Shri Nathji was back on the soil of Allahabad. As he stepped on the platform at Allahabad Railway station his mind went back to the times he had been to this holy city in the past. His first visit was in 1942, when he had great pain in his arm but was regaling multitudes of people with his divine bliss.
That was the time when Mahatma Sita Ram Sharan had found Lord Rama in him at the banks of the Triveni at the Kumbh Mela site. That was also the time when he had been welcomed by Justice Bajpai at his home, and had given a talk at the Ewing Christian College with Padre Rallaram playing the host. It was in 1942 that Sardar Harbhajan Singh Chopra had become a firm devotee.
His second visit was in 1949, when he had left Mateshwari and the children behind at Allahabad, in March 1949, and had gone on the most extended and hectic tour of his life which had taken him across hundreds of miles to Chanda, Rajamundry, Calcutta and Nagpur and then back to Allahabad.
Hundreds and thousands of people had had his darshan and blessings in these tours and had believed Shri Nathji to be God upon Earth and had his portraits in their homes, which they worshipped and offered their prayers to.
The third time Shri Nathji had come to Allahabad in 1953, alone, in January leaving Mateshwari and the children at Delhi. He had celebrated the birthday of Shri Babaji Bhagwan at Allahabad and then gone back to Delhi. After that last visit of 1953, even though he had been invited to Allahabad on
many occasions, he had not been able to go. The last invitations were in 1956, and 1957, when the Chopra family had earnestly prayed to him to come, but he had not gone there.
His appearance again at Allahabad in 1958 was not a chance event. He had to give salvation to certain selected souls who had been waiting for him ever since the dawn of creation.
He had often said:
“The mother’s milk is in the breasts of the mother, but it is not meant for the mother–it is meant for the child, and that, too, for the child who is hungry.
“Maa kaa doodh kiske paas hotaa hai? Maa ke. Magar hotaa kiske liye hai? Bachhe ke liye. Aur vo bhee uss bachhe ke liye jisse khshudaa ho!”
“Main aapkaa hissaa leke aayaa hoon! I have brought your share for you!”
It had always been Shri Nathji’s method to arrive in places unobsequiously and unannounced. If he had sent a telegram ahead to the people of Allahabad there would have been hundred and thousands of people at the railway station to receive him. However he had chosen to come silently.
There was Shri Nathji’s verse:
Jazbe bulbul men asar, hoti kafas men aatish,
Booe gul phaand ke deevaare gulsitaan aaye
If the longing of the nightingale for the Rose could turn the cage into fire,
The fragrance of the Rose would come to it, a-leaping over the walls of the garden!
And Shri Nathji’s famous verse:
Rindon ki talab par saaikiye kausar ko bhee josh aayaa
Paimaana bakaf aaya, maikhaana badosh aayaa
The intensity of the thirsty seekers so moved the Divine Saaki,
That He came running, cup in hand, and the drinking tavern on his shoulders!
And also:
Tahi daston kaa rutbaa aihle daulat se zyaadaa hai
Suraahi sar ke bal jhukti hai jab paimaanaa aataa hai
The worth of empty hands is greater than all the wealth of the world,
A goblet must bend by its head, when an empty cup comes.