Lover of Light Among Luminaries Dilip Kumar Roy

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

Page 70

FULLER PORTRAITS
61
But Roy is much more than a mere disciple. His Krishna-love drives him to the company of Krishnaprem. The two birds have the same feathers, but one is an adult bird, the other is a youngling in the same nest with him. There is a difference of the degrees of maturity between the two. We see thus Dilip Roy as a bird with growing feathers with the full-fledged personality of Krishnaprem. This is another relationship and aspect of Roy's personality.
Then we see Dilip Roy as a youth vis-a-vis his equally youthful friend, Subhas. They are pals. One is not superior to the other in this relationship of friendship. Each reveals himself freely before the other in complete confidence. Here we discover Dilip Roy in a different light from the earlier lights.
We see now Dilip Roy in a unique relationship with Indira Devi. There is nothing customary about him. He does not want to become anybody's guru. groping as he himself is for light. Yet he is nearly forced to be one by a woman who sees in him her pre-appointed guru. As we shall see later, it is difficult to say definitely who teaches whom. Yet, it seems, this relationship has totally. transformed him spiritually. It seems, in the ladder of spiritual progress that Roy has been climbing, his relationship with Indira Devi comes as the last rung. Beyond it, is the terrace of the highest achievement.
(A) Portrait:
Indira Devi, before she came to Dilip Roy, was known as Janak Kumari. Her father, Captain Kriparam Jauhar, had been a multimillionaire military. contractor. He gave Indira Devi the best and the most expensive modern education. Since her very young age, she had been accustomed to move amid the most cultured and sophisticated society. She had already been married and had three sons before she met Roy. She had imbibed from her milieu the qualities of nobility, sincerity and generosity. But she also felt dissatisfied with the life of luxury she led and sensed a kind of hypocrisy in her class.
When she met Roy for the first time in 1946, she intuitively felt that this man, so utterly different from the people around her, was destined to lead her from darkness to light. In 1949, therefore, she ran down to Pondicherry and besought Dilip Roy to accept her as his disciple. The very suggestion appalled Roy who knew his own limitations and imperfections too well to ignore them. How could he, who himself suffered form darkness, take upon himself the responsibility of leading someone else towards light? Instead of accepting her, he prayed to Sri Aurobindo that he accept her as his own disciple. Sri Aurobindo too was prepared to accept her but she refused to recognize anyone other than Dilip Roy as her guru inspite of her high regard for Sri Aurobindo. Her intuitive awareness in this regard had been so clear and strong that ultimately it disarmed both Sri Aurobindo and Dilip Roy. Sri Aurobindo, then, permitted Dilip Roy to accept her as a disciple and the latter did accept her.