Jagdish was a young man. He was the son of Gangabai Bhutt and Shri G.P.Bhutt. He had gone to Lahore in 1937 with his mother after she had openly declared that she had found God upon earth in the form of Shri Nathji at Lahore.
On coming face to face with Shri Nathji, the doors of realisation of his soul had opened instantly, and he found himself face to face with God. He had immediately sent a telegram to his father at Raipur, which said:
“I have found the greatest Father in the whole world and He is the Father of the whole world.”
It was this telegram more than anything else that had made Bhutt travel all the way to Lahore to see Shri Nathji.
Jagdish became very attached to Shri Nathji and continued to visit him with great devotion over the years.
In 1943, during the days when Shri Nathji’s arm trouble was at its worst, Jagdish was with Shri Nathji, serving him at Lahore, Naini Tal and Lucknow.
He kept a meticulous record of the events in a small diary presented to him by Gopal Kasera at Haldwani near Naini Tal.
His diary showed that on April 23, 1943 Shri Nathji and Mateshwari had arrived at Dehra Dun from Lucknow by train. Only three tickets had been purchased – one for Shri Nathji, one for Mateshwari and one for Jagdish. The tickets of April 1943 showed a sum of Rs.231 spent on the tickets of Shri Nathji and Mateshwari, and a sum of Rs.61 spent for the ticket of Jagdish.
While at Mussoorie Jagdish witnessed many an episode of Shri Nathji’s life which was intriguing, touching, and divine, and also very human. When Prem Nath, the younger brother of Shri Nathji, tormented Mateshwari, Jagdish took it all as ‘Prabhu Leela’ the play of the Lord upon earth.
There was a time when he unwittingly told Mateshwari in Mussoorie that he had seen Prem Nath in town. The very mention of Prem Nath’s name caused Mateshwari to break down. Later, even as Shri Nathji tried to calm her, she protested with great vexation and despair at the leeway Shri Nathji had given his younger brother, and the manner in which he allowed himself to be exploited by him. These were intensely moving scenes that affected Jagdish deeply and he wondered how the world would treat him when it did not spare even its Creator.
However no matter what the vicissitudes of life that came the way of Shri Nathji and Mateshwari, Jagdish found nothing but the divine in them. His faith in Shri Nathji was so strong that nothing could shake it, and he had said so in a letter that he wrote to Shri Nathji.
Ganesh Prasad Bhutt, the father of Jagdish, had written to him in 1943 urging him to stay on in the service of Shri Nathji for as long as he was needed there. He had written to his son:
“Jagdish, if you are staying on in Mussoorie to serve Shri Nathji then you can stay there for as long as you wish, but if you are merely staying on there to enjoy the salubrious surroundings of the hills, then I would urge you to return at once.”
Jagdish was a student studying law, and he had given up his studies to be with Shri Nathji. However, as it was not Shri Nathji’s mission in life to make anyone renounce the world, he advised Jagdish to return to his parents and resume his studies. Shri Nathji’s arm had improved considerably by that time.
On August 24, 1943, Jagdish finally parted from his Lord and Master who was his very life and soul. Before he left, he asked Shri Nathji to pen down a few words in his diary so that he could preserve Shri Nathji’s handwriting for posterity.
Shri Nathji wrote on August 20, 1943, in the diary of Jagdish:
“Honesty is the best policy”
And he also wrote:
“God is the real strength of the wavering mind.”
“NATH” 20/8/43.
Jagdish left Shri Nathji and Mateshwari at Mussoorie with a heavy heart. However, he returned later in 1944 to be with Shri Nathji at Lahore once again, where again he maintained a diary of the miraculous events occurring every day. It was Shri Nathji’s leela that he cured the ills and sorrows of all who came to him, but did not cure his own.
Jagdish remained with Shri Nathji all of 1944 at Mussoorie, and it was only in 1945 that he went to live permanently with his family in the regions then known as the Central Provinces. His father was then an Additional District Judge at Chanda. Jagdish’s diary ends with the signature:
“Pandit Jagdish Prasad Bhutt
C/o,
Pandit Ganesh Prasad Bhutt
Additional District Judge,
Chanda,
C.P.”