Shri Nathji had another visitor in Mussoorie during those days – Bal Kishen, the elder brother of Mateshwari. He had been writing to Shri Nathji from Lahore giving him information about the events there and also advising Shri Nathji on Priya Nath’s treatment. His own son had had typhoid and therefore he knew what medicines and tonics were helpful. Shri Nathji had invited him to come and visit them at Mussoorie and he had come and stayed with Shri Nathji and Mateshwari for a few days at Kahkashan Cottage.
Bal Kishen had been a champion chess player in the Punjab and there were few men who could defeat him. In a solitary moment at Kahkashan, he entered into a chess match with Shri Nathji.
As the game proceeded, Shri Nathji, very politely, withdrew all his chess pieces into a corner until he had well nigh come to losing the match.
Shri Nathji did not wish to score a victory over Mateshwari’s elder brother and had prepared to lose the game himself.
Just then Mateshwari came inside the room and saw what was transpiring. She was besides herself with despair when she realised that Shri Nathji was all set to lose the game.
She immediately said in Punjabi:
“Nathji kee karde paye ho! Haraao ainaa noon!
“Nathji what are you doing! Defeat him!”
For a while, Shri Nathji was in a difficult predicament. On the one hand Bal Kishen was his guest, as well as Mateshwari’s brother, who deserved every courtesy and respect in his home, and on the other hand there was the wish of Mateshwari. How could she bear to see Shri Nathji lose before her very eyes? Shri Nathji made up his mind. He had to bow before the wishes of Mateshwari.
In three swift moves Shri Nathji brought the game to an end. It was Kisht-Maat, check-mate, for a bewildered Bal Kishen! A game he never discovered how he lost.
Shri Nathji was an excellent chess player. Though he was never seen playing chess with anyone, yet there was not a single person in the world who could defeat him in the game. For was he not the Supreme Chess Player playing upon the chessboard of the world? There was his Urdu Verse:
Ai Baadshaah duniyaan ke hain mohare meri shatranj ke
Dilligee kee chaal hai sab rang sulho jang ke
O Emperor! This world is a game of chess before me,
It is but a whim, this shade of peace and war.
Shri Nathji would also quote the following Urdu Verse:
Baazi chai ittfaal hai duniyaan mere aage
Hotaa hai shabo roz tamaashaa mere aage
It is but a child’s game this world before me,
Day and night ‘tis but a play enacted before me.
Ik khel hai Aurange Suleman mere nazdeek
Ik baat hai ijaaze Maseehaa mere aage
The Throne of Suleman is a mere illusion before me,
The miracles of Messiahs are but a fancy before me.
Shri Nathji was in truth voicing the reality about God. Everything that was happening in the external world was unreal. In God there was no war and no peace, there was no creation and no destruction, there was neither life nor death. Everything that was being perceived was merely a Thought of the Creator in which the kings and emperors became fanciful illusory figures. This was the philosophy of the Vedanta amongst the Hindus and the Sufis amongst the Muslims, the philosophy which saw only One Being exhibited everywhere in all phases of the world. Human intelligence scarce could understand Him.