Raj Vaid Sudhanwa was passing through a grave crisis in his life at the time, and he pleaded with Shri Nathji to come and stay at his home.
He had hoped that if Shri Nathji came and lived at his house his miseries would disappear. He pleaded with the Bhutts to let Shri Nathji come and stay with him.
The Bhutts could not even conceive of Shri Nathji leaving their home and living with anyone else at Delhi. However, Shakuntala and Vaid Raj Sudhanwa prayed before them and before Shri Nathji so desperately that Shri Nathji had no alternative but to accept their invitation. Even Bhutt was so moved by the man’s pleas that he consented to Shri Nathji shifting to his house, though with a heavy heart.
Perhaps the Bhutts had had Shri Nathji to themselves for a long time now, and it was the turn of another devotee to play host to him and to receive his Divine Grace at Delhi.
Shri Nathji, who was the living epitome of Love and Mercy, went to live at the house of Shakuntala and Vaid Raj Sudhanwa at 37, Lady Hardinge Road, New Delhi, in the first week of January 1949.
Raj Vaid Sudhanwa was in danger of losing his job as the resident doctor at the Ayurvedic Dispensary he was in charge of. Some of the most powerful men in the city, which included municipal counsellors and even the mayor, were arrayed against him and had filed several suits against him for his prosecution.
When Shri Nathji was at the house of Vaid Raj Sudhanwa, the latter narrated his troubles to him. Even as food was placed before Shri Nathji, he said:
No, I cannot eat this, I am not that hard-hearted. I must first see you smiling, before I can partake of your food!
One day Raj Vaid Sudhanwa came to Shri Nathji and said:
“Huzoor, the trouble has only increased.”
And Shri Nathji said:
“The trouble has increased only because it is on its way out. When you clear a room of the dust on the floor, the dust ultimately collects in one spot and appears to have multiplied–but it has gathered in one spot only because it is about to be thrown out of the door!”
“Sometimes when difficulties multiply in life it is only because they are on their way out. When the night becomes very dark, it is time for the coming of dawn.”
“What comes after night? Day. Similarly what comes after sorrow? Happiness.”
Shri Nathji’s words were like etchings on stone. In later days, Shri Vaidya Raj won the suit despite numerous odds. It was yet another triumph for Shri Nathji. The opponents of Shri Vaidya Raj met Shri Nathji and said:
Maan gaye aapki taakat ko! We must salute you! We accept your spiritual power! The manner in which Raj Vaid Sudhanwa has emerged victorious is beyond our conception!”
The wife of Shri Raj Vaid Sudhanwa, Shakuntala, was the daughter of the famed Dewan Bahadur Amarnath Nanda of Lahore.
It was in 1943, at Dilaram Estate in Mussoorie, that Shakuntala had first seen God in Shri Nathji. It was an image that was to remain with her all her life. Her husband, Raj Vaid Sudhanwa, too had later acquired similar faith in Shri Nathji. She had remained in constant touch with Shri Nathji and Mateshwari over the years and was in Lahore, when Shri Nathji and Mateshwari visited it in 1945, and 1947.
In September 1948, she had written to Mateshwari in Mussoorie, addressing her as ‘Radheshwari’and urging her to come down to Delhi.
She was the happiest woman in the world when Shri Nathji accepted her invitation and came to live in her house in January 1949. Her house at 37, Lady Harding Road, was very close to Connaught Place, which Mateshwari and the children loved. The house was in a nice, clean area with plenty of vegetation around it and a large tree in the front courtyard.
All the devotees of Delhi, including the Bhutts, flocked to her home for Shri Nathji’s darshan. 37 Lady Harding Road became a Temple of God. No matter where Shri Nathji went, that place took on the aura of a temple.
And yet Shri Nathji had often said that his real temple was in the hearts of people who had faith in him. He would often quote this verse:
Kaaba naheen hai zaahide ghaafil nishaane dost,
Dil dhoond aashikon kaa vahi hai makaane dost
The place of worship is not the sign of thy Beloved, O Orthodox Believer!
Seek the hearts of His lovers, that is where the Beloved resides.
Raj Vaid Sudhanwa was a tall and handsome product of the Gurukul School. He was a practitioner of the Ayurvedic system of medicine, known as a Vaidya, by profession. He had been given the title of Raj Vaidya by the Maharajas he had served. It meant: a doctor of the Maharajas.
Shri Nathji had changed this title to Vaidya Raj meaning: a Maharaja amongst the doctors.
His faith in Shri Nathji was almost as great as that of his wife. He would sit in silence before Shri Nathji and appear to be lost in meditation.
I have not been granted the same inner sight as you,” he would say to his wife, “but I know that whenever I sit before Shri Nathji I forget the whole world!
Mrs. Shakuntala Mehra was to exhibit one of the staunchest of faiths of all of Shri Nathji’s devotees.