Shri Nathji had recorded his voice on a gramaphone record in 1937 at Calcutta, which contained his masterpiece: “Shanti Sandesh”–A Message of Peace. It was important that his voice be preserved for posterity. The Gramaphone records were the only means of doing that in those days.
During the time that Shri Nathji was at Sukhdev’s flat at Bombay, Shri Nathji had written a beautiful theme on “Prabhu Prem”, the Love of God, and wished to have it recorded on a gramaphone.
The Young India Recording Company was contacted at Bombay, and they agreed to make 200 records, at the cost of rupees two per record.
The theme was written by Shri Nathji in Hindi script, but it was a polished and scholastic combination of Hindi and Urdu, or Hindustani as it was called. His voice was perfect and his diction gave every language its life. Shri Nathji’s divinity filtered through, in his words and voice, even in his recordings.
Those were the days when Shri Nathji had contracted the eye disease, conjunctivitis, in Bombay. His eyes had become red and the eyelids appeared swollen. There was dreadful pain in the eyes, and they could not endure bright lights. Most of the time Shri Nathji was seen wearing dark glasses. However, even the dark glasses were not enough to lessen the pain in the eyes, which would be provoked at the sight of the slightest bright object.
Shri Nathji had to make the recording of the gramaphone record in the studios of the recording company. The studios were full of bright blinding lights which even a healthy eye could scarce withstand.
Mateshwari and the devotees tried to dissuade Shri Nathji from making the recording while his eyes were so affected by the inflammation. However, Shri Nathji knew that if he did not make the recording then, he would never make it again. The time was approaching when he would soon have to depart for Mussoorie.
Sukhdev shuddered to think of the terrible pain that Shri Nathji would have to endure in the bright lights of the recording studio.
He was to say later that even he, as a man of the armed forces, could not have endured so much pain in the eyes as Shri Nathji endured. Surely Shri Nathji had a superhuman capacity for endurance. It was not that Shri Nathji did not feel pain. He had often said:
“The pain that I feel in my physical body is greater than what other human beings feel in theirs. This is because I am not accustomed to coming in the human body. However I endure the pain and try not to complain.”
In the past, Shri Nathji had borne the dreadful pain in his arm without complaint for over two years. It was a pain which no human being upon earth was capable of enduring.
Shri Nathji had also said:
“Main vajr ke samaan kathor bhee hoon aur pushp ke samaan komal bhee!
I am as hard as a rock and at the same time as soft as a flower.”
And thus it was that Shri Nathji removed his dark glasses and read the entire script in the glaring, blinding lights of the gramaphone studio.
The script fitted perfectly into two records of two sides each. It was as if Shri Nathji had adjusted its length with precision to fit into the two records – and this, without any prior practice at all. Shri Nathji had a super-mind capable of the most precise of calculations in the world.
In the short message that Shri Nathji recorded, he unfolded the secret of life as only he could unfold it. Whenever Shri Nathji wrote on any spiritual topic he knew what he was writing about, because it was he from whom spirituality had originated.
All his writings carried a mark of authority and irrefutable logic that could come from God alone. He was the Supreme Scientist and he was spirituality personified. There were no speculations and surmises in his words. Everything was precise and exact, like in science.
In the short message that Shri Nathji recorded, he explained everything that man needed to understand in the material and spiritual realm.
Indeed Shri Nathji never separated material life from spiritual life. For him the two were one and the same. He ended his monograph with the story of the “Rangrez” – The Dyer. In later days, the records came to be known as Shri Nathji’s famous “Rangrez Records”, although they were given the title of “Prabhu Prem” – The Love of God. The following is an abridged English translation of the original records, which were in Hindustani: