We have our personal self. It has its desires which struggle to create a world where they could have their unrestricted activity and satisfaction. While it goes on we discover that our self-realiza- tion reaches its perfection in the abnegation of self. This fact has made us aware that the individual finds his meaning in a fundamental reality compre- hending all individuals — the reality which is the moral and spiritual basis of the realm of human values. This belongs to our religion. As science is the liberation of our knowledge in the universal reason which cannot be other than human reason, religion is the liberation of our individual person- ality in the universal Person who is human all the same.
The ancient explorers in psychology in India who declare that our emancipation can be carried still further into a realm where infinity is not bounded by human limitations, are not content with advancing this as a doctrine; they advocate igi THE RELIGION OF MAN its pursuit for the attainment of the highest goal of man. And for its sake the path of discipline has been planned which should be opened out across our life through all its stages helping us to develop our humanity to perfection so that we may surpass it in a finality of freedom.
Perfection has its two aspects in man which can to some extent be separated, the perfection in being, and perfection in doing. It can be imagined that through some training or compulsion good works may possibly be extorted from a man who personally may not be good. Activities that have fatal risks are often undertaken by cowards even though they are conscious of the danger. Such works may be useful and may continue to exist beyond the lifetime of the individual who produced them. And yet where the question is not that of utility but of moral perfection we hold it important that the individual should be true in his goodness. His outer good work may continue to produce good results but the inner perfection of his personality has its own immense value which for him is spirit- ual freedom and for humanity is an endless asset though we may not know it. For goodness repre- sents the detachment of our spirit from the exclu- siveness of our egoism; in goodness we identify ourselves with the universal humanity. Its value is not merely in some benefit for our fellow beings but in its truth itself through which we realize THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE within US that man is not merely an animal bound by his individual passions and appetites but a spirit that has its unfettered perfection. Goodness is the freedom of our self in the world of man, as is love. We have to be true within, not for worldly duties but for that spiritual fulfilment, which is in har- mony with the Perfect, in union with the Eternal. If this were not true, then mechanical perfection would be considered to be of higher value than the spiritual. In order to realize his unity with the universal, the individual man must live his perfect life which alone gives him the freedom to tran- scend it.
Doubtless Nature, for its own biological pur- poses, has created in us a strong faith in life, by keeping us unmindful of death. Nevertheless, not only our physical existence, but also the environ- ment which it builds up around itself, may desert us in the moment of triumph, the greatest pros- perity comes to its end, dissolving into emptiness; the mightiest empire is overtaken by stupor amidst the flicker of its festival lights. All this is none the less true because its truism bores us to be reminded of it.
And yet it is equally true that, though all our mortal relationships have their end, we cannot ignore them with impunity while they last. If we behave as if they do not exist, merely because they will not continue forever, they will all the same THE RELIGION OF MAN exact their dues, with a great deal over by way of penalty. Trying to ignore bonds that are real, albeit temporary, only strengthens and prolongs their bondage. The soul is great, but the self has to be crossed over in order to reach it. We do not attain our goal by destroying our path.
Our teachers in ancient India realized the soul of man as something very great indeed. They saw no end to its dignity, which found its consumma- tion in Brahma himself. Any limited view of man would therefore be an incomplete view. He could not reach his finality as a mere Citizen or Patriot, for neither City nor Country nor the bub- ble called the World, could contain his eternal soul.
Bhartrihari, who was once a king, has said: What if you have secured the fountain-head of all desires; what if you have put your foot on the neck of your enemy, or by your good fortune gathered friends around you? What, even, if you have succeeded in keeping mortal bodies alive for ages — tatah him, what then?
That is to say, man is greater than all these ob- jects of his desire. He is true in his freedom.
But in the process of attaining freedom one must bind his will in order to save its forces from dis- traction and wastage, so as to gain for it the veloc- ity which comes from the bondage itself. Those also, who seek liberty in a purely political plane, constantly curtail it and reduce their freedom of THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE thought and action to that narrow limit which is necessary for making political power secure, very often at the cost of liberty of conscience.
