Excerpts from Mac Haque's expanded, unpublished version of the book - Bauliana - Worshipping the Great God in Man : The Bauls of Bangladesh and Fakir Lalon Shah
The purpose of this FAQ is meant to explain the philosophy associated with Baul music of Bangladesh, the esoteric schools of wisdom, the great Saints and Sages of our times and their thoughts, all of which combine to make it a unique cultural component of Bengal:
1. Is Bauliana a religion?
Bauliana has similarities with Buddhism as it not an organized religion, but a life style and belief system. Among the many strains of Bauliana the Sahajiya or easygoing/simple schools of thought, has a direct linkage from Buddhism. Bauls are spiritual people and by implication, it is the awakened spirit of Man in each and every religion, doctrines, beliefs and rituals which has primordial overtones and are enshrined in the soul of Man, is ideally their prime focus. Their practices and inquiry all revolve around ‘Man the being’, and they believe that it is in the faculty of Man, in his intellect and deeper within his consciousness is where God exist. The Bauls have always believed that God could not have existed without Man, for it is only Man that sings the great glory of God, in a roundabout way keeps him alive.
2.If Bauls are not religious people, what are they?
Bauls are spiritual beings having a human experience, not human beings having a spiritual experience. This thought stems from the understanding that spirituality perhaps predates religion. Religions came in to discipline, enlarge and codify Mans probing of a power greater than itself. The quest for God is as old as the history of Mankind, yet it is a necessary quest and has been so, for Man’s probing of the unknown has been one of the creature’s most dynamic instinct, and an instinct without which, Man would cease to exist.
3. Bauls do not believe in anything called the ‘absolute truth so what is truth as far as they are concerned?
Truth for the Baul is a perception. The hazard here is perceptions on the other hand, may not always be considered reality. To a Baul epigram:
অনুমান কখনো প্রমান বলে বিবেচিত হতে পারে নাOnuMan kokhono proMan boley bibeychito hotey parey naPerception can never be treated as proof
The above reasoning indicates that ‘truth’ even as a connotation is variable and the quest for ‘absolute truth’ is endless and will forever remain an ongoing process until the perceivable ‘infinity’. Since Bauls know of no ‘beginnings’, there cannot be anything called an ‘end’. The FULL STOP as such does not exist in the Baul vocabulary!
Objectively when we say that we have ‘arrived at the truth’, we actually mean ‘end results’ and those results tend to vary over periods of time, when ‘newer truth’, or ‘newer lights’ as we say, have emerged. ‘Truth’ per se has a tendency to be rendered obsolete over periods of time. Truth cannot be benchmarked, truth is always the footprint of Mankind and they last only until newer paths appear, whether they are relics of well marked ones treaded upon by our ancestors, or newer ones on ‘information superhighways’ as are discovered these days. Truth is dynamic, re-creative and pro-creative with interaction and pro-actions its driving wheel. It goes beyond the principals of cause and effect.
What our ancestors knew as truth has in many cases been rendered obsolete – even redundant. History has innumerable records to confirm that men have been hanged to death under the premise of what Courts thought then, that the evidence suggested strongly a Man’s unqualified guilt. Yet over time; time again has recorded that the entire process of gathering evidence was flawed, unscientific, and therefore a perfectly innocent Man has been 'killed' in the gallows. Here TRUTH as we know it was/were the evidence, and the evidence then was beyond any sphere of doubt the TRUTH, yet today we know they were not.
In Bauliana, the verses of Saints and Sages have traditionally left the question and concept or truth and its possible interpretation in parables and very difficult metaphors, anecdotes and questions. Most of the questions either remain unanswered and/or are debated centuries following their original composition. They have marked similarities with koans as in Zen Buddhism discourses.
4. Bauls do not believe in any organized religion so what makes them unique?
We take the opportunity to quote the UNESCO declaration of 2005 when Baul music and philosophy was recognized as the ‘Intangible Heritage of Humanity’ where it states:
Bauls belong to an unorthodox devotional tradition, influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism, Bengali Vaishnavism and Sufi Islam, yet distinctly different from them. Bauls neither identify with any organized religion nor with the caste system, special deities, temples or sacred places. Their emphasis lies on the importance of a person’s physical body as the place where God resides. Dimock, Edward
Bauls per se do not believe in any organized religion in it’s totally. It believes all religions are branches from a single tree that God created and they place themselves and their belief system in the centre of all existential equation – in the seed. However given the Baul philosophers egalitarian characteristics their emphasis is to respect and honour each and every religion and belief system known to Mankind. In the process, learning and understanding of religious text for enhancing knowledge is treated as part of the belief system. Without knowledge about the branches of the tree and essentially the seed, Bauls believe, survival of the tree or the branches are impossible. Cohesion is underscored.
