Prof. Dharm Pal Gupta, affectionately and reverentially known as ‘Papaji’ among the devotees, was the founder Managing Secretary of the Trust and an intimate disciple of Swami Nityatmananda. He received Mantra-initiation from Rev. Swamiji on November 30, 1963 at Rohtak.
He served the Trust for about 36 years in is multifarious activities right from its inception. He can be called a ‘Rasaddar’of the Trust. That is why an intimate devotee of Smt. Ishwar Devi Gupta and presently a Trustee writes about him : “Papaji was always calm and quiet, gentle and soft spoken. He was a deep thinking personality. He played a perfect supportive role with mind and money.
He used all of his resources with earnest love, care and reverence for Swamiji and Mataji.’’
He carried forward Shri M.’s flame though his lucid translation of all the five parts of ‘Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita’ and all the sixteen volumes of ‘Sri Ma Darshan’ in English. He authored some other books also, such as : “The life of M. and Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita’ and ‘A Short Life of M.’ He edited the book ‘Sri Ramakrsihan Kathamrita Centenary Memorial Volume’— a treatise well-known in India and abroad. It is because of his English versions of the Trust literature that the Trust is gaining popularity abroad day by day and the demand for ‘M.- the Apostle and the Evangelist’ and ‘Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita’ in English is on the increase.
In an interview given to Dr. Nirmal Mittal, he reveals about Swami Nityatmanandaji : “I took him as a great spiritual personality and tried my best to follow his great spiritual personality and tried my best to follow his great teachings knowing fully well my incompetence and his greatness. After all, Swamiji had transformed an almost agnostic into a person who has no other engagement in life than reading, dictating and hearing spiritual talks while still keeping his love of gardening and flowers alive.”
On his very first meeting with Swamiji in 1958, he observed : “Swamiji was not one of those monks one frequently comes across on the roads as even in a holy place. His words were chistled as of a seasoned literary person without the hotch potch of mysticism or intellectual arrogance. He asked us to take care of our spiritual life just as we were looking after our worldly and intellectual life.
He left for Thakur’s abode on the 23rd of October, 1998 at the residence of his only son, Dr. Kamal Gupta, at Noida.
