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SKETCHES
131 The similarities between the author and the subject are obvious. Both of them had faith in the reality of God. They worshipped God through the path of Love, that is bhaktimarg. Both of them had emotional attitude to the world. They knew that laughter was essential to human life. They gave much importance to actual seeing of the presence of God in all human beings. So, their actions were devoted to the service of humanity in one way or the other.
They differed from each other in a few respects. For many years of his life, Gurudayaiji was a teacher, while Dilip Roy was one of the leading musicians of India. The former did not accept anybody as his guru or disciple, while the latter accepted Sri Aurobindo as his guru and Indira Devi as his disciple. Gurudayaiji was a reserved person. On the other hand, Dilip Roy liked to be social. The saint did not like to speak much about his spiritual experiences. Dilip Roy, on the contrary, talked of such experiences freely, thinking that other people might get inspiration from such utterances.
On the whole, it can be said that the author was delighted to find in Gurudayaiji one more fellow-pilgrim like Krishan aprem, Ramdas etc. What mattered the most in their relationship, according to Roy, was
"...the spiritual intimacy, love's give-and-take and the call of the Lord's mystic flute to which we had both responded that cemented our friendship and ripened into a spiritual
communion."136 7. Swami Ramdas
Dilip Roy had the opportunity to develop close relationship with another contemporary saint, Swami Ramdas. Hence, he drew his brief sketch stressing the prominent peculiarities of his temperament.
Swami Ramdas as the name suggests, called himself a servant of Ram (by Ram he meant Krishna). In his young age, his father gave him a mantra which Ramdas repeated constantly. When he grew up, following his inner call, he decided to wander all through India, depending only on God-Ram-for his sustenance. So, he renounced his worldly life and moved like a beggar' from Kashmir to Cape Comorin. All his experiences and trials are recorded in his autobiographical books, particularly. In the Vision of God and in Quest of God. Some of his other well-known works are: At the Feet of God, Krishnabai and Gita Sandesh. His books are also translated in other languages like Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kanarese etc. Ramdas refers to himself in the third person singular in all of his writings. In the later stage of his sadhana, he lived in a cave situated on Arunachala Hill. Then, he accepted Krishnabai as his disciple. He established an ashram-Anandashrama—near Manglore in South India and guided many spiritual seekers like the author himself.
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