A poem from the early days of book distribution, mid 70’s
Sankarshan Das
I was a young monk out to save the world.
By teaching pure love of God
And distributing a magazine Back to Godhead.
Do you find that to be quite odd?
At a mall in Leesburg, Florida,
While showing folks how to attain the divine,
The police came and put me in jail
For committing this most heinous crime.
Which side of the bars are you on?
Which side of the bars are you on?
They gave me a solitary cell,
But I did not feel all alone
Because I knew that God is with me
In my newly attained, humble home.
I didn’t touch their garbage food,
Not prepared as an offering to God.
I was happily serving His mission
Even though they considered me slipshod.
Which side of the bars are you on?
Which side of the bars are you on?
As I gazed through the bars out the window
At the world that is said to be free,
I could see that that world was stuck behind bars,
And that the prisoner was surely not me.
I was ecstatic in my liberated world,
Fully absorbed in the divine,
Blessed with an amazing adventurous life
That is inconceivably sublime.
Which side of the bars are you on?
Which side of the bars are you on?
After thirty-six hours, I was bailed out
Of my recently acquired address
To continue my mission of liberating a world
That is dying and full of duress.
When I think back to that time
When they stuck me in jail to put the brakes on me,
I remember that as the most glorious time
And pray that the world can now become free.
Which side of the bars are you on?
Which side of the bars are you on?
