Shri Nathji would sometimes speak as follows, to the people who came to him:
Four Things
There are four things–Live peacefully, leave peacefully, and live forever peacefully, and never come back!
“A man can spend an entire lifetime earning, and yet not get anywhere, whereas another man may suddenly win a lottery. Life should be like a straight line–not like a circle. Look to your real Relative. Make such a friend in life who will never desert you, who will be with you even before you can call out to him, who will be with you in life as well as in death! Diamonds exist in faraway mountains. But they can be found if you seek hard enough.
“You have come to me today, but it appears as if I have known you from ages! Do not bring worldly status into this darbaar. Come in an empty state! Come like the vessel which has nothing in it but the space,
“What is water? That which satiates your thirst. God is that which brings peace to the soul of man. Atha-tho-Brahm-jigyaasaa. Develop a thirst for him. Make an application for admission.
“Bhutt rose in worldly status as well after he had found God. He showed the world he had found a Master who would be with him in this world as well as the next. He left for another world made beautiful on earth. One must ask for the Grace of God. One cannot force Him. One cannot get anything from Him if one remains like Duryodhana who was opposed to Him. All the souls in the world are suffering in the separation from God. Bring your hearts before Him, not your minds. First seek to experience Him, then find His door, then beg for His Grace, and finally remain at His doorstep until He gives.
“Salvation is something that even the Emperors and the Kings of the world desire. Buddha renounced the world for the sake of salvation.
“You have not come of yourselves–you have been called here, by me. If I give you a yellow colour, and it remains yellow all the time, I am satisfied.
Darshan, Sparsh, Vaani
“There are three things that may be derived from a Man of God: Darshan, Vaani and Sparsh – you can see him, you can hear him and you can be touched by him! Where can you find light? In a bulb. But the switch must be on! What I have to offer you is not in an experimental stage, it is a verified fact!
“Agar yahaan Satya naheen to phir Satya hee naheen! Let me tell you – if truth does not exist here, then it does not exist anywhere else either, in fact it doesn’t exist at all! There is no ‘self’ here.
“There is a wall of divine laughter. Those who stand upon it, look upon that which exists on the other side, and they laugh and fall to the other side. Eternal happiness is another name for salvation.
“Let me warn you–the time of life is passing you by. Make a bargain in life. Do not be in such a hurry that you accept the wrong thing, and do not delay to such an extent, that the real thing slips by.
“Itni jaldi bhee na karo ke galat cheez ko pakarr lo, aur itni der bhee naa karo ke achhee cheez haathh se nikal jaaye!
“You must learn the law of life and death, like Bhutt did, and carried it with him up to the last moments of his life. He could have walked on fire with joy.
“Look! I have been waiting for you since the morning. I dressed up to come before you, even before you came here! It is not only you who need me, I need you as well! It is not only the eyes that need the sun; the sun needs the eyes as well! There are millions of people in the world. How came you to be here today? It is not a coincidence. There are certain times propitious for the Grace of God.
“There are people who say the world is real–but where is the world in your dreams? Where is your own body, then, in its consciousness?
Your Own Faith
“You have come for Truth. If I have Truth you will get it from me; if not, then your own bhaavnaa- faith shall reward you.
“Agar mere paas Satya hai to aapko phal milegaa aur agar mere paas Satya naheen to aapki bhaavnaa aapko phal degi!”
“People can even secure the fruits of their faith from stone images.
His Grace Essential
“There must be a thirst, but His grace is essential as well. No matter how sharp your eyesight may be, but it cannot see the Sun unless the Sun reveals itself! You can only see the Sun with the light of the Sun. All are thirsting for this Grace, this Kripaa– mahatmas, devi-devtaas, and devotees. Surrender yourself before Him.
“Sarv dharmaan parityajya maam ekam sharanam vraj!
Leaving aside everything seek Thou a refuge in me!
“If an avatar has come to the earth, it is nothing new. There is need for the Sun now, just as there was a need for the Sun in ages past. The stars are not enough to dispel the darkness.
“Even the President of a country must go before water as a thirsty man. One must empty oneself of ego before God. There is no loss in this. Material prosperity will follow.
“Today the whole of Islam rests on the personality of Prophet Mohammad, Christianity rests on Christ, Hinduism on Rama and Krishna. Time does not end this process. There is an infinite creation with ever newer things to come. When you speak, you cannot imagine straightaway what you are going to say next. There is no sense in quarrelling over names–call water by any name, if it satiates your thirst it is everything for you! If you get Peace from me, then I am everything for you or else nothing!
“The time now is beautiful; the grace of God is beautiful; your heart is beautiful. Surely something must be gained from all this.
“Sometimes I must leave one and go to meet thousands, and sometimes I must leave thousands and go to one.
