Dilip Kumar Roy

Dilip Kumar Roy (22 January 1897 – 6 January 1980) - known as 'Dadaji' to his countless followers, a well-known musician and vocalist who specialised in Dhrupad, Khayal, and devotional music; also an author and a poet. He was an author of 75 books in Bengali and 26 books in English.

He was born at the one of the most aristocratic families of Bengal. His father, Dwijendralal Ray (19.07.1863 – 17.05.1913), was the Bengali poet, playwright, and composer. On his father’s side, the family descended from one of the apostles of the medieval Bengali saint Sri Chaitanya. His mother Surabala Devi (?-1903) was the daughter of distinguished homeopath physician Pratap Chandra Majumdar. His sister — Maya Devi.

He joined the Presidency College of Calcutta. Here he came close to Subhas Chandra Bose. With a first class honours in mathematics, he went to Cambridge in 1919 for a tripos. In 1920, in addition to the first part of his tripos, he passed also, the examination in Western music. Along with his lessons in piano, he grew fluent in French, German and Italian, before leaving for Germany and Italy to pursue his studies in music. Roy met personalities like Romain Rolland, Bertrand Russell, Hermann Hesse, Georges Duhamel. From Vienna, invited by president Masaryk, Roy visited Prague, on his way to Budapest, Rome, Florence and Naples, to discover the heart of the tradition of European music.

 At 1923 he knew on Sri Aurobindo’s workings. At 1924 he visited Sri Aurobindo at Pondicherry and talked with him, but did not got permit to stay. After a second visit to Europe, in August 1928, he returned to Pondicherry and was here till 1952. During this period he was occasionally subject to fits of doubt, restiveness and even rebellion. Sri Aurobindo wrote to him, “It is a strong and lasting personal relation that I have felt with you ever since we met and even before and it is only that that has been the base of all the outward support, consideration, care and constant helping endeavour which I have always extended towards you and which could not have arisen from any tepid impersonal feeling. On my side that relation is not likely to change ever. Even before I met you for the first time, I knew of you and felt at once the contact of one with whom I had that relation which declares itself constantly through many lives and followed your career (all that I hear about it) with a close sympathy and interest. It is a feeling which is never mistaken and gives the impression of one not only close to one but a part of one’s existence... The relation that is so indicated always turns out to be that of those who have been together in the past and were predestined to join again (though the past circumstances may not be known) drawn together by old ties. It was the same inward recognition (apart even from the deepest spiritual connection) that brought you here. If the outer consciousness does not fully realise this, it is because of the crust always created by a new physical birth that prevents it. But the soul knows all the while.”

A few years after leaving the Ashram and on returning from a world tour, accompanied by his disciple Indira Devi, he founded the Hari Krishna Mandir in 1959 at Pune. Here he died on 6 January 1980.