লালন ফকিরের মাজার

লালন ফকিরের মাজার

Tuesday 10 April 2012

I'M HARUN BAUL SPEAKING (11)


My last discourse dated 7/11/2002 concluded that decomposed things generate organisms and support life. Many animals, fish and birds live on dead or decomposed things - wastes. Vultures, crows and many other species and organisms sustain themselves consuming decomposed wastes only. Crops, plants and trees grow and live on decomposed organisms and clean them. If dead animals and kitchen wastes are all concealed or incinerated in order to maintain environmental cleanliness, then it is more a cleansing act of biodiversity.
Some pundits of Bangladesh suggest cultivation of only large species of fish, for large fish are economically more profitable than that of small ones. These pundits do not think about king-fishers, river-gulls and many other marine birds and snakes that are dependent on small fish for their food.
Being a hard-core religio-philosophical sect, Bauls paradoxically discard conventional religious rites and practices at mosques and temples. They are averse to mosques and temples. Bauls are, instead, ceremonious to nature conservation (seminalism and services to living beings). It is part of their faith: simplicity, spiritualism, seminalism, synthesis and services. Bauls vow their religious faith to the sustainablity of nature - natural wholeness. Their faith is purely nature centric.
It is out and out non-conventional too. Bauls address the Creator of nature not with the conventional attributive names like Ram, Rahim, Gafur, Krisna, Kala, Rahman. They, instead, address Him as Achin Pakhi (unknown bird), Moner Manusa (man of the mind), Meen (fish/semen). Bauls see man, bird and fish in relation to their respective natural habitats such as soil, tree and water. Natural resources are angels/deity to Bauls. Homage to nature is their creed. Bauls, thus, believe in the integrity and sustainability of mother nature.
My guru teaches that living naturally (simplicity) is human's Shariat - code of life. Human health management through conservation of seed energy is their Tariqat - way of life (seminalism). To seek to understand the mystery of mother nature is Baul's Marifat - intellectual exercise (spiritualism), and to facilitate sustainability of the ecosystem is their Haqiqat - reality (synthesis).
Co-existence with harmonious relationships with the ecosystem is Baul values; and ecosystems health management is their religious duty (services). Worshipping, fasting, almsgiving and pilgrimage - all are performed by Bauls, though non-conventionally, in order to maintain harmonious co-existence with the ecosystem. My guru Aziz Shah Fakir interprets Islam and Hinduism in terms of serving nature. Human sin and holiness are considered by Bauls in terms of mantaining eco-systemic balance of a given land. Lalon sings:

পাপ পূণ্যের কথা আমি কারে বা সুধাই।

এক দেশে যা পাপ গণ্য, অন্য দেশে পূণ্য তাই।

Paap punnyer kotha ami kare ba sudhai.
Ai deshe ja paap gonnya, onnya deshe punnya tai.
(Who should I ask about sin and holiness. What is considered as sinful in this country is considered as holy in another).
According to Bauls, human sin in Bangladesh is booming concurrently with the degrading ecosystem health of the country. Aquatic, soil, forest and aero species are declining. Bauls are worried about the present trend of this ecosystemic downfall. Baul pathway to address this situation is required to be adopted before it is too late.
Human's acceptance of subordination to nature has traditionally been functioning in the village value system in respect to the power of soil, light, water and air. Village values treat these four fundamental elements as their angels. Due to the gradual decay of traditional values as occurring globally, village Bangladesh is no exception - it is touched by the same breakdown in values. The country is now infected by the western culture apparent with the lack of values.
Traditional values, therefore, need to be revived if renewable are to be utilised as an integral part of community life support systems: i.e. an 'identification' of the value of renewable (angels) and thedisplacement' of egocentric attitude toward nature. Female Baul guru Laily Shah of Choraikole in Kushtia district believes that renewable can beget sustainability and sustainability can beget human contentment, provided an utter veneration to renewals and ecosystem is sustained in community values system and day to day livelihood practices. She claims that punditsattempts to the ecosystem health management have so far proved rather destructive. It is because of the lack of values. She suggests that pundits of the day must be re-educated with environmental as well as self-development values.
Pundits lack in acquiring values education on the (Bauls') basic principles of human health management (simple living, seminalism and spirituality). Human health management is closely linked up with the ecosystem health management. Human health and ecosystem health go hand in hand and exist in a synergistic sustainability relationship.
Bauls, therefore, stress on the human obligations of maintaining, protecting and improving the quality of environment for the protection of human health and safeguarding the ecological balance. In this regard, devotees learn from my guru Aziz Shah Fakir that overall health of the people of a given region must be declining with a declining ecosystem health. He prophesies that human sustainability is bound to die if the current unsustainable techno-industrial exploitation of natural resources and extravagantly consumptive life-style are not adjusted to that of nature's regenerative capacity. The Fakir often exclaims: Long live sustainability - human sustainability is dying.
Aziz Shah Fakir stresses that industrial and technological growth is destroying much of nature endangering ourselves, and threatening our descendants. We cannot afford to go on with this. We must transform to progress ourselves towards sustainability. Perhaps, we are close to the limits to growth.
The environmental alarms like climatic change, declining biodiversity, falling human sperm counts, slow-downs in food production and water crises are ringing even frequently and loudly with cyclones, floods, droughts, and seasonal climatic absurdity. More serious trouble to come. Still, humanity is concurrently entranced by its own ego for the enjoyment so called better life through perpetual economic and technological growth at the cost of sustainability.
My guru says that we need to completely redesign and rebuild our present development. The implications of this development are staggering. We must transform or replace our development systems with environmentally benign alternatives. Such transformation will enrich us, not impoverish us. It will lead us to progress towards holistic enrichment with social, spiritual and environmental condiments. We will know our purpose of development more profoundly and live together more compassionately. Bauls say that no one knows, ultimately, what the purpose of life is, or even whether the concept of "purpose" is itself a meaningful expression. Our philosophical traditions provide a legacy of questions about it without ultimate answers.
Pundits can increasingly discover what the universe is and how it works, but they cannot approach the ultimate question of why. Religious traditions, in their diversity, do approach this question providing hints, guidance and, for some, the solace and foundation of faith. This is precisely the reason for religion's existence. Attaining sustainability would not even release humanity from such questions: Where do we come from? Why do we suffer and die? How shall we live? What is after-life like? More closer we get to sustainability, the more we can address these questions freely -- and the more our descendants will be free to consider them. Poverty, ecological instability and sustainability insecurity will vanish. Though very few know what a sustainable Bangladesh would look like, it is clear that the country would be far more fascinating than the environment in which we now live.
Knowing of the indicators of our eco-environmental health is the foremost thing. The specific indicators regarding eco-environmental health which could work for Bangladesh may not yet have been identified by pundits. A set of holistic indicators integrating social, spiritual, economic, cultural, education, technological and environmental development and sustainability must be identified by pundits. Indicators for rural self-reliance and environmental sustainability as prescribed by my guru appear as follows:

