Jaipur

Even as the days passed by in this happy and tranquil atmosphere at New Delhi, there was an invitation to Shri Nathji from Jaipur from Shri Kripa Shanker Hajela. He wanted Shri Nathji to speak to the students and the faculty on the 2nd of March 1952.
Shri Kripa Shanker Hajela was the principal of the prestigious Law College there. In earlier days, he had been the Advocate General of India and had intense faith in Shri Nathji. He would often say about Shri Nathji:
“There are some who enunciate that which is the truth. But whatever Shri Nathji says becomes the truth! Ye jo kaih dete hain vo satya hotaa jaataa hai!”
Shri Kripa Shanker Hajela marvelled at the devotion of Shri G. P. Bhutt towards Shri Nathji. In later days when Shri Bhutt was to become the Chief justice of Madhya Pradesh, Shri Hajela was to say about him:
He worships God in human form. The sincerity of his devotion to Shri Nathji accounts for his phenomenal rise.
Shri Nathji would often say: “When you bow before an idol in the temple, you bow before it, thinking it to be God. If for a moment you were to start thinking that the idol is nothing but stone, you would not see God in it. Thus when you worship the idol you are in fact only bowing before your own faith–your own bhaavnaa! Therefore, if you can see God in a stone image why can you not see God in a living human body!”
Shri Nathji would also say humorously: “I must say that perhaps my face is not any worse than the idols of marble made at Jaipur! Meri shakl inn Jaipur ki moortiyon se to buri naheen hai!”
Sri Krishen Khanna, who was a frequent visitor at 40 Lodi Road, and who had become a great friend of Shri Bhutt, prayed to Shri Nathji to accept the invitation from Jaipur and to grace the city with the touch of his holy feet.
Pran Nath and Priya Nath were excited at the prospect of another long ride in their car. Shri Nathji often consulted the young Priya Nath saying: “Priyaji barre wise hain! Priyaji is very wise!” Priya Nath advised Shri Nathji to accept the invitation to Jaipur. And Shri Nathji accepted.
Shri Nathji had such a child-like simplicity that he would accept the advice of anyone – even a child or a servant. He would narrate how Shri Babaji Maharaj would have the same innocence: “Shri Babaji Maharaj naukaron tak ki salaah le liyaa karte thhe! Shri Babaji Maharaj even took the advice of the servants!”
And it was thus that Shri Nathji, Mateshwari, Pran Nath and Priya Nath, along with Shri Bhutt and a driver, embarked upon the car journey to Jaipur. The children took Pluto, their dog, with them, as they could not trust Mrs. Bhutt to look after him.
Shri Nathji and Mateshwari sat in the back seat of the Ford car with the children also sitting with them, holding their dog Pluto in their laps. Bhutt Sahib sat in the front seat with the driver. It was an arrangement not wholly to the liking of the children, as they would have preferred to sit next to the driver as in most journeys.
The journey to Jaipur was smooth and uneventful until they drew close to the city where the driver halted the car for a while to allow the radiator to cool down. As Shri Nathji and Mateshwari and the children also got down along with Pluto, a stray dog came and attacked Pluto viciously. For a while it appeared that he had almost killed Pluto, but Pluto recovered, albeit with a wound in his neck. This spoiled the rest of the journey.
Ultimately, the car reached Jaipur where Shri Nathji was warmly welcomed into the house of a friend of Shri Kripa Shanker Hajela, who was to be Shri Nathji’s host for his stay in Jaipur for two days.
People came to meet Shri Nathji there, and Shri Nathji spoke to each one of them, tiring himself out severely, but being ever prepared to meet as many visitors as he could.
On the next day, he went to the Law College to deliver his lecture. The hall was packed with students and teachers, all eager to hear what Shri Nathji would say.
Shri Nathji’s talk that day was so stunning and so logical that people were taken into another world altogether where they found God in the form of Knowledge. It was this aspect of Shri Nathji, which had endeared him to lawyers and judges ever since he was a young man.
The absolute perfection of his reasoning made people nod and sway their heads almost at every sentence that he said.
