Shri Nathji was once in the hill station of Dharmasala in the District of Kangra. This was sometime in 1929. He was going for a walk in the hills when he met a group of people coming towards his house.
Let us walk together on this hill, he said. As they walked on the slope, he said to them: Is this an ascent or a descent?
Quite positively an ascent, they said, we are running short of breath walking up the slope.
Just then, a man came from the opposite direction, his feet slipping beneath him as he hurtled downwards.
It appears to be quite positively a descent, for him, said Shri Nathji.
And then he pointed to a little ant that moved horizontally on a rock: For the ant, there is neither an ascent nor a descent.
Shri Nathji elaborated: Just like this slope has no inherent attributes in itself–it becomes an ascent for one person, and a descent for another–similarly the material objects of the world have no inherent attributes. It is we who either derive happiness from them or else experience sorrow in them. In themselves, they contain neither happiness nor sorrow. A change in the angle of vision is all that is required.
Look at the Urdu word Khuda-God. If you place the dot on the bottom of the word it becomes Juda-Separation. One can either see God in this material world or else find only matter in it, without God.
There was also Shri Nathji’s verse on this theme in later years:
Nazar ke hee badalne se sabhi kuchh hai badal jaataa,
Jisse duniyaa judaa samjhe usse aashik Khudaa samjhe
A change in the angle of vision changes everything;
He whom the world denies, the lover looks upon as God!