Shri Nathji would say:
“Main vo light naheen jo aapke saron par hee parraa hoon, main vo light hoon jo aapke charanon men bhee parraa hoon!
I am not that light which falls only upon your heads, I am that light which rests on your feet as well.
Early in the morning when all of you are asleep I come to your homes and bow down before you and touch your feet in a gesture of obeisance. When you come and bow before me, you think of it as a greeting, and I think of it as a reply.
Shri Nathji’s exact words in Hindi were:
“Praate kaal, jab aap sab soye hue hote hain main aapke gharon men aakar sab ko pranaan kar aataa hoon. Jab aap aakar mere saamne pranaam karte hain to aap samajhte hain ke aap prashn kar rahe hain, aur main samajhtaa hoon ke uttar de rahe hain!”
One of the remarkable aspects of Shri Nathji was that he never directly relegated any greatness to himself. It was a modest gesture on the part of the Creator of the Universe.
It was his voice in Persian:
“Kaare baghair ishq na daarem dar jahaan
Ishq ast kaare maa va badeen kaar aamdem”
I have no mission except Love in this world,
My mission is Love and my work is Love.
You have come to me to seek the reflection of the Divine Being, in me he used to say, if Truth exists within me, you shall find it. Otherwise your faith shall bring you its reward.
He cautioned: Not all places, however, are worthy of worship. Only the letter-box which is connected with the postal system can deliver your letter. A letter-box though it be made of gold, can never deliver your letter if it is not connected with the postal system. Similarly, when you place your worship before a man of God–the worship reaches God.
A devotee came to Shri Nathji and said: Sir, you are the very living image of beauty! Your clothes are beautiful, your body is beautiful, your words are beautiful, your mind and soul are beautiful.
Shri Nathji replied: Perhaps you are looking at yourself in a mirror. As for me –
Jamaale hamnasheen dar men asar kard
Vagarnaa man hamaa khaakam ke hastam
It is the beauty of the Eternal Friend that illuminates my existence.
Otherwise I am that dust from which I was taken!”
Shri Nathji’s face and form were so full of Divine Light that all who saw him were overwhelmed. One day he looked upon his face in a mirror and hastily put the mirror down. The brilliance of the light was so great that he could not bear to look upon his own face. He said: I wondered then how others could have borne to look upon the effulgence of my Face!
Shri Nathji’s humility had become legend. The highest of mountain peaks rest upon the lowest of lands,” he used to say. He would never think of himself as greater than anyone else.
Shri Nathji called himself, in all humility, Ghulam Rue Zameen, which means: The Servant of the Earth.
Shri Nathji would add: At first I had thought of becoming your servant, but then I realised that a servant can resign. Therefore I decided to become your Ghulam–your slave–one who cannot resign from his work!
Look at that ant, he would say, even that ant is greater than me, for I can see it, though I cannot see myself.
I have within me two weaknesses, he said, one is that I cannot bear to see the sufferings of others, and the other is that I cannot look upon the faults of others.
Shri Nathji would say in Persian:
“Cheeze ke gahe bakaar na aayad maayem
Vaan nakhl kazo baar na aayad maayem
Kardem hisaabo beshe khud sanjeeden
Aan zaraa ke dar shumaar na aayad maayem
I am that thing which is of no use to anyone,
I am that tree which never bears fruit,
I sat in silence one day and tried to gauge my own worth,
And I discovered that I was that atom, the very existence of which could be discounted.
These were the words of the Avatar–Shri Nathji. Indeed, the Lord of Creation could afford to be as proud or as humble as he chose to be.
The news of Shri Nathji’s avatarhood soon began to spread. Many saw the Divine Form in him. Many worshipped him as Krishna, many as Rama, many as Lord Shankar, and many as the Kalki Avatar, or the Nishkalank Avatar, who was to appear at the end of the present age of Kaliyuga.
The moth loves the flame, and the nightingale loves the rose. Similarly those souls who were prepared, recognized the Supreme Lover in Shri Nathji instantaneously. It was the ultimate spiritual experience.
Shri Nathji would never have any fixed programmes or schedules. His movements would be at the calling of thirsty souls. There was a divine plan behind all his actions. Many times Shri Nathji would say:
I am like a dry leaf which has no tree as its home. If you want to know of my movements, then ask the wind.
He would frequently say in Persian:
Rishtaye dar gardanam afgandaa dost
Mi burad har jaa ki khaatir khaaye ost
My friend has thrown a string around my neck
And leads me wheresoever He wills.