India had originally accepted the bonds of her social system in order to transcend society, as the rider puts reins on his horse and stirrups on his own feet in order to ensure greater speed towards his goal.
The Universe cannot be so madly conceived that desire should be an interminable song with no finale. And just as it is painful to stop in the mid- dle of the tune, it should be as pleasant to reach its final cadence.
India has not advised us to come to a sudden stop while work is in full swing. It is true that the unending procession of the world has gone on, through its ups and downs, from the beginning of creation till to-day; but it is equally obvious that each individual’s connection therewith does get finished. Must he necessarily quit it without any sense of fulfilment?
So, in the divisions of man’s world-life which we had in India, work came in the middle, and freedom at the end. As the day is divided into morning, noon, afternoon and evening, so India had divided man’s life into four parts, following the requirements of his nature. The day has the waxing and waning of its light; so has man the waxing and waning of his bodily powers. Ac- I9S THE RELIGION OF MAN knowledging this, India gave a connected meaning to his life from start to finish.
First came brahmacharya, the period of disci- pline in education; then garhasthya, that of the world’s work; then vanaprasthya, the retreat for the loosening of bonds; and finally pravrajya, the expectant awaiting of freedom across death.
We have come to look upon life as a conflict with death, — the intruding enemy, not the natural ending, — in impotent quarrel with which we spend every stage of it. When the time comes for youth to depart, we would hold it back by main force. When the fervour of desire slackens, we would revive it with fresh fuel of our own devising. When our sense organs weaken, we urge them to keep up their efforts. Even when our grip has relaxed we are reluctant to give up possession. We are not trained to recognize the inevitable as natural, and so cannot give up gracefully that which has to go, but needs must wait till it is snatched from us. The truth comes as conqueror only because we have lost the art of receiving it as guest.
The stem of the ripening fruit becomes loose, its pulp soft, but its seed hardens with provision for the next life. Our outward losses, due to age, have likewise corresponding inward gains. But, in man’s inner life, his will plays a dominant part, so that these gains depend on his own disciplined THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE Striving; that is why, in the case of undisciplined man, who has omitted to secure such provision for the next stage, it is so often seen that his hair is grey, his mouth toothless, his muscles slack, and yet his stem-hold on life has refused to let go its grip, so much so that he is anxious to exercise his will in regard to worldly details even after death.
But renounce we must, and through renuncia- tion gain, — that is the truth of the inner world.
The flower must shed its petals for the sake of fruition, the fruit must drop off for the re-birth of the tree. The child leaves the refuge of the womb in order to achieve the further growth of body and mind in which consists the whole of the child life; next, the soul has to come out of this self-contained stage into the fuller life, which has varied relations with kinsman and neighbour, together with whom it forms a larger body; lastly comes the decline of the body, the weakening of desire, and, enriched with its experiences, the soul now leaves the nar- rower life for the universal life, to which it dedi- cates its accumulated wisdom and itself enters into relations with the Life Eternal; so that, when finally the decaying body has come to the very end of its tether, the soul views its breaking away quite simply and without regret, in the expectation of its own entry into the Infinite.
From individual body to community, from com- THE RELIGION OF MAN munity to universe, from universe to Infinity, — this is the soul’s normal progress.
Our teachers, therefore, keeping in mind the goal of this progress, did not, in life’s first stage of education, prescribe merely the learning of books or things, but brakmackarya, the living in discipline, whereby both enjoyment and its renun- ciation would come with equal ease to the strength- ened character. Life being a pilgrimage, with lib- eration in Brahma as its object, the living of it was as a spiritual exercise to be carried through its dif- ferent stages, reverently and with a vigilant deter- mination. And the pupil, from his very initiation, had this final consummation always kept in his view.
Once the mind refuses to be bound by temperate requirements, there ceases to be any reason why it should cry halt at any particular limit; and so, like trying to extinguish fire with oil, its acquisi- tions only make its desires blaze up all the fiercer. That is why it is so essential to habituate the mind, from the very beginning, to be conscious of, and desirous of, keeping within the natural limits; to cultivate the spirit of enjoyment which is allied with the spirit of freedom, the readiness for renun- ciation.
