Events in Shri Nathji’s life were rapidly unfolding themselves. The vast vistas of the world were beckoning to him. Although India was his homeland and it was dear to him, yet all the people of the world were part of his creation and he had to go wherever he was wanted.
Shri Nathji’s devotee, Mr. Homi S. Karai, had been living London for many years. Shri Nathji had saved his mother from cancer when he was in Calcutta in 1937 and he had then said to Shri Nathji: “I shall never ask Thee for anything else in my whole life.”
He had been writing letters punctiliously to Shri Nathji over the years and had seldom got a reply from Shri Nathji. When once Shri Nathji wrote to him and said: “Mr. Karai, you write to me so often but I don’t get the time to reply. Yet it is a measure of your faith and devotion that you continue to write.”
Karai wrote back: “My Master! It is enough for me that my letters reach you. When you set your eyes upon them, they remind you of me, and that is enough for me. It makes no difference to me if I do not get a reply.”
He had learnt that Pran Nath was desirous of pursuing further studies in England and he welcomed him to come and stay with him in London. Karai was a bachelor and he needed companionship. He was also a patient of diabetes and heart trouble and needed someone to be with him.
Since Pran Nath’s health was not improving at Allahabad, Shri Nathji and Mateshwari thought it might be better if he lived in London for a while, and pursued further studies there. Pran Nath liked the idea at once and was eager to go. And thus it was decided that Pran Nath would go and live with Karai in London for a while and seek admission in some good engineering college of his choice there.
Shri Nathji made all the arrangements through incredibly hard work. He sifted through the numerous papers and documents required and wrote letters to Karai to confirm the arrangement for Pran Nath’s stay at London etc. Pran Nath’s passport had already been made earlier in 1954 when he was in Delhi and it had been renewed. The government did not allow persons travelling abroad to take any money with them, save for a small token of five pounds, and thus Pran Nath was going to a new land with virtually no funds.
The day for his departure arrived. It was a sad day for Mateshwari. She had not been separated from her sons for even one day since the time she gave birth to them. Pran Nath was very dear to her. He had been born on the 22nd of February 1940 at Lahore. Shri Babaji Maharaj had distributed laddoo sweets in the entire city of Lahore at the time.
Mateshwari bore the sadness with a brave face and bade goodbye to Pran Nath at Darbhanga Castle. She did not go to the railway station to leave him, as that would have broken her heart. Shri Nathji had arranged for Jagdish Prasad Srivastava to accompany Pran Nath to Delhi from where he was to board the flight to London.
On the 18th of September 1961, when Pran Nath left for London, the house of Shri Nathji seemed to become strangely empty.
Pran Nath reached London and sent a cable from there. He was strong enough to adapt himself to the new atmosphere there. Pran Nath found the atmosphere of London very conducive to studies and forthwith applied to an engineering college there and obtained admission.
Shri Nathji made hectic efforts in India to get some foreign exchange released from the Reserve Bank of India for Pran Nath’s studies in England, and succeeded partially. Shri Nathji had to fill interminably long application forms, give copies of mark sheets and academic records and other papers to the Reserve Bank and to call for further documents that they wanted from Pran Nath and the Engineering College there. It appeared as if the whole of Shri Nathji’s time was being consumed in this cumbersome bureaucratic process. But then Shri Nathji had to fulfil every part in his leela that he was called upon to fulfil and to do so with the utmost of interest and motivation that he was capable of, as a human being.
Chaman Lal Magoo, Shri Kapil and Shri Joshi rendered him valuable service at this juncture, and one or the other of them was constantly going to the Reserve Bank at Kanpur to complete all the formalities.
And it was thus that an entirely new chapter began in the life of Pran Nath, a chapter that was soon to include the lives of Shri Nathji, Mateshwari and Priya Nath as well. It was to be a grim and sad chapter like the banishment of Lord Rama into the forests.