Mahatma Gandhiji - Footprints Poem by Ravi Panamanna

(The Father of the Nation needs no introduction to my readers. His life was one of sublime philosophy with sacrifice) .


Upon the sands of time
He hath left behind his name.
Upon millions of lives
He hath left a lingering voice-
Of peace and harmony,
Of love and universal brotherhood,
Of oneness of religions,
Of the art of non-violence.

And he witnessed rivers of blood,
He wept in silence.
When India was out of her chains,
He was walking alone in the Navghali lanes.

Across the borders, hunger and pain was the sum,
Bread meant more than freedom and partition.
Man was going against man
And faces of rage reigned supreme.

With the cries of parting hearts
Our borders echoed unto the sky.
And they parted with their kith and kin, lands,
Ever sighing over the rootlessness of life.
That was the beginning of our end,
That was politics and religion spoiling human life.

He sank into his deepening thoughts
And felt a sea-ravaging within.
‘Did I lose my faith in life,
Did I win my experiments with truth? '

He thought of man and man
And the fences that man built around.
Between man and his religion
He found growing a thickening mist.

And he preached the spirit of the cross,
He quoted koran and our ancient lore-
To be patient and brotherly,
To be kind and dearly.

And he was paid for it,
He was shot to death.
‘Hey Ram'! Followed out of his heart
And into the growing night, he walked in silence.

Upon the sands of time
We now hear his gentle voice.
It leads us to the temple
Of a rare human endeavor and guiding spirit.

The spring hath left the dales,
A season hath come to an end.
And the Einsteinian prophecy is true-
'That the future generations won't believe
Such a man in flesh ever lived amongst us'.

30th January 1994