(d - Baba Amte - 1994) The Blessed Partnership Poem by Kannan G

His hair flowed in locks.
Beard grew unchecked.
He resisted matrimony
For his mind was wandering
In yonder wonderlands.
Though he breathed an aristocratic family air,
Though he courted with the court of law,
A Brahmacharin he lived,
Hunting and gathering fruits
Ever in the deep jungle of truth.

One day at a marriage ceremony
Of some close associate,
His eyes fell down from a balcony
Into a speaking spectacle:
He saw, while the rapture
And the glitter of the occasion
Was spilling around,
A maiden, the sister of that day’s bride,
Straying into the company of a menial.
He saw the young lady
Crouched beside an old servant in the scullery.
She was helping her wash the dishes.
Before long, he was before her mother.
He said: “I have found a groom
For that daughter of yours –
And I have renounced
My vow of celibacy.”

And when the startled mother
Sprouted perplexity,
He added distinctly:
“Don’t you worry.
I am that he.”
And thus he entered matrimony.
He preferred it now to celibacy,
For by what he had seen there
He had detected fair,
That she was the one
Who could make him
To himself aware,
That she was the one
Who could
Share his Dreams,
Bear his Burdens,
Care his Wounds,
Wear his Joys.
He had made a choice
In which even she did rejoice.
And thus indeed was signed
The deed of a noble partnership.
And our suffering society
Was so fortunate
To get as charity
The joyful profits
This blessed partnership reaped thereafter.