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"To show them special mercy, I,
dwelling in their hearts, destroy
with
the shining lamp of knowledge the
darkness born of ignorance."
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Prison Ministries
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Srila Prabhupada dipika.org Features Books Contributors Discussions Downloads Padayatra Photos Websites Worldwide Earlier Articles
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Letters from Prisoners,
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I was told to write you because you could help me grow and understand the Gita. I found this book in the cell back in April, 05. Well at first I thought it was just a book to read and so I started reading it that same night. Well it became clear to me that this book was like a Bible of some kind.
Here is a nice letter from a prison Chaplain:
January 19, 2005
Dear Mother Shyama Priya;
Thank you for your generous donation of books. Your donation has been given to James Seal to be put in our Hare Krishna library for checkout.
We cannot afford to buy these publications, so we rely on the generosity of organizations such as yours to help us help the men here at Oregon State Penitentiary. We wish you the very best in your efforts in this area.
Hare Krsna. Please accept my most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Dear Maharajas, Prabhus, Matajis,
Today, Saturday December 11, we distributed Bhagavad-gitas to the prisoners. We also gave a lecture on Srimad Bhagavad-gita, and we chanted the Mahamantra.
Dear Prabhus:
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to
Srila Prabhupada.
We have been overwhelmed by requests from inmates who desire books, music CDs, videos, DVDs, and japa beads. This is a great sign that Krsna Consciousness is spreading in every town and village of the prisons in the United States. Now it is the time of year in the Western countries when everyone is getting into the mood of giving, as the holidays approach, and it is also the time for the Advent of Bhagavad-Gita.
A letter from an inmate to the ISKCON Prison Ministry
Thursday, Sept. 9th, 2004
Dear Mother Shyama Priya;
Hare Krishna! Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada.
Mother Shyama, I'd like to share something with you. Last night my neighbor and I stayed up till 4:00 in the morning talking about Krsna and the Bhagavad-gita. His name is Jose. He was asking me many beautiful questions, and I answered many of them.
Many times people ask us why we are helping people in prison. They committed the crime. Why not let them do the time? But we see that we are all prisoners in this material world. Some of us are in a state or federal prison, and some of us are in the prison of our minds or a physically disabled body, but just having a material body is a type of prison. We have no freedom to enjoy all our insatiable desires. So we, at the Prison Ministry, try to help others and ourselves by practicing Krsna consciousness. The following letter is a nice example of how Krsna consciousness is working in the prisons.
Prison Ministry
Discussion Group
Dear Vaishnavas,
Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.
We have recently created the following discussion group on Yahoo.
My dear Prabhujis,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
For the last five months, we have been having weekly programs in the Mathura and Agra prisons, and monthly in the Tihar jail. Now the Tihar jail program will also be done weekly. A very sincere Brijbasi devotee named Janakinatha das has joined this program and is enthusiastically pushing it on.
Actually, we were busy with Ujjain Kumbha Mela for a month, and when we returned to the Agra Prison, the jailer Mr. Gupta, was complaining.
"We missed you for a month," he said. "Where have you been?"
The ISKCON Prison Ministry has been giving Krsna consciousness to the inmates of prisons all over the world for over 16 years. Candrasekhara dasa heads this ministry, which started as a way for him to preach as a householder. Responding to hundreds of letters and inquiries every year, he has kept the ministry going all these years, through many difficulties and with very little help.
Many people are looking for Krsna while incarcerated. The ISKCON Prison Ministry is helping them find Him by sending books, tapes, Back To Godhead magazines, videos, japa beads, and neck beads. Some inmates, guided by the ministry, have been able to take shelter of a guru. Many prisoners never had the association of devotees before meeting them through the ministry. Some have never visited a temple but are looking forward to it after they are released.
Dear Prabhu,
In the article about going into the prisons, Chandarshekar das's phone should be 419-508-2291. Someone forgot the last 1. Please correct it if possible.
Thanks,
Hamsagati das
[See "Prisoner Brothers and Sisters," dipika.org, March 29, 2004. The article has been amended.]
[Article complete on this page]
Did you ever consider going to prison? After reading Jivananda Das's plea inviting devotees to share kirtan, dancing, lecture, arotik, and conversation with the inmates of Oregon State Penitentiary, I requested ISKCON Portland Temple managers to please contact the chaplain to set up our first program.
I would never have imagined how blissfully the guys behind the walls took to chanting and how intently they heard our reading and classes. Some of the men wore japa malas around their neck when they were not chanting rounds. Jivananda has 70+ books in his cell, and the chapel library has many also.
Hare Krsna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Krishna Prison Ministry would like to announce a first in Vaishnava history: the Oregon state prison is broadcasting Srila Prabhupada's lectures twice a week to each and every cell in the institution. The prison has each cell wired with radio, allowing the inmates to plug headphones into the wall jacks and hear.
Jivanada dasa, an inmate there, has started broadcasting Srila Prabhupada's lectures twice a week, so every man has the opportunity to start his journey back home, back to Godhead. As far as we know, this is the first time in history that a Vaishnava acarya has been in every cell in a prison preaching Krsna consciousness. We are ecstatic. Hare Krsna!
ISKCON
Prison
Ministry: Letters
We receive many nice letters from inmates sharing their realizations. We would like to share these with all of you.
