Lala Hargopal Khanna was the president of the Arya Samaj in Lahore and did not believe in the concept of avatars, but the more he saw of Shri Nathji the more convinced he became that if God had to be in human form the human form would be that of Shri Nathji.
Lala Hargopal Khanna was a very honest man, one who had never told a lie in his entire lifetime.
When he was very young and had just begun to practise law, he found himself deluged by clients who were struck by his integrity and sheer brilliance in law. He began practice as a criminal lawyer, and never lost a case. He would always stand for the poor and take their cases without demanding a fee. As a result, his house remained filled with floor and wheat and anything else the poor folk wished to offer as an expression of their gratitude. Gold coins- ashrafees- filled his purse as more and more clients brought their cases to him, and saw in him their saviour from the injustices done to them.
There was a time when a client came to him and asked him to sue someone who had hit him. Lala Hargopal looked at the client and said the allegation would be difficult to prove, as there were no injury marks upon his person. The client went away and came again the next day – with a bleeding forehead. He had hit himself on the head with a sharp object to make a wound. When he asked Lala Hargopal to take his case, Lala Hargopal was so shocked that he got up and left his office, and never returned there again.
He gave up practising criminal law and took to civil law and banking instead, a field in which he came to be recognised as one of the leading authorities of the time. His book on Banking and Conveyancing continued to guide lawyers and students for several generations to come. He was so brilliant that he was even invited to teach law to the post-graduate law students studying for their Master of Law degree.
He rose rapidly in the Punjab National Bank to occupy the top position as legal adviser to the entire banking institution. It is significant that after he retired many years later – a team of eleven persons had to be called to replace him, and to do the work that he did alone! There were stories about his lying in his bathtub scrubbing his back and dictating complex legal points to stenographers that gathered around him on Sundays.
Tales of Lala Hargopal’s honesty traversed the courts of the land. There was a time when his case was before one of the sternest judges of the time, a certain Sir Shadi Lal. The judge had an account in the Punjab National Bank and had desired a loan from the bank, but Lala Hargopal Khanna had refused the loan on technical grounds. When Lala Hargopal went to the court the next day to argue a case, the judge found a moment with him alone and referring to the refusal of the loan said: Lala Hargopal you are very technical! And Lala Hargopal replied: So are you, my Lord!
Lala Hargopal would always be impeccably dressed in a western suit and felt hat, looking every bit a European. His complexion was like that of a European, so that many mistook him for one.
It was his fair complexion that saved him later during the Hindu Muslim riots in Lahore when he was mistaken for a European and allowed to go his way. The Hargopal family had become legend in the city of Lahore.
While Shri Babaji Maharaj remained at Lahore, Shri Nathji would journey to distant places. News of Shri Nathji’s eventful journeyings would reach Shri Babaji Maharaj and he would be extremely pleased that his son was engaged in such noble work.