After the period of such training comes the period of world-life, — the life of the householder. Manu tells us: THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE It is not possible to discipline ourselves so effectively if out of touch with the world, as while pursuing the world-life with wisdom.
That is to say, wisdom does not attain complete- ness except through the living of life; and disci- pline divorced from wisdom is not true discipline, but merely the meaningless following of custom, which is only a disguise for stupidity.
Work, especially good work, becomes easy only when desire has learnt to discipline itself. Then alone does the householder’s state become a centre of welfare for all the world, and instead of being an obstacle, helps on the final liberation.
The second stage of life having been thus spent, the decline of the bodily powers must be taken as a warning that it is coming to its natural end. This must not be taken dismally as a notice of dismissal to one still eager to stick to his post, but joyfully as maturity may be accepted as the stage of ful- filment.
After the infant leaves the womb, it still has to remain close to its mother for a time, remaining attached in spite of its detachment, until it can adapt itself to its new freedom. Such is the case in the third stage of life, when man though aloof from the world still remains in touch with it while preparing himself for the final stage of complete freedom. He still gives to the world from his store of wisdom and accepts its support; but this inter- THE RELIGION OF MAN change is not of the same intimate character as in the stage of the householder, there being a new sense of distance.
Then at last comes a day when even such free relations have their end, and the emancipated soul steps out of all bonds to face the Supreme Soul.
Only in this way can man’s world-life be truly lived from one end to the other, without being en- gaged at every step in trying ‘ conclusions with death, not being overcome, when death comes in due course, as by a conquering enemy.
For this fourfold way of life India attunes man to the grand harmony of the universal, leaving no room for untrained dbires of a rampant individu- alism to pursue their destructive career unchecked, but leading them on to their ultimate modulation in the Supreme.
If we really believe this, then we must uphold an ideal of life in which everything else, — the dis- play of individual power, the might of nations, — must be counted as subordinate and the soul of man must triumph and liberate itself from the bond of personality which keeps it in an ever revolving circle of limitation.
If that is not to be, tatah him, what then?
But such an ideal of the utter extinction of the individual separateness has not a universal sanction in India. There are many of us whose prayer is for dualism so that for them the bond of devotion THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE with God may continue forever. For them religion is a truth which is ultimate and they refuse to envy those who are ready to sail for the further shore of existence across humanity. They know that human imperfection is the cause of our sorrow but there is a fulfilment in love within the range of our lim- itation which accepts all sufferings and yet rises above them.
CHAB^ER XV CONCLUSION In the Sanskrit Language the bird is described as “twice-born” — once in its limited shell and then finally in the freedom of the unbounded sky. Those of our community who believe in the liberation of man’s limited self in the freedom of the spirit re- tain the same epithet for themselves. In all de- partments of life man shows this dualism — his existence within the range of obvious facts and his transcendence of it in a realm of deeper meaning.
Having this instinct inherent in his mind which ever suggests to him the crossing of the border, he has never accepted what is apparent as final and his incessant struggle has been to break through the shell of his limitations. In this attempt he often goes against the instincts of his vital nature, and even exults in his defiance of the extreme penal laws of the biological kingdom. The best wealth of his civilization has been achieved by his follow- ing the guidance of this instinct in his ceaseless adventure of the Endless Further. His achieve- ment of truth goes far beyond his needs and the realization of his self strives across the frontier CONCLUSION of its individual interest. This proves to him his infinity and makes his religion real to him by his own manifestation in truth and goodness. Only for man there can be religion because his evolution is from efiiciency in nature towards the perfection of spirit.
According to some interpretations of the Ve- danta doctrine Brahman is the absolute Truth, the impersonal It, in which there can be no distinction of this and that, the good and the evil, the beauti- ful and its opposite, having no other quality except its ineffable blissfulness in the eternal solitude of its consciousness utterly devoid of all things and all thoughts. But, as our religion can only have its significance in this phenomenal world compre- hended by our human self, this absolute conception of Brahman is outside the subject of my discussion. What I have tried to bring out in this book is the fact that whatever name may have been given to the divine Reality it has found its highest place in the history of our religion owing to its human character, giving meaning to the idea of sin and sanctity, and offering an eternal background to all the ideals of perfection which have their harmony with man’s own nature.
