14th January (Wednesday), 9 pm

Museum of Architecture, Bernardynska St. 5





Songs for Grot – Concert by Bauls from West Bengal (India) on the 10th anniversary of Jerzy Grotowski’s death

Performed by: Khalipada-Pakhi Adhikary, Taraknath Bagdi, Tin Kori Chakraborty, Nyttya Gopal Das Bauls originate from a community of


Bauls from Bengal

Bauls originate from a community of wandering mystical singers that goes back to the Middle Ages. Even if they are Hindus, they do not recognize caste divisions, they profess equality of faiths and religions and retain that Divinity has its place in the Heart of every Man. Bauls were re-discovered by Rabindranath Tagore, a renowned Indian poet. Tagore regarded Bauls’ poems as masterpieces of Indian literature. Performing arts and creative techniques have become for Bauls a way of living that was originally combined with the search for inner knowledge. Nowadays it is the artistic aspect that prevails, to the detriment of personal search. Bauls make their own characteristic musical instruments and are true masters of improvisation. They live through their music. The joy of being alive and present that comes from, it is what makes them become true Bauls, i.e. “God’s fools”.

That is why, brother, I have become a crazy Baul.

I do not obey any master or order.

Man-made distinctions don’t affect me.

I dwell in the joy of love that springs forth from my being.

Love knows no separation, but only the meeting of hearts forever.

And so I am joyful, I am singing and dancing with one and all.

That is why, brother, I have become a crazy Bail.

Moner Manush / The Man of the Heart

Translation from Bengali by Eleonora Caturegli Biswas

Sain nikoth dure dekhae – Sain, the Master shows near what exists far beyond, by Lalon Fakir*

My own identity eludes my grasp

Only with self- knowledge can you know the unknown

The Master shows near what exists far beyond

Like a mountain hidden behind his cascading hair.

Oh see!

How I grope around from Dhaka to Delhi

Yet the darkness in my own lap doesn’t melt

Hori* alone embodies

The soul of all creatures

He will reveal himself

If you contemplate on him.

Cramming passages from the Vedas and Vedanta

Will but lead you into more confusion

Why then keep uttering ‘I’ and ‘Mine’?

Oh foolish mind

Go seek shelter

At the feet of the one who knows

Says Lalon: ‘I am always beside myself,

Unable to see even though I ‘ve eyes’.

* Lalon Fakir is one of the most important Bauls spiritual masters, who composed many of their songs. He born in Bangladesh in the end of the XIX century, nothing is known for certain of his life, the Bauls believe that his origins were Hindu and a Mussulman family adopted him. He represents the meeting between these two religions, the brotherhood among all the faiths. The Bauls and the Fakirs, who are Sufi, till nowadays sing together, they have many festivities in common and both of them recognize Lalon Fakir as their Master.

* Hori/Hari, a name of Sri Krishna.

Gupto bepto khobor shob jana jabe / We will understand the secret or manifest essence of matter, by Lalon Fakir

The day your essence will widen in sunrise

That day the lotus of you heart will bloom forth in full glory.

What will you learn from the Vedas?

If you read them without passion?

The essence of matter, secret or manifest,

Will be revealed

Only to the passionate one

When a thousand petals of the lotus

Are illuminated by the glory of the Guru

What harm can Death-God do him?

To seek the invisible Almighty

Is like chasing a snake in a dark room.

Says Lalon “ Only the passionate soul will reach His feet

By lighting the lamp of passion”.

Ki bole Manush more – Who says man dies?

Who says man dies?

I cannot understand this

After his death by whom will be the man judged?

The five essences of the matter are present in the human body,

We can easily understand it

From one soul, two others are born.

The universal spirit is immortal

The universal spirit lives in the mortal beings

We call it, the cycle of life and death

Who is the operator of this system?

He has no images,

He is invisible,

No one is able to describe him

He is playing his game silently

The soul of all living beings lives in the Universal soul,

By whom is fulfilled the source of the pure Force?

Our precious body will be destroyed

The water of the ocean is formed from the waters of all the flowing rivers

Which again go back to their source

The ocean never dries

The high and low tides go away and again come back

In this way the man is leaving and returning

Monshur* says, “The soul of human beings comes back again and again,

Endlessly”.

* Monshur Fakir a known Muslim master of the last century.

Hriday majhere rakhbo – I will keep you in my heart

I keep you in my heart

I don’t leave you

If I will abandon you

Oh, my golden Gour*!

How will I find you again?

In my life I am always on contemplating you, oh Gour!

I keep my eyes on your image

My eyes are fixed in yours eyes

I want to forget my worldly existence.

I will go to Brindabana

My forehead will touch the dust of the holly place

The name of Radha will be always on my lips

Jogai and Madhai* were sinners but God forgives them

Why then am I ignored by you and abandoned in the street?

* Gour, the brother of Nitai , one of the most respected representative of the spiritual current of the Devotion (Bhakti).

* Jogai and Madhai in the folk iconography represent the ”viciousness”; they are two drunkards, who became friends thanks to the same addiction. In this song they are the opposite example to the brothers Nimai and Nitai, the Saints.