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A LOVER OF LIGHT AMONG LUMINARIES : Dilip Kumar Roy “For Krishnaprem, there is only one true spiritual path, and that path is indefinable. It is the blossoming of the individual beyond
his ego in Krishna's light and Love."4!
Krishnaprem was absolutely sincere in his spiritual pursuit. His aspiration for the realization of Krishna was so unwavering that he could face all the difficulties of his path very bravely. He did not care for fame or fortune or any other worldly pleasure. He cared only for higher spiritual existence. For him love-bhakti- meant "the ahuti- offering of the mortal in the flame of the immortal.":42 Such a self-offering, he was sure, would lead the bhakta to bliss. Once he wrote:
“Know Krishna, love Krishna and work for Krishna. Then you can leave all the blisses to take care of themselves. You will certainly not find any shortage of them. Of course there is bliss experienced in self-offering but do not offer yourself in order to get the bliss but offer yourself because He is Krishna and your
being can only fulfil itself by being united to His Being”. 43
His single-pointed love of Krishna, Dilip Roy says, led him to experiences which can be called mystical. He frequently confided his higher and almost ineffable moments of bliss to Dilip Roy. Narrating a wonderful vision which he had at Trichinopoly in the Srirangam Temple, Dilip Roy writes
“ "It was a marvellous revelation, Dilip", he told me. "As soon as I prostrated myself in the shrine before the Lord's Image, I lost my outer consciousness and saw-O Dilip , it was-it beggars description !"
“I saw," he went on in moving terms, "a vast ocean made of liquid light—the apah (waters) before the cosmic creation. was it? I don't know. For Time had stood still till a breath of Love started a ripple in the hushed ocean of Light, when countless white lotuses erupted on the blue waves, one after another, and on each flower stood a lovely Krishna with Radha-She smiling and He playing His magic flute. But 0 Dilip, what beauty, what music and ... and what bliss ! The music of the spheres ... from harmony to harmony ... the diapason ... !" He shook his head ruefully, "Pale, dead, frozen words... how could they outflash the living Flame that is Krishna, the throbbing Love that is Radharani...? He shivered as his voice trailed off into silence." 44
It was possible for Krishnaprem to have such mystical experiences, he believed, only because he came to India. He had deep reverence for India and its ancient spiritual heritage as well as the ascetic sadhus. Dilip Roy records :
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