As Shri Nathji came back to Allahabad, the devotees there welcomed him with their tears of happiness. The first thing that Shri Nathji did was to go and give his love to Pran Nath and Priya Nath for whom he had brought various kinds of toys from the various places he had visited. Mateshwari was the happiest woman on earth to see Shri Nathji come back, looking so radiant and healthy even in the dreadful heat.
The eczema on his neck as well as the boil in his arm-pit had increased and needed urgent attention, and Mateshwari was deeply concerned about them. However, she knew that Shri Nathji would only be completely well after he had returned to Mussoorie.
Shri Bhutt had been sent back by Shri Nathji to attend to his office at Delhi soon after Shri Nathji’s arrival at Allahabad. Shyam Lal was sent to Mussoorie where he was staying along with Veeran Devi and the chowkidar of the house, waiting for Shri Nathji.
Shri Nathji had hardly rested at Allahabad when multitudes began to throng to him. Once again, there were the familiar scenes of evening turning into dawn and people sitting before him for hours, lost in a sea of self-forgetfulness.
The children’s schools had opened in March. It was now April and the days were passing by swiftly. Mateshwari wanted the boys to join school at Mussoorie at the earliest. The weather was also becoming hotter and hotter day by day. But the people at Allahabad would not let him go.
The most vociferous amongst them was Sweetie Chopra, the son of Sardar Harbhajan Singh, who had said to Shri Nathji in Punjabi: “Main jaan naan haan ke tussi Rabb ho. Magar main vee tuwaanu jaan nayin dena! I know you are God, but I will not let you go!”
Sweetie’s Obstinate Devotion
Sweetie Chopra was devotional to the point of being obstinate. When Shri Nathji tried to take leave of the Chopra family after a three-month stay in their home, Sweetie lay down in front of Shri Nathji’s car and prevented him from leaving!
He was so worried that Shri Nathji might drive away in his car that he even took out the fuel pump of the car and hid it somewhere so that the car would not start.
At another time, when Shri Nathji had said farewell, and had reached the outskirts of Allahabad in his car, Sweetie Chopra gave chase in his Hudson, caught up with Shri Nathji’s car, forced it to a halt, pounced upon the ignition keys within, and was gone!
Later, Shri Nathji went to a garage where Sweetie lay in a half-conscious state, moaning:
Nathji chale gaye! Nathji chale gaye! Nathji has gone! Nathji has gone!
Only Shri Nathji could awaken such intense love in people’s hearts.
He had often said: I try to enter people’s minds. But when I find that entry blocked, I enter through their hearts!”
As the hot days wore on, Shri Nathji became ill from the heat. He began running a fever. Sweetie relented and said with tears in his eyes: “I know you have brought the fever upon yourself to seek an excuse to go away. I cannot stop you now. But you can never leave my heart. I have imprisoned you there forever!”
And there was Shri Nathji’s verse that described the situation:
Apnaa ye daavaa hai ke dil men naheen koyi tere sivaa
Unkaa ye shikvaa hai ke acchhee qaide tanhaayi huyi
It is my assertion “There is no one except Thee in my heart”
And it is His complaint: “O what a solitary confinement!”