বাংলা 
English 
Every person must take initiation from a guru. And only through bayat or initiation taken with the help and shelter of the guru can a person attain self-knowledge or spiritual learning. For this reason a devotee can restrain his mind from all wrongful deeds. When the devotee's mind is controlled, he becomes a real human being and attains self-purification; and those who have not taken initiation from any guru have not yet risen to the level of a real human being — they must take diksha (the guru's teaching). Such is our Lalon philosophy. So said a devotee, now nearly a hundred years old, who cherishes the ideals of Lalon Shah and wished not to be named.
The mystic sage Lalon Shah called people to the guru-oriented path through his teaching on seizing upon a guru or murshid among men, as well as through his works of creating self-knowledge and spiritual music. Even today his devotees and the adherents of the guru-oriented ideology keep spreading this Lalon philosophy among all.
In the old days, at Lalon Shah's house in Cheuria on the bank of the Kalinadi beside Kushtia town, only Lalon devotees would set their aim upon the guru and carry out sadhana and observances, which was known as sadhu-sang. This Lalon devotee, who would not give his name, further said that once, by the rule of the guru's company, sadhu-sang would begin in the evening with rakhal-seva (service of the shepherd), followed by adhibas-seva, balya-seva (service of childhood) and purna-seva, and would end through the sounding of nine notes. Besides, gadi-manjha, asan-manjha, achal-manjha and seva-dakshina had to be offered. When sadhu-sang ended, the sadhus took their leave with eyes wet with tears. He also said that for every person's self-purification, that is, the liberation of the soul, nothing but devotion, respect and contact with one's own guru is this festival of joy. Those who do not believe in the guru doctrine and come only to make a show with feuds and quarrels and to parade their own names — it is good that they do not come to the guru's ashram. Greatest of all in generosity, the one who said these words afterwards declared himself a Lalon devotee; yet when the writer asked to take a photograph of him, he showed reluctance.
Today, at the Lalon commemoration, devotees can no longer observe things after their own wish as they once did. Now, with the crowds having taken on a vast size, ordinary people who are not murids of his philosophy have turned the akhra into an arena of entertainment; and then, at the hands of officials, the local administration and political leaders, Lalon Academy has taken the shape of a social institution. The mystic sage Lalon Shah says in his songs: "The murshid is the Rasul himself; there is no fault in this — God Himself becomes so; Lalon does not say this, the Quran says it. First shut the door of the chamber of desire; man will flash forth to behold the form. Leaving man, O mad one, you will lose the root; serve man and you will become a golden man." Along with such songs, Lalon Shah also wrote against social discrimination, class inequality, the quarrels of caste and communal conflict.
It may be noted that at the very time when the British rulers' merciless oppression was poisoning the life of the village common folk, following the path of truth and giving man the guru's diksha, the mystic sage Lalon Shah then appeared as the guide of humanity's path at Cheuria. Though there are many opinions about Lalon's birthplace, the mystery of his birth remains unknown to this day. He was childless. He could not receive formal education. But he was self-taught. It is known that in his youth, setting out on pilgrimage for full gain, the turning-point of his youth and the entry into a sadhana life took place. During the pilgrimage he was attacked by smallpox, and his companions abandoned him. Later, after regaining his life under the shelter of Molom Shah, in the proximity of the sadhak Siraj Shai he was installed on the seat of the sadhak guru. At first he engaged in sadhana beneath a mango tree in the deep woods of the village of Cheuria in Kumarkhali. Later he received the help of the local karigar community. The Lalon devotee Molom Shah donated sixteen bighas of land for building the akhra. On that donated land the Lalon Akhra rose in 1823.
At first a large straw hut was built there for Lalon's dwelling and sadhana. It was in that very hut that his sadhana and devotion went on. From the founding of the akhra at Cheuria until his death he remained surrounded by disciples and devotees. He composed nearly a thousand songs. At dawn on 17 October 1890 this mystic sage gave up his body, and he was buried within the hut of his sadhana and devotion.
