STUDY OF PAGLA KANAI’S MYSTICISM: A CRITICAL APPROACH

This paper seeks to focus on the study of Pagla Kanai’s

mysticism, attempting to study his mysticism in terms of Pagla

Kanai’s works and principles he followed in his life, poetic

practice, songs and activities as an ascetic. Kanai hailed from

Jhenidah, then a subdivision of the greater district of Jessore.

Jessore and Kushtia have traditionally been known as the central

province of mystic thought in Bangladesh. Many folk-poets and

mystic devotees, like Lalon Shah (1772-1890), Dudu Shah (1841-

1911), Panju Shah (1851-1914), Zaharaddi Shah, Edu Biswas, Gagan

Harkara (1840?-1910?), Goshai Ramlal (1846-1894), were born in

this region. Their songs upheld a type of nonsectarian and

mystic religion by way of oral tradition from generation to

generation. And this adoration for mystic lifestyle and songs

seem to construct Kanai’s mind – a mind with full of questions

regarding life, world, body, self and creation that possibly

tended Kanai to become a mystic. Kanai appears to inject into

his songs a certain celebration of the freedom of body, soul and

language. Most of the songs reveal the theme of love, equality

and humanity. His songs are varied in thematic approach and his

lifestyle seems to be influenced by a number of tenets. But the

examples drawn from his life and songs Kanai seems to have

created his own notion of life, world, body, self and creation

and this study will try to understand the process in which Kanai

looks at things that tend him to appear a mystic.

Mysticism a term eluding clear-cut definition denotes a

variety from individual to individual and from one religion to

another. Even it may be non-religious in its nature and scope.

Nevertheless, there are some general categories underlying

various systems prevailing in the world from time immemorial.

Mysticism suggests that somehow all things are one and share a

holy, divine and single entity [Encyclopaedia of Religion,

vol.10: 245-48]. It imbibes a belief that there is underlying

unity behind all diverse things. This sense of cosmic totality

is to be felt in a special state of consciousness that

transcends day-to day reality. Again, the experience of this

underlying unifying principle is private, incommunicable, non-

theoretical and very often transient. Says Capra: “Absolute

knowledge is thus an entirely non-intellectual experience of

reality, an experience arising in a non-ordinary state of

consciousness (1983:37)”.

Comments Happold: “it is possible for a man, if he so

desires and is prepared to make the necessary effort, to

identify himself with his true self and so with the Divine

Ground, which is of the same or like nature” (1977: 20). The

mystics will go farther and assert that to find out his true

self and identify himself with it is the main purpose of man’s

earthly life. This will enable him to have an intuitive

knowledge of the Divine Source, which is only another name for

Truth.

In nature mysticism, the subject feels himself merged with a

universal self and finally no subject-object dichotomy exists

between him and the other world. In religious mysticism, this

sense of cosmic totality is identified as the God or Supreme

Being, the creator the ultimate and the absolute (Radhakrishnan

1982:249). Kanai’s songs record the process of mystical

unification. As an outcome of this process, the poet realizes

the absolute unity behind all things.

‡hRb †m Nivwg

m‡½ †d‡i ivÎw`wb,

L¨v‡Y nq ‡m Rb¥`vZv L¨v‡Y Rbbx \ (Islam, 1997: 221)

Translation:

The builder that is of the shed

Moves all day and night along

This while he turns the father, mother that while.

Besides, Kanai accepts the value of both body and soul because

both are necessary for the unification with self. He declares-

GK N‡ii `yB Nivwg Ki‡Z‡Q UvbvUvwb,

Kvi ev KZB ej,

n¯—c` bvB Nivwgi †eu‡a‡Q †eu‡a‡Q wbg©j

... ... ...

`yBR‡b‡Z GK wgj‡b †mB N‡i‡Z iq| (Islam, 1997: 218)

Translation:

Two makers of the single house on a tug of war,

Who’s had what strength,

Makers don’t have physical appearance but have wrought a

flawless thing.

... ... ... ... ... .... ...

They both dwell in unified state in that house

This song implies that there are two binding forces living in

the body which acts as the physical form of the unification.

Here he does not speak of just his soul, but of the self that is

common to him and to all. It refers to the self that pervades

the whole creation. This idea of unity underlying diversity is

universally accepted by the mystics and is the very foundation

of mysticism. Reality, to the mystics, is one and indivisible.