We have the age-long tradition in our country, as I have already stated, that through the process of yoga man can transcend the utmost bounds of his humanity and find himself in a pure state of THE RELIGION OF MAN consciousness of his undivided unity with Para- brahman. There is none who has the right to con- tradict this belief; for it is a matter of direct ex- perience and not of logic. It is widely known in India that there are individuals who have the power to attain temporarily the state of Samadhi, the complete merging of the self in the infinite, a state which is indescribable. While accepting their testimony as true, let us at the same time have faith in the testimony of others who have felt a profound love, which is the intense feeling of union, for a Being who comprehends in himself all things that are human in knowledge, will and action. And he is God, who is not merely a sum total of facts, but the goal that lies immensely beyond all that is comprised in the past and the present.
APPENDICES APPENDIX I THE BAtJL SINGERS OF BENGAL (The following account of the Baiils in Northern India has been given in the Visvabharati Quarterly by my friend and fellow-worker, Professor Kshiti Mohun Sen of Santiniketan, to whom I am grateful for having kindly allowed me to reproduce what he has written in this Appendix.)
Baiil means madcap, from bayu (Skt. Vayu) in its sense of nerve current, and has become the appel- lation of a set of people who do not conform to established social usage. This derivation is sup- ported by the following verse of Narahari: That is why, brother, I became a madcap Baul.
No master I obey, nor injunctions, canons or custom.
Now no men-made distinctions have any hold on me.
And I revel only in the gladness of my own welling love- in love there’s no separation, but commingling always.
So 1 rejoice in song and dance with each and all.
These lines also introduce us to the main tenets of the cult. The freedom, however, that the Bauls seek from all forms of outward compulsion goes even further, for among such are recognized as well the compulsions exerted by our desires and antipathies. Therefore, according to this cult, in order to gain real freedom, one has first to die to the life of the world whilst still in the flesh—;-for only then can one be rid of all extraneous claims. Those of the Baiils who have Islamic leanings call such “death in life” fana, a term used by the Sufis THE RELIGION OF MAN THE RELIGION OF MAN to denote union with the Supreme Being. True love, according to the Baiils, is incompatible with any kind of compulsion. Unless the bonds of neces- sity are overcome, liberation is out of the question. Love represents tne wealth of life which is in excess of need...From hard, practical politics touch- ing our earth to the nebulous regions of abstract metaphysics, everywhere India expressed the power of her genius equally well...And yet none of these, neither severally nor collectively, constituted her specific genius; none showed the full height to which she could raise herself, none compassed the veritable amplitude of her inner- most reality. It is when we come to the domain of the Spirit, of God-realization, that we find the real nature and stature and genius of the Indian people; it is here that India lives and moves as in her own home of Truth.
The Baiil cult is followed by householders as well as homeless wanderers, neither of whom ac- knowledge class or caste, special deities, temples or sacred places. Though they congregate on the occasion of religious festivals, mainly of the Vaish- navas, held in special centres, they never enter any temple. They do not set uj) any images of divini- ties, or religious symbols, in their own places of worship or mystic realization. True, they some- times maintain with care and reverence spots sacred to some esteemed master or devotee, but they per- form no worship there. Devotees from the lowest strata of the Hindu and Moslem communities are welcomed into their ranks, hence the Baiils are looked down upon by both. It is possible that their own contempt for temples had its origin in the APPENDICES denial of admittance therein to their low class brethren. What need, say they, have we of other temples, is not this body of ours the temple where the Supreme Spirit has His abode? The human body, despised by most other religions, is thus for them the holy of holies, wherein the Divine is intimately enshrined as the Man of the Heart. And in this wise is the dignity of Man upheld by them.
Kabir, Nanak, Ravidas, Dadu and his followers have also called man’s body the temple of God — the microcosm in which the cosmic abode of the all-pervading Supreme Being is represented.
