Jagdish had also come up to Mussoorie with his parents in August 1948 when they came to enquire after Shri Nathji’s welfare at the time of the revolver episode. After staying with Shri Nathji for a few days, he left for Delhi again. As Jagdish touched the feet of Shri Nathji in a prostration, Shri Nathji knew that this was to be his last pranaam.
Shri Nathji was very concerned for his welfare and asked him to send a telegram that he had reached Delhi safely. Jagdish dutifully sent a telegram dated August 19, 1948 from Delhi:
“August 19, 1948, Delhi
Shri Nathji St. Andrews ME
Pranams Reached Safely
Jagdish”
There was Devki Nandan Kasera, a patient of tuberculosis, who had remained alive all these years due to the sheer divine power of Shri Nathji. He had almost died in the early 1940’s, when his brothers had sent a Double X telegram to Shri Nathji. The moment Shri Nathji’s eyes had fallen on the telegram Devki Nandan had recovered miraculously and had come to live with Shri Nathji for a while.
When Shri Nathji had asked him whether he was all right, he had replied: “Huzoor ke darbaar men bhee koyi takleef ho sakti hai? How can there be any trouble when one is in the darbaar of the Lord?” He had lived for several years afterwards.
The Kasera brothers were living away from Shri Nathji at Hathras, in their own house, and it was there that Devki Nandan left the world on the 20th of August, the name of Shri Nathji on his lips up to the last moments of his life. A telegram arrived from the remaining brothers:
“Shri Nathji Bhagwan St. Andrews ME
Prostrations Grant Bliss Salvation
Thy Beloved Deoki Nandan Departed Soul”
Although the souls of all the departed devotees came to Shri Nathji in his Celestial Abode, yet on the physical plane Shri Nathji could not but be grieved for the sake of their family members. Shri Nathji had given education to Devki Nandan’s son, Nand Kishore, during the early years and the son retained a great part of his father’s devotion in Shri Nathji.
Shri Nathji’s Urdu Verse expressed the feelings of a devotee:
Nikal jaaye dam tere kadmon ke neeche
Yehi dil kee hasrat yehi aarzoo hai
May my last breath be spent at thy feet,
This is my only wish, my only prayer
All of Shri Nathji’s devotees carried the image of Shri Nathji with them and had his name on their lips when they left the world.
Main jo chhorroon iss jahaan ko tum ho mere saamne
Aarzoo hai dil se nikale dam tumhaare saamne
When I leave this world may thou be there before me
Tis my heart’s desire, I breathe my last before Thee
Then there were Shri Nathji’s monumental lines on the final union of the devotee with his God:
Aa gaya aanaa jahaan pahunchaa vahaan jaanaa jahaan
Ab naheen aanaa va jaanaa kaam kyaa baaki rahaa
I have arrived where I had to reach, I have gone where I had to go,
No more of coming and going now, there is nothing left to be done
Laakh chauraasi ke chakkar se thhakaa kholi kamar
Ab rahaa aaraam paanaa kaam kyaa baaki rahaa
Tired of the cycle of the four and eighty lakhs of births and deaths, I lay me down,
There is nothing now to be done but rest, and no more work to be done
For the devotees of Shri Nathji there was no mourning for those who were gone, because they knew that they had gone to the Eternal Home prepared for them by Shri Nathji. This was another one of Shri Nathji’s miracles, the fact that people had full faith that their loved ones had gone to him in the heavens above. They knew of no other heaven.
However, unlike other people who wished for salvation, the devotees of Shri Nathji had a unique prayer of their own expressed in the words of Bhutt:
“I do not wish for that kind of salvation which will deprive me of the chance of serving Thee whenever thou come upon the earth in human form. Grant me the boon that I shall be re-born whenever Thou come into the world so that I may be given the chance to serve Thee!”
On the 20th of September, Jagdish left the physical world and merged into the Invisible form of his Lord and Master, Shri Nathji. No doctor could decipher the cause of his death. He had been simply sitting in one place when he left his body silently and painlessly.
Later, Shakuntala Mehra of Delhi wrote to Shri Nathji:
“I was with the Bhutts in the hospital as well as at the cremation grounds. When everyone was weeping, there was not a teardrop in the eyes of Bhutt Sahib or Dandewali. They were perfectly at peace within, and so merged in their devotion for Thee that they had no worry of their own. They accepted everything as a measure of Thy Divine Will and bowed their heads before it. It was a MIRACLE to see them in such a state of calm when their only son had left the world.”
On the physical plane it was a great loss to Shri Nathji and Mateshwari, since they loved Jagdish greatly, and he frequently came and served them and said that he wished always to live for their sake. He was a young man who could have dedicated his entire life to serving Shri Nathji. Over the years they had come to love Jagdish like another son next to Pran Nath and Priya Nath. The going away of Jagdish was one of the greatest losses for Shri Nathji and Mateshwari on the physical plane.
His love for Prem Pyaari had torn away at his soul and that was the only suffering he had ever endured. He knew that the fulfilment of such a love was impossible since it would mean his being separated from the Greatest Love of his life – Shri Nathji.
Shri Nathji’s verses were the only reality in life. Shri Nathji quoted the verse of the poet Urdu Poet, Dard:
Ai Dard yaan dil kiseese se na lagaayiyo
Lag chaliye yoon to sab se par dil mat phansaayiyo
O Dard, let not thy heart be attached to anyone,
Befriend thou everyone, but let thy heart not be imprisoned
Shri Nathji also quoted Saadi, the Persian poet, on this theme:
Maneh dil bareen daihare naapayedaar
Za Saadi hameen yak sukhan yaad daar
Give not thy heart to this perishable world
Remember this word that comes from Saadi.