Shri Nathji listened to his prayer and went with him to Bombay. Hasellwright arranged for accommodation in the Green Hotel, near the Gateway of India. As Shri Nathji entered the lobby, Hasellwright took Shri Nathji’s suitcase on his shoulder and carried it inside, brushing aside the hotel porters.
Is he a Maharaja? someone asked Hasellwright.
Would I carry the suitcase of a Maharaja? I am no coolie, Hasellwright said, but yes, he is a very special Maharaja–he is the Maharaja of my heart.
Later, Hasellwright said to Shri Nathji: My heart was like a jungle full of wild animals before you came into it. But now there is nothing but peace and contentment within. Meeting you has been the greatest event of my life.
While in Bombay, Hasellwright spent large sums of money in a gesture of hospitality towards Shri Nathji. And Shri Nathji asked him, Hasellwright, why are you spending so much to serve me?
Hasellwright replied: Nathji, I used to spend a lot on the material things of life, without deriving any happiness from them. No price is too great for the happiness you have given me!
One day, he took Shri Nathji for swimming at Juhu beach. It was the first time Shri Nathji had ever bathed in the ocean. Hasellwright brought swimming trunks for Shri Nathji and the two went to the seashore. While Shri Nathji sat on the sand, Hasellwright entered the waters for a swim. There was the rush of the tide, and suddenly Shri Nathji found Hasellwright at his feet, grasping them with his hands.
Hasellwright, Shri Nathji laughed, were you trying to frighten me? I thought it was some creature from the sea!
No one can frighten you, Nathji, Hasellwright said, this was just to remind you that I have caught hold of your feet forever! Only through your divine grace and kindness can we mortals cross the ocean of life!
While Shri Nathji was in Bombay, a large number of his devotees came for his darshan at Hasellwright’s residence. Once, Hasellwright returned to his flat at three in the morning only to find Shri Nathji surrounded by a group of people listening to Shri Nathji. The devotees were so lost in absorption in Shri Nathji that the lateness of the hour had no significance for them. Shri Nathji had a dreadful pain in his ear that day because of the sand and water from the ocean.
Hasellwright was aghast when he saw Shri Nathji give so freely of himself to a group of apparently unconcerned individuals, lost in a bliss of self-forgetfulness.
Have any of you attended to the pain in Shri Nathji’s ear? he said angrily to the group, Has anyone brought any medicine? What are all of you doing, just sitting there?
All the shops are closed at this hour, the devotees said, it is not possible to get any medicine from anywhere.
In reply, Hasellwright ran out of the room. He was back after a short while with the medicine. He had pleaded with a sleeping chemist to open his shop and to sell him the medicine. He had set an example of service, sewaa, to many of Shri Nathji’s devotees.
Hasellwright’s devotion for Shri Nathji knew no bounds when he saw the immense amount of self-sacrifice Shri Nathji was prepared for, only to give peace and bliss to mankind.
One of the greatest proofs of Shri Nathji’s divinity was the complete absence of Self in him. All his waking and sleeping hours were without any thought for his own self, but were for the sake of the world. One of the attributes of God was that He did not exist for His own sake, but rather for the sake of the world.
It was perhaps this attribute of God that caused the world to turn around and look at him. As a certain G. P. Bhutt, Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh, was to say in later years:
Every man, woman and child in the world is compelled to look at Shri Nathji. This is the greatest proof of His being God.
Hasellwright had ample experience of this in Bombay, when crowds would throng for a glimpse of Shri Nathji wherever he went.
Hasellwright took Shri Nathji for a hair-cut to a hair-cutting Saloon in the city. Shri Nathji almost never removed his turban in public, except when it was for a hair-cut.
The barber, and those who happened to be in his shop, were thus the fortunate few who were to have Shri Nathji’s darshan bareheaded. Shri Nathji’s beauty was so astonishing, that all turned to stare at him in the shop. The spiritual radiance on his face would even light up places like a barber’s shop.
