Maharaja Sarila met Shri Nathji at the hotel and was very excited to see him there. He began to come for his darshan fairly regularly.
One of his eyes had been operated upon for cataract at Sitapur but something had gone wrong and he had lost the sight in that eye. The second eye had now developed cataract and he required another operation. He prayed to Shri Nathji to let the second operation be a success.
So afraid was he of losing his eyesight that he even caught hold of Shri Nathji’s hand and placed it upon his eyes. Shri Nathji blessed the Maharaja. His operation was a big success.
While Shri Nathji was at Lodi Hotel, he would sit with the boys in the sunshine in the lawn of the hotel and would sometimes point to distant objects, and say how clearly he was seeing them. He would even point to high-flying birds and crows and tell Priya Nath how well he could see them even at his age of 67.
Shortly after he had blessed Maharaja Sarila, he was sitting in the lawn of the hotel, when he complained to Priya Nath of mist before his eyes. Priya Nath was alarmed. There was no mist in the atmosphere. Shri Nathji washed his eyes but the mist still persisted. It didn’t go away the next day either, and became worse in the night before lights. The mist had become a persistent thing.
Priya Nath was afraid. Something within him was telling him that Shri Nathji had taken Maharaja Sarila’s cataract upon his own eyes and had cured the Maharaja. He rushed him to an eye specialist at Connaught Place, Dr. Madan, who had a degree from Austria, who examined Shri Nathji’s eyes and said cryptically:
“Maharaj, you have cataract in both eyes. You will have to get them operated.”
The news came as a devastating blow to Priya Nath. When Priya Nath asked the eye surgeon whether the saturated fat, Dalda, was responsible for the cataracts, the doctor replied: “Kaun kaihtaa hai ke Dalda aankhon ko kharaab naheen kartaa! Who says that Dalda does not spoil the eyes?”
Shri Nathji and the boys had been eating food cooked in Dalda for the past three months at Lodi Hotel. The doctor also added that prolonged exposure to sunshine could also accelerate the growth of cataracts. Shri Nathji and the boys had been sitting for long hours daily in the sunshine.
Priya Nath rued the day he had not studied medical science. At least he could have prevented Shri Nathji from sitting in the sunshine, and avoiding the saturated fats.
Priya Nath had read in Chemistry books that oils were converted to saturated fats through a process in which Hydrogen gas was passed through the oils in the presence of lead, which was used as a catalytic agent, and that it was the lead that was injurious to the eyes and the health. Shri Nathji was also having some difficulty while climbing stairs, and this was another source of worry for Priya Nath.
However, all these were symptoms that Maharaja Sarila had been complaining of. It was apparent that in order to save his devotee, Shri Nathji had taken all his illnesses upon himself. Priya Nath was always afraid of some such calamity.
In the days that followed, Shri Nathji had often to be led by the hand by Priya Nath, whenever the visibility was poor. It was in contrast to the Shri Nathji who had walked freely and unhesitatingly everywhere in the days past.
It broke Priya Nath’s heart to see Shri Nathji grope his way. He prayed and prayed to Shri Nathji to cure his eyes, but he knew that Shri Nathji would allow the inexorable laws of his own creation to do their work and would not perform a miracle for himself, now that he had performed the miracle for Maharaja Sarila. And it was thus in a state of impaired eyesight that Shri Nathji lived for several years afterwards.