Writer unknown, date unknown

Parvathy: “I met my first Baul guru when I was 17 years old. Shri Sanatan Das Baul was dressed distinctively in a saffron robe, his long hair twisted into a topknot. When I reached his ashram, after a long journey on foot, I felt I had reached home. I spent 15 days in silence beside his tiny wooden khot (bed). On the last day he asked me to walk with him to the market. On the way he sang a short Baul poem and later asked me to repeat the lines, which somehow I was able to do. That evening he told me I was ready to be initiated.

“Jonomo Morono is one of the oldest songs in the Baul repertoire. It is about the dying of the ego. Each time I sing this song it is like a deep meditation within me.”

www.parvathybaul.mimemo.net

Recorded live at St George’s Church, Kemptown, Brighton, 18 October 2008

O my heart, do the practice of dying,
this shall bring freedom from
the bondage of birth and death.
born; to die,
dying to be born again,
death and birth is nothing
but endless suffering.

‘Aa‘ ‘Ou’ ‘Am’ the three Vedas
they reside in Muladhara, Swadhishthana, and Manipura,
this truth the perfected one alone knows
and craves not
after sex or wealth.

Ida and Pingala, the moon and sun channels
always chanting ‘hamsa’
thru the days and nights.
in the Middle, the supreme Sushnma
piercing all the chakras
in the 'Bhava' of 'I am that'
swings in two petal lotus.

At that precise moment, my heart;
You will hear the sound of flute,
So many Khol and Karatal, Mridanga and Jhajhar will play,
endless blowing of conch shells,
jingle of bells playing incessantly,
You will hear the bee buzzing within,
sound of anklets dancing away slowly.

In the thousand-petal lotus, Shree Radha and Govinda
celebrate love in full moon with their companions,
if you see with your inner eyes,
the stream of unconditional love you will experience,
this is the Sahaja sadhana
to attain the ultimate goal of Nirvana.

(Translated by Parvathy Baul)