Now the question is, what is the underlying spirit or essence of dharma? The underlying spirit or essence of dharma is that it carries a person in the direction of greater and greater expansion, and finally establishes that person in the supreme pervasiveness. (By the “essence of dharma” we mean its purest part, its innermost existence.)

Let this “essence” be explained with the help of an example. A mango has in it skin, pulp, fibres, seed and juice. When juice without the other constituents of a mango is collected and thoroughly dried in the sun, we get a sheet of mango essence. This sheet of mango essence is not the same thing as the mango. The real essence of dharma is like the sheet of condensed mango essence. This essence of dharma is known as the essence of the essence. The Guru has also been defined in scriptures as the essence of the essence:

Vandaná kariba ámi Gurure ámár
Yini púrńa, yini nitya, yini sárátsára.

[I shall worship my Guru
Who is absolute, eternal and the supreme essence of all.]

The essence of Shaeva Dharma [Shaivism] is all-round expansion – that is, it takes an individual from the lokáyata [objective] to the lokottara [noumenal] life. Shaivism is that which takes the individual to the supreme fulfilment along a sweet and more and more resplendent path. Shaeva Tantra [Shiva Tantra] is not a cult based on the sayings of the munis and rśis, rather it is concerned with the hopes and aspirations of the masses. It is something which deals with the subtler mystic aspect of human life.

Here let us try to understand the subtle difference between the objective and the noumenal worlds. Suppose there is a bird – take the case of a bird confined in a cage. The bird in a cage eating little morsels of food can be likened to lokáyata [objective] sádhaná, and the restless, intense psychic urge to soar freely into the vast distant blue sky can be compared with lokottara [noumenal] sádhaná. Shaeva Dharma in Ráŕh is Tantra-oriented; and as I have said, Tantra means all-round expansion. As the inhabitants of Ráŕh accepted this Tantra from the core of their hearts, even in the distant prehistoric past, they made multidimensional progress: progress in art and literature, progress in dance and music, progress in architecture and sculpture. The inhabitants of Ráŕh made unimaginable progress in all spheres of human life.

There should be a harmonious adjustment between movement in the psychic sphere and movement in the external sphere. There should be a healthy social structure as well. All the necessary materials for that structure are fully present in Shaeva Dharma and in Shaeva Tantra.

The women throughout Ráŕh enjoyed great independence. Women were highly respected in society. Even divorced women of higher caste were permitted to remarry if they so desired.⁽¹⁾ These were direct contributions of Shaeva Tantra.

Later, the nirváńatattva and arhattattva [doctrine of renunciation] of Buddhism and Jainism entered the heart of Ráŕh. This tattva [theory] was based completely on a negative outlook towards the mundane world and towards life. What became the guiding principle of life was a karma sannyása and sthiti sannyása⁽²⁾ which was motivated by the attitude that the universe was full of suffering and affliction and was nothing but a realm of staticity created out of Avidyá⁽³⁾); and which also cheated the physical world – that is, in a way, cheated oneself. Discarding rhythmic expansion in life, people began to feel that there was nothing in life except the gloom of staticity all around them. This is to extinguish that vigorous burning lamp which illuminates and at the same time glorifies the entire existence of humanity. Once the lamp is completely burnt out, its flame cannot be revitalized, even if a burning stick is brought to it a thousand times. This is an emphatic kind of negativism. This negative Jainism created fissures in the well-formed structure of Ráŕh. Both Buddhist and Jain philosophy can be summed up as a science that, as a result of inaction, as a result of karma sannyása, extinguishes the lamp of life.

Mokśa [emancipation, non-qualified liberation of the soul] and nirváńa are not synonymous. Because Tantra, which is based on mokśa, is the sádhaná [spiritual practice] of absolute expansion, the sádhaná of moving at lightning speed from the cimmerian darkness of staticity to the fullness of divine effulgence; while the pursuit of nirváńa is the sádhaná of knowingly extinguishing one’s most precious treasure, one’s lamp of life – it is nothing but to let the radiance of one’s inner and outer world become dimmer and dimmer and to lose oneself in the deepest abyss of darkness – not only to lose oneself, but to deny one’s existence under the impact of utter ignorance. The sádhaná of extinction, the sádhaná of being lost in darkness, can never be the dharma or nature of human beings. So Jain and Buddhist philosophy brought incalculable harm to Shaivite Ráŕh. So the same Ráŕh which had once, awakened by Shaivite philosophy, plunged into the ocean of vigorous activity, and, through tireless sádhaná and struggle, etched a mark of unimaginable liveliness in all spheres of life, became engaged later on, under the evil influence of the negative sentiment of Buddhism and Jainism, in a useless attempt to establish a repulsive tortoise-like withdrawal as the spirit of the life of that age. This brought about a state of pause in the all-round development of the social life of Ráŕh.