Sense perception is not altogether excluded but undergoes a

transformation. The film of familiarity is removed to reveal the

breathtaking pristine beauty which is one aspect of the One. In

a sense, it is a modified form of mysticism because in its purer

form mysticism has hardly anything to do with the senses.

This mode of mystic search conforms to the ideal and practice of

sufism which implies a tremendous influence on Kanai’s works.

The philosophy of Sufi is a mystic creed that appeared under the

influence of Islam but contained a very unique practice, that is

to say, their creed was based on the foundation of love, an

ascetic love, a love between the creator and the created. Two

lines from Jalaluddin Rumi, a widely known Sufi and poet, can

best summarise the fundamental idea of that creed.

The mosque that is built in the hearts of the saints

Is the place of worship for all, for God dwells there.

(As quoted in Islam, 1997: 234)

So we have to pay an attentive look into the origin and

development of Sufi-ism with a view to analysing Kanai’s

mysticism and at the same time try to measure the amount of

influence that this ascetic creed had on Kanai’s songs.

Muslim philosophers are of different opinions regarding the

source of the sufis. The synonym of the Arabic word ‘tasauuf’ is

sufi-ism. The following three are the most mentioned views –

(i) Sufism is a special way to know God and to get him

throug the Islamic ways of life, education and ideals.

(ii) Sufism is derived from non-Islamic sources and re-

entered in Islam. (opposite notion of the first one).

(iii) Sufism is derived from Islam, but it turns into a

special trend being influenced by outer ones [Synthesis of

(i) and (ii)].

(Hossain, M.Iqbal: 2001: 93)

Mainly in the time of Hazrat Mohammad (Sm), sufism is

originated. After the ofat (death) of Mohammad (sm), there arose

a new ecstasy of hard religious austerity and spiritualism among

the Sahabees(companions of the holy prophet). After the

Sahabees, the cult of Sufism was observed mainly at the time of

Abbasian Caliph Al-Mamun (Death. 833 AD). This time Hazrat Maruf

Karkhi was one of the best devotees of Sufism. He maintained,

the Sufi should bear the following three postulates –God in

thought, God in home, and God in work. According to Karkhi, if

one is to qualify as a man, one has to accept the conscience of

divine reality. (Rahman: 1982:107). Kanai is found influenced by

this concept as he admonishes the unaware people in one of his

songs:

I‡i Avjv ej c‡š’ P‡jv mij †`‡j,

jvf Kwievi Av‡k f‡e Avmj †LvIqvB‡j,

wK Reve w`ev gnvR‡bi wnmv‡ei Kv‡j (Bmjvg: 1997: 293)

Translation:

O’ sing the name of Allah and go your way in simple faith

If you lose your capital in the hope of profit,

What to account for before the mastermind when time comes

The belief that everything reveals the presence of God

leads mystics to their loves in all things. Nicholson observes

about the Muslim mystics or Sufis:

In proportion as the Sufi loves God, he sees God in

all creatures, and goes forth to them in acts of charity … The

Moslem Legends of the Saints abounds in tales of pity shown to

animals (including the despised dogs, birds and even insects)

(1979:108). According to a great Muslim mystic Bayezid, God’s

love endows a man with three qualities: “a bounty like that of

the sea, a sympathy like that of the sun, and a humility like

that of the earth (Nicholson: 1979:111)”. Again, it is this very

self that is conterminous with what Kanai calls ‘God’ or

‘mahajan’. It is the transcendental self which provokes

everything to merge with other things:

cvMjv KvbvB Kq G †`‡ni g‡a¨ Av‡Q Av‡iK gnvRb

Av‡Q jvûZ P›`ª B›`ª¸wj mKj Zviv GKB Zv‡ii Zvi \ (Islam, 1997: 41)

Translation:

Pagla Kanai says, Another mastermind is there in the body

There is lahut chandra and all others that are wires in the

same fabric.

The word lahut has a direct assciation wth the sufi practice. It

refers to the last step of the Sufis practice: nasut, malakut,

jabrut, and lahut.

