Another favourite story Shri Nathji had to narrate was that of the Mahatma who was questioned about his belief in God by an atheist.
If you jump off that mountain, and nothing happens to you, I will believe in God, said the atheist to the Mahatma. The atheist had hoped that the Mahatma would be too afraid to attempt such a thing and would concede defeat. However he was wrong.
The Mahatma went to the top of the mountain and prepared to jump to prove the existence of God.
He closed his eyes and said:
If my God is true, nothing will happen to me!
“Agar mere Bhagwan sacche hain to mujhe kuchh naheen hogaa!
And saying this, he jumped. The fall was such as to have killed any man. The Mahatma landed on the ground safe and sound.
The atheist was stunned at the miracle, but because he wanted to belittle the Mahatma, he said: Look at your toe – it is bleeding! So! Your God didn’t protect you after all!
For a moment, the Mahatma was surprised, and then a realisation dawned upon him:
“He who saved my entire body could surely have saved my toe as well. My bleeding toe is evidence of my faithlessness. It is the punishment for the ‘if’ I used when I prayed to God! Ye mujhe ‘agar’ ki sazaa milee hai!
“I should have said: ‘My God is True, nothing will happen to me!’ There is no ‘if’ in faith!
Either believe in God completely, Shri Nathji would say, or don’t believe in Him at all. There is no middle way. There is no use believing and disbelieving at the same time. It is this faltering, this weakness of faith that results in suffering.
And it was thus that Shri Nathji continued to stay on at Allahabad meeting multitudes and individuals until the hot summer months were upon him. Even in the dreadful heat of Allahabad, Shri Nathji continued to pour forth his nectar of life on the wounded and sorrow stricken souls that came to him. Many received enlightenment. There was not a single person who did not come to the conclusion that Shri Nathji was God upon earth. His face and form were so full of divine beauty during those days that all who came before him at once knew they were before some indefinable divine presence which filled their hearts with love and peace and untold bliss, in which all the miseries of the world vanished.