Lover of Light Among Luminaries Dilip Kumar Roy

Author(s): Amruta Paresh Patel
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 66

FULLER PORTRAITS
Such a difference in total outlook and perception could be attributed to an incompatibility whose roots can never be discovered in what we commonly call our visible personality or temperament. That is why I have set it down to what, in default of a better name, I have named "instinctive disaccord."103
Here, the biographer and his subject, too, stand compared and contrasted. Both, Roy and Subhash Chandra Bose had remarkable similarities of temperaments. Both of them were highly sophisticated, intelligent, active, idealistic and courageous.
Roy notes:
"The more I knew him, the more I loved him, till it became almost an exquisite adoration. Not that we never differed from each other. But even the difference of our individual viewpoints and tastes contributed to the deepening of our intimacy.... My ideal was Sri Ramkrishna, who had said that the object of life is to meet and live in the Divine. Subhash said that the object of life was to serve our beloved Motherland, India, by liberating her from the foreign yoke which bled us dry ruthlessly. It is not that I did not love India. I was wont to say to Subhash with a courtly bow and a theatrical smile (paraphrasing Shakespeare's Brutus): "Not that I love India less but that I love Krishna more."104
Subhas Chandra was a man of strong will-power, quick decisions and aggressive and independent temperament. Apart from being a good orator, patriot, political activist, he was almost an ascetic. He always tried to look into the future and behaved according to the latest trends of politics.
While Dilip Roy was a man of wavering and indecisive nature. He frequently sought Subhas Chandra's help in taking decisions of his own life. He was shy by temperament. So, he found it difficult in his early youth to deliver public speeches. He had strong dislike for politics. He had deep-rooted faith in universal truths quoted in ancient traditional scriptures. He became disciple of Sri. Aurobindo and began to stay in his Ashram. He also gave himself to music and literary creativity. Above all, Dilip Roy was humble and always liked to appreciate good qualities of others. Subhas Chandra Bose was aware of this habit of Roy. Bose called Roy a born 'hero-worshipper'. Subhas Chandra being a fastidious person, praised a very few people in his life. The following conversation brings out the difference that lay between Subhas Chandra and Dilip Roy. On Roy's reference to the good qualities of Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose said: