Shri Nathhi's Picture in the Hitavada

 

Shri Narsikar and Shri Tanksale of Nagpur top all devotees in bringing out a fantastic picture of Shri Nathji in the Hitawada, a leading daily of Nagpur. The picture is printed on the first page of its Sunday edition. The picture has been beautifully coloured in green, yellow and pink by Shri Narsikar’s photographer friend. Shri Nathji is shown in a green achkan, wearing a yellow turban, and a countenance that is pink in colour. It is the same picture that Priya Nath had given to the Indian Express for the Sapru House function, except that it has been beautifully coloured. Both Shri Nathji and Priya Nath are in raptures about the magnificent work done by Shri Narsikar and Shri Tanksale, and Shri Nathji’s blessings go out towards the Hitavada newspaper.

On Januery 2th, 1984, HH Shri Pyiya Nathji also sends a personal typed letter to Shri Tanksale, congratulation him for publishing the photo in Hitawada. Shri Tanksale ji has always preserved that letter very carefully with him and photo of that same letter can be seen bellow - 

Hitavada Flies from Nagpur

Shri Nathji’s devotee Rekha Dodeja narrates a miracle in Delhi where the newspaper Hitvada does not come at all.

She says: “I was standing outside my home thinking intensely of Shri Nathji, when a piece of paper came blowing in the wind and fell beside me.

“It was one page of the Nagpur newspaper, Hitavada, which carried Shri Nathji's coloured portrait!

“Nagpur is about fifteen hundred miles away–how could the paper have been blown over by the winds over such a large distance?

“I came running to Shri Nathji's place–only to find that he had received the same picture by post from Nagpur!”

The Hitavada is an English daily newspaper circulating mainly in Central parts of India.  It was founded in 1911 by freedom fighter Gopal Krishna Gokhale in Nagpur. in 1978 the newspaper was taken over by Purohit and Company, owned by Banwarilal Purohit, the former Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Nagpur and present governor of Tamil Nadu. It was the English daily of Nagpur  In 2011, it completed its 100 years and celebrated its centenary festival which was inaugurated by Pratibha Patil, then President of India. The Hitavada, today, is the largest selling English broadsheet daily of Central India with Nagpur and Raipur. It has a daily circulation of over 200000 copies across the Central India with maximum 130000 in Nagpur city alone.

Sahu Jagdish Prasad - The previous owner of Savitri Niwas

 

Savitri Niwas – The house of Shri Nathji in Mussoorie was purchased By Shri Nathji from Sahu Jagdish Prasad who was member of the erstwhile royal family of Pilibhit.  Mahamateshwariji and Shri Nathji were keen on purchasing a house in Mussoorie as this hill station was very close to their heart and they had already stayed here for many years in different rented accommodations.  That time India had just gained independence and the British were leaving India and some Muslims were migrating to Pakistan. So many properties were available for sale. A property dealer offered to negotiate a deal for sale of this property called St. Andrews which belonged to Sahu Jagdish Prasad and said that this is the best house in Mussoorie. Mahamatehwariji and Shri  Nathji both had an immediate liking for this house and they purchased it.

Sahu Jagdish Prasad had purchased this property from the original British owners and named it Hari Kunj Estate. He had then gone abroad and when he later returned from USA  he offered to sell his House which Shri Nathji Purchased. But he did not came to Mussoorie personally to do the sale deed but instructed that all this be done by his agent in Mussoorie.  Although the original name St. Andrews was pleasing to Shri Nathji yet it was a foreign name and people could not relate to the name or understand why the house was named thus. So Shri Nathji named it – Savitri Nivas. This was purchased from the Istri  Dhan (Jewellery and money which a bride gets from her parents when she is married)of  Mahamateshwariji. Sahu Jagdish Prasad offered this house as it is with all the original  furniture and furnishings.   From the name plate at the entrance of the main house we can make out that  Shri Nathji occupied this house and named it Savitri Niwas on 15th August 1947. This was the birthday of Mahamatshwariji and also the day India gained Independence.

   Sahu Jagdish Prasad was a man of great stature and held considerable Zamindari property in the districts of Pilibhit, Bareilly and Bijnore in utter Pradesh. He had  three sons. He is also remembered as a philanthropist. In 1955 he donated Rs. 10000 as deposit for the Sahityakar Sanasad Award which was thus named after him as - Sahu Sahab Puraskar. A road in his home town of Pilibhit – (Sahukara Jagdish Prasad Road) is named him.

There is a very old photograph belonging to the previous owners of  this house which shows horse riding outings during the British Raj . This photograph still hangs in the Study room at Savitri Niwas. 

