Dr. Paranjpe and the Earthquake

 Dr. Paranjpe, was Vice-Chancellor of Lucknow University at the time R.R.Khanna was Registrar there. R.R.Khanna had sought several times to convert the man but had not succeeded.

Dr. Paranjpe was visiting Mussoorie on one occasion when he fell ill there. R.R.Khanna and Shri Nathji went to his residence to pay a courtesy call.

"Bless him," said R.R.Khanna to Shri Nathji. But apparently Dr. Paranjpe did not relish the idea of being "blessed" by someone he did not believe in, and made some sarcastic comments to the effect.

R.R.Khanna often described his friend as an agnostic and prayed to Shri Nathji to show him the light.

After Paranjpe had returned to Lucknow, a severe earthquake rocked the city. R.R.Khanna came to Shri Nathji and said: "Huzoor! Do you know what happened to Paranjpe?  When the earthquake vibrations rocked the building, he ran out, crying: 'Good God!'"

Shri Nathji said: "The Good God was within him, but it took a rocking to bring Him out!

“Good God to usske andar thhaa. Bhoochaal ne usse baahar nikaal diyaa!”

"It might be easy to bring a dead man back to life," Shri Nathji said, "but it is very difficult to bring a dead heart back to life!" He would quote the following verse:

"Afsurdaa dil ke vaaste kyaa chaandni kaa lutf

Liptaa parraa hai murdaa saa goyaa kafan ke saath

To a heart that is dead–of what use the glitter of moonlight?

It is like a body wrapped in a shroud."

Lord Krishna revealed himself to Arjuna, but not to Duryodhana, who remained a disbeliever right up to the end.

Sir Raghunath Purushottam Paranjpye (16 February 1876 – 6 May 1966) was born at Murdi near Dapoli in the coastal Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. He was educated at Maratha high school, Bombay, Fergusson College, Pune and Bombay University before entering St John's College, Cambridge in 1896. He graduated B.A. as senior Wrangler in 1899. Paranjpye was elected a Fellow of St John's College in November 1901 and stayed as such until 1907, but returned to India to become a professor of mathematics at Fergusson College in 1902. He was the first Indian to achieve the coveted title of Senior Wrangler at the University of Cambridge, and became a university administrator and Indian ambassador. In 1907, R. P. became the first librarian of the Indian Mathematical Society at Fergusson College. He became the college's principal, and stayed in that position for two decades, until 1926. Subsequently, he consecutively became the Vice-Chancellor of Bombay University and then Lucknow University from 1932 to 1938. It was then that Shri Nathji visited him in Mussoorie.  Later Paranjpye received a knighthood from the British government in 1942. In the three years (1944–1947) preceding India's independence from the British Raj, the British government appointed him India's High Commissioner to Australia. His autobiography, 84 Not Out, appeared in 1961.