In this book Dilip Kumar Roy pays tribute to six ‘illu¬minates’ of modern India—Sri Aurobindo, Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Mahatma Gandhi, Sant Gulab Singh and Mahayogi Anirvan. Some of these men he has written about in his earlier, more interesting book, Among the Great. What binds the author and his heroes in the present work is their mystical approach to life. Dilip Kumar Roy remembers his past associations with these spiri¬tual leaders, fondly recalls old memories, explains their spiri¬tual quest and writes about the suffering, anguish and ecstasy that these God-rapt souls felt in their pilgrimage through this life.
It is an old wives’ tale known in all its subtle nuances to any teenage boy or girl brought up in an orthodox Hindu family. This is not a criticism of the book. Indeed, the only thing that one can say about this book is that it would be as difficult to dissuade those who like this sort of reading from buying it as it would be to persuade those who do not care a pin about the high-faulting mystical rigmarole contained in this book to buy it.