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she is the source of the ecstasy. If she did not reveal herself to me, it would not have been possible for me to know the secret of Vedas. The vision in which Matter becomes Spirit, in the dim, hoary past to the ancient seers had come the form and the revelation of the Word. That form I have seen. And ever since my life's rhythm has vibrated to that vision. A tuft of her loosened chignon touches me and a fountain outwells from the heart."162
Anirvan on his road to Truth, had to pass through endless ordeals of pain, doubts, self-conflicts etc. But he never lost his faith in God and he turned defeats into victories. He knew that this path of spirituality was not easy to pursue for his disciples as well. Hence, he wrote to them inspiring and, at times, autobiographical letters so that they could learn from his own practice and experiences. Very tenderly, he wrote to his disciple:
"Don't give in to self-pity. In our soul is everything: courage, strength, intelligence, knowledge-all is there. Only by day to day tapasya, (askesis) can one break finally into the golden consciousness of an ineffable glory-of a dream come true ...Do not pay heed to sceptical critics. How can men who walk on two legs or crawl on all fours conceive of the rapturous fulfilment of those who, like birds, unfurl their wings to soar to the zenith?"163
Anirvan never approves of the banning of the raptures and thrills of human life. He exhorts his followers to listen to Krishna's Flame-Flute because his music of love only can restore to human beings to their lost bliss. At the same time, he teaches them to detach themselves from Illusion (Maya).
Like others, Dilip Roy, too, learnt many things from the encouraging letters he received from Anirvan. Anirvan often proved to be "a lighthouse in an ocean of darkling sighs". 164
The summit of Anirvan's genius, Roy deduces, is revealed at its best through his marvellous delineations of spiritual experiences. When the author read Anrivan's letters and discourses, he was quite overjoyed by the beauty of his soul's raptures and philosophical reflections and also his unflagging aspiration for the gleaming Goal of achieving God-realization.
Roy dedicated him his novel, Aghataner Shobhajatra (A Procession of Miracles). Anirvan, like many other intellectuals of his time, did not reject those miracles described in the book as figments of the human imagination. Such supraphysical miracles, Anirvan feels, "stem from “Shunyam"--the Void he calls nirupadhi, (i.e. without any attribute of Name and Form.).”165 In the age of
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