5. Bauls do not believe in any Temple, Mosques, Pagoda, Church or Synagogues, so what do they pray and worship - if at all?
The Baul epigram that we will use for easier understanding and has Vaishnavite overtones is:
যাহা কিছু আছে ভ্রম্মে তাই আছে এই ব্রহ্মান্ডে
Jaha kichu Brohmye tai achey ei BrohMandey
The Universe lies latent in the human body
The concept of God as is popularly understood or prevalent in normal parlance among theist, polytheist or even monotheist is nonexistent among Bauls. They believe that all Temples, Mosques, Pagoda, Church or Synagogues etc are physical manifestations of ‘place of worship’ that already exist in the human body. Therefore there is no object more worthy of worship than physical human beings, and the human soul – the consciousness. If there is at all a God, ‘the Supreme being, the truth’ is embedded in human souls and each human body is a Temple, Mosque, Pagoda, Church or Synagogue in its own right. Likewise whatever is in the Universe, rivers, oceans, mountains etc to the celestial seven skies up in heaven and beyond are all present and exist within the human body.
Fakir Lalon Shah in one of his verses on Makkah, the spiritual centre of Muslims said:
আদি মক্কাহ এই মানব দেহে/ দেখনারে মন ভেয়ে
Adi Makkah ei Manob dehey/dekhna re mon bheye
The ancient Makkah is within the human body/Look for it O' brothers in devotion
দেশ দেশান্তর দৌড়ে কেনো মরছড়ে হাফিয়ে
Desh deshantor dourey keno morcho re hafiyeh
Why run between countries and continents and die in vain exhaustion.
We notice similar strains of thoughts in the Guru Granth Sahib where it mentions:
For the sake of it, you journey to sacred shrines and holy rivers; but this priceless jewel is within your own heart.
6. If Bauls by practice and praxis are neither Hindus, Muslims, Buddhist, Animist nor Pagans, what are they?
The Bauls instinctive retort to the question would be – ‘does it really matter’? Bauliana is a syncretic belief system combining and incorporating the best elements and influences of Shahajiya Buddhism, Vaishnavism, and Tasawuf (Sufi) Islam. In Bangladesh and Bengal it is also known as Fakiri Islam, etymologically evolving from the Arabic word Fiqh, or seekers with insight and practitioners of deep knowledge/wisdom. Fiqh is also the word used to explain Islamic jurisprudence. Prophet Abraham changed the perceived 'many God' concept as in polytheism, at the same time propounded the proposition of 'one God'. This may have been new for the Arabia centric world of the time, but then it took thousands more years to be crystallized, perfected and its outreach codified in precise scientific terms. But it did not mean that the concept of the one God only came from Monotheist Prophets. The Quran mentions that there is nothing in the book that was not known and it is only a reminder to Mankind as in 'seed truth'. ‘No, this is but a reminder’ - The Quran, 80:11
The Sarshina e Fakiri school of thoughts have run parallel to Islam since its birth, and although it is considered a branch of Sufism, what characterizes is as different is in its enquiry which are grounded on rationale, intellects and not hearsays. Fakirs such as Lalon Shah were never interested in the common perception of Islam post the times of Prophet Muhammad. They in practice had no trust on contents of the Hadith which they believe are spurious and written years after the death of the Prophet as also as the fact that he (Muhammad) forbade writing about him. Instead the Fakirs seek to find out the course of the Prophets meditation in the caves of Mount Heera, which reportedly lasted over fifteen years before the Quran was finally revealed to him. They question the entire paradigm of Sharia and the practiced belief and rituals of many Muslims.
