Freedom From What?

The British ruled us Indians We wanted freedom It was given but then Hot-heads who looked Towards the Soviets And then to Mao said That is not enough We need freedom From oppression Don't you see the exploitation Of the downtrodden The sweating unfortunate The milling proletariat? We went to the jungles Learnt guerrilla tactics Adored heroes Who had died fighting In distant Bolivia, Cuba And Latin America We despised the West Thought they were the pest Adorned gore on our face Didn't matter who that we killed As long as it was freedom That we thought we fought for Till we realized The fight never had an end Then came a wise man my way Wise because he had a beard Asked me what was it from which I needed myself to be free With a drink raised in my hand My eyes myopic I told him I wanted all that That would let me and the world live Free from economic grief He said my wish was granted I walked a strident gait My bag full of wealth That made Bill Gates jealous Then I shuddered There was one second to me 'Yon Cassius, he has a hungry look' He would any moment Strangle my neck And be the number one In this nasty money game I spent sleepless nights When at last the bearded guy Appeared before me and asked What was it that I needed then My long-lasting freedom from I forgot Cassius For I knew he would go my unhappy way Answered I feared death I would have me wisdom unfetter From the fear of dying forever The cunning bearded sage Said it was done I was then ninety Sagging on a stick An anachronism of flesh and bones That communicated with none With no contemporaries around To share my teeming thoughts What would be my state If I hit two hundred without death A wrinkled mass worse Than the famed Rip Wan Winkle All alone in a world Where I didn't actually belong? Freedom from death Then was not My want, what was freedom If my habit is want? Wanting idiot I am How is that I can Rid me off the desire for want? The grey of the beard Laughed and said All that you need Is freedom from want It is granted 'Here you look, Life is a sojourn, know you not How you began, how you will end, Or, if you began and will end at all, All are just a given Granted by whom know we not' 'Live in peace why you don't Without wants accept With your head ever bent To whoever the one keeps giving on Aren't you then free, Aren't you then the freedom sought? ' 'Aren't you then the stars The breeze, rain and sky All that crawl and all that fly What is the freedom that you seek If you are freedom ever-free Unbound by horizons, the illusory sky? '