While Priya Nath was at Harvard he had come into contact with a certain Miss Anne Forbes who was an elderly lady whose brother Edward Forbes was the conductor of the Harvard University Orchestra. She had placed her house at Priya Nath’s disposal for a few days so that Shri Nathji could stay there after he had left the house of Dr. Smith. Priya Nath and Shri Nathji thereafter stayed for some time at the house of Miss Anne Forbes. She and her friends greeted Shri Nathji warmly at the house at the start, but later her attitude began to change when she saw the indescribably beautiful personality of Shri Nathji in contrast to which the portraits of her guru paled into insignificance.
She was the follower of a spiritual organisation in America, and held regular meditation services in the basement of her house. When members of her group discovered Shri Nathji’s presence in the house they immediately became curious and desired to see him. Priya Nath admitted them into Shri Nathji’s chambers, where Shri Nathji was addressing some people. The impact of Shri Nathji’s personality was like a revelation. They had never witnessed such a living divine force before.
When Miss Anne Forbes discovered that members of her group had visited Shri Nathji, she immediately wrote a note of protest to him and Priya Nath, asking them to stop all manner of spiritual meetings at the house.
I thought your guru asked you to respect all holy men and to hear what they had to say, said Priya Nath to her.
Shri Nathji’s reply was very gentle and polite: If it offends you, I shall not meet anyone in the house.
Priya Nath had never liked this huge house, which had portraits of an Indian guru in every room. Priya Nath looked at the cunning eyes and the crafty expression on the guru’s face, in which there was pride and pomposity, and he compared it to the kind, gentle, innocent and compassionate eyes and expression of Shri Nathji. Surely these people were not even worthy of being compared to Shri Nathji. Comparing them to Shri Nathji was like comparing the darkness to sunlight.
Such, indeed, was the difference between spiritualists that adhered to organisations, and scientists like Dr. Winick, whose mind was open to all.
Tell your father to speak to those people who are not attached to any groups of their own, was Anne Forbes advice to Priya Nath.
It was a strange thing. Being organised in a group apparently meant shutting the rest of the world out–including God!
It was religious bigotry that had taken the form of religious persecutions in the past.
If only these followers of a yogi had realised that God had come to them! It was unfortunate that gurus created sects of their own, which preached universal brotherhood of mankind, but their followers excluded all of mankind which did not belong to the sects.
As the American humorist, Tom Lehrer, would say: I say that we should all love one another. But there are people who just won’t love their neighbours. And I hate people like that!
The greater the number of spiritualists that Shri Nathji visited, the greater was Priya Nath’s disappointment. There was the Indian swami in Boston, who met Shri Nathji at his door, and did not even invite him in, far less offer him a seat. I’m in a hurry, he said, the moment his eyes fell upon Shri Nathji. The swami had to rush to deliver a sermon on God, while God stood at his doorstep awaiting admittance!
One look at Shri Nathji was enough to convince these so-called swamis that here was a towering personality that would over-shadow them completely. And they had to preserve their disciples, who, they were afraid, would run after Shri Nathji the moment they saw him.
Shri Nathji was not interested in anybody’s disciples. He was even courteous enough to tell those of other sects who came to him:
Go back to your own gurus. At this stage of your development they are sufficient for you! The invisible current is the same–it merely appears through different bulbs, whatever the power of the bulbs might be!
We had never known about you when we met these gurus, an American said to him, but after seeing you we feel you have the greatest power! Your parables constitute the highest form of spiritual teaching!
There was a powerful glow on Shri Nathji’s face during those days. Many a seeker after truth came to him and went away satiated and purified.