Dear Vaishnava devotees,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Sri Guru. All glories to Sri Sri Gauranga.

I am a devotee inmate at the Oregon State Penitentiary, Salem, Oregon, USA.

I am the voice of many crying in the spiritual wilderness of this nation's prison system, one of many voices begging the devotees to come into the prisons with a weekly program of sankirtana, classes, spiritual counsel, and association.

Every day at each Krishna consciousness center there is a morning class in which a verse from Srimad Bhagavatam is read and discussed. Anyone who regularly takes part in hearing the Bhagavatam in the association of devotees will experience cleansing of all inauspicious things from the heart. By hearing the Sanskrit verses and discussing and chanting of the holy names, the restless mind is captured and one can think of Krishna, the goal of life.

"By regular attendance in classes on the Bhagavatam and by rendering of service to the pure devotee, all that is troublesome to the heart is almost completely destroyed, and loving service unto the Personality of Godhead, who is praised with transcendental songs, is established as an irrevocable fact." —Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.18

Srila Prabhupada writes in his purport:

"Here is the remedy for eliminating all inauspicious things within the heart which are considered to be obstacles in the path of self-realization. The remedy is the association of the Bhagavatas. There are two types of Bhagavatas, namely the book Bhagavata and the devotee Bhagavata. Both the Bhagavatas are competent remedies, and both of them or either of them can be good enough to eliminate the obstacles. A devotee Bhagavata is as good as the book Bhagavata because the devotee Bhagavata leads his life in terms of the book Bhagavata and the book Bhagavata is full of information about the Personality of Godhead and His pure devotees, who are also Bhagavatas. Bhagavata book and person are identical.

"The devotee Bhagavata is a direct representative of Bhagavan, the Personality of Godhead. So by pleasing the devotee Bhagavata one can receive the benefit of the book Bhagavata.... The more progress is made in devotional service under the guidance of the Bhagavatas, the more one becomes fixed in the transcendental loving service of the Lord."

It is very important that devotees come into the prisons to lead Bhagavatam classes. And all the Sanskrit words are chanted exactly as they are to sound. Each Sanskrit word is a treasure house of meaning that the leading devotee, giving the class, can expound on infinitely, without deviating from the conclusion of the disciplic succession. The audience is then assured that the original Truth, as first revealed by Krishna is being exactly repeated with all its purity and potency intact.

In the prisons of this nation, the impersonalist philosophy that Srila Prabhupada came to free us from is overrunning the inmate population. The Sarada Ramakrishna Vivekananda association is coming with their non-dual philosophy telling us we are Krishna: "Everyone is God if you only realize it." What a dangerous philosophy to expound unto us!

I answer, "If I am God, how did God become covered by ignorance? How is God incarcerated? We are eternal servants of Krishna, not Krishna."

The best method for getting rid of confusion amongst these souls who are searching and striving to change their consciousness is for Vaishnava devotees to counteract the mayavadi philosophy by coming in and helping guide those suffering incarcerated men and women back home, back to Godhead.

One's attraction to fleeting materialistic pleasures will diminish upon association with Vaishnava devotees. We are all here because of desire. If you come into prison, hold meditation classes and Bhagavad-gita discussions as the mayavadis do and tell the inmates they are God, then it is easily justifiable in these inmates' minds that there is no wrong done in any of their actions, that they are God and it is only relative that the crimes they committed should be punishable. We then have confusion upon confusion.

Upon hearing the Truth expounded by the parampara and Vaishnava devotees, one is put back into the consciousness of his constitutional position. One relishes hearing of the pastimes of our Lord and chanting the holy names, and all confusion about the nature of God and the living entity will be cleared up as one associates with Krishna-conscious devotees and studies the conclusion of the great acharyas.

It is extremely important that one hear Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam from the right person, a bona fide spiritual master or his representative.

If one tries to understand on his own or is mislead by mundane academic or mayavadi expounders, he will come to the wrong conclusion and think Krishna is an ordinary man, or worse, a myth, and that God is impersonal.

Many men in prison are looking for real spiritual life. Realizing their desires has landed them into this darkness and suffering. They are asking the same questions as Arjuna: What does a person in transcendence look like? How does he speak? How does he act?

The impersonalists, Muslims, Buddhists ,Christians, and Wiccans are answering us daily with half-truths. But Krishna describes that a person in transcendence is not agitated in any circumstance, fixing his mind upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavan Krishna.

Great spiritual masters and their representatives go everywhere and anywhere just to speak of the glories of Krishna. Now Srila Prabhupada's disciples and Vaishnavas worldwide are discussing these truths daily in schools, college campuses, public festivals, and temples.

But they refuse to enter the prisons. We are 60 miles from the Portland temple. We have begged devotees to come for close to a year now and have heard no response. There are 10 men here who hold daily Bhagavad-gita As It Is classes, meet in the yard, and chant japa, and we all desperately need association of senior devotees, but their hearts are turned and they do not come.

We are begging that they come to all prisons.

As inmates give a submissive ear, the potent transcendental message of Bhagavatam and Gita can immediately clear years and lifetimes of the most abominable behavior and clear the heart.

That is real rehabilitation, real correction.

Please take compassion and be a true follower of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Take compassion and be a true representative of Srila Prabhupada, who endured every hardship to bring us freedom from bondage, freedom from the void of impersonalism.

Please come and offer classes, sankirtana, and prasadam.

It is guaranteed that many men will sign up to attend such classes and become bhakti yogis. Many will learn real love, real compassion, real devotion as servants of Lord Chaitanya!

Many devotees are doing wonderful things for us, sending books and corresponding, such as Chandrashekhara and Syama Priya with ISKCON Prison Ministries, Bhakta Chris Matthews, who was an inmate himself, and Bhaktin Ginger Burnette of Krishna Prison Ministries.

We are very thankful to all of them. But there remains the need of personal association and classes. Some are doing life terms and will never be able to attend a kirtana or temple. Please come into the prisons.

Your servant,
Jivananda das bhramachari

You may write Jivananda at
James Seal # 10659242
2605 State Street
Salem, Oregon 97310

© dipika.org March 10, 2003