has given workshops at numerous universities around the world. Purna Das is author of ‘Baul Philosophy’, the first comprehensive account introducing the spiritual tenets of the Baul tradition from an insider’s point of view.

Photos ~ Purna Das with Bob Dylan
~ Purna Das(right) with Mick Jagger(center)
~ Purna at 'Saama Festival'

"The Baul are a group of mystic minstrels from Bengal, which includes the Indian State of West Bengal and the country of Bangladesh; they are completely extinct there now. Bauls constitute both a syncretic religious sect and a musical tradition. Bauls are a very heterogeneous group, with many sects, but their membership mainly consists of Vaishnava Hindus and Sufi Muslims. They can often be identified by their distinctive clothes and musical instruments. Not much is known of their origin. Lalon Fokir is regarded as the most important poet-practitioner of the Baul tradition. Baul music had a great influence on Rabindranath Tagore's poetry and on his music (Rabindra Sangeet).

Although Bauls comprise only a small fraction of the Bengali population, their influence on the culture of Bengal is considerable. In 2005, the Baul tradition was included in the list of "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" by UNESCO." ~ Wikipedia


 "One day I chanced to hear a song from a beggar belonging to the Baul sect of Bengal...What struck me in this simple song was a religious expression that was neither grossly concrete, full of crude details, nor metaphysical in its rarefied transcendentalism. At the sametime it was alive with an emotional sincerity, it spoke of an intense yearning of the heart for the divine, which is in man and not in the temple or scriptures, in images or symbols... I sought to understand them through their songs, which is their only form of worship." ~ Rabindranath Tagore


  "The unknown Bird in the cage... how does it fly in and out? Catch it, I would, if I could... and put my mind's chains on its feet. There are eight rooms with nine doors, with latice-work in between. On top of that, there' s a central yard and a hall of mirrors. The unknown Bird in the cage... how does it fly in and out? The Bird wouldn't behave so, had it not been for my ill-luck. It has broken through its Cage and flown away somewhere.... The unknown Bird in the cage... how does it fly in and out? O Mind, you have lived with high hopes, but your Cage is made of raw bamboo. One day this Cage (too) will fall and break. Lalon says, "The door 's ajar, the Bird's flown!" The unknown Bird in the cage... how does it fly in and out? The unknown Bird in the cage... how does it fly in and out? Catch it, I would, if I could... and put my mind's chains on its feet." ~ Lalon was devoted to love, freedom and peace expressed in his songs. He taught the way of everlasting peace. Lalon Shah left no written copies of his songs, which were transmitted orally and only later transcribed by his followers. Kangal Harinath Majumdar (1833-1896) was his direct disciple. Rabindranath Tagore was also inspired by his songs and published some of them in the monthly Prabasi of Kolkata.

Lalon died at Chheuriya, at the age of 116 on 17 October 1890 as known.
Thousands of bauls and their followers together with the members of huge public come to the shrine (akkra bari) on the occasion of his death anniversary to pay homage to their great spiritual leader and stay there five continuous days and nights singing, praying which the bauls term as 'sadhu sheba' or service to saints."