Lalon also called Lalon Shah, Lalon Sain, Lalon Fakir or Mahatma Lalon Fakir; (lifetime 1774–1890), was a Bengali Baul saint, mystical, social reformer, songwriter and thinker. In Bengali traditions he has become an symbol of religious open-mindedness whose songs stimulated and influenced lots of poets and social and religious thinkers including Kazi Nazrul Islam, Rabindranath Tagore and Allen Ginsberg – though, as he “rejected all distinctions of caste and creed”, he was both praised and criticized in his lifetime and later than his death. His disciples by and large live in Bangladesh and West Bengal. Lalon founded the institute known as Lalon Akhdah in Cheuriya, about 2 km. away from Kushtia railway station.
Lalon is also regarded as the founder of the Baul music. Lalon composed several songs and poems, which explain his philosophy. It is believed that he had composed about 10,000 songs of which 2,000-3,000 can be tracked down today at the same time as others are lost in time and hearts of his many followers. The majority of his followers could not read or write either, so a small number of his songs are found in written form.
Amongst his most popular songs are Shob Loke Koy Lalon Ki Jat Shongshare, Jat Gelo Jat Gelo Bole, Khachar Bhitor Ochin Pakhi, Dekhna Mon Jhokmariay Duniyadari, Milon Hobe Koto Dine, Pare Loye Jao Amai, Ar Amare Marishne Ma, Dhonno Dhonno Boli Tare, Barir Pashe Arshi Nagar, Opar Hoye Bose Asi Ohe Doyamoy, Tin Pagoler Holo Mela, Bede ki Tar Marmo Jane, Manob Somaj, Gurur Choron, etc.
The songs of Lalon aspire at a beggaring description reality ahead of realism. He was sharp-eyed of social conditions and his songs strut of day-to-day problems in easy yet moving language. His philosophy was articulated orally, as well as through songs and musical compositions using folk instruments that could be prepared from materials available at home; the duggi (drum) and the ektara (one-string musical instrument).
Early Life of Lalon
There are few dependable sources for the details of Lalon‘s early life as he was restrained in revealing his past, though there has been substantial conjecture about his physical manifestation, religious background etc. One explanation relates that Lalon was born of Hindu Kayastha parents and that, for the duration of a pilgrimage to Murshidabad with others of his local village, he tapered smallpox and was discarded by his companions on the banks of the Ganges, from where Malam Shah and his wife Matijan, members of the weaver group of people in a Muslim-populated village, Cheouria, took him to their home to recover from smallpox.
They gave Lalon land to live where he founded a musical group and continued to compose and perform his songs, stimulated by Shiraj Sain, a musician of that village.
Philosophy of Lalon
Lalon was in opposition to religious argument and lots of of his songs ridicule uniqueness politics that separate communities and create violence. Lalon even discarded nationalism at the peak of the anti-colonial nationalist arrangements in the Indian subcontinent. He did not accept as true in classes or castes, the disjointed, hierarchical society, and took a stand against racism.
Lalon does not fit the “mystical” or “spiritual” type who denies all worldly wise relationships in look for the soul: he embodies the communally trans-formative role of sub-continental bhakti and sufism.
Lalon believed in the power of music to modify the scholarly and emotional state in order to be capable to understand and be grateful for life itself. The texts of his songs fit into place in philosophical discourses of Bengal, ongoing Tantric traditions of the Indian subcontinent, chiefly Nepal, Bengal and the Gangetic plains. He appropriated a variety of philosophical positions emanating from Hindu, Jainist, Buddhist and Islamic traditions, developing them into an articulate dissertation without falling into eclecticism or syncretism.
Lalon openly identified himself with the Nadiya School, with Nityananda, Advaita Acharya and Chaitanya. He was very much influenced by the social progress initiated by Chaitanya adjacent to differences of caste, creed and religion. His songs refuse any absolute standard of right and wrong and show the inconsequence of any effort to separate people whether materially or spiritually.
Source: Wikipedia
