Music is my religion

                                                                                          

     The wandering bauls of Bengal take singing as their religion
             

             a documentary on the life of the bauls
                
                 https://youtu.be/TOJKIaJEfMY

The Bauls wander from place to place carrying their ektara in one hand. Music is their life and also their only source of income. They live on whatever the villagers give them in return of their music.

Baul music comes from the heart as they pour all their feelings and emotions into the songs they make. They have devoted their entire life to baul music. As they have an oral tradition, the bauls never write down their songs.

Baul consists mainly of philosophical themes in the lyrics, including allegories on the divide between an earthly soul and the spiritual realm. The baul lyrics often talk about various forms of love and spirituality love and spiritualize love and many other bonds between various souls. Baul lyrics also talk about the numerous mysteries of life, the mystifying laws of nature and the final union of a soul with the powers of the universe.

                                                   Priyamvada Gupta

A poem by Sarojini Naidu on the wandering singers

Wandering Singers by Sarojini Naidu

Where the voice of the wind calls our wandering feet,

Through echoing forests and echoing streets,

With lutes in our hands ever-singing we roam,

All men are our kindred, the world is our home.

Our lays are of cities whose lustre is shed

The laughter of women long dead;

the sword of old battles, the crown of old kings,

And happy and simple and sorrowful things.

What hope shall we gather, what dreams shall we sow?

Where the winds call our wandering footsteps go.

No love bids us tarry, no joy bids us wait:

The voice of the wind is the voice of our fate.

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