নদী ভরা জল
মাঠ ভরা ফসল
পুকুর ভরা মাছ
গোয়াল ভরা গরু
বাড়ী ভরা গাছ
পাখির কলতান
শিশুর কোলাহল
বাউলের মাঝির গান
রাতে বন্য জন্তু ভূতের ভয়
nadi vora jol (water in river),
math vora sashya (field full of crops),
pukur vora maas (pond full of fish),
gohal vora garu (cow in the cowshed),
bari vora gaas (homestead with trees),
pakhir kolotan (melodious tune of the birds),
shisur koahol (uproar of children),
bauler o majheer gaan (songs of Bauls and boatmen),
Rathe banya jantu O vuther voy (fear of wild animals and ghosts at night)

Pundits must accept the above indicators or replace them with their own innovation. My guru says that all these indicators are an integral part of our ecosystem health. To maintain the ecosystems in good health, our development endeavours must conform to the above eco-systemic criteria. Pundits talk a lot aboutteksoi unnyon(sustainable development).
If they are asked to write a definition of sustainable development for Bangladesh or if they are asked to provide a blue-print of (post)sustainable development in rural Bangladesh, they talk about the developed countries of the world. They fail to recognise the fact that no country can be sustainably developed imitating others; simply because, ecosystems and culture vary from place to place, environment to environment. Pundits are in deed hopeless in this regard. We need to find the pathway from our naturalist gurus and declining our eco-cultural tradition. We must learn how to appreciate

স্রষ্টা গড়াইছেন ধরণী কি সুন্দর করিয়া
যেখানে যা লাগে তাই দিয়া।
Sroshtha goraiasen dhoroni ki sundar koria
Jekhane ja lage tai dia.
(How beautifully the Creator has built up this earth providing things at their appropriate places).
Long live sustainability. We must not let it die.



Dated 28/05/2003. www.bangladesh-web.com
Md. Amzad Hossain

1 comment:

  1. ভাই,
    মহাত্মা লালনকে নিয়ে লেখা তথ্যবহুল চমৎকার ব্লকগুলোর জন্য অসংখ্য ধন্যবাদ । উদ্ধৃত তাত্ত্বিক গানগুলো প্রচলিত শিল্পীদের কন্ঠে খুব কমই শোনা যায় । এ ধরনের গানগুলোর ভক্ত হওয়ার কারনে বিশেষ করে- "স্রষ্টা গড়াইছেন ধরণী কি সুন্দর করিয়া, যেখানে যা লাগে তাই দিয়া।"---গানটি মেইল করলে / ডাউনলোড করার জন্য লিংক দিলে ভীষন ভালো লাগতো ।
    ধন্যবাদান্তে,
    মোঃ গিয়াস উদ্দীন চৌধুরী

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