According to the Muslim Sufis, it is not Rational love for God

that sustains one’s belief, rather, it is the perception of an

intuitive impulse that enlightens the seeker. Nicholson says-

This Inner Light is its own evidence; he who sees it has real

knowledge and nothing can increase or diminish his certainty.

Hence the Sufis never weary of exposing the futility of a faith

which supports itself of the intellectual proofs, external

authority, self—interest or self-regard of any kind (1979:114).

This is why Kanai utters:

‡PvL eywR‡j mjK †`wL

‡gj‡j c‡i Avuvavi nq, (Islam, 1997: 214)

Translation:

I see an overwhelming light when I close my eyes

When I open them, it is all darkness.

This means the poet has lost the arbitrary sense-perception

capability and in its place he has gained a permanent affinity

with the ray of light that represents the absolute self. It is

interesting to notice the resemblance of Kanai’s concept with

what a Muslim mystic Dhu’i-Nun express:

O God, I never hearken to the voices of the

beasts or the rustle of the trees, the splashing of waters or

the song of birds, the whistling of the wind or the rumble of

thunder, but I sense in them a testimony of Thy Unity, and a

proof of Thy Incomparableness; that Thou art the All-prevailing,

the All knowing (Arberry 1990:52).

This transcendental self who is the mover of everything is to be

intuitively perceived ‘Logic or sermon’ is not convincing. This

is why Kanai tends to search for the absolute dwelling inside

the mind:

‡Kvb †Kv‡Y‡Z emZevwo †Kvb †Kv‡Y‡Z Ni

w`b _vwK‡Z I‡i gb †mB Rwg Rixd Ki

Translation:

Which corner lies thy home, where is the shed

Search that land O my mind before the day end

In fact, Mystics from all sects and religions show their

distrust of reason and secondary source of knowledge, preferring

direct communion with the ultimate reality. The Eastern mystics

repeatedly insist on the argument that the ultimate reality can

never be an object of reasoning or of demonstrable knowledge. An

epitome of this concept finds an expression in Muslim Sufis like

Jalal Uddin Rumi. Nadwi explains:

Rumi prefers institution or spiritual cognition

to the carnal intellect, which is particular, individual,

discursive, and dependent on sense–perception. He holds the view

that experiential awareness can gain knowledge pertaining to the

terrestrial world only. On the other hand, the spiritual

cognition emanating from the Universal Intellect is a lodestar

for the human intellect the intellect of man should be guided by

intuition in the same way as the former holds the reins of human

frame (1976:342-43)

In preferring intuition to reason Kanai, relies on

‘transcendental idealism’, according to which rational approach

is not an adequate basis of knowledge and true knowledge is to

be achieved only through intuition. Kanai suggests that

contemplation of the external world is enough to give a man

mystical knowledge about the self. Again, as everything is the

manifestation of God, so Kanai says:

D`vmxb cvwLi Rb¨

cÖvY Kuv‡` Avgvi

Avwg †`Ljvg bv iƒc Zvi,

cvwL gayi g‡Zv evK¨ Qovq †i,

ï‡b Avgvi cÖvY we`‡i, (Islam, 1997: 116)

The poet Kanai here craves for a bird, an object of the fleshy

world, but by it he refers to the Absolute self or God. Mystic

practice of this kind is to be found in the baul philosophy also

but with some differences. Folklorist Anwarul Karim has

explained that the bauls are lovers. They have much in common

with the sufis but they are not detached from life like many of

the sufis. If sexual rites are part in their ascetic practice,

they are not merely sexists. They believe in reaching to a life

beyond sensuality by wining over sexual drive. But bauls are not

life oriented only. The most important thing in the baul

ideology is to search the independent self of spiritual life.

