It was during this period of time that Shri Nathji remembered an old devotee of his, Justice M.N. Shukla of the Allahabad High Court, who had first met him as a young lawyer in the early 1940’s, and had been so enthralled by Shri Nathji’s lectures at Mussoorie that he had become his, forever.
He would always say: Shri Nathji is the greatest speaker of our times–nay, he is the greatest speaker of all times! During the early 1940’s the entire judiciary used to be at Mussoorie for Shri Nathji’s lectures at the Rialto Theatre. They would leave the hall with the words: ‘Kamaal! Kamaal!’ on their lips. Shri Nathji was the handsomest man in the world during those days, with a divine radiance on his face that no one could match!”
No sooner had Shri Nathji remembered Justice Shukla, when the latter suddenly appeared at his brother’s home at Nagpur! Some urgent work had brought him to the city. The moment he came before Shri Nathji he burst out into tears. Justice Shukla often said: It is impossible for me to sit before Shri Nathji without bursting out into tears. It is a catharsis.
Justice Shukla had seen the agony that his father had to pass through in his illness, and he asked Shri Nathji why it was necessary for man to endure so much suffering. And Shri Nathji narrated his favourite verse to him which is given below.
There were tears in the judge’s eyes even as Shri Nathji recited the verse:
Sozish hai ik dam kee aur raahate davaami
Parvaane kaa ye mushkil kuchh imtahaan naheen hai
This burning is for a moment only, and the bliss, eternal,
It is no great test, this, for the moth
As Justice Shukla took his leave of Shri Nathji, he turned to the devotees who were sitting in the room around him and said:
How fortunate are those who live in this paradise, and how unfortunate those who get only a glimpse of it!
Shri Nathji was so touched by the parting words of the learned judge that he asked Priya Nath to put the sentence in a small paper banner and to place it in the room.