Shri Nathji had spent the early days of his childhood and youth with Shri Babaji Maharaj at Batala, Simla and Amritsar. Shri Nathji had been living with Shri Babaji Maharaj at Amritsar since 1912 when he was very young, undergoing numerous hardships and privations imposed by Shri Babaji Maharaj upon himself as a part of his austerities- tapasyaa- or his manushya leela – his drama -upon earth.
Those were the early days when people had come to recognise Shri Nathji’s divinity and many regarded him as the Avatar of God upon earth. However for the greater part of his childhood and early youth Shri Nathji effaced his self altogether and lived with Shri Babaji Maharaj only to serve him. That was the time in Amritsar when multitudes were flocking for the darshan and blessings of Shri Babaji Maharaj. The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, Pratap Singh, as also Maharaja Hira Singh of Nabha had recognised the divinity of Shri Babaji Maharaj and had great regard for him. Amire Kabul the exiled King of Afghanistan who lived in Lahore had been blessed by Shri Babaji Maharaj. The rich and the poor, men ,women and children all were deriving solace from him. Mahatmas and holy men of repute coming from as far as Kabul, Nepal and Calcutta found the Light of God in Shri Babaji Maharaj and prostrated before him.
Even though people accepted Shri Babaji Maharaj as a great Saviour of mankind, he, on his own part, always looked upon Shri Nathji as God Incarnate.
On the 18th of May 1926 at district Tehsilpura, Amritsar, Shri Babaji Maharaj had set down on paper the Divine Prophecy that Shri Nathji was God Incarnate upon earth, and that whosoever believed in him would secure salvation in life as well as in death. People had begun to experience God in Shri Nathji even before this prophecy, but this date was to be a turning point when Shri Nathji’s divinity began to manifest itself freely and openly before all.
In the year 1928, one day, on a sudden impulse, Shri Babaji Maharaj asked Shri Nathji to go to Lahore, even though there was no apparent reason for the visit. Shri Nathji, as always, obeyed the wishes of Shri Babaji Maharaj unquestioningly.
Once there, he found himself possessed by an overpowering divine light that seemed to flood the entire city. People rushed to Shri Nathji and were filled with an indefinable divine intoxication which was beyond their control. Multitudes began to throng to the young man who had just entered the city. Everyone felt the inexplicable presence of God in the young man. Word spread all by itself that the Avatar of God upon earth had appeared in their midst. People from all walks of life, men, women and children rushed to Shri Nathji. The poor and illiterate as well as the rich and intellectuals fell at the feet of Shri Nathji.
People wept in a divine ecstasy that possessed them. The mere sight of Shri Nathji was such as to intoxicate humanity. They followed him everywhere and would not leave him alone for a moment. They left their homes and jobs and prepared to sacrifice even their lives for him if necessary.
The absolute beauty with which Shri Nathji spoke in Punjabi and expounded the tenets of the Sikh faith was comparable only to the chaste Urdu and Persian he used for the Muslims or the chaste Hindi and Sanskrit in which he spoke to the Hindus.
Not only was his diction, his pronunciation, perfect, in every language that he used, but the manner in which he selected the verses, the beautiful couplets that he composed or quoted, were all out of this world. It was not ordinary oration in any sense of the word. The words were divine, the voice was divine.
They brought one to the living presence of God. Even if Shri Nathji were to speak in a foreign tongue that no one could understand, the mere sound of his voice would have been sufficient to send people into a world of self-forgetfulness. Here was a living force of the Naam-the name of God.
The Sikhs loved Shri Nathji as one of their own, even as the Hindus and Muslims loved him. In the very personality of Shri Nathji ONENESS manifested himself. This was in contrast to many people who lectured on oneness and unity but whose words carried no effect.
Shri Nathji used to say:
Jiske dil par uss Reality ka asar naheen hai,
Uski aavaaz men kabhi asar naheen ho saktaa
He whose heart has not been touched by that Reality
Can have no power in his words.
People would burst out into tears the moment they came before Shri Nathji and they found separation from him unbearable. It appeared as if he was their nearest and dearest one, the heart of their hearts, the soul of their souls.
His words showered the nectar of life on people and took them beyond space and time. People felt as if heaven had come down upon earth. Since they could not go up to an Invisible God, it appeared as if He had come down to them in the form of Shri Nathji.
There were Pandit Ram Lal Sharma, who was a professor at Alwar Rajrishi College, and Shri Hardeo Prasad Sharma M.A., who had become very attached to Shri Nathji and would not leave him day or night.
They were convinced that the destiny of the world lay in the hands of Shri Nathji and that he was God incarnate upon earth.