One would have thought that for such a one as Shri Nathji there would have been no financial difficulties at all, with multitudes worshipping him, and the richest men of the land visiting him. However just the opposite was true. This was because of Shri Nathji’s reticence to ask anything from anyone, least of all from the rich and powerful. He preferred to pass through financial difficulties rather than to ask what he could justifiably have taken from his devotees. After all he gave them an incomparable bliss that could not be had anywhere else in the world, he gave them protection and an assurance that kept them alive through the worst phases of their lives; he gave them peace and a prosperity that was unprecedented. But he knew that his devotees could never repay him, because everything that they had, including their lives, had been given by him.
There was the verse, which Shri Nathji frequently quoted, as the voice of a devotee:
Jaan dee, dee huyi ussee ki thhee
Haq to ye hai ke haq adaa naa huaa
I gave Him my life, but it had been given by Him,
My only claim is that I could not repay Him!
Shri Nathji would allow the financial position at home to worsen up to a tragic point when Mateshwari would become greatly worried, and then miraculously provide relief for himself from some unknown quarters. If he had a huge bill to pay and there was no money at home to pay it, quite suddenly some devotee somewhere in the country would receive a divine awakening within him and send the exact amount to Shri Nathji. It was thus in uncertainties and miracles that Shri Nathji led his lonely life in Mussoorie. Which was not to say that Shri Nathji led a frugal life style. He would be very big hearted when making purchases for Mateshwari and the children and for the home.
Whenever he would go into the city, he would invariably enter Hamer’s shop to purchase knick-knacks for the house, Chander and Cambridge Book Depot to purchase books and comics for the children, and Bhai Dhian Singh’s shop to purchase novelties for decorating the home. He would enter shops that sold coir matting which he required for the sixty-foot verandah of the house. As a matter of fact there were few shops in the town that Shri Nathji had not entered. This was his method of giving the shopkeepers his blessings. He would invariably return home with a coolie carrying a large basket of freshly purchased items in his basket.
St. Andrews soon came to be filled with a large number of things that Shri Nathji purchased, which varied from raincoats, gumboots, umbrellas to decorative vases, table lamps, to little clocks, paintings and a curious assortment of pens and pencils. Almost every room of the house contained something Shri Nathji had bought from the market.
The shopkeepers at Mussoorie were all too happy to oblige him, and his credit was very good. They knew that they never failed to get their payments from Shri Nathji. Some of the sharks amongst them also knew that Shri Nathji never kept the receipts of the payments he had made and so they would re-send old bills to him which he had already paid. Many a time Shri Nathji would thus make double payments.
Mateshwari would be very afraid whenever Shri Nathji went out into the city. She knew that Shri Nathji would purchase whatever a shopkeeper offered him. Shri Nathji was so good and polite that he never said “no” to anyone. Later she would be hard put to make the payments. Though in the end, Shri Nathji made every single payment, yet there was a period of uncertainty and suspense in-between that greatly worried Mateshwari.