There being no contact with any human other than that with his wife Khadija and his cousin Ali, the Prophet’s meditative practice remains unknown. The Fakirs believe that those practices are codified within the Quran and they (Fakirs) are therefore interested in unlocking the secrets through reading and researching the revelation. This they firmly believe, will reveal the egalitarian Islam of the marginalized, poor, dispossessed and oppressed, popularly called Muhammadi Islam, or the Islam that the Prophet preached before the times preceding his death and later usurped by kingship about thirty years following his death. This is in sharp contrast to the Islam preached by the kingship and the elite class, post his death until today, and found in traditions encapsulated in al-Hadith or even the Sharia, which are mostly fabrications and Man-made.
Bauls seeks equilibrium in religious quest, by transposing the best of Mankind’s teachings to realities and looking for similarities rather than dissimilarities in religious text and their myriad interpretations. The all important equation for Bauls is that Man is a natural creature and anything that defies or overlooks natural laws and its many principals is neither credible nor acceptable. It also lays bare that ‘Man the creature’ has limited free will and in praxis Bauls tend to lean towards nature, seasons, agricultural and cosmological cycles, with their food habits varying accordingly. With respect to all creatures of nature, for instance in the month of Boishakh (rains, monsoon) Bauls do not eat fish as this is also the month aquatic beings spawn. Ecology and preservation is a dominant criterion of the Bauls social behavior.
7. If Bauls do not believe in any special deities, symbolisms, shrines, or revered place of ‘worship’, where, when, how, who and what do they worship?
Bauls believe that ‘worshipping’ is a limited exercise humans habitually indulge in expected behaviorist rituals. This is an effort to reach out to a power greater than oneself. In Bauliana the word is ‘bhokti’ (derived from Sanskrit – Bhakti) meaning a natural gravitation to the Supreme Being of one’s choice, appropriation, association, aspiration, adoration or adulation. There can neither be a fixed nor multiple notions about the ‘nature’ of God. In the Baul equation it is this formless, sexless, voiceless entity that superimposes itself on the ‘one’, the human body is where all complexities begin and there is nothing more complex known to Man that his own physical being i.e. his body. Yet it is equally simple for those that care to look beyond the mundane, and enter a phase of ‘supra-mundane’ to appreciate this complex equation, in polishing and delving deeper into ones personality, where every personality is unique. For Bauls it is in the songs, and their inherent meaning that is the core of their belief. Bauliana falls within the domain of modern contemplative science in its own right and incorporates everything, from the Sufi state of ‘sama’ or trance/ecstatic like state, the others come about the ancient Indian art and practice of Kundalini Yoga. Devotion through meditation and contemplating on the body to unleash the possibility of a union with the divine is Baul ‘religion’ if one would like to term it so.
8. What about ‘God’ the all in all:
The phenomenon God’ is often referred to as adhar Manush or the dark/indefinable Man that lies dormant, hidden, in the unexplainable chasm of human consciousness. To make a ‘connection’ to/from the adhar Manush to the Shai, the wise or gifted one, the Guru and eventually to God, each human is expected to be a shohoj Manush or simple beings devoid of complexities and pretensions of materialism. The adhar Manush again can only be reached through dibyo gyaan, or deep knowledge and insight referred by no less then William Wordsworth as the ‘third eye’ i.e. profound and deepest of human intellect.
Man is born with essence, the adhar Manush. The essential Man is always there, maybe manifest or not manifest. The tree is already in the seed. Essence precedes existence, not otherwise. The Bauls say that life is not a creation of something new, it is just unfoldment. You already have it; it just has to be unfolded, barriers just have to be removed. Obstacles just have to be put aside and your life starts unfolding. You are like a bud: when obstacles are no more there, you start flowering, your lotus opens. Mokammel, Tanvir
Fakir Lalon Shah explains the search in this verse:
সহজ মানুষ ভোজে দেখ না রে মন / দিব্য জ্ঞানে
shohoj Manush bhoje dekh na re mon dibyo gyaaney’
Look for the simple being, in your deepest contemplation
পাবিরে অমূল্য নিধি বর্তমানে,ভজ মানুষের চরণ দু’টি
Pabi omulyo nidhi bortoMan, bhoj Manusher choron duti
You will find priceless gems in the present, worship the feet of humans
নিত্য বস্তু হবে খাঁটি,মরিলে সব হবে মাটিNityo bostu hobye khaii, moriley shob hobe mati
Utensils of regular use will be rendered pure; death will immortalize you in the dust of earth (corpses preserve intact by nature)
ত্বরায় এই ভেদ লও জেনে।।
Torai ei bhed lou jeney Move quickly over knowing this mystery.
