96
Popular Culture Review
Ah, where am I to find Him, the Man of my Heart?
Alas, since I lost Him, I wander in search of Him,
Thro’ lands near and far.
And:
The Simple Man was in the Paradise of my heart,
Alas, how and when did I lose Him,
That now no peace I know, at home or abroad?
By meditation and telling of beads, in worship and travail,
The quest goes on for ever;
But unless the Simple Man comes of Himself,
Fruitless is it all;
For he yields not forgetfulness of striving,
Bisha's heart has understood right well,
That by His own simple way alone is its door unlocked.
Tagore, as a boy, had heard a Baul song and he commented on it as
follows: “What struck me in this simple song was a religious expression that
was neither grossly concrete, full of crude details, nor metaphysical in its
rarified transcendentalism, at the same time it was alive with emotional
sincerity. It spoke of an intense yearning of the heart for the divine which is in
Man and not in the temple, or scripture, or in images and symbols."20
The tantric practices of the Bauls are complex, elaborate, and they seek
unity of the infinite and finite within the human body. Tagore said: “The
Supreme is infinite in essence, but finite in his manifestation in all of us
individually . . . Truth is, therefore, infinite and finite at the same time . . . God
is God and man at the same tim e. .. The lover and the loved are one and the
same."21 A Baul song also says:22
Realize how finite and unbounded are One,
As you breathe in and out.
Of all ages, then, you will count the moments,
In every moment find the ages,
The drop in the ocean, the ocean in the drop.
If your endeavor be but sahaj, beyond argument and cognition,
You will taste the precious quintessence.
Blinded are you by over-much journeying from bourne to bourne,
O Gangaram, be simple! Then alone will vanish all your doubts.
The Bauls seek harmony between the past, present, and future (trikalayoga) to assure continuity of life. Harmony is also sought between material and
spiritual worlds, mundane and spiritual needs, and inward and outward
existence. The body is gross and subtle and it i s microcosmic in that all