How could I not re-post this classic? Those forty years have sure flown by! I remember that bleak, chilly Melbourne day like it was yesterday.
Yes, this is a very young Kurma being arrested outside the now-extinct Buckley’s on Bourke Street and taken away by four burly ‘boys in blue’ for a week in Melbourne’s notorious high security Pentidge Prison (also extinct) in 1972. My crime: not paying fines for selling Hare Krishna literature on the streets of Melbourne.
How could I not re-post this classic? Those forty years have sure flown by! I remember that bleak, chilly Melbourne day like it was yesterday.
Yes, this is a very young Kurma being arrested outside the now-extinct Buckley’s on Bourke Street and taken away by four burly ‘boys in blue’ for a week in Melbourne’s notorious high security Pentidge Prison (also extinct) in 1972. My crime: not paying fines for selling Hare Krishna literature on the streets of Melbourne.
An Australian blues legend of the time, Matt Taylor, wrote a song about it.
His debut solo album, Straight as a Die, was released at the end of 1973. The single “I Remember When I Was Young”/”Krishna Loves You, Too,” which had been recorded in an open paddock at Kingston Park Farm, hit the Top Ten in Melbourne, and tells the whole story.
“Things are getting bad when you cant practise your religion,
Walk through the streets, giving all the love you can to Krishna.
Elohim, God, or Allah, the name doesnt matter,
Love is a commodity you cant put a price on,
People who love life give to one another,
Cos God’s in me, Gods in you.
Yes, City Councillors, Krishna loves you too!
When you go to church on Sunday to hear a sermon
They pass round the plate, are you telling me its begging?
Is God a one-day affair, the next day you dont care?
Krishna people make the city streets a temple
Whats wrong with living your religion every second
If Gods in me, Gods in you?
Parking attendants, Krishna loves you too.
I remember Christians thrown to the lions,
Because their faith was seen as defiance.
But now I see Centurions in Blue, aint nothing new.
Religions not exempt when it comes to revolution
Each step along the way is plagued by persecution,
Still, Gods in me, Gods in you.
Mr Policeman, Krishna loves you too.
Salvation Army playing on the corner,
Turned-on our folks in another era, but now I see
God remains the same, forms of God have changed.
Now youve heard my story, just forget your fear,
And chant Krishna every day
And your world will come clear
Cos Gods in me, Gods in you.
Yes, every human being, Krishna loves you too.
(Krishna, Krishna, shine your light on me etc…..)” Lyrics courtesy of Mushroom Records