Shri Nathji at the age of 15, with brother and uncles, Amritsar, 1917. It was at such a young age that Shri Nathji wrote his 200 page Masterpiece: ”Payaame Muhabbat” in Urdu and Persian in a 24 hour sitting
Shri Nathji’s mother belonged to the Kaura family of Batala. Shri Nathji had three maternal uncles, Lala Devi Chand, Lala Vaishno Das and Lala Munshiram. Of these, two lived in Batala, whereas the third Lala Munshiram had gone to America at a very young age.
Lala Munshiram wrote letters frequently from America to Shri Babaji Maharaj and narrated his experiences there. It was as if his soul had belonged to that place. Amongst the first few letters that he wrote from America there was one which narrated a telling experience he had there. He wrote:
“ I was going for a walk in a garden when I slipped and fell. I sprained my ankle so badly that I could not even get up from the ground.
Just then, a handsomely dressed American couple appeared on the scene. They saw me groaning in pain on the ground and they rushed to my aid. They examined my foot and tended to it. Later they took me home in their car and gave me further help. They were wealthy people of America. I was totally overwhelmed by their goodness.
The thought crossed my mind–would a rich man in India have stooped to pick up a total stranger lying on the ground and tend to his ankle? I doubt it. His ego would never have let him bend down and help an ordinary person, far less touch his foot or tend to his ankle.
I see something very great in the people of this country, not in terms of their wealth, but in terms of their absence of ego, lack of pride, and their desire to help others. I do not wish to return from a place where such people exist. I feel that my destiny lies here.”
And true to his resolve, Lala Munshiram never returned from America. In course of time he acquired much wealth himself through his hard work. And he established a scholarship fund for deserving students that came from India. However, the scholarship fund had a condition attached to it: the money would be given to a deserving student, and after he had finished his studies and had become a success in life, he was to give a similar amount to some other person who would then do likewise, and the chain would continue indefinitely. Lala Munshiram never returned to India. He lived and died in America, but Shri Babaji Maharaj, and later Shri Nathji, continued to tell his story ever afterwards.