________________
APPENDICES
APPENDIX-B
I visited Hari Krishna Mandir, Pune, between September 1 and 4, 1996, to seek an interview with Indira Devi, the daughter-disciple of Dilip Roy. At that time, her health was very delicate, so I was permitted to meet her only twice. each time for a very short period. Once she only saw me, but did not talk. Second time she did talk. She answered the questions about Dilip Roy gladly, but did not allow me to tape-record her interview. So, the conversation had to be hurriedly noted down on paper. Naturally, as I do not know shorthand, I could not catch every word of what Indira Devi spoke. Hence the conversation reproduced below cannot be called an accurate reporting. Yet I believe that I may have missed some words only, but not the substance of the answers.
Conversation with Indira Devi
Q. How was Dilip Kumar Roy keeping the record of 'the jewelled sayings' of great persons whom he met ?
241
A. Dadaji (Dilip Kumar Roy) kept the record of his meetings with great men in a diary. His memory was remarkable. He could remember a poem he came across fifty years ago. He could also be called shrutidhan. He remembered all the details of his meetings with great persons.
Q. In how many languages are Dilip Kumar Roy's books translated? Which are they?
A.
Dadaji's works are translated into Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Sanskrit. He himself translated his work into Sanskrit. Once his professor gave him 110 marks out of 100 as Dadaji had correctly answered his questions and also rendered a prose piece into verse though he was not asked to do so.
Q. Dilip Kumar Roy exerted immense influence on the people of his time because of his threefold achievement as a musician, as a spiritual seeker and as a literary artist. Will you please kindly tell us how he influenced. people with these outstanding qualities ?
A. Dadaji influenced people not by what he had achieved but from above his achievements. When I saw him performing his programmes, I felt as if I was in an unbelievable dream, as if I was witnessing something that one had never imagined. It appeared that there happened a double thing as if one lives one's life according to one's ideas and yet sees a beautiful fire that suddenly starts giving heat. It was something to be experienced which cannot be expressed in words because as Shankar says, "Spirituality is not a debatable reality, it is an experiential reality." Dadaji believed in the
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