Bauls therefore ‘worship’ God IN Man as opposed to ‘God OF Man’ i.e., every human being is a part of God no matter how limited that may be, Man is worthy of worship. In the Quran, "Man is obliquely referred to as ‘Ashraful Maklukat’ i.e. often meant, as the ‘best of creations’. The term however falls short as the inference is by no means unconditional. Another verse refers to Man supposedly being created in the ‘best of GOD’s image’ – the Quran again makes no direct mention of the same". Rahman, Habib –Dhaka based Arabic
linguist and Quranic scholar in personal correspondence with the author – 2012.
Man is created as representative of God on earth. Man is created out of dust and then God breaths into him His (Divine) spirit. 95, 4:5, The Quran
The spirit of Man, i.e. the ideals and standards that leads on to the creation of a spiritual being is the Bauls domain of contemplation. Boxed-in and ritualistic notions about God, makes the existence of God very trifling and inadequate. Negating affirmations or rejections of the status quo is a widely held principal in traditional Baul discourses called ‘bahas’.
9. What is implied by the discourses on the body and mind- Deho Tottyo/Mono Tottyo? :
Bauls believe there is nothing more mysterious in our existence than the human body and that it is within the human body alone where everything is concentrated. It is not a singular equation, for together with our body it is also our mind from where our creative faculty, our consciousness and our personalities evolve and develop, transmutes us into the beings that we are. Since Baul songs/poems are both philosophical and spiritual at the same time, ’Tottyo’ again has varied implications and may vary contextually. They are specific and discursive and include paradoxical ones relating to the human body which is referred to as ‘deho tottyo’ or discourses on the human body where everything from physiology, neurology to even embryology among others is included. A typical example:
দেহ ঘড়ি চোদ্দ তালা তার ভিতরে দশটি নালা
Deho ghori choddo taala, tar bhetorey doshti naala
The body has is fourteen storied and has nine drainage outlet
নয়টা খোলা একটা বন্ধ গোপন একটা তালা আছে
Noita khola ekta bondho, gopon ekta taala achey
Nine are open, one is closed, and there is a secret lock
Fakir Lalon Shah in one of his verses speaks about aath kutuhri noi doroja, or eight chambers and nine doorways which are complimentary. What we may call kuthuri, may also be called doroja or vice versa depending on the context and usage of the tottyo. The eight chambers or aath kuthuri can be defined as - 1 lingo (genital) = 1, 1 burjo (orifice) = 1, 2 chokh (eyes) = 1 (as both eyes combine to create 1 vision), 2 naak (nose) = 2, 1 mughdo (mouth) = 1, 2 korno (ear) = 2/Combined total = eight kuthuri. It could also mean 2 Feet, 2 Hands, 1 Genital/sexual organs, 1 Stomach/digestive, 1 Heart/respiratory, 1 Face = eight kuthuri.
Physiology has a different connotation in Bauliana. Hand/feet and the cerebral chambers and faculties have different spiritual numerology as much as the spine and central nervous system and veins. They would come under purview of 'taala' or stories, but then there are different schools of thought on this one. Let's take a count and see:
1 Skin (the largest single organ in the human body), 1 Mouth, 1 Heart, 1 Esophagus, 1 Stomach, 1 Liver, 1 Genital, 1 Orifice, 1 Navel = 9 exit/entries or doroja
Then we have the shodor kotha 'denoting a half open doorway signifying the open and exit that stays in 'front'. By that is meant the 'navel' our only connection to our mother, creation and ultimately Eve. In Yoga - the navel is significant as the powers of Kundalini are wrapped beneath it and if the 'serpent' can be 'uncoiled' through practice/praxis and meditation, great possibilities can be reawakened. Everything in Bauliana is explained in human context, all within, internalized, not without. "The shodor kotha is also referred to as the Master Chamber, and it could be the Brain/Psyche which enables us to take the spirit to a higher level to be in association with the Creator." Islam, Shawkat – personal communication with the author – 2012
The paradox to the above is in the Baul argument as how to enter a kuthuri or home, if it doesn't have a doroja or doorway?
