Ema E. Ploner the American lady in California, USA, had received an inner light from Shri Nathji in 1934. She had seen Shri Nathji’s book “Rays of Light” in the National Library of Congress in America and had been touched by the portrait of Shri Nathji inside the book. All at once an inner realisation had come to her that Shri Nathji was one with the great souls of the past which she revered, like Lord Christ, Lord Krishna, Lord Zoraster.
She had written to Shri Nathji, saying:
“The heart of my heart knows that you are one with them and one of them!”
She had an intense desire to meet Shri Nathji and had started out on a ship. But the ship was turned back due to the impending World War. She returned home acutely disappointed.
Imagine her surprise when, one morning, she found Shri Nathji sitting on her garden chair in her home. She rushed inside to dress properly, and came out again –only to find that Shri Nathji had gone! He had appeared before her mysteriously and miraculously from a distance of thousands of miles, and then disappeared just as suddenly. It was not a vision; it was a reality, which went beyond words.
When she wrote to him and asked him why he had appeared and disappeared so suddenly, Shri Nathji wrote back saying:
“I appeared before you to let you know that I was with you, and I disappeared because I had entered your heart!”
The name of the lady was Emma. Shri Nathji had made the mistake of omitting one ‘m’ in Emma when he had written to her. Shri Nathji had spelt her name as Ema. When she received Shri Nathji’s letter, Emma cut out one ‘m’ from her name and began to spell it as Ema much to the astonishment of her friends and relatives. When she was asked why she was spelling her name wrongly, she replied: “I had been spelling it wrongly all my life. Now I am spelling it correctly for the first time. My Master has corrected me!”
In September 1952, Mateshwari wrote to Ema:
“Each part of Shri Nathji’s body radiates Divine Love, as also His words.”
Mateshwari wished Ema to enquire about an organisation called the Grand Religious Alliance, which had been corresponding with Shri Nathji and wanted him to come to America for their annual conference on world religions. Shri Nathji had been reluctant to go, and had sent the organisation a long letter, painstakingly typed by him with one finger, which ran into fifty pages or more. It was a veritable thesis on spirituality and religion. Shri Nathji’s simplicity was such that he did not even preserve a copy of the article he sent them.
Shri Nathji had often said: “These conferences and meetings serve little purpose. They cannot change the heart of even one person!
“Ye log ek aadmi kaa dil naheen badal sakte!”
Shri Nathji was right. Such conferences on unity of all faiths had many remarkable and eloquent speakers who put forth their views forcefully, but the net result was that everyone left the hall in the same state as he had entered it. Not a single person changed the views he held. It was only a divine power that was capable of changing the hearts of men, and not mere eloquence. The very living presence of Shri Nathji brought unity into the hearts of people without a word being said.
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan the famed philosopher and President of India used to say about Shri Nathji:
“In men vo shakti hai jis se ye ek dhrishti se doosre kaa dil badal sakte hain!
“He has such power that he can change the heart of a person in a single glance!”
Shri Nathji would say: “The reason the speeches of many learned men fail to make an impact is because they speak from their minds and not their hearts! In Persian it is said:
Har ke az dil khezad
Bar dil rezad
That which comes from the heart,
Must go to the heart!
“Baat jo mooh se nikalti asar rakhti hai,
Par naheen par taakate parvaaz magar rakhti hai
The words from his mouth carry a touch divine
Having no wings, they have the strength to fly.”
Whenever Shri Nathji spoke, tears came into the eyes of his listeners at the first sound of his voice. It was a direct touch of the divine, which went beyond the mind and intellect.
Shri Nathji had often said: “It is written in the Vedas:
Yato vaacho nivartante apraapya mansa sahaa
He cannot be grasped by the thoughts, words or mind
“How, therefore, can you grasp Him with the mind? How can you describe Him with thoughts and words? How can you grasp Him intellectually, He, who exists beyond the intellect and the mind?
“God can only be experienced. He cannot be described.
“Bhagwan anubhav ki vastu hain!”
“Think of a bottle of wine. Can you describe the intoxication in the wine? No. Can you see it in the bottle or the glass? Where can you see intoxication? You can see it in the personality of the man who has drunk the wine. The thoughts, words and actions of the man are then full of the intoxication within him. In a like manner you can experience God through the personality of someone who has God within him.”