Immediately after Hasellwright had returned to his flat along with Shri Nathji, he was met by a group of Shri Nathji’s devotees who said: Where are the strands of Shri Nathji’s hair that have been cut by the barber?
In the barber’s shop, said Hasellwright.
Don’t you know that Shri Nathji’s hair is sacred? said the devotees, who were becomingly increasing jealous of Hasellwright’s devotion to Shri Nathji, we never leave it at the barber’s shop. We must preserve every strand of it. What if the barber were to throw it away?
Hasellwright became dejected. He began to feel that he had failed his master.
I am sorry, he said, I didn’t know. In the West, people do not preserve the shorn hair of their spiritual preceptors. It is too late now, in any case. The barber must have done away with the hair!
Shri Nathji sensed the dejection that had come over Hasellwright. A magnificent spirit of devotion was about to be dampened. Some of the devotees there exulted in the thought that they had succeeded in belittling Hasellwright. Just then, Shri Nathji sent a wave of divine inspiration into Hasellwright’s mind. Hasellwright brightened up, suddenly, and said, with a glow in his face:
Wait! Can anything make Shri Nathji’s hair impure?
No, said the devotees, on the contrary everything that comes into contact with the hair shall be made pure.
Then, listen, said Hasellwright, those strands of hair that belong to Shri Nathji shall purify the waters into which they flow, they shall purify the city into which they scatter, they shall purify the land which they touch, and the air into which they are blown. They shall purify whatever part of the world they come into contact with!
All who sat and listened to Hasellwright that day knew that his words flowed from a heart that was full to the brim with love and devotion for his Divine Master.
For the duration of the time that Shri Nathji was with Hasellwright in Bombay Hasellwright had become deeply concerned for Shri Nathji’s health because Shri Nathji was not accustomed to the heat and humidity of Bombay.
Hasellwright would take Shri Nathji’s weight almost daily on a weighing scale and would be filled with immense happiness if he saw it increase, howsoever slightly. However, just two days before he was to leave the shores of Bombay to return to England, he discovered that Shri Nathji had lost two pounds of weight. His mind was in deep distress. He felt he had not been able to serve Shri Nathji properly, and indeed he would have gone away with this impression on his mind, when Shri Nathji performed a miracle for his sake. He stepped on the weighing scale on the very day that Hasellwright was to depart–and lo and behold–the weighing scale showed an increase in his weight so that it was one pound greater than usual!
Shri Nathji was always deeply concerned for the sentiments of the people around him and filled all with a sense of fulfilment. Being so exalted himself did not mean that he had distanced himself from the feelings of the people around him; as a matter of fact it meant that he had immersed himself more fully in them. He would often say: The sun is so high in the skies and gives light to all–but its light does not merely restrict itself to the heights, it plays even with the smallest particles of dust on the ground!
Khaake pastee se daaman teraa hamdam naheen
Ye barraayi kaa nishaan nayyare aazam naheen
O Sun, if thy Light plays not upon the particles of dust on the earth,
It is not a sign worthy of thy greatness!
It was difficult for Hasellwright to part from Shri Nathji, who had become the very light of his soul. However, worldly obligations required him to return to England. He asked for permission from Shri Nathji and Shri Nathji blessed him. Shri Nathji was always keen that his devotees attend to their worldly tasks, and so he gave permission to Hasellwright to go.
There came the time when Hasellwright finally parted from Shri Nathji with tears in his eyes, and left in a ship for London, carrying the figure of his dreams as a living being within his heart. He was never to return, and Shri Nathji was always to remain in his heart.
He wrote to Shri Nathji from the ship: I can never thank you enough for the kindness you bestowed upon a sinner like myself. The peace you have given me is enshrined within my innermost being, and shall remain with me, forever.”
Hasellwright’s work on earth was completed the day he met Shri Nathji.
Though Hasellwright left the shores of India, he never left Shri Nathji’s heart. Wherever Shri Nathji went, Hasellwright came alive in his speeches and sermons. People in various parts of India heard the story of the tall Englishman who had carried Shri Nathji’s image within him in a dream.