Sometimes an entire Baul song is an extended metaphor. This is often the case with dehatattva songs. The body may be depicted as a house with two pillars (legs), nine rooms (the cakras; although the standard Hindu tantric system lists seven, they can vary in number depending on the tradition), a basement (muladhar), and an attic (sahasrar) in which a madman who is the Lord sits; or a bird cage with nine doors, housing an unknown bird (the soul); or a broken-down boat constantly leaking water (semen); or a tree of beauty that produces moon fruit (offspring). Everything from a watch to the city Mecca has been used in Baul songs to symbolize the body. Solomon, Carol – Baul Songs, Princeton University, 1995
In context of Bengal’s spirituality we simply cannot limit our thoughts to 'literal' meanings of a word. For instance when Fakir Lalon Shah uses Arabic or even Persian-Urdu words in his verses, it gets all the more baffling - because other than Quran being a book of verse, of knowledge, he also placed emphasis on the importance of the 'dil Quran' i.e. the human body itself is a Quran, when he says –
এই দিল কোরান টি না বুঝিলে আয়াত কোরান পড়ে কোনো লাভ হবেনা
ei dil Quran ti na bujiley, ayat Quran pore kono laabh hobey na
without an understanding of the Quran in your Soul, reading verses alone is of no use.
The precepta of faylasuf - i.e. the study of the Quran in its 7 esoteric (zaheri) and exoteric (bateni) significance, along with 'hidden depths' for more than verses, each alphabet has over 21 different meanings - and again relates to human anatomy, juxtaposed on the contemplative faculties.
In Bengali when we say ‘lekha pora mon diye koro’ or ‘concentrate on your studies’, the word mon here is used as a limb or an ‘instrument’, almost like ‘kolom diye lekho’ or ‘use the pen when you write’. Therefore the mind or mon is considered a physically functioning organ no different from other organs in our body. In English usage it is akin to ‘be mindful about your work’. Bauls expend a lot of effort on discussing ‘tottyo’ or esoteric meanings the mind, or the images it creates and drives our physical organs, that lead on to discourses and often debates with newer interpretations and explanation, an ongoing process.
In ‘mono tottyo’ discourses are on the functioning and working of the human minds, behaviors and actions in its relations to the soul and include psychology, parapsychology and lessons in as diverse and hard to explain subjects such as extrasensory perceptions, telepathy, precognition as well as telekinesis.
মনখড় স্রোতা নদী বাইন্ধ্যা রাখা ভিশন দায়
Monkhoro srota nodi baindha rakha bhishon dai
Our drought stricken mind is a river out of control and hard to bind,
মন রে মন চেনে না নন জানে না সে কি চায়
Mon rey Mon cheney na Mon janey na, shey ki chai
The mind doesn't recognize, doesn't know what it desires
10. How do Bauls interact with other faiths/belief systems?
Because of their unique social position, Bauls are neither a cult nor a community. They can best be described as a ‘fraternity’ without any formalized power base or a spiritual or social hierarchy. Bauls have traditionally despised, confronted and challenged the clergy. Mullahs, Purohits and Padres have no place in their spiritual equation. Respect and admiration for elder Bauls such as Shadu Guru, Guru and Murshid-Pir who are powerful guides and teachers is emphasized. These men of wisdom are indeed Bengal's rural intellectual elite, often unlettered and employ the ancient working institution termed ‘Guru/ shishya or pir/murshid-murid parampara’ i.e. teacher-students interactions in traditional school of lip to ear knowledge/wisdom. There are no ‘sacred texts’ or books among the Bauls although references are always made from Upanishad, Vedanta, Mahabharata, Puran, Tripitaka as well as the Quran judiciously. Knowledge and readings about monotheist Prophets are expounded and hagiographies of Saints discussed with Sufi spiritual lineage, transmission flow charts or shirzanaama are widely used to understand and explain historical transmissions. Vishnu, Radha, Krishna and latter day Saints like Shri Sankaradeva Mahaprabhu and Shri Chaitanyadeva are held in veneration.
11. Bauls shun sectarianism or communalism of all forms and practices – any truth behind the claim?
Sectarian and communal identities are considered vices in the Baul fraternity for essentially it is racism in different names. In reality these have nothing to do with religions and both are mindsets and most unfortunately interalia have become part and parcels of every religion, used to divide communities and races. The issue is not with religions per se, but more to do with the implied Man made superiorities of races, caste, creed etc that creeps in as a consequence and inevitably becomes the core points that leads to exploitation and degradation of human. For instance the word ‘communalism’ is a British invention and was used to preach hate and eventually divide and conquer. Valid and pointed discussions on religions and scripts are acceptable in the Baul credo, what is not is any kind of provocations having communal overtone or prevarications that seeks to damage harmony. Questions like ‘are you a Hindu or Muslim’ are shunned forcefully. There are no gender bias among Bauls neither is any ‘politics of identity’ tolerated.
