The two devotees of Shri Nathji, Hardeo Prasad Sharma, and Ram Lal invited Shri Nathji to address the students at the boys’ hostel at Sanatan Dharam College.
Shri Nathji sat in a verandah outside the hostel rooms and met the students. What had at first begun as a casual meeting, took the form of a deeply moving and powerful spiritual experience.
Even as the students gathered around Shri Nathji, spiritual waves of love divine appeared to engulf their hearts. Their inner beings thrilled with a bliss altogether inexpressible and unique. A divine intoxication overpowered them and a spiritual ecstasy appeared to flood their souls. The gates of a mighty revelation appeared to open, and the Full Glory of Shri Nathji’s Divine Form made itself manifest. It was a feeling much too powerful for any human being.
Some students fell down upon the ground in a semi-conscious state, some wept and laughed, in turns, a spiritual radiance came over their features. God had revealed Himself to them, suddenly and powerfully.
Enough! they said, enough, we cannot bear to look upon thy real form any longer! Conceal thy real self! Switch off the light!
Shri Nathji’s face had an unusual glow upon it. His eyes were shut and his hands raised upwards in a gesture of blessing. Upon hearing their prayers, he got up and switched off the light in the verandah.
Your divine radiance floods our souls even in this darkness, the students said, ‘it is blinding; we cannot bear it any longer. Shut off your inner light. Its brilliance is too much. Your real form is too overwhelming!”
The principal of the college, Shri Raghubar Dayal, arrived on the scene when he heard of the strange phenomenon. He was introduced to Shri Nathji, and immediately begged that he, too, be granted a vision of the inner light.
During those days, the incident gave one of the strongest proofs of Shri Nathji’s divinity. Arjuna had been the only one to have seen the Divine Form of Lord Krishna, but here were many being granted the same vision. It was the will of God to reveal Himself whenever He wished, to as many people as He liked. If a college hostel was an odd place for such a revelation, so was the battlefield of Kurukshetra.
Shri Nathji used to say: “There was only one person who was granted the divine vision of Lord Krishna–and that was Arjuna. But today mankind believes in the vision that one man was granted. If water has quenched the thirst of one man, then the principle has been established that it can quench the thirst of all. Even one man’s experience is enough for the whole world. However not all may see what he saw. When did Arjuna realise that Lord Krishna was God? It was only when Lord Krishna revealed Himself to him! You can see the sun only with the light of the sun!
If I am sitting inside a room and one person looks inside and sees me sitting there, he shall bear witness to the fact that I am inside the room. If a thousand persons come and see me sitting inside the room they too will bear witness to the same fact. Therefore the testimony of that one man was enough to confirm that I am inside. Even one man’s experience is enough to confirm the truth.
The young men at Lahore looked upon Shri Nathji as a Saviour who would not only lead mankind to salvation, but also free India of the yolk of foreign domination. It appeared that the Messiah had come who would lead the country out of the bondage of slavery, and indeed lead the human soul out of the bondage of the human flesh. Shri Babaji’s prophecy about Shri Nathji was coming true all by itself in a very miraculous manner. God was revealing Himself through the personality of Shri Nathji. And these young men composed this verse upon him:
Nath! Ab doobte Bharat ko bachaane aao
Naav manjdhaar men hai paar lagaane aao
O Nath, come and save the Bharat that drowns,
The boat is in the waters, come and take it across
Some enthusiastic young men even got a Gandhi Cap for Shri Nathji and placed it on his head. The Gandhi Cap was a symbol of India’s fight for freedom during those days of British Rule. However Shri Nathji’s mind was far removed from politics. Whatever political work had to be done in the country was being done by those who had been chosen for the task by God. As such they were doing directly what Shri Nathji was doing indirectly through them. There was Shri Nathji’s verse:
Ai Baadshaah, duniyaan ke hain mohre meri shatranj ke
Dillagi ki chaal hai sab rang sulho jang ke
O Emperor! The world before me is a game of chess;
It is but a game, this move of war or peace.
Shri Nathji was the silent puppeteer behind the screen, and the kings and emperors and commoners of the world were as puppets before him. Though the movements of the puppets could be seen, he who moved the puppets remained unseen.
When Shri Nathji finally left Lahore to return to Amritsar, crowds followed him to the Railway Station in tears. They could not bear to be parted from him. It was as if their very soul was going away–so great was the intensity of the love and devotion they felt for Shri Nathji.
All throughout Shri Nathji’s life, numerous persons had a vision of the Divine in him. Even those who did not have this vision experienced God in Shri Nathji from the depths of their hearts and souls.