There was Shri Rameshwar Das of Ambala, an old devotee of Shri Nathji, who knew him since the days at Lahore.
He looked upon Shri Nathji as Lord Rama, and upon Mateshwari as Sita Maharani, referring to her as Jankiji. He would also call Shri Nathji, Lord Vishnu and Lord Krishna, and most of all “Mere pyaare Nathji Bhagwan! My beloved Nathji Bhagwan!”
He had the firm belief that Shri Babaji Bhagwan had not gone, but was looking after Shri Nathji and Mateshwari from His Celestial Plane and wished to see them happy.
There was a time when he was at Dehra Dun. Mateshwari and Shri Nathji were sitting on chairs placed at some distance from each other. Rameshwar Das could not bear to see them separated by even this little distance. And he fell at the feet of Shri Nathji asking him to bring his chair closer to that of Mateshwari. He would be referring to the separation of Lord Rama from Sita Maharani as told in the Ramayana.
“Do not repeat what you did in the Ramayana,” he would say to Shri Nathji, “do not separate Mateshwari from thyself!”
During those days in the early 1940’s there was a portrait of Shri Nathji kept in his home at Dehra Dun which was made by the famed artist of Mussoorie, Shri Roop Kishore, in 1936, at the express asking of Shri Babaji Maharaj, who was in Mussoorie at the time at Dilaram Estate. It showed Shri Nathji bare-headed in a beautiful pink embroidered zari ki achkan, his left arm on a shining table-top and a benign smile on his lips. Shri Nathji was the living epitome of divine beauty in this portrait.
An old lady had taken this portrait from the studio of Roop Kishore at Roxy Building, Mussoorie, but had later given it to Shri Nathji at his asking so that it could be seen by his devotees at his home. At that time Shri Nathji had promised the old lady:
“Mataji, although I am taking this picture from you, but I shall be ever present with you. You will see me in every particle, and every leaf all the time!”
Rameshwar Dial was enamoured of the portrait and begged for it from Shri Nathji, but obviously Shri Nathji could not remove the most elegant picture in his drawing room and simply give it away.
Rameshwar Das could not contain himself one day. Finding no one inside the drawing room, he simply stole into the room and took the portrait off the wall and ran out with it to a waiting tonga outside!
However, much before he could run away with the portrait, he was caught red-handed by the others present there, and, in good humour, made to return the portrait. Shri Nathji never forgot that incident and began to love Rameshwar Das all the more for his devotion. He would narrate the incident ever afterwards to his devotees.
Rameshwar Das would come for Shri Nathji’s darshan frequently at Mussoorie.
In 1952, there was the comical sight of the stout Rameshwar Das dressed in a huge green turban and a western suit and leggings, entering the iron gate of Savitri Nivas, with an entourage of rickshaw coolies following him.
The coolies held the felt hat of Rameshwar Das in their hands. It soon became clear to Shri Nathji that there was a dispute between the coolies and Rameshwar Das over the wages they had to be paid. They were going to hold on to his hat as security until he paid in full. Shri Nathji ended the dispute by paying the extra wages demanded by the coolies, and thus obtaining a release of the felt hat.
There was a time when Shri Nathji was not at Mussoorie. Rameshwar Dial visited Savitri Nivas and found only a dog barking viciously from inside the bounding fence of the house. He later wrote to Shri Nathji:
“Magar kuttaa mere hee control men rahaa! The dog, albeit, remained under my control!” Not finding any other place to stay in the town, Rameshwar Das spent the night in the police station after being locked up for moving around in suspicious circumstances, in his leggings and felt hat.
Rameshwar Das was fond of wrestling and had a huge wrestler’s body. He often referred to himself as “Hanuman”- devotee of Lord Rama. He narrated to Shri Nathji how he had once had a business disagreement with his partner and finally persuaded him to agree to his terms by holding his partner’s head between his knees in a wrestler’s hold! Shri Nathji would never cease to be amused by the man’s antics. He and Sahadeva were two devotees who made Shri Nathji laugh for hours on end.
Rameshwar Das would often say to Shri Nathji: “Mujhe apni thhokaron men raihne do! Keep me under the buffetings of thy feet!”
Shri Nathji had devotees as numerous and as varied as the variety of stars in the heavens. To each he was his own. He met everyone in the manner that person wished to meet him. For the intellectuals he was an intellectual, for the saints he was a saint, for the children he was a child, for the rich he was a Maharaja, for the poor he was a benefactor, for the eccentric or the insane he was their healer par excellence.
His Persian verse showed how everyone who came to him was healed by the force of his love:
Shaadbaashe ishqe khush saudaaye maa
Vai tabeebe jumla illat-haaye maa
O My Love! May thou ever remain happy!
For thou hast healed me of all my infirmities!