The new house at Sarvodya Enclave was so inviting that Shri Nathji and Priya Nath decided to bring many of the things from Mussoorie to Delhi. Amongst these was the piano at Savitri Nivas. However the grand piano at Mussoorie was too huge to remove from the house. It had been purchased by Mateshwari and perhaps it was her wish that it remain there.
Shri Nathji thereupon asked Priya Nath to look for a piano in Delhi itself. Shri Nathji still thought of Priya Nath as a child for whom he had purchased so many toys in his childhood.
On one of their trips to Connaught Place, Shri Nathji and Priya Nath came to Godin’s music shop located at Regal Building and saw an upright piano there, which Priya Nath liked. Shri Nathji immediately took the piano on rent at fifty rupees a month. The melodious notes of the piano filled the home of Shri Nathji at Delhi with delightful music in the days to come. After a few months, the owner of the shop literally gave it away to Shri Nathji for the small sum of one thousand rupees only–at a time when pianos were selling for twenty thousand rupees or more.
Shri Nathji’s home thrilled with the sound of music, as Priya Nath’s fingers played upon the piano at their home. Shri Nathji clapped along with the music. Shri Nathji particularly enjoyed the tune that Priya Nath had taken from the qawwaali:
Mat poochiye vakte tanhaayi ham kaise guzaaraa karte hain
Ik pardaa nasheen kee seene men tasveer utaaraa karte hain
Ask me not how I spend my time in solitude;
I paint the picture of a Veiled One upon my heart
Shri Nathji would be so pleased at the sound of the piano that he would often say to Priya Nath that it was the “king of all musical instruments” and add:
“Piyaji, iss men sau baajon ki aavaaz hai! There is the sound of a hundred musical instruments in it!”
Priya Nath would be seen singing Shri Nathji’s verses from some of Shri Nathji’s books. It had always been one of Priya Nath’s secret ambitions to become a music director and to compose tunes to beautiful lyrics.
He found what he was seeking in Shri Nathji’s books: Atma Vijay parts I, II, and III. The Urdu and Persian verses in the books so touched him that he began composing tunes on the piano for them, and very soon everyone was listening to them, and applauding the singing.
Shri Nathji was the happiest one of all to see his verses translated into music for the first time. And it was thus that a new chapter was to begin in the lives of Shri Nathji and Priya Nath, which was to provide mankind with some of the most life-sustaining melodies and verses of its time. However Priya Nath sang only for Shri Nathji and no one else. He was composing music to the lyrics written by the greatest lyric writer in the world–Shri Nathji.
Shri Nathji would often write out Urdu and Persian verses in the English language on a pad, with a thick black dot pen, and Priya Nath would place them on the piano and compose tunes for them.
One of the first poems that Shri Nathji wrote for Priya Nath was the Persian poem Shri Nathji had composed as a youth, and which he used to read out to Shri Babaji Bhagwan every morning:
Dil gariftaare balaaye daame gesoo kab talak
Aur maihroome sadaaye khandaye roo kab talak
For how long will the heart be entrapped in the locks of sorrow,
And for how long will it remain bereft of the smiling face of the Beloved
Dil men ye shoro fugaan hai kis liye paidaa kiyaa
Aur mizgaan se girenge gham ke aansoo kab talak
Why has thou created this turmoil in the heart,
And for how long with the tears fall from the eyelashes.
When Priya Nath would complain to Shri Nathji of his inability to read Urdu and Persian which had been the prime languages of Shri Babaji Maharaj and Shri Nathji, Shri Nathji would say encouragingly:
“Piyaji, Urdu Persian ko kaun poochhtaa hai aaj kal! Aapki to English itni achhee hai ke Angrez sharmaate hain!
“Piyaji, who cares for Urdu and Persian these days! Your English is so good that even English-speaking people are amazed at it.”
This was yet another instance of Shri Nathji’s humility. Urdu and Persian were the prime languages in which he spoke all the time. Shri Nathji would always encourage Priya Nath and never disagree with anything that Priya Nath said.
As a matter of fact Shri Nathji would never disagree with anything that anyone said. He used to say:
“Piyaji, maine zindagi men apni will kissee par assert naheen ki! Piyaji, I never asserted my will upon any person in the world.”
“Maine saari umar har ek ke aaga mit mit kar kaati hai! All my life I effaced myself completely before everyone in the world!”
Yes, if there was one person in the world who had no ego within him at all, it was Shri Nathji. Being the mightiest of the mighty he was the humblest being upon earth.