Shri Nathji often said: It is only when man becomes like a zero before God that he attains union with Him. Man is like a ZERO and God is like ONE. When ZERO comes before ONE it becomes TEN i.e. 10.
If man accepts his nothingness and says again and again that he is ZERO he becomes 100, and then 1000, and 10,000, and 100,000,and so on. When man goes on asserting his nothingness before the Greatness of God, he goes on becoming greater and greater until he attains infinity, like an infinite number of zeroes attached to that ONE.
At this point man has attained the pinnacle of perfection and is united with God and His omnipotence. But if at that time he forgets his own nothingness and is filled with pride and says: I have now become so great that I do not need ONE any longer, and he throws away ONE, then he shall be reduced to a zero once again, for, indeed, even as one zero is zero, so is a collection of infinite zeroes simply another zero!
1,000,000,000, etc., only has value for as long as there is “1” with the string of zeroes. But take away the “1” and what do you get? Simply: 000,000,000, which is Zero. Even the collection of an infinite number of zeroes will still be zero. The worth of man is only because of his association with God. Without God, he is just another zero, no matter how much his ego may try to assert himself.
Shri Nathji used to say: Man must never allow pride to enter his heart, no matter how great he may become. The drop of water which has fallen into the ocean must never allow pride to enter within itself, for it can again be separated from the ocean through evaporation and thrown out!