Visiting the shrine of Lalon Shah

Fakir Lalon Shah was a spiritual leader, mystic poet, reformer and composer of Baul songs. His real birth date, religion, and even parents’ names are unknown. According to some researches, Lalon Fakir was born in 1774 and died in 1890 at the age of 116 years. The details of Lalon’s early life are debatable and impossible to verify. Lalon also recorded very little information about himself, as he considered his spiritual activities to be private.

Locals say Lalon was born into a Kayastha family in the village of Bharora in Kushtia. As a young boy, he caught smallpox and was abandoned in the Kaliganga River, which flowed through Kushtia, in a critical condition. Siraj, a Muslim fakir, and his wife Matijan picked up the child and nursed him back to health. Lalon later became a Baul fakir. He set up an institute known as Lalon Akhra at Chheuriya in Kushtia, where he lived with his wife and a few disciples.

Lalon liked freedom and peace, which he expressed through his songs. He left no written copies of his songs. His songs were transmitted orally and later transcribed by his followers. Kangal Harinath Majumdar (1833-1896) was one of his disciples. Rabindranath Tagore was also inspired by his songs and published some of them in the monthly Prabasi of Kolkata.

Thousands of Bauls and their followers gather at Lalon Akhra to pay homage to their great spiritual leader. They also hold cultural programs. Many visitors from different areas of the country also come to this place to attend these programs.

The government has constructed a huge cultural complex at Lalon Academy for preservation of Baul and Lalon tradition. The four-storey academy is used as library, archive, museum and office room, and another two-storey building is used as resort for Bauls.

Lalon composed about two thousand songs and poems which describe his philosophy and still provide spiritual inspiration and awareness. He was against all forms of oppression and discrimination. He celebrated the freedom of mind and body. He did not believe in class divisions. Lalon was a Baul. Bauls deny all worldly affairs in desperate search for a mystical joy of the soul with songs. Lalon believed that the ‘body’ is the universe and the universe is the body.

The Lalon festival is held every year at the Lalon Akhra in Kushtia every year where Bauls and admirers of Lalon from different parts of the country gather. Many singers sing Bauls songs that hold audience spellbound.

The writer practises law at Kushtia

Judge’s Court.