 

Cardiologist Dr. R.K. Caroli

 In !985, Shri Nathji develops heart trouble and it is suspected that He has a heart attack. He was getting week day by day
Priya Nath prays for Divine Help. An impulse comes into him to speak to Shri Vasudeva on the telephone. Priya Nath calls Shri Vasudeva and is appalled at what he has to say. Shri Vasudeva urges him to replace Dr. Gadhoke at once. He narrates a very sorry experience that his mother-in-law had at the hands of the doctor.
Priya Nath is filled with alarm and makes up his mind to replace the doctor at once. No matter how good a faith the doctor had been acting in, the fact was that Shri Nathji’s condition was worsening day by day and Priya Nath could not afford to wait any longer.
On the suggestion of Dr. Kataria, an eminent cardiologist of Delhi is called, a certain Dr. R.K. Corolli. He has great respect for Shri Nathji and touches his feet as he enters. He examines all the earlier ECG’s and also takes a fresh ECG and says:

“It was not a heart attack.”

He also adds that Depin-Nifedipine is a medicine that many cannot tolerate at all, and this is the cause of Shri Nathji’s weakness. He says that some people find even one tablet of 5 mg difficult to tolerate. And here was Shri Nathji being given a 10 mg tablet three times a day!
He says that some deaths had even occurred with the inappropriate administration of Depin. Considering Shri Nathji’s age of 83 the drug should certainly not have been given in such high doses or else not given at all.
This is what Shri Nathji had been saying all along! Shri Nathji is always above all of medical science.
Priya Nath had yet to fully accept the fact that whenever Shri Nathji made any medical observations he was inevitably right. Had he listened to Shri Nathji right at the start and stopped the Depin tablets Shri Nathji would not have suffered so much. Priya Nath now feels that they have had a narrow escape.
Dr. Corolli says it is a strain on the heart, and the coronary arteries are clogged naturally at this age. He prescribes, Peritrate, Ildamen, Isoptin and half a Disprin daily.
When Dr. Corolli looks at a portrait of Shri Nathji in the big room, where Shri Nathji is wearing his mukat for the Mahapoojan, he says:

“With a beauty like this, small wonder that the evil eye struck him–nazar naa lagtee to aur kyaa hotaa!”

Shri Nathji and Priya Nath embrace each other with joy even as Dr. Corolli leaves. The news is too good to be true. It was precisely what Shri Nathji had been saying: that there was no heart attack –or even if there had been a heart attack, Shri Nathji had caused it to disappear for Priya Nath’s sake.

For a while Dr. Corolli’s medicines begin to produce the same kind of weakening symptoms like those of Dr. Gadhoke, but later Shri Nathji’s body begins to get adapted to them. Shri Nathji’s Blood Pressure stands at 176/84.
Shri Nathji always spoke of acute mental intoxication or distress that these medications caused, as well as bouts of weakness, but the doctors attributed these to the vasodilating properties of the drugs which expanded the vessels of the brain. Dr. Corolli was careful to prescribe them in very small doses.
 

Dr. Corolli sees Shri Nathji later again and says that the collateral blood supply to the heart is increasing, even though one of the three coronary arteries had narrowed down, cutting the blood supply, that the aorta has calcified plaques and there is a regurgitation of blood back into the heart, which was increasing the blood pressure but was not a dangerous condition.

“Ye to sab ek transient phase hai!” he says to Shri Nathji, “this is all a transient phase!”

Although Priya Nath was worried when he heard about the aortic regurgitation, but he is pacified by the doctor’s words that it is all a temporary phase. 

Dr. Corolli comes agian after few days and gives a ‘clean chit’ to Shri Nathji’s heart, showing how the strain on the heart has eased itself on successive ECG’s taken on 9-2-85, 26-2-85 and 21-3-85. The Blood Pressure he measures is 170/86 and the pulse is 65 and regular. Shri Nathji is very enthusiastic about travelling to his beloved Mussoorie House in the summer, but Dr. Corolli advises against it and says Shri Nathji should postpone it for a year.
Shri Nathji is acutely disappointed. He knows he will never be going to Mussoorie again. Priya Nath could not even think of taking Shri Nathji to Mussoorie especially because of the total lack of medical aid there.
However, Mussoorie or no Mussoorie, Priya Nath is greatly elated about Shri Nathji’s health and the good news that Dr. Corolli has given about the improvement in the ECG’s.

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Ram Kumar Caroli is an Indian cardiologist and a former head of the Department of Cardiology at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi. A Fellow of the Cardiology Society of India, he served as the personal physician to four presidents of India and as the cardiologist to Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri. He was honoured by the Government of India in 1969, with the award of Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award and the government followed it up with the third highest civilian award of Padma Bhushan in 1974.

