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SKETCHES
147 Father Brown to indicate the role saints and sages play and they should play by their selfless service to humanity and by presenting their lives as living examples. Father Brown's disloyalty to the mystic call brought about his downfall. Then Huxley studied the experiences of various sages and saints described in hagiography. This study removed his earlier misconception about the mystics and even in the age of materialist philosophy of science, he assumed that
"The attainment of God is the true object of all human effort for which all the other efforts-political, social, literary, intellectual-are only a necessary condition and preparation of the race."171
Roy's direct contact with Sant Gulab Singh lasted for a very short period of time. So, while drawing his portrait, he depends on Mr. Hoon's book frequently. Hence, the reader is likely to get the impression that this portrait is not impressive enough. It lacks the original style of Dilip Roy, and looks like a copy of someone else's sketch of the Sant. A kind of haste can be seen in the narration.
In 'Appendix' to Chapter XI of Sir Illuminates of Modern India a tribute written by Mr. Hoon to Dilip Roy on his visit to Chandigarh, is published. It delineates how for one week Dilip Kumar Roy and Indira Devi filled the hearts of people present at Sant Gulab Singh's residence with the feelings of devotion and love to God. Mr. Hoon's account is full of superlative epithets for the author as he was extremely grateful to their singing of devotional songs. Mr. Hoon's deep devotion to God, too, is obvious here.
Dilip Roy's article, 'Sant Gulab Singh', published earlier in Bhavan's Journal, is also printed in this book, in which all the details given in the earlier chapter are repeated.
Following points clearly emerge from detailed study of these nine sketches by Dilip Roy:
All of them are the outcome of the author's personal contact with the personality portrayed. The author is emotionally attached to all of them. He looks to them for inspiration, guidance and support on his path of spirituality and indicates how he has been helped by them during different phases of his life. Love of spiritual truth is common characteristic of them all and also of the author himself. In his extreme hero-worship, Dilip Roy fails to notice human weaknesses of his spiritual heroes. The reader cannot help feeling that the author unwittingly exaggerates what is good in them and overlooks the qualities that might be bad or just neutral.
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