A mahatma from the hills of Uttar Kashi came to see Shri Nathji in Mussoorie. The year was 1945, and Shri Nathji was in a rented house, Shadi Bhavan at Camel’s Back Road. The mahatma had long matted hair-jataayen, and looked every bit an ascetic. He bowed before Shri Nathji and said:
I have come from the caves of Uttar Kashi. The mahatmas there send their salutations. Maharaj! We often speak of you in our hermitages and ashrams in the hills. We have left the material world for a spiritual life. But many times when we try to shut out the world from our senses, it forces itself upon us. When we go to sleep, the very world which we left behind, returns to us in our dreams! We marvel at the life you lead in the midst of cities, living like a man of the world, keeping a control not only over your own mind but also over the hearts of thousands of others! We wish to know of the strange power you possess which enables you to do this. We invite you, Sir, please come and stay with us as well.
Mahatmaji, Shri Nathji said, tell me from whom does a fish learn how to swim?
From no one, said the mahatma, it knows how to swim from birth.
Shri Nathji said: No matter how good a swimmer a man might become, he can never swim like a fish. It might be that I have been born this way, for the particular work that I must do in the world. This state has come to me naturally, from birth. I have not had to acquire it.
I thank you for your kind invitation. But you do not need me, because you are progressing well along your chosen path, and I for my part, do not need the solitude of the caves. A doctor must stay where his patients are.