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A LOVER OF LIGHT AMONG LUMINARIES : Dilip Kumar Roy A brief outline of Saint Gurudayal's life as it emerges from Dilip Roy's book is as under:
Saint Gurudayal (1896-1970) was born in Dera Ismail Khan. He loved to call himself a Pathan. From his very young age, he had deep-rooted faith in God. He wanted to serve the suffering humanity by seeing in them the visage of God. So, at the age of 19, he wrote to Rabindranath Tagore to admit him in Shantiniketan as he was very much fascinated by his ideal of service to Man, that is above all caste, creed, race and colour-Vishvamanav—the Universal Man. Rabindranath advised him to finish his study and then to go there. Hence, after completing his graduation, he joined Shantiniketan and worked as an English teacher for 22 years. After the death of Rabindranath Tagore, following the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi, he began to serve Harijans. He frequently stayed for long time in the Harijan Ashram, Ahmedabad. At the same time, on the invitation of his Quaker friends, he visited Europe twice and America once. He was a scholar. He knew many languages, too, like Hindi, Urdu, Pustu, English, Gujarati, Bengali and Persian. He was also interested in the literatures of these languages. He wrote a few books to express his love and devotion to God through songs like Hounds of the Heart, Divine Dwellers in the Desert. He wrote a Gujarati book, Prabhu Kripakiran on Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi. He also authored an Urdu book, Dilki Bat. Whenever he visited Bombay, he stayed generally at Dr. Setalvad's house or with his niece on Mount Pleasant Road. In 1969, when he was in Bombay, the Harijans at Ahmedabad Ashram appealed to him to go to their help. So he went there. Later on the riots broke out. He was very much pained by their occurrence. He fell terribly ill. He returned to Bombay. Later on it was declared that he was suffering from the cancer of throat His loyal friends nursed him devotedly till his last moments. He did not take any medicine. He knew on April 12, 1970, that he would pass on to the beyond on April 14, 1970.
Dilip Roy, as soon as he met Saint Gurudayal, for the first time in 1947 was attracted by his "saintly" personality. He could see at that time that outwardly Gurudayal was a reserved man. He always endeavoured to express himself more through his deeds than through his speech. He was very humble, modest and refined person. He was quietly working for many philanthropic institutions. Moreover, he was an "akinchan, that is, a destitute who depends utterly on the Divine."127 Though he was a great scholar and a humanist, Roy found at once that he was an embodiment of humility. Moreover, a few of very impressive traits of Mullickji's personality impressed Dilip Roy immensely.
Gurudayaiji had deep-rooted faith in the reality of God. All of his actions exhibited his love of God. He always aspired to live only for Him and His creations. All through his life, he strove to see "the One in all and all in the One." 128
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