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A LOVER OF LIGHT AMONG LUMINARIES: Dilip Kumar Roy "...had been able to help her here meeting her not "horizontally" ...in the limited give-and-take mode of humans, but "vertically", spiralling up into the infinity of Krishna, slipping and grasping again and again and yet finding a better foothold every time after a backsliding! "2
The symbolic titles of the parts of the novel, "Dawn", "Noon", "Dusk". "Night" and "the New Sun" suggest the changing phases of Mala's life from her childhood to her attainment of majority, her conflicts and her restoration to spirituality.
Like many other narratives of the world like Huck Finn, Moby Dick, Pickwick Papers, Upward Spiral has the plot of journey. Mala goes from Calcutta to Dumel or from Calcutta to Dakshineshwar. Swayamananda and Asit travel from Dumel to Lahore. Almost all the characters travel by land. Like Pilgrim's Progress, their spiritual journey is also included here. Therefore, again, one can locate here the theme of quest like Sri Chaitanya and Mira. All the personae are in search of ideal human existence. So, they aspire to rise higher towards the Divine Reality. The pattern of ever mounting aspiration of human beings like Mala, Raka and Asit towards Krishna can be seen in the pages of this novel also, which shows the significance of the title of the novel, Upward Spiral. Such aspirants are helped and guided by the deputies of Krishna like Swayamananda in their difficult quest.This type of the theme of spiritual quest can also be observed. in great works of the world literature like the Divine Comedy by Dante, the Waste Land by Eliot and Savitri by Sri Aurobindo. Such a pattern can be observed consistently in all of Dilip Roy's works, because he himself is consistent in his quest of the realization of Krishna face to face. The author himself, along with many of his characters is growing from weakness to strength.
Mala's story in Upward Spiral is a realistic element. But Roy involves also with it higher reality and deeper psychology like a romantic poet. The arrowpattern is clear here. Swayamananda is the unchanging eternity central to all other lives revolving around him. He does not develop, he has already reached the highest height. But Mala grows higher in spiritual sense and so do Asit and Raka, while Amar and Tapan seem to be sinking lower. It should be clear from foregoing pages that both external conflict between persons inimical to each other and the inner spiritual conflict are present here.
The characters of the novel have meaningful names. Gurudev is named 'Swayamananda' meaning 'Bliss itself. Raka means 'full moon'.3 Roy describes his characters well. Of Raka he says: "She was a Bengali by birth; quite modern and up-to-date, yet rather obdurately shy and reserved. I mean that with her, the ice took rather long to thaw."4
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