o mon amar, shajo prokriti

Indian street music . the bauls of Bengal O MON AMAR, SHAJO PROKRITI Lakshman Das, singer O my mind, recognize your nature. Grasp the character of your nature, train yourself. The body’s desire will be sublimated. Turn upside-down that which is in the six-petals. If that goes to the two-petals, the light will burst forth. Then there will be an end to wrong; desire will become devotion. Take to the thousand petals that which is in the muladhar. You will go to the banks of the Viraja— there will be union with her. That youthful, wanton, very sensuous figure, having given such sweet desire to a being, makes him obtain the company of Krishna. Rupchand says, “Self, first go to take hold of that Self. In that Self you will get to see the likeness of the light of ten million moons.” A deha-tattva poem, this deals with the cultivation of the body and mind known as yoga. Through complex physical and mental disciplines, the initiate attempts to arouse the spiritual energy, conceived of as a beautiful young girl, lying dormant in a lotus just below the genitals (muladhar) and to bring her to another lotus located in the head. There she is united with a passive god without attributes, of whom she represents the creative energy. Unlike the stereotyped Indian holy man who renounces the senses, the Bauls accept their cooperation in their spiritual quest. Sexual desire is considered to be the spring from which all the higher types of love and affection flow. The orthodox Vaishnavite accepts this theory only as an intellectual metaphor, but the Bauls are often literal minded. However different the methods and interpretations, the end is the same: to reach the shores of the river Viraja. For the Bauls this means to attain heavenly bliss in this world within their own bodies.