Baul spirituality stands in a relationship to Hinduism that is at once intimate and resistant. Emerging from a Bengali milieu saturated with Hindu devotional and Tantric currents, it draws deeply from Vaishnava bhakti, especially the Krishna–Radha paradigm of divine love, and from Sahajiya and Tantric ideas about the body as a subtle microcosm. Concepts such as bhakti (devotion), prema (divine love), lila (divine play), and the guru–disciple relationship are shared with Hindu traditions and frequently expressed through familiar mythological language. Deities like Krishna and Radha appear in Baul songs not primarily as external gods to be worshipped, but as powerful metaphors for inner states and the drama of realization. In this sense, Baul thought can be seen as reworking Hindu theological symbols into a more interior, experiential key.

At the same time, Baul practitioners position themselves in sharp tension with orthodox Hindu structures. They consistently reject caste hierarchy, Brahmanical authority, and the elaborate ritualism of temple worship and scriptural formalism. Religious identity as such—Hindu or Muslim—is treated with suspicion, as a label that can obscure the living search for the “Man of the Heart” (Moner Manush), the divine presence discovered within. The human body becomes the primary field of practice, not something to be fled from, but a vessel in which subtle energies, male–female polarity, and the possibility of awakening are explored. This emphasis on direct experience over inherited dogma marks a decisive departure from more institutionally anchored forms of Hinduism.

Baul philosophy is therefore best understood as a syncretic, heterodox current that both arises from and moves beyond Hinduism. It blends elements of Vaishnava devotion, Tantra, and Sufi mysticism into a folk path centered on music, song, and an itinerant way of life, while remaining sharply critical of social and religious hierarchies. In everyday Bengali culture, Bauls often inhabit a predominantly Hindu social space and share many of its symbols, yet their teachings continually subvert rigid boundaries and fixed identities. What emerges is neither a simple Hindu sect nor an entirely separate religion, but a border-crossing mystical stream that uses Hindu foundations to articulate a non-ritual, body-centered, and radically experiential vision of the sacred.