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A LOVER OF LIGHT AMONG LUMINARIES: Dilip Kumar Roy In his self-vindication, he further states that though he has presented his findings in the form of a novel, he does not wish it to be treated as mere fiction. meant for entertainment. He says:
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"I have also wanted, while marshalling the data. to be honest and truthful, because a mystic novel of this nature could hardly pass even as a work of art if the essential data were false. That is why I have accepted only such accounts as I have known to be absolutely authentic and, more often than not, attested by my own senses and ratified by Indira Devi's "14
Hence, this novel can be called an autobiographical novel, in which the author has only changed the names of persons and places, but has tried to preserve the facts as they were.
Asit, the narrator of the novel, was unexpectedly invited to San Francisco after his Guru's demise. During his tour to America and Europe with Tapati, his daughter-disciple, he gave musical presentations, sang devotional songs and delivered discourses on Indian tradition and spirituality. In New York, Barbara, a devout Christian, comes to Asit with her queries about Eastern beliefs in God. which are entirely different from Western beliefs. So, Asit describes those. miraculous incidents of God's grace which happened in the lives of a few persons with whom he was intimately related.
Amal, one of those fortunate seekers of the Divine grace, was an M. A. in Sanskrit. He was working as a tutor to an eight year old son of Sheth Sri BParekh, a Gujarati millionaire merchant. Shethji was a known worshipper of Krishna Amal did not have faith in the reality of God. So he refused to pray before the Image of Lord Krishna for the sake of the recovery of his master's wife. She died on the next day. The disappointed Shethji threw away the Image in the dustbin. Amal picked it up, cleaned it and kept it with him as a thing of beauty. So, out of fury, Shethji terminated Amal from his services. Asit arranged for his job in Patna as a school teacher and always remained in the contact with this truthful and sincere young man. Amal, then, began to love the Image of Krishna. His faith in Krishna became concrete and had visions of Krishna's presence around him. Once, in his attempts to extinguish fire and save the lives of people of a burning hut, he got terribly burnt. His face became so ugly that he was misunderstood for a leper and was again removed from his job. But his faith. in Krishna was not diminished at all. During one of his visions, as Amal reported to Asit, Krishna came and promised him even without his asking, to give him the gift on His own birthday, Janmashtami. On that day, when Amal came out from Ganga water after his bath, everybody around him, including Asit, witnessed int utter astonishment that he had regained his previous beautiful face.
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