When he was 16, Royclashed with his orthodox father on the issue of idol worship and left home. Toacquaint himself with the Buddhist religion, he travelled across northern India and Tibet for the next three years. Hisquestioning mind objected to the deification of the Buddha and this did not godown well with some of the lamas. He then visited Varanasi where he learnt Sanskrit and studiedancient Hindu scriptures.

In 1803, he secured a job with the East India Company and in 1809, he wasposted to Rangpur. In Rangpur, he learnt about Jainism and studied the Jaintexts. Roy wasdrawn to certain aspects of Christianity that led some of the followers of thereligion to suggest that he convert; but he politely declined.

Roy'sunderstanding of the different religions of the world helped him to comparethem with Vedantic philosophy and garner the best from each religion. Sufimysticism had a great influence on Roy.He loved to repeat three of their maxims: "Man is the slave ofbenefits"; "The enjoyment of the worlds rests on these two points -kindness to friends and civility to enemies"; and "The way of servingGod is to do good to man".

To pursue his interests, Roy resigned from theEast India Company a few years later and came to Calcutta in 1814. Dissatisfied with thesystem of education and the rote method of teaching English, he formed anassociation of English and Hindu scholars. He also invested his own money inthe starting of a school where he introduced subjects like science,mathematics, political science and English. Roy felt that an understanding of these"modern" subjects would give Indians a better standing in the worldof the day.

Though initially antagonistic towards British rule in India, Roylater began to feel that the country would benefit in terms of education and byexposure to the good points of Christianity. For this he was called a stooge ofthe British.

Along with a group of like-minded people, Royfounded the Atmiya Sabha in 1814. The group held weekly meetings at his house;texts from the Vedas were recited and theistic hymns were sung. Roy was drawn to the Unitarian form of Christianity thatresulted in him supporting a Unitarian Mission to be set up in Calcutta in 1824.