BY MASTI VENKATESA IYENGAR

(Rendered by the Author from his poem in Kannada)

That You have walked with me without intermission throughout the journey, I have not realised till this moment.

Whether it was because I walked as in a sleep unconscious, or my faculties are dense and could not perceive, or, again, Your step is so gentle that I could not notice, or because Illusion lay between us as a veil obstructing vision, I have not to this moment been aware that You have always walked with me.

"Alas," I thought, "I am companionless upon this desert wild," and, turning my grief over in mind, dissolved in deep distress. "I know not the way," I cried, "and there is no one to show it to me." I knew not that You held me by the hand and were guiding me all the way.

I turn back and what do I see? On the sand, with the mark of every step I have made, is the mark of a step of Yours. Over league on league of inhospitable desert, oh Merciful, You have walked with me step by step and I knew it not till this moment.

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