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3: DILIP KUMAR ROY'S ART OF SPIRITUAL PORTRAIT PAINTING
A close study of all of Dilip Roy's works reveals that although he has expressed himself in various forms of literature, the basic instinct behind them all, is almost always that of a biographer. The roots of this instinct lie in one of his childhood incidents. When Dilip Roy was nine years old, he happened to meet "Sri Ma" (Sri Mahendra Nath Gupta). a lay disciple of Sri Ramkrishna Paramhamsa who recorded the nectarous words of Sri Ramkrishna in Bengali in Ramkrishna Kathamrita. He showed Dilip Roy his own diaries in which he had kept the meticulous account of Sri Ramkrishna's precious utterances. Then, very. lovingly and casually, he asked Dilip Roy to keep a record of his meetings with any great person into whose contact he might come. So. Dilip Roy developed the habit of keeping a diary and taking down important details from his memory of such a contact Later on, it became almost a passion with Dilip Roy to meet great men all over the world. His ultimate object was to benefit by their inspiration and guidance in his own spiritual pilgrimage towards eternity. But he also wanted altruistically to invite all who cared to have the same benefit Therefore. published his private records in the form of books. In his 'Preface' to Yogi Sri Krishnaprem, Dilip Roy writes, "I have always loved to keep a record of my talks with those I have admired." Such a habit of keeping record of the past. meetings from his memory, he says.
he
"...has beautified my creations (such as they are) in literature, poetry and music. In other words, time and time again have I experienced that whenever I had imbibed anything through love it came subsequently to be assimilated by my heart to flower out eventually as inspiration. Which is perhaps one of the reasons why I have always felt so happy that I could retain the "jewelled sayings" of great men, seers, sages and saints.... I have been. fortunate also in this that I have been able to draw out some of the greatest writers and thinkers of our age. I have always felt grateful to them for having materially helped me in my quest for Truth, by stimulating me with their findings and throwing light on problems which mystify the mind."3
To Roy, moreover, literary art even like his skill in music, is merely a means to the spiritual end of life, not end in itself. In this he follows his master Sri Aurobindo who wrote:
"Art, poetry, music, as they are in their ordinary functioning.... create mental and vital, not spiritual. values, but they can be
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