Yet this independent self whom the bauls have imagined as

‘unknown man’, ‘non-cacheable man’, ‘man in the mind’, who is

the supreme essence for them, has been searched for by them in

the uncovering of a new world inside their soul. This awareness

is not against the material world, rather, Karim stresses ‘it

probes into every pore of the material world. The baul craves

for the establishment of spiritual self in man. Hence, he builds

up his spiritual notion by assimilating the material life with

the ideal’. (2002: 29-30)

Hence, Baul way of worship has its own form of mysticism. This

includes the body as an active component to the search of the

Supreme Being. Karim’s opinion is that Bauls divide their life

in two phases in context of their worship. One of them is

physical in nature and the other is spiritual. To a baul the

body is significant for the fulfillment of human life. Body is

the container of life, the container of the basic content that

creates life. This basic content is called ‘Sain’ which is the

supreme goal of a baul’s ascetic search. In this way bauls try

to reach beyond body through the rituals of the body. (2002:

226-7)

The physical rituals of the baul creed by which they try to

achieve the mystic experience of the absolute self have

influenced Pagla Kanai to a great extent. Many of his songs

record the instances of physiological theory of worship. Kanai

sings:

c~wY©gvi †hv‡M‡Z †Rvqvi Ki‡Q Ujgj

mvgvj K‡i †eu‡a †i‡Lv gb-cvwbi evÜvi

Translation:

The full tide at the full moon is lurking

Protect well the breakwater of mind-stream

The baul mystic worship is a mixed outcome of various creeds. It

combines in its body the practices from such religious and

ritualistic sects as Tantric, sahajia, and Vaishnava along with

Sufism. Professor Dimock asserts:

...the bauls are fitting hybrids; the vaisnava, sahajia and

Sufi strains yield beauty, sympathy and strength. From the

Vaisnavas, and from the Sufi comes the baul vision of the warmth

and humanness and love of God.

Accordingly, Kanai’s songs record plenty of such references. In

the following song the mystic search for the Vaisnava god Hari

is evident:

nvq wK gRvi †`vKvb †c‡Z‡Q wbZvB

‡Zviv †KD †`L‡Z hvwe fvB

‡cÖgi‡m †f‡R‡Q Szwi

‡h †L‡j †m Szi‡Q ZvB \

Kv‡b Kv‡b †`vKvb fiv nwibvg g‡bvniv

ZvwcZ cÖvY kxZj Kiv myav cvev hZ LvB

... ... ...

m¤§y‡L mvRvb gvj `i‡Z Qy‡Z bvB egvj

‡`vKvbx Ggwb mvgvj, LuyR‡j nv‡Z nv‡Z cvB \

Translation:

Oh what an amazing shop Nitai has set

Will anyone of you go and see it

The jhuri is fried in the sauce of love

He who has tasted it is sobbing.

The name of Hari fills both the ears

You’ll have soothing liqour as much you wish

... ... ...

Materials are arranged beforehand not to touch

So alert is the keeper, pass them at a single search.

The implication of love is present in the song. On this point

the Vaisnava and the Sufi concept of love have merged and thus

enabled a creation of Kanai’s own notion of mystic experience by

virtue of love.

Although Pagla Kanai deals with mysticism in his songs to a

considerable extent, that does not seem to be of much influence

in directing his religious life. In his songs on the one hand

Kanai expresses the true Islamic ways of meditation that shariat

suggests; again in his songs he records the hidden mystery of

Sufism through the process of mystic mode and gesture. There is

seen the names of Allah, Peer, Paigambar, Murshid in many of his

songs, and again the names of Niranjan in Buddhism and Vishnu,

Rama, Ravan, Bolai, Gora of Hindu religion are to be found in

his verses also. So when Anisuzzaman says, “ Kanai was a baul

poet. As the bauls remain beyond the chalk-mark of sect and

religion, Kanai too in that sense lived beyond the codified

world of Islam (Anisuzzaman: 1964:208),” I feel supporting Dr.

Zaman. There is a hearsay that after the death of Kanai an alem

who believed in shariat refused lead the janaja (The ritual

performed before the burial of the dead) of Kanai (Meherul

Eslam: 62).

Though the title Pagla is associated with the name of Kanai, he

was not a kshyapa, baul or an escapist from general people in

the sense that Upendranath Bhattacharya defined as the nature of

a baul. It is reasonable that he was a little capricious like

the bauls. But bauls as Lalon, Gagan Harkara, Madan baul always

kept away from the general folk. Kanai could not do that because

he had to sing in front of an audience and had to accept

invitation from them. He had to receive money from them to

maintain his family. So Pagla Kanai was not like those bauls who

were apathetic to family life. It can be said that Pagla Kanai

was both a baul and a Kaviyal and even a sufi too. And it is for

this reason he was above any singular religious identity though

people knew him a follower of a particular religion.