View source for Talk:Toke parabo bale canpa baul phule

{{Talkheader}}

== Comments of Ac. Bhaskarananda Avadhuta ==

To encourage better understanding of these mystic songs, I copy here some thoughts of Ac. Bhaskarananda Avadhuta in relation to this song. I had inquired about the meaning of some unusual words and phrases in the Rarhi dialect employed in this song. Dadaji replied as follows:

{{Quote box|quote=''Nanad'' means giving no + ananda.

In India, when the brother marries, the sister becomes angry with the new wedded girl and feels that her brother is abducted by this new woman. This is universal for India, but especially Bengal and North India. So here it is clear that the sister-in-law is used for Avidyamya, who does create problems in the path of spiritual progress.

''Harka dhalo'' means cloud burst and it creates sudden unexpected rain which creates flash flood in mountainous area like Rarh, you know. "I still walked with difficulty by Your grace" is the meaning. It meant the path of spirituality is so difficult to traverse without His express grace.

''Mahul kachra'' is synonymous to the meager wealth required to keep one living in that poor area. "I had to sell my everything, and I got You still with that (little for others, but everything for a poor married woman's sacrifice). Hidden meaning is that you have to give everything to get Him.

It is always better to give a commentary below the song as it is almost impossible to convey the exact mystical content, as it is not easy to express the hidden mystical meaning in language.

You have to ask yourself if the translation brings the mystical meaning to an ordinary person. I do not think it is possible for even a Bengali lay reader, and so the commentary.''}}

--[[User:Abhidevananda|Abhidevananda]] ([[User talk:Abhidevananda|talk]]) 06:18, 8 August 2016 (UTC)

::Dadaji, I fully agree with you that these songs have very deep meaning... indeed, layers of meaning. So, I would not put any commentary or even any detailed interpretation on the article's main page. That could needlessly limit how others interpret the song. As a translator, my primary job is to give as accurate a rendition of the song as I can in a language other than the original. Of course, to do that I must get a sense of the song's meaning. But, as far as possible, I should not impose my interpretation on others.

::With respect to this one song alone, someone like Rabindranath could have written a beautiful and moving novella. I imagine it as the story of a low-caste tribal women, married at a young age to a normal young man from her village. His sister, however, takes perverse delight in getting a slave in her brother's wife. This young and newly married woman – poor, low-caste, undervalued due to gender, ignored as of little consequence by just about everyone – is the hero of our story. She does not disrespect her husband. She does not despise her sister-in-law. She does not opine against her social and economic conditions. What makes her special – what makes her heroic – is her secret love and how she handles it. She loves God. She wants to garland Baba. And so, despite the obstacles that her nanad puts before her, she makes her way to the forest on a regular basis. And there, in that forest, she collects campa and bakul blossoms, with which she strings a garland for her Beloved.

::Day after day, she threads a fresh garland. But how will she satisfy her longing to place that garland around His neck? One day, in the forest, she gathers mahua also. She strings the mahua together and then walks back to the village. On the way, there is a cloudburst. Soaking wet and trudging down slippery hill-paths, she eventually reaches the village market. In the market she sells her mahua. And, with the little money she earns from that trade, she purchases a photo of her Gurudeva.

::--[[User:Abhidevananda|Abhidevananda]] ([[User talk:Abhidevananda|talk]]) 06:44, 8 August 2016 (UTC)

== A woman's life ==

Nobility is a product of backstory and not birth. --[[User:Abhidevananda|Abhidevananda]] ([[User talk:Abhidevananda|talk]]) 11:15, 12 August 2016 (UTC)