Kabir says: In this body is the Garden of Paradise; herein are comprised the seven seas and the myriad stars; here is the Creator mani- fest. (I. lOI.)
Dadu says: This body is my scripture; herein the All-Merciful has written for me His message.
Rajjab (Dadu’s chief Moslem disciple) says: Within the devotee is the paper on which the scriptures are written in letters of Life. But few care to read them; they turn a deaf ear to the message of the heart.
Most Indian sects adopt some distinct way of keep- ing the hair of head and face as a sign of their sect or order. Therefore, so as to avoid being dragged into any such distinctions, the Baiils allow hair and beard and moustache to grow freely. Thus do we remain simple, they say. The similar practice of the Sikhs in this matter is to be noted.
THE RELIGION OF MAN Neither do the Baiils believe that lack of clothing or bareness of body conduce to religious merit. According to them the whole body should be kept decently covered. Hence their long robe, for which, if they cannot afford a new piece of cloth, they gather rags and make it of patches. In this they are different from the ascetic sanyasins, but resemble rather the Buddhist monks.
The Baiils do not believe in aloofness from, or renunciation of, any person or thing; their central idea is yoga, attachment to and communion with the divine and its manifestations, as the means of realization. We fail to recognize the temple of God in the bodily life of man, they explain, be- cause its lamp is not alight. The true vision must be attained in which this temple will become mani- fest in each and every human body, whereupon mutual communion and worship will spontane- ously arise. Truth cannot be communicated to those on whom you look down. You must be able to see the divine light that shines within them, for it is your own lack of vision that makes all seem dark.
Kabir says the same thing: In every abode the light doth shine; it is you who are blind that cannot see. When by dint of looking and looking you at length can discern it, the veils of this world will be torn asunder. (II. 33.)
It is because the devotee is not in conununion that he says the goal is far away. (II. 34.)
Many such similarities are to be observed between the sayings of the Bauls and those of the Upper Indian devotees of the Middle Ages, but, unlike the case of the followers of the latter, the Baiils APPENDICES did not become crystallized into any particular order or religious organization. So, in the Baiils of Bengal, there is to be found a freedom and in- dependence of mind and spirit that resists all attempt at definition. Their songs are unique in courage and felicity of expression. But under modern conditions they are becoming extinct, or at best holding on to external features bereft of their original speciality. It would be a great pity if no record of their achievements should be Kept before their culture is lost to the world.
Though the Baiils count amongst their follow- ing a variety of sects and castes, both Hindu and Moslem, chiefly coming from the lower social ranks, they refuse to give any other account of themselves to the questioner than that they are Bauls. They acknowledge none of the social or religious formalities, but delight in the ever-chang- ing play of life, which cannot be expressed in mere words but of which something may be captured in song, through the ineffable medium of rhythm and tune.
Their songs are passed on from Master to disci- ple, the latter when competent adding others of his own, but, as already mentioned, they are never recorded in book form. Their replies to questions are usually given by singing appropriate selections from these songs. If asked the reason why, they say: “We are like birds. We do not walk on our le^, but fly with our wings.”
There was a Brahmin of Bikrampur, known as Chhaku Thakur, who was the disciple of a Baiil of the Namasudra caste (accounted one of the low- est) and hence had lost his place in his own com- 2II THE RELIGION OF MAN munity. When admonished to be careful about what he uttered, so as to avoid popular odium, he answered with the song: Let them relieve their minds by saying what they will, I pursue my own simple way, fearing none at all.
The Mango seed will continue to produce Mango trees, no Jambolans.
This seed of mine will produce the real me — ^all glory to my Master!
Love being the main principle according to the Baiils, a Vaishnava once asked a Baiil devotee whether he was aware of the different kinds of love as classified in the Vaishnava scriptures. “What should an illiterate ignoramus like me know of the scriptures?” was the reply. The Vaishnava then offered to read and explain the text, which he proceeded to do, while the Baul listened with such patience as he could muster. When asked for his opinion, after the reading was over, he sang: A goldsmith, methinks, has come into the flower garden.
He would appraise the lotus, forsooth.
