The Bauls & Fakirs of Bengal and Bangladesh certainly constitute a breed, different from other ethnic religious sects. They do not believe in worshipping in any citadel of religion like a temple, a mosque, or a church. They have the conviction that the body itself is the habitat of cosmic energy and also that the entire cosmos is present in a living body. They compare the body with a cage and the soul with an unknown bird which has come to stay for some time only. Most of the Bauls, who are not just singers but serious followers of the Baul path, do not believe in replication—creating any future progeny. They adopt special procedures for sexual union with menstruated female partners to retain the semen without losing it. To learn this very special technique which they do not share with any one, they have to take the help of learned and experienced Gurus who also teach them weird rituals like ‘Chari Chandra Bhed’ which involves consumption of semen, menstrual blood, urine and faeces. These folk medicine practices help them to keep diseases away and maintain good health. There have been lot of surveys and studies on the Bauls & Fakirs—primarily of historical, religious and sociological nature. This book goes a little deep to look at their songs, lifestyle, philosophy & practices from biological, psychological & management angles to establish that the Baulsphere is based on concepts and practices that have been proven scientific from modern research studies.

Because clothing, food, and shelter are basic human needs, they provide excellent entries to cultural values and individual aesthetics. Everyone gets dressed every day, but body art has not received the attention it deserves as the most common and universal of material expressions of culture. The Grace of Four Moons aims to document the clothing decisions made by ordinary people in their everyday lives. Based on fieldwork conducted primarily in the city of Banaras, India, Pravina Shukla conceptualizes and realizes a total model for the study of body art—understood as all aesthetic modifications and supplementations to the body. Shukla urges the study of the entire process of body art, from the assembly of raw materials and the manufacture of objects, through their sale and the interactions between merchants and consumers, to the consumer's use of objects in creating personal decoration.

This book examines the performance of Bauls, ‘folk’ performers from Bengal, in the context of a rapidly globalizing Indian economy and against the backdrop of extreme nationalistic discourses. Recognizing their scope beyond the musical and cultural realm, Sukanya Chakrabarti engages in discussing the subversive and transformational potency of Bauls and their performances. In-Between Worlds argues that the Bauls through their musical, spiritual, and cultural performances offer ‘joy’ and ‘spirituality,’ thus making space for what Dr. Ambedkar in his famous 1942 speech had identified as ‘reclamation of human personality’. Chakrabarti destabilizes the category of ‘folk’ as a fixed classification or an origin point, and fractures homogeneous historical representations of the Baul as a ‘folk’ performer and a wandering mendicant exposing the complex heterogeneity that characterizes this group. Establishing ‘folk-ness’ as a performance category, and ‘folk festivals’ as sites of performing ‘folk-ness,’ contributing to a heritage industry that thrives on imagined and recreated nostalgia, Chakrabarti examines different sites that produce varied performative identities of Bauls, probing the limits of such categories while simultaneously advocating for polyvocality and multifocality. While this project has grounded itself firmly in performance studies, it has borrowed extensively from fields of postcolonial studies and subaltern histories, literature, ethnography and ethnomusicology, and cosmopolitan studies.

Carrying on the living tradition of mystic minstrels, the Bauls roam the countryside of eastern India enacting the spiritual love dalliance of Radha and Krishna through songs and dances. The Path of the Mystic Lover explores the Bauls' lifestyle and philosophy, describing their sexual and ritual practices as well as their sacred teachings.

". . .There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars. . .Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near." Luke 21:25a, 28 It is rare that Scripture, science, and history align with each other, yet the last three series of Four Blood Moons have done exactly that. Are these the "signs" that God refers to in His Word? If they are, what do they mean?What is their prophetic significance?