12. Are Bauls theist or atheist?
In essence, the techniques and the four basic stations of Fakiri Islam i.e. Haqikat, Tarikat, Shariyat and Ma’arifa (Ma’arefot in Bengali) in attaining spirituality, or knowing the unknown world, proximity with God and more importantly the concept of 'representative of God' comes from the Quran. As far as practicable, most of the Baul teachings are based on Sahajiya (simplified) Buddhist tenets, and although this is never spoken about, by implications, Buddhism played an immense role in the spread of Bauliana and is dominant in the works of most of the luminaries and Saints, including those of Fakir Lalon Shah.
Bauls are neither theist nor atheist. They are ‘agnostic monotheist’ the twist being while they have faith in ‘one God’ or are ‘ek iswarbadi’ ; on the question of his existence they are open-ended and more specifically silent. It’s like an open safety pin, sharp and vulnerable when open, safe and rounded when in unison of circularity. It is acknowledging and appreciating our left and right and knowing that cohesion comes only when the two meets up with the one, our intellect - or akel. It is neither stereophonic nor monophonic, but quadraphonic. It is the surrender to the centre by the dual. It is our physical supplication as demonstrated in prostration that most religions encourage, is that we understand our left and right but not our centre, the head, that must be grounded (as in electricity) for electricity to flow its full course.
It is in confirming within our physical being that wherever there are in pairs - ear, eye, nostril, hands, legs, lungs, kidney, testicles etc; there is usually nothing that would be a consistent bother of any kind in the short run. It is wherever they are in singular that we have to handle insurmountable obstacles. Starting with our mouth, esophagus, liver, stomach, penis/vagina, and orifice, we do know and have to live with the issues that these organs challenge us on a day-to-day basis. It is only in aligning plurals with the singular over the centre, with the spine and the two great organs, the brain and heart that have multiple chambers, to the global axis of poles (as in magnetism) that our equilibrium to our ONE in ONE, our ALL in ALL - Bhagwan, Iswar, Guru, Boddhisatva, Allah, etc can be positioned and the importance of prostration in all religions is defined. The hypothetical ONE therefore is the sum total of aligning the combined plurals on the singular.
Like a ship has constantly to check its coordinates to North/South/East and West via the stars up above, so has Man in his day to day existence. The process of surrender is exemplified for as and when Muslims kneel and prostrate 'due West' (in case of those of us living in the East) - it is only to appreciated that as per the fundamental principles of polarity and rhythm juxtaposed with the principals of mentalism - equilibrium to the great YES 'maybe' discovered in exercise of our limited free will. That however is an individual experience and defies explanation, for each experience then is very private, unique and personal. ‘Sacred and secret’ starts here quite unnecessarily for one simply cannot explain it or put in pen or paper (keyboards in these ‘enlightened times’!).
Silence as a weapon of expression is a practice that sees its origins in Buddhism with Sakyamuni - the order of silence being the prevalent strain and school of thought among Buddhist in Bengal even today. It is said that the Lord Buddha attracted more followers into his fold in the times he remained in silence, then ones spent preaching his belief. Because India and Buddhism were unknown to the Arabs (although the Quran has an apparently allegorical reference of the Buddha) the process of the contemplating Man as the centre of all truth; as opposed to the prevalent hub-and-spoke notion of Man being on earth and God in a 'celestial heaven' up above, was perhaps equally unknown. The Quran is thought to have put the final seal of authority in the realms of scientific-spiritual-mystical yearnings of Mankind and there were important historical precincts here.
Concluded
All translations from Bengali by the author.
The above text was published as a booklet and circulated during Mac Haque's tour of Assam, India (23rd to 28th November 2012) that covered discourse and recitals on Bauliana in the Guwahati International Music Festival and at the Tezpur University's Cultural Studies Department
Abdel Mannan none could get the gateway of salvation without depend upon a wise guru who is living Buddha - 
Mac Haque The gateway doesn't necessarily have to be a human and bUDDHA was no gOD nor claimed that he was living or dead /\- 
