"He is a simple human being. His rebellion is total. He does not belong to anybody; he only belongs to himself. He lives in the no man's land: no country is his, no religion is his, no scripture is his. His rebellion goes even deeper than the rebellion of the Zen masters – because at least formally they belong to Buddhism, at least formally they worship Buddha. Formally they have scriptures – scriptures denouncing scriptures, of course – but still they have them. At least they have a few scriptures to burn.

"Bauls have nothing – no scripture, not even to burn; no church, no temple, no mosque – nothing whatsoever. A Baul is a man always on the road. He has no house, no abode. God is his only abode, and the whole sky is his shelter. He possesses nothing except a poor man's quilt, a small, handmade one-stringed instrument called an ektara, and a small drum, a kettledrum. That's all that he possesses. He possesses only a musical instrument and a drum. He plays with one hand on the instrument and he goes on beating the drum with the other. The drum hangs by the side of his body and he dances. That is all of his religion.

"Dance is his religion, singing is his worship. He does not even use the word god. The Baul word for God is adhar manush, the essential man. He worships man. He says, inside you and me, inside everybody, there is an essential being. That essential being is all. To find that adhar manush, that essential man, is the whole search.

"So there is no God somewhere outside you, and there is no need to create any temple because you are his temple already. The whole search is withinwards. And on the waves of songs and on the waves of dancing, he moves withinwards. He goes on moving like a beggar, singing songs. He has nothing to preach; his whole preaching is his poetry. And his poetry is also not ordinary poetry, not mere poetry. He is not consciously a poet, he sings because his heart is singing. Poetry follows him like a shadow, hence it is tremendously beautiful."