At Chittagong, Shri Ganesh Prasad Bhutt met Shri Nathji. For Mrs. Bhutt, the meeting was an acute disappointment.
Bhutt was an unbeliever, haughty and arrogant. He thought his wife was mad. On coming face to face with Shri Nathji he was impressed, but he was neither inspired nor converted.
I have come to take my family, he said, my father is lying on his death-bed.
By all means, said Shri Nathji, take your family with you!
This was a severe blow to Mrs. Bhutt who had imagined her husband would be converted by Shri Nathji.
Bhagwan, she said to Shri Nathji, you have given nothing to my husband!
Bhutt was to leave Chittagong by the evening train.
At least go and say farewell to Shri Nathji and take his blessings, Gangabai Bhutt said to him.
He came into Shri Nathji’s room. The weather was hot and humid, and Shri Nathji had a high fever due to malaria.
As Ganesh Prasad Bhutt came close to him, Shri Nathji sat up in bed and said:
Bhutt Sahib, I have a greater love in my heart for those who hate me.
Jo log mujh se nafrat karte hain main unn se aur zyaadaa muhabbat kartaa hoon!
And saying this, Shri Nathji embraced Ganesh Prasad Bhutt.
The conversion was instantaneous. A divine spark shot through Bhutt’s heart. The inner gates of his soul were opened. He saw the Universal Form of Shri Nathji. The recognition was complete. He fell down at Shri Nathji’s feet – and became his, forever!
Mrs. Bhutt danced with joy when she saw her husband changed into a different person. It was one of the greatest moments of her life. Here were all her dreams coming true. The impossible had become possible.
An atheist had been converted by Shri Nathji to belief, in one single embrace. Shri Nathji had revealed his inner self to Bhutt. The doors of Bhutt’s soul had been opened and it had been flooded with the Light of God.
When Bhutt composed himself, he said to Shri Nathji:
I have only one request, that I and my family be permitted to stay with you for a few days more!
On the following day, Shri Nathji was taken out in a procession in an open car to the accompaniment of bands. There was Ganesh Prasad, holding a ‘chamar’, a plumed fan, in his hand, standing behind Shri Nathji in the open car, in the procession that wound its way through the streets of Chittagong.
This is my repentance, said Mr.Bhutt, fanning Shri Nathji with the chamar, when I came to you, I brought with me only pride!
You were a highly educated person, said Shri Nathji, belonging to a high caste family. Surely pride existed in its proper place!
But you shattered the pride to pieces, said Mr. Bhutt.
It was not a loss, said Shri Nathji, You did not lose anything precious.
Ganesh Prasad Bhutt was to become the most loyal of Shri Nathji’s devotees. He and his wife were to spread Shri Nathji’s name and message in the world all their lives. It was to become a lasting relationship, a life-time of devotion to a living God.
Mr. Bhutt’s faith in Shri Nathji came from a realisation of the soul. Unknown to him, his inner being had been in search of God. He was one of those genuine agnostics who derived complete faith only from genuine realisation. His heart, his soul, and his intellect accepted Shri Nathji as God.
In the past, he had been known to say:
I will only believe in God when someone shows a miracle to me.
Bhutt Sahib, a friend remarked, what miracle did Shri Nathji show you to give you such faith?
Ganesh Prasad Bhutt said:
Without showing any miracle to me, he took away the desire for miracles from me!
Bin chamatkaar dikhaaye chamatkaar dekhne ki ichhaa hee samaapt kar dee!
Mrs. Bhutt’s life had been strange. She had been in search of the ocean. Streams and rivers could not satiate her thirst. And she found God on earth in the manner God had willed that she find Him.
Bhutt Sahib found God in another way. God fulfilled the desires of all his devotees differently. The perennial quest in man was to find culmination only in God.
Bhutt would ever afterwards say to his wife:
You recognised Shri Nathji after having seen him in the heavens as Lord Vishnu, but He gave me his recognition upon earth itself! In that sense I am ahead of you!
Shri Nathji frequently said:
Kissee ne poochhaa kissee se jaakar
Hasoole vaihdat men lutf hai kuchh?
Lage vo kaihne, talaashe katraa
Men baihar milnaa malaal hai kyaa?
Someone came and asked somebody-
What pleasure lies in God realisation?
If thou search for a drop he replied,
And find an ocean instead–would it be a loss?
Before I met you, Shri G. P. Bhutt said to Shri Nathji, my life was like that of others. Whenever the storms of life threatened my boat, I cried, and whenever the seas were calm, I was happy. There was no stability to my existence.
“Today, an inner peace prevails over me. No matter whether the sea is calm or rough, I remain at rest, because I know I have you as the pilot of my ship and the storms of life have no apprehensions for me, for the strength of my pilot is greater.