মোহাম্মদ রফিকুল ইসলাম
প্রধান শিক্ষক
২৪ এপ্রিল, ২০১৪ ১২:০০ পূর্বাহ্ণ
আগামী দিনের প্রধান
Lalon
Sain/Sai, Shah
সাঁই, শাহ (from Persian)
Native name লালন
Born
Bengal Presidency, British India
(now in Bangladesh)
Died 17 October 1890
Cheuriya, Kushtia, Bengal Presidency, British India
(now in Bangladesh)
Resting place Cheuriya, Kushtia, Bengaldesh
Ethnicity Bengali
Known for Baul music
Spouse(s) Bishōkha
Lalon (Bengali: লালন), also known as LalonSain,Lalon Shah, or LalonFakir ( 1774–1890), was a BengaliBaul saint, mystic, songwriter, social reformer and thinker. In Bengali culture he has become an icon of religious tolerance whose songs inspired and influenced many poets and social and religious thinkers including Rabindranath Tagore, KaziNazrul Islam, and Allen Ginsberg - though, as he "rejected all distinctions of caste and creed" he was both praised and criticized in his lifetime and after his death His disciples mostly live in Bangladesh and West Bengal. He founded the institute known as LalonAkhdah in Cheuriya, about 2 km. from Kushtia railway station. He is also regarded as the founder of the Baul music.
Early life
They are curious to know what Lalon's Jāt (the Bengali word for caste in the Hindu religion) is,
Circumcision tells a Muslim from others,
But what is the mark of his (Muslim) woman?
The Brahman is known by his thread,
How do I tell who is a Brahmani (Brahman woman)?
— Lalon
There are few reliable sources for the details of Lalon's early life as he was reticent in revealing his past, though there has been considerable speculation about his physical appearance, religious background etc. One account relates that Lalon, during a pilgrimage to Murshidabad with others of his native village, he contracted smallpox and was abandoned by his companions on the banks of the Ganges, from where Malam Shah and his wife Matijan, members of the weaver community in a Muslim-populated village, Cheouria, took him to their home to convalesce.
They gave Lalon land to live where he founded a musical group and remained to compose and perform his songs, inspired by ShirajSain, a musician of that village.
Philosophy
Everyone asks, "What Jāt does Lalon belong to in this world?"
Lalon answers, "What does Jāt look like?"
I've never laid eyes upon it.
Some use Malas (Hindu rosaries),
others Tasbis (Muslim rosaries), and so people say
they belong to different Jāts.
But do you bear the sign of your Jāt
when you come (to this world) or when you leave (this world)?
—Lalon
Lalon was against religious conflict and many of his songs mock identity politics that divide communities and generate violence. He even rejected nationalism at the apex of the anti-colonial nationalist movements in the Indian subcontinent. He did not believe in classes or castes, the fragmented, hierarchical society, and took a stand against racism.
Lalon does not fit the "mystical" or "spiritual" type who denies all worldly affairs in search of the soul: he embodies the socially transformative role of sub-contintentalbhakti and sufism.
He believed in the power of music to alter the intellectual and emotional state in order to be able to understand and appreciate life itself. The texts of his songs engage in philosophical discourses of Bengal, continuing Tantric traditions of the Indian subcontinent, particularly Nepal, Bengal and the Gangetic plains. He appropriated various philosophical positions emanating from Hindu, Jainist, Buddhist and Islamic traditions, developing them into a coherent discourse without falling into eclecticism or syncretism. He explicitly identified himself with the Nadiyaschool, with AdvaitaAcharya, Nityananda and Chaitanya. He was greatly influenced by the social movement initiated by Chaitanya against differences of caste, creed and religion. His songs reject any absolute standard of right and wrong and show the triviality of any attempt to divide people whether materially or spiritually