Deserve then Desire
“First deserve, and then desire. But, unfortunately, there is no one who can be deserving enough of the Grace of God. Let God make everyone worthy and fill him with his Grace. Let the King supply the beggar with a begging bowl, and fill it as well.
“All are imperfect before God. It is this unworthiness that draws them to the Perfect. To experience one’s imperfection is to attain perfection; to know of one’s unworthiness is to become worthy.
“I must look at myself in the mirrors of your hearts. They say Satyam-Shivam-Sundaram, but where can I see myself? Only in you! It is only the feeling of separation that brings about Union. To say ‘I am nothing’ is to acknowledge the supremacy of God.
“Your eyes are weak. A child’s eyes are strong. But if both are in the dark, the sight of both shall become equivalent. Sight must depend upon light.
“Look at the door–it is closed! When you came in, the door was open. Entry here is open to all, but there is no Exit! Once you have reached God, there is no turning back!
“Avval to iss kooche men koyi aanaa naheen paataa,
Aur agar aa gayaa to phir jaanaa naheen paataa!
One cannot enter into this Lane, if at all,
But having entered once, he may not ever leave at all!
“If I am the light, then you are like the oil and the wick!
“If I had not come as one of you, you would not have been able to understand me, and if I were not to make you like myself, my coming would be of no significance. God and man must be at the same level.
Same Level
“In order to bring you to my level I must come down to your level first.
“For as long as the King and the Beggar do not come to the same level, the King cannot give, and the Beggar cannot receive.
“The last fruit of evolution is that which lay hidden in the seed right from the beginning.
Shri Nathji said:
God has created happiness in the world so that man may learn to thank him; He has created sorrow in the world so that man may learn to pray to him; and when He does not answer the prayers of man, it is only so that man may learn to surrender himself before Him.
You are travelling in a train. A very close relative of yours boards the train somewhere along the way. The other passengers in your compartment see him for the first time, and look upon him as a stranger. But you know him to be an old acquaintance. In a like manner, I have entered your lives like a newcomer. But your soul understands that the relationship is very old.
Introducing God
How can anyone introduce me to you? As a matter of fact no one can completely introduce anyone to anyone, for no one can completely know of all the attributes of another. One can introduce another only to the extent that one knows of him. Only you know completely about yourself. Only you can completely introduce yourself. And, then, even you do not know completely about yourself–for you cannot predict what thought will enter your own mind the very next moment!
I do not wish to ask you to shut your eyes and meditate. It is not necessary that by entering within yourself you shall find God. Even dreams and illusions exist within you. If you cannot see God in His vast creation outside, how can you see him within the darkness of the eyes that are shut!
Shri Nathji used to tell a beautiful parable on this theme:
The Maulvi and the Woman
A Maulvi was sunk in the meditation of God-namaaz, when a woman happened to pass by. This so distracted the Maulvi that he could not concentrate on his meditation. It was sacrilege for a woman to have cast her shadow on him while he was meditating, and to have disturbed his concentration.
“Woman!” he said to her later, “why didn’t you walk carefully? You disturbed my communion with God!”
“I am sorry if I did that,” said the woman, “I was so lost in the thought of my daily chores that I failed to notice you.”
And then, after a pause, she added: “But you, O Maulvi! – were you lost so little in the thought of God that you noticed me?
Shri Nathji used to say:
Real absorption in God can be had without meditation. When God enters the heart, the thoughts of the world disappear all by themselves. Think of a man who has millions with him. He wishes not to part from them for even a second. But when sleep comes to him, he forgets all about his treasure though it be by his side! Similarly the moment you give a place to God within yourselves, the conflicting world shall disappear by itself!
God is anxious to enter your heart. He is anxious to shower His Grace. It is not the drop of water that runs towards the ocean, it is the ocean that pulls the drop towards itself! The feeling of separation in the ocean is greater than the feeling of separation in the drop, this is because the ocean feels the separation of an infinite number of drops!”
The Seth and the Beggar
Shri Nathji told a very interesting parable of a beggar and a Seth, a millionaire. The beggar begged the Seth for alms, and the Seth, in turn, begged the beggar for alms! The beggar was infuriated. In sheer disgust, he groped into his bag, which contained rice, and handed one grain of the rice to the Seth. Later, when the beggar examined the rice bag, he found a gold nugget within! If only he had given all the grains of rice to the Seth, he would have ended up with a bagful of Gold!
Each little moment of the life of man that is spent for the sake of God is made valuable beyond measure by Him.
Shri Nathji would say:
Why do you hesitate to give up your world to God? Isn’t it the same world which is taken away from you every night by your dreams? Where is your wealth, your relatives, your business, when you are dreaming? Does not sleep rob you of everything you possess? What harm, then in handing over your life to God–now, in this life! Why do you attach so much worth to this life? It is but a little cough, a little hiccup–this breath of life–and it vanishes just as suddenly.