By rubbing it on his touchstone!
Recruits from the higher castes are rare amongst the Baiils. When any such do happen to come, they are reduced to the level of the rest. Are the lower planks of a boat of any lesser importance than the upper? say they.
Once in Vikrampur, I was seated on the river bank by the side of a Baiil. “Father”, I asked him, “why is it that you keep no historical record of yourselves for the use of poster!^?” “We follow the saha] (simple) way”, he replied, “and so leave no trace behind us.” The tide had tnen ebbed, and APPENDICES there was but little water in the river bed. Only a few boatmen were to be seen pushing their boats along the mud. The Baiil continued: “Do the boats that sail over the flooded river leave any mark? What should these boatmen of the muddy track, urged on by their need, know of the sahaj (sim- ple) way? The true endeavour is to keep oneself simply afloat in the stream of devotion that flows through the lives of devotees — ^to mingle one’s own devotion with theirs. There are many classes of men amongst the Bauls, but they are all Bauls — they have no other achievement or history. All the streams that fall into the Ganges become the Ganges. So must we lose ourselves in the common stream, else will it cease to be living.”
On another Baiil being asked why they did not follow the scriptures, “Are we dogs”, he replied, “that we should lick up the leavings of others? Brave men rejoice in the output of their own energy, they create their own festivals. These cowards who have not the power to rejoice in them- selves have to rely on what others have left. Afraid lest the world should lack festivals in the future, they save up the scr^s left over by their predeces- sors for later use. Tney are content with glorify- ing their forefathers because they know not how to create for themselves.”
If you would know that Man, Simple must be your endeavour.
To the region of the simple must you fare.
Pursuers of the path of man’s own handiwork, Who follow the crowd, gleaning their falsp lea'wngs, What news can they get of the Real?
It is hardly to be wondered at that people wHc think thus should have no use for history I THE RELIGION OF MAN We have already noticed that, like all the fol- lowers of the simple way, the Baiils have no faith in specially sacred spots or places of pilgrimage, but that they nevertheless congregate on the occa- sion of religious festivals. If asked why, the Baiil says: We would be within hail of the other Boatmen, to hear their calls, That we may make sure our boat rightly floats on the sahaj stream.
Not what men have said or done in the past, but the living human touch is what they find helpful. Here is a song giving their ideas about pilgrimage: I would not go, my heart, to Mecca or Medina, For behold, I ever abide by the side of my Friend.
Mad would I become, had I dwelt afar, not knowing Him. There's no worship in Mosque or Temple or special holy day. At every step I have my Mecca and Kashi; sacred is every moment.
If a Baiil is asked the age of his cult — ^whether it comes before or after this one or that, he says, “Only the artificial religions of the world are limited by time. Our sahaj (simple, natural) reli- gion is timeless, it has neither beginning nor end, it is of all time.” The religion of the Upanishads and Puranas, even that of the Vedas, is, according to them, artificial.
The followers of the sahaj cult believe only in living religious experience. Truth, according to them, has two aspects, inert and living. Confined to itself truth has no value for man. It becomes priceless when embodied in a living personality. The conversion of the inert into living truth by the APPENDICES APPENDICES devotee they compare to the conversion into milk by the cow of its fodder, or the conversion by the tree of dead matter into fruit. He who has this power of making truth living, is the Guru or Mas- ter. Such Gurus they hold in special reverence, for the eternal and all-pervading truth can only be brought to man’s door by passing through his life.
The Baiils say that emptiness of time and space is required for a playground. That is why God has preserved an emptiness in the heart of man, for the sake of His own play of Love. Our wise and learned ones were content with finding in Brahma the tat (lit. “that” — the ultimate substance). The Baiils, not being Pandits, do not profess to under- stand all this fuss about t hotness, they want a Per- son. So their God is the Man of the Heart {maner manush) sometimes simply the Man {purush). This Man of the Heart is ever and anon lost in the turmoil of things. Whilst He is revealed within, no worldly pleasures can give satisfaction. Their sole anxiety is the finding of this Man.
The Baiil sings: 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.
