RETURN JOURNEY 285
supports had at times been trembling, sending down bits
of stone layers through the pressure of the foot, producing
by their fall reverberating sounds at the depths of the
valley below. What time it took him to reach the bottom
of the ravine he had no idea. It all appeared to be so short.
He at last alighted at the base of the rock, quite safe. Here
again he cried out at a high pitch "Hari Om," making the
giant hills all around resonnd with the echo.
Ramdas exclaimed: "Ram, how glorious you are! You
have made Ramdas perform a most marvellous feat*"
Ram rejoined: "This is not all, more feats are in store
for you, get ahead."
Ramdas continued his journey in the cool shade of the
titanic trees.
Ramdas: "0 Ram, how blessed is Ramdas to be
conscious of your company with him even in this lonely
place!"
"My child," Ram assured Ramdas, "you shall in future
be always aware of my presence with you, in you and
everywhere about you. I grant you this knowledge based
upon your perfect oneness with me. You and I are one."
Ramdas, hearing this, laughed through intense joy.
Half-a-mile was traversed. Now he came to the brink of
another precipice, steeper than the previous one, but with
no footholds of any kind for climbing down. It was a
smooth flat rock, running vertically down. Looking at it he
giggled and said:
"Ram, now you are caught, Ramdas should like to
know how you are tackling the problem now."
"Soft, soft," instantly put iti Ram. "No doubt you are
clever, but I am more clever than you can ever imagine.
Look to your right. There the ground slopes down, though
the incline is sharp and slippery, try that way."
Ramdas stepped towards it and dancing a caper or two,
laughed and spoke:
"Rani, you are a brick, but it won't do; you see the