লালন ফকিরের মাজার

লালন ফকিরের মাজার

Tuesday 10 April 2012

I’M HARUN BAUL SPEAKING (6)


বসত বাড়ীর ঝগড়া কেজো কিছুতে আর মিটলো না।
কার গোয়ালে কে দাই ধুঁনা, সব দেখি তা না না না না
Basat barir jhaghra kejo kisute ar mitlo na.
Kar gohale k e dai dhu(n)a, sab dekhi ta na na na na.

ঘরের চোরে ঘর মারে যার,
বসতে সুখ হয় কিসে তার,
ভূতের কীর্তন যেমনি প্রকার,
তেমনি তার বসত খানা।
দেখে শুনে আত্মা কলো,
কর্তা ভক্তি হতে হলো,
সাক্ষাতে ধন চুরি গেলো,
লজ্জা তো আর গেলো না।
সর্ব জয় হাকিমের তরে,
আরজি করি বারে বারে,
লালন বলে সেও তো মোরে,
একবার ফিরে চাইলো না।
Gharer chore ghar mare jar,
Basate shukh hoy kishe tar,
Bhuter kirtan jemni prokar,
temni tar basat khana.
Dekhe shune atman kolo,
Karta bakti hotho holo,
Sakshate dhon churi gelo,
a lojjato ar gelo na.
Sarba joy hakimer tare,
Arjee kori bare bare,
Lalon bale seo to more,
ekbar fire chailo na.

(No efforts could succeed in resolving the (political) conflicts in Bangladesh. Blames spur endlessly.
If things are stolen by a boarder of a household, how can living be peaceful? Living then matches with the songs of ghosts.
Observing the intra-(political)family conflicts, the patriots of the country are hurt. Wealth is stolen in front of owner. This shame is not erasable.
People urge again and again to the Supreme Judge. Lalon says: He also doesn't care).

When Bauls sing this song, it enlightens the listeners to open their third eye, which may help find both physical and spiritual solutions for the problems of poverty, population, energy and the environment. I would like to appeal to the patriots, in-side and out-side of Bangladesh, towards this end. A sustainable solution to our problems would, hopefully, emerge.

One of our political leaders has provided a bait for a solution. Sheikh Hasina has offered "a self-reliant economy free from hunger and poverty". For this, she asks majority of the voters to caste their votes in her bowl. She could not achieveself-reliant economyin her five-year-long tenure. She said that corruption and terrorism are deeply rooted in our society because of misrule in 20 years after the change-over through assassination of the Father of the Nation on August 15, 1975. Disrespecting her views, Transparency International (TI) indicates that currently Bangladesh is the worlds most corrupted country.

Both Sheikh Hasina and BNP are talking aboutSelf-relianceorself-reliant economyfree from hunger and poverty; and colonialism, imperialism etc. (www.bnp-bd.org). According to Baul-philosophy,self-reliant economyhas nothing to do with hunger and poverty. Hunger and poverty co-exist as synergy of religious(practice)lessness and extra-vagant consumerism. We hear about the perennial presence of hunger and poverty in countries withaffluent economy. Whatever be in the documents of the detached/non-patriots, Bangladesh is ever qualified to be a country ofself-reliant economy. Bauls secular religious philosophy and moderate consumerism are required to be followed in order to sustain theself-reliancestate of the country. The (unnecessary) presence of so many outsiders in Bangladesh clearly testify the fact that bees are only attracted to flowers which have honey. Unless the leaders are educated as to why is Bangladesh attracted to so-called developed-designated countries, the country will remainaid-reliant. This is why Lalon Fakir grieves:

আপন ঘরে বোঝাই সোনা,
পাড়ে করে লেনা দেনা
ভাবে আমি হ্লাম জনম কানা,
না পাই দেখিতে।
Apon ghare bojhai sona,
Pare kare lena dena
Vabe ami holam janam kana,
Na pai dekkhite.
(Gold is stored in my own home; others trade on it. As I am a born-blind; so cannot see).

In my previous discourse (www.bangladesh-web.com/news) dated June 6, 2001), I unveiled why alleviation of poverty (and hunger) from Bangladesh is not possible and not even desirable. I go forself-reliant livelihoodinstead ofself-reliant economyto make poverty and affluence irrelevant to rural living. To enable people in acquiring self-reliant living is the sustainable solution of the countrys poverty issue. Self-reliance in Bangladesh context has some special connotations. Geographical, cultural, political and environmental characteristics that dictate village livelihood seldom allow a sustainable alleviation of village poverty. The traditional self-reliant living is achievable. The traditional self-reliant living for village Bangladesh is indifferent of poverty and non-poverty. It is understood as a state of living that can meet the basic necessities from within the extent of household activities and religious speculations.

My guru Aziz Shah Fakir understandsself-relianceas an ethically righteous socio-economic culture where people follow Nature and its environment. The guru teaches that self-reliant living is a state of spirituality where people have no worries for tomorrow, as other members of nature are free from such worries. He also reveals that achieving self-reliance requires livelihood re-birth in this age of energy-driven technology. The socio-economic culture of the villager in the past, even now in some cases, manifest that self-reliant households deploy appropriate technologies. It is significant that in the past there was no scarcity of land, yet people adopted diverse industrial productivity in the past. This suggests that components of self-reliance for Bangladesh villagers include industrial productivity that are essential for achieving sustainability in terms of food items and non-food essentials.
The results of poverty alleviating efforts suggest that though poverty does exist in Bangladesh, it is not the key problem in itself. Problem rather lies elsewhere. Providing imported food, medicinal nutrition, chemical inputs to agriculture, irrational and indiscriminate credit facilities to the poor and random rural infrastructure development - all resulted in the destruction of rural livelihood infrastructure. None of the above can contribute towards self-reliance; rather they can do more sustaining harm than any good of lasting nature.
The last three decades have seen many models of development in village Bangladesh including that of Grameen Bank. The World Food Program (WFP) informs that 30 million ultra-poor have emerged within the last 30 years. It questions about the existing development models It is clear that proper development is unlikely unless the village people of Bangladesh are provided with affordable appropriate technologies for home-scale productivity, including the technologies for harnessing renewable energy.
Home-scale productivity is not only a means to attaining self-reliance for village Bangladesh, its social and environmental impacts are opposite to large-scale industrialisation. As soon as a traditional society embarks on the path of economic development through large-scale industrialisation, its population simply explodes. This has occurred in Bangladesh. We need to find a sustainable solution to our population, resource depletion and dependence problems. The solution lies in adopting appropriate technological patterns that can begetself-reliant livelihoodin the geo-environmental and cultural contexts of Bangladesh.

Previously, I emphasised renewable energy in relation to its significance in environmental fix. Fate Mollas (fatemolla@hotmail.com) recent comments have led me to deal with the environment syncretising socio-political and spiritual elements. The Molla believes that Baulsmystic, non-violent and spiritual way of looking at our problems require our leaders to be properly educated to realise what Bauls say. As Bauls see things across the wall using their inner eye; maybe their prophecy is ahead of time. But Baulsway is to open a door of possibility. Their way of religious contemplations which includesexo-yogicpractices is an infallible possibility for our mania to control population growth; though Bauls say that a child comes with only one mouth to eat, but two hands to beget. Population control program as effective in our well off educated community is leading the country into intellectual bankruptcy.

Dated 10/08/2001 www.bangladesh-web.com


Md. Amzad Hossain

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