The Path of the Mystic Lover

The Path of the Mystic Lover
Baul Songs of Passion and Ecstasy

Foreword by Nik Douglas
Preface by Bhaskar Bhattacharyya
Part One: The Bauls
The Mad Minstrels of Bengal - The Music of the Bauls
Their Musical Instruments - The Enigmatic Language of Their Songs
The Bauls as Performwers - Hindu and Muslim Bauls
The Love-Dalliance of Radha and Krishna - Historical Influences
Tantrism - Vaishnavism - Sahajiya Vaishnavism
The Medieval Spiritual Reformers - Sufism - Baul Communities
Part Two: Songs of Passion and Ecstasy
Baul songs Translated from the Bengali, with Commentary
Part Three: The Way of Love
The Truth within the Body - Rasa: The Juice of Love
The Path of Passionate Devotion - Another's and One's Own
Becoming a Baul - The First Initiation - The Inner Practices
Sexual Rites - The "Art of Archers" - The Four Sacraments
The Adept - A Night of Communal Singing
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

A journalist and filmmaker, Bhaskar Bhattacharyya was born in the Himalayas of Bengali parents, brought up in East Africa, and educated in England. He then returned to India and continued his studies with Gopinath Kavirag, one of India's foremost Tantric scholars. He now lives in northern India with his wife and family.

Nik Douglas' pioneering work on Tantra over the past two decades has resulted in a movie, Tantra: Indian Rites of Ecstasy, and several books, including the best-selling Sexual Secrets: The Alchemy of Ecstasy with Penny Slinger. An important modern surrealist artist, Penny Slinger has had her work widely exhibited and published in the United States and Europe.

". . . an intimate and poetic look into the lives of a people whose living expression is communion with the Divine. A must-read for Tantric initiates of all levels."

Tantra Magazine