He has the. R K Caroli Clinic Heart Care at Bharat Nagar, New Friends Colony, New Delhi

Shri Nathji and Sir Abdul Qadar

While Shri Nathji was in Lahore, in the 1930's he met Sir Abdul Qadar, a Judge of the High Court, a Muslim by faith, who began to have great respect for Shri Nathji, and felt greatly attracted to him. The love of Sir Abdul Qadar for Shri Nathji was so great that he would not lose a moment of life if it could be spent in the company of Shri Nathji. The divine powers of Shri Nathji attracted the Judge, and his intellectual powers astonished him. One day Shri Nathji said to him in Urdu, using words that have become legend:

“Sir Abdul Qadar, insaan zindagi kaa mazaa naheen letaa.

“Jab tak jeetaa hai maut se dartaa hai–jeene kaa mazaa gayaa.

“Aur jab marne lagtaa hai to jeene ki kwaahish kartaa hai–marne kaa bhee mazaa gayaa!

“Sir Abdul Qadar, man does not enjoy life.

“For as long as he is alive he is afraid of death–that takes way of joy of living.

“And when he is dying he wishes to live–that takes away the joy of dying!”

The Judge was wonderstruck by the stark logic of Shri Nathji's statement and said:

"That is quite right, Hazrat, but is there no way out?"

"Yes, there is a way out," Shri Nathji said,

"man can be happy in both states if he can learn to accept life as an order of God, and death as another order from Him. Thus, by surrendering his will before the Will of God, man can accept life and death with equal contentment and happiness."

Shri Nathji's exact historical words in Urdu were:

"Na zindagi hai na maut hai.

Uskaa ek hukum hai jo duniyaa men le aataa hai.

Aur uskaa doosraa humkum duniyaa se le jaataa hai!"

Shri Nathji then recited the verse he was very fond of:

Mussavar khench laa tasveer jo aisee banaayi ho

Udhar talvaar khenchi ho idhar gardan jhukaayi ho!”

“O Artist, make thou a painting which is like this-

A sword upraised on one side and the neck bowed on the other!”

Shri Nathji would recall how in the early 1930's Sir Abdul Qadar, had come to Shri Nathji at the beginning of his sermon at a hall in Lahore, and said:

"Hazrat, please do not mind if I sit at the back of the hall. I am afraid I will have to leave in the middle of your sermon. I have an important meeting to attend."

Shri Nathji had been courteous enough to suggest that he could very well excuse himself from the entire sermon, but Sir Abdul Qadar insisted on listening for the duration of the little time he had, saying: "Let me derive as much benefit as I can!"

Shri Nathji finished after two hours. The audience was bathed in a divine glow. Shri Nathji was surprised to find Sir Abdul Qadar inside the hall.

"Sir Abdul Qadar! Did you return here from the meeting you had to attend?" Shri Nathji asked him.

"No, Hazrat," said the judge, "I haven't left the hall since the time you began speaking. It was impossible to leave. I became unconscious of space and time, when words began flowing from your mouth!"

Shri Nathji's verse on the theme of self-forgetfulness in love was:

Kaun kaihtaa hai ke rindon ko tere hosh naheen

Inko jo hosh hai vo hosh ko bhee hosh naheen

Who says thy lovers have lost their consciousness?

The consciousness they possess is greater than consciousness itself!

Indeed all who came to Shri Nathji found themselves in another world, where space and time ceased to exist, and where the cares and worries of the world were drowned in an ocean of divine bliss. It was a consciousness that superseded every other consciousness in the world. 

People who merged into the Divine Beauty of Shri Nathji found the world around them becoming beautiful. Those who met him found him in their hearts all the time, and the feeling of divine bliss persisted within them even when they were physically away from him.

It was a happiness that could not be obtained from any other object of the world, a happiness that was the biggest proof of the existence of God.

Shri Nathji had often said that the proof of God could be found in the hearts of his devotees, just like the proof of intoxication could be found in those who had drunk wine.

It could not be said that those who had merged into a world of God realisation were less conscious than those who were not. As a matter of fact those, who had God realization within them, found themselves performing their tasks better in the world because of the greater peace within them. 

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Sir Abdul Qadir was born in Ludhiana on 15 March 1872. He was the editor of The Observer, the first Muslim newspaper published in English in 1895. In 1901, he launched the magazine Makhzan, an Urdu language publication. This magazine published the early works of Allama Muhammad Iqbal.

In 1904, Qadir went to study law in London, and was called to the bar in 1907 after which he returned to India, where he served as a member of the Punjab Legislative Council and the minister of education in Punjab, British India in 1925.

Qadir was knighted by the British in the 1927 Birthday Honours and in 1935 became a member of the governing council of India. He died on 9 February 1950 at the age of 77 and was buried in Miani Sahib Graveyard, Lahore.

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.