All who heard Shri Nathji that day never ceased to marvel at his irrefutable logic and divine effulgence.
Shri Kripa Shanker Hajela was thrilled that Shri Nathji had proven himself to be as elegant a logician as he had told his students that he would be. It was rare to see a spiritual personality lecturing in an institute, which rested upon the foundation of logic and reasoning.
Shri Nathji had said to the lawyers at Akola: “I have come to write a new law in your books–the law of Divine Love!”
Religion and spirituality were generally considered by intellectuals to border upon vague, unsubstantiated arguments and myths and legends.
But here was an intellectual par excellence, Shri Nathji, whose arguments were entering not only the minds but also the hearts of his listeners.
His words pierced through the mind and intellect and brought his listeners to a spiritual plane almost effortlessly, and, before they knew it, the people found themselves in another world, where space and time had ceased to exist and where there was only a heavenly bliss that came from God alone.
Apart from that there was the incredibly handsome personality of Shri Nathji on the stage, with a powerful divine glow that went beyond intellectualism and speech. The mere sight of Shri Nathji was enough to win the hearts of all present.
Shri Nathji had often said:
“When I find that I cannot get into the heart of a man directly because the path to his heart is blocked by his intellect, then I dig a tunnel through his brain and enter the heart in an indirect way!”
All who heard Shri Nathji that day marvelled at his brilliant logic and spiritual effulgence.
The people of Jaipur pressed Shri Nathji to stay on there longer, but Shri Nathji had completed the work for which he had come. The selected souls who had been destined to have the darshan and blessings of God in human form had found fuilfilment.
It did not matter to Shri Nathji whether they recognised him to be God or not. He had done his duty and brought Himself before them, in accordance with the promise of the ages.
Shri Nathji was also eager to return to Delhi because the children were very concerned about Pluto, who had not been behaving normally after the dog bite. It was possible the stray dog had been a mad one.
And thus it was that Shri Nathji, Mateshwari, Pran Nath and Priya Nath, along with Pluto and Shri Bhutt began their return journey to Delhi. It was a journey that was to be marked with tragedy.
As the car proceeded on its way, Pluto appeared to become more and more comatose until he became totally unconscious and stopped responding. The car was stopped and the dog was carefully examined by Shri Bhutt and the driver.
Pluto had died. It came as a very great shock to the children as well as to Shri Nathji and Mateshwari. Shri Nathji blessed the dog. It had passed away at the feet of Shri Nathji and Mateshwari. The body of Pluto was wrapped in a holdall, which was used for Shri Nathji’s bedding, and placed in a field by the roadside. Pluto had attained salvation.
As the car proceeded on its way to New Delhi, it developed engine trouble. The return journey was to give greater trouble than any other journey undertaken by Shri Nathji. The car refused to start no matter what the driver tried. It was getting dark and Shri Nathji was still far from Delhi, on a strange road in a hostile environment.
Just then a private car appeared on the road, heading for Delhi. The car stopped and agreed to take Shri Nathji, Mateshwari and the children back to Delhi. Bhutt and the driver remained behind in the Ford car to come later after the car had been repaired. Perhaps it was to bless the owner of the private car that Shri Nathji had stranded himself. The man would never know that it was God Himself to whom he had given a lift on the Jaipur Delhi road.
Back at New Delhi a pall of gloom hung over the house at the death of Pluto. As Mrs. Bhutt didn’t seem too affected by the death of the dog, Pran Nath and Priya Nath began wanting to go back to Mussoorie. Bhutt returned the next day with the car. He was in a bad mood himself as the strain of the journey and the sleepless night had taken its toll. Mrs. Bhutt was to tell Mateshwari later that Bhutt had been so upset by the episode that he had said to her: “Too samhaal apne Bhagwan ko! You take care of your God!” Indeed such were the frailties of human nature that even the slightest inconvenience could make a devotee’s mind shake. However it was a temporary state and Bhutt was soon restored to his original state of faith and devotion again. Or maybe Mrs. Bhutt had exaggerated the state of mind of her husband.