The agony of separation from Him cannot be miti- gated for them by learning or philosophy: Oh, these words and words, my mind would none of them.
The Supreme Man it must and shall discover.
So long as Him I do not see, these mists slake not my thirst.
Mad am 1; for lack of that Man I madly run about; For his sake the world I’ve left; for Bisha naught else will serve.
THE RELIGION OF MAN This Bisha was a hhuin-mali, by caste, disciple of Bala, the Kaivarta.
This cult of the Supreme Man is only to be found in the Vedas hidden away in the Purusha- sukta (A.V. 19.6). It is more freely expressed by the Upper Indian devotees of the Middle Ages. It is all in all with the Baiils. The God whom these illiterate outcastes seek so simply and natu- rally in their lives is obscured by the accredited religious leaders in philosophical systems and terminology, in priestcraft and ceremonial, in in- stitutions and temples.
Not satisfied with the avatars (incarnations of God) mentioned in the scriptures, the Baiil sings: As we look on every creature, we find each to be His avatar. What can you teach us of His ways? In ever-new play He wondrously revels.
And Kabir also tells us: All see the Eternal One, but only the devotee, in his solitude, recognizes him.
A friend of mine was once much impressed by the reply of a Baiil who was asked why his robe was not tinted with ascetic ochre: Can the colour show outside, unless the inside is first tinctured? Can the fruit attain ripe sweetness by the painting of its skin?
This aversion of the Baiil from outward marks of distinction is also shared by the Upper Indian devotees, as I have elsewhere noticed.
The age-long controversy regarding dvaita (dualism) and advaita (monism) is readily solved by these wayfarers on the path of Love. Love is APP ENDICES the simple striving, love the natural communion, so believe the Bauls. “Ever two and ever one, of this the name of Love”, say they. In love, oneness is achieved without any loss of respective self- hood.
The same need exists for the reconcilement of the antagonism between the outer call of the material world and the inner call of the spiritual world, as for the realization of the mutual love of the indi- vidual and Supreme self. The God who is Love, say the Baiils, can alone serve to turn the currents of the within and the without in one and the same direction.
Kabir says: If we say He is only within, then the whole Universe is shamed. If we say He is only without, then that is false.
He, whose feet rest alike on the sentient and on the inert, fills the gap between the inner and the outer world.
The inter-relations of man’s body and the Universe have to be realized by spiritual endeavour. Such endeavour is called Kaya Sadhan (Realization through the body).
One process in this Kaya Sadhan of the Baiils is known as Urdha-srota (the elevation of the cur- rent). Waters flow downwards according to the ordinary physical law. But with the advent of. Life the process is reversed. When the living seed sprouts the juices are drawn upwards, and on the elevation that such flow can attain depends the height of the tree. It is the same in the life of man. His desires ordinarily flow downward towards ani- mality. The endeavour of the expanding spirit is to turn their current upwards towards the light.
THE RELIGION OF MAN The cu-rrents of jiva (animal life) must be con- verted into the current of Shiva (God life). They form a centre round the ego; they must be raised by the force of love.
Says Dadu’s daughter, Nanimata: My life is the lamp afloat on the stream.
To what bourne shall it take me?
How is the divine to conquer the carnal, The downward current to be upward turned?
As when the wdck is lighted the oil doth upward flow, So simply is destroyed the thirst of the body.
The Yoga Vasistha tells us: Uncleansed desires bind to the w'orld, purified desires give liberation.
References to this reversal of current are also to be found in the Atharva Veda (X. 2.9; 2.34). This reversal is otherwise considered by Indian devotees as the conversion of the sthula (gross) in the sukshma (fine).
The Baul sings: Love is my golden touch — ^it turns desire into service: Earth seefc to become Heaven, man to become God.
Another aspect of the idea of reversal has been put thus by Rabindranath Tagore in his Broken Ties: “If I keep going in the same direction along which He comes to me, then I shall be going further and further away from Him. If I proceed in the oppo- site direction, then only can we meet. He loves form, so He is continually descending towards form. We cannot live by form alone, so we must ai8 APPENDICES