Though Jaena [“Jain”] is derived from the word jin and means “to be victorious” – “to struggle and be victorious in all spheres” – how is it possible to be victorious living like a tortoise? What is required for victory is a vigorous upward momentum. So Jainism leads people from light to darkness, throws them into a dark cavern of inactivity, and makes them total cynics. That is why Jainism has never spread outside India – it is not compatible with a natural philosophy of life. It is only in the western part of India, among a few merchants, that Jainism has survived. Today Jainism has been rooted out of Ráŕh, where it had once originated.

As was mentioned earlier, two diametrically opposite theories, nirgrantha Jainism (the Digambara Jain doctrine), based on the doctrine of nirváńa, and expansive Shaivism, remained side by side in the heart of Ráŕh for a long time. An age of synthesis came about in a natural way. During this period Jain Tantra spread among those of the Digambara Jains who were of sádhaka [ardent aspirants of the inner self] calibre, as the theoretical nirgranthaváda [váda = “ism”] could no longer internally satisfy them. Indeed, Jain Tantra is just another name for Shaeva Tantra. The psychology based on this Jain Tantra gave rise to the Baul psychology.

The Bengali word Bául is derived from the Sanskrit word bátul. The Sanskrit letters ka, ta, pa and da are transformed into a in Mágadhii Prákrta. Thus bátul became bául. The person who directs all his or her psychic urges towards knowing the unknown and obtaining the unobtainable is deemed by the common people as bátul [mad] – bául – as expressed here:

Kálsamudrer tiire Tár-i pratiikśáy
Áchi yug dhari,
Bháungi ár gaŕe shudhu bálukáy
Divasa-sharvarii.

[On the shore of the ocean of time, I have awaited Him for ages; all the day and night I break and again build a house on sand.]

Tikta jalasikta ánkhi, rikta buk mor,
Tavu áchi jági “durlabher lági”.

[My eyes are wet with bitter tears and my heart is empty; yet still I wake, waiting for the unattainable.]

Bátul means “mad”. Pointing to the Bauls, people would say that they seem to be not really of this world; they seem to have come from a different world; they seem to be denizens of the noumenal world – they are a bit mad. The outlook and tunes of the Bauls have had a great impact on most of the folk songs of Ráŕh. The modern poet Rabindranath was influenced to a great extent by the tunes and music arising out of the Baul mentality. In a well-known lyric by Rabindranath, there is a line:

Grám-cháŕá oi ráunámát́ir path
Ámár man bhuláy re.

[Yonder the path of red soil that leaves the village
Casts a spell on my mind.]

What is noticeable here is that it is not simply a “path”, but a “path of red soil”, that leaves the village heading into the distance and that casts a spell on the poet’s mind. This clearly reflects the Baul mentality in Rabindranath. This is perhaps the reason that when the senior Baul singers of Birbhum hear Raviindra Saḿgiita, they say, “This is a song by Rabi[ndranath] Baul!”

Footnotes

(1) In most other cultures of the Indian sub-continent up until recent times, only lower-caste women had been permitted to remarry. –Trans.

(2) Karma sannyása can also be used in a positive sense. Elsewhere the author has said: “According to some interpretations, it means naeśkarma [total inactivity]. Some are of the view that it signifies samyaka karmánta [perfect completion of work]. And others opine that unification with the Supreme Consciousness through karma is karma sannyása.… if one aspires to undertake any noble ventures, then one has to unite one’s own intellect with the Cosmic Intellect, and work with the help of the supreme knowledge of Parama Puruśa. This is the spirit of karma sannyása.” (“The Cardinal Spirit of Action and the Supreme Stance of Devotion” in Subháśita Saḿgraha Part 9.) Sthiti sannyása means “adherence to staticity”. –Trans.

(3) Ignorance; centrifugal, or extroversial, force; force of repulsion from the Nucleus Consciousness; aspect of the Cosmic Operative Principle which guides movements from the subtle to the crude. –Trans.