"I had been suffering out of ignorance due to leading a sinful life. I want to be rescued from this ignorance. I'm trying very hard, and as long as I continue to read and chant every day, I'm beginning to see things clearly." —Billy Jones Amarillo, TX
"You asked how I used aspirin to count mantras. I have a bottle of 108 aspirins, and each time I finish a mantra, I place one aspirin back inside the bottle, then dump them back out again after 108." —Bhakta Paul Kimmel, Pendleton, IN
Dear Mother Shyama Priya:
I went to a memorial service the other day for two men I knew here at Oregon State Prison.
Larry Pierce I met at the infirmary a few days after I came here. My heart became very irregular, so they put me in the infirmary. Larry had cancer. We had many talks about Lord Krsna. I was chanting on my hands and asked Larry if he would buy me a Catholic rosary (They have 54 beads, so two times around = one round japa). Larry got me a rosary to chant on while we waited to get japa mala beads in the prison store, which they now sell there.
Prison Ministry
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
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Following is a letter from a chaplain, a continuation of correspondence, previously sent out.
To Mother Shyama Priya,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ and many thanks for the material you have sent to us. We will add the literature to our library and will make them available to those inmates interested. We will send them out with volunteers to the Receiving Units. They readily receive all of those books because they cannot bring anything from county jails.
We are interested in the video and
audiotapes that were mentioned in your
last letter. Additionally, we are able
to receive hardbound books and any you
can send would be much appreciated. We
have placed your address on our pen-pals
list.
More: Click here or on title
Prison
as Devotional Paraphernalia
From the
ISKCON Prison Ministry
Posted
June 3, 2003
Please accept my humble obeisances and respects. All glories to Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet. Jaya Bir Krsna dasa Goswami. Jaya Sri Krsna Caitanya, Prabhu Nityananda, Sri Advaita, Gadahara, Sri Vasadi Gaurabhakta Vrnda.
My dear Prabhu, please sit down. Do not read this letter standing up or you may pass out. Yes, by your mercy and Candramauli Swami’s prayers I met my guru Maharaja. It was so wonderful and full of transcendental enlightenment. We chanted japa, talked of the Supreme Lord and his glorious pastimes, and I even sang him my own special song, "The Yogi of my Mind."
He told me he was very glad he came and he could see that I was Krsna conscious. During the visit he asked about my release. I humbly told Gurudeva that I had a 90-year sentence. I only had one chance for parole, and it wasn’t likely that I would make it.
ISKCON Prison Ministry
Lord Caitanya came to save the most fallen in every town and village. Prisons are like villages and their populations are growing. Prisons are generally accepted as places where the most fallen reside, but there are many sincere man and women who are reaching out and asking us for help in learning more about Krsna consciousness. Through the mercy of Lord Caitanya, they are being connected to the sankirtana movement.
A letter from an ex-inmate shows how the ministry has helped:
Dear ISKCON Prison Ministry:
Hare Krishna! Please accept my sincere obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
I first came in contact with the ISKCON Prison Ministries in 1994. I originally sent a letter to the ISKCON World Review looking for someone to write to me, I had been associated with ISKCON for many years prior to my incarceration, however never serious enough for formal initiation.
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.
Thanks from the Prison Ministry
Hare Krishna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
I would like to express my appreciation to everyone who has sent stamps, money, books, japa beads, etc., to help us in spreading Krishna consciousness throughout our nation's prisons. We are doing a very difficult task by trying to introduce Krishna into the prisons, and we can use all the help we can get.
We currently have put books into prison libraries and given books to individual inmates all over the country. We hope and pray that other Vaishnavas may see the immense need of introducing Krishna consciousness into our the prisons.
Just received a letter from a man in prison. His name is Bhakta Stanley Calhoun. He wants association through letters. Maybe someone will write him.
He says:
Hare Krishna Pandava!
All glories to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Please accept my humble respects towards you.
May this letter find you and all the other devotees in the best of health.
Once again, I want to thank you for sending the "Dangerous TV" videos. I have received three so far, and it has been a gratifying experience.
New
Address
for Prison Ministry
Please make a note of this new address. This will be where you can reach me via email.
As well, our website will be updated with this new information in the near future. Thank you for your patience. My apologies for being out of reach for so long. Hope this finds all of you in good health.
MatthewsIPMP@aol.com
Bhakta Chris Matthews
980 South Old Sevierville Pike
Seymour, TN 37865
[Article complete on this page]
Atlanta
Prison Ministry:
A Request
By Bhakta Chris
Matthews
Posted
December 12, 2002
Hare Krishna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Thank you so much for your kindness in printing the articles we’ve submitted. The response has been great.
Now comes a time I don’t like, and this is to ask for donations. The ISKCON Atlanta prison ministry has been blessed with book donations and a number of devotees who are corresponding with inmates throughout the country.
Some of these inmates have altars in their cells and practice a strict vegetarian diet. This is no easy task, as they don’t have access to Lord Krishna's prasadam as we do. They depend on us for association and for books to be sent in.
Prison
Ministry Manual
From Bhakta Chris
Matthews
Posted
December 7, 2002
All Glories To Srila Prabhupada!
We are working with Kaunteya, who is with the congregational preaching ministry, in putting together a manual for prison ministries that will be used throughout the world for devotees wanting to start similar prison ministries. If there is anyone who could send us stories of his or her being incarcerated and coming out into a Vaisnava community, please let us know of the reception and what helped facilitate the adjustment from incarceration.
The
Atlanta Prison
Ministries: My Story
By Bhakta Chris
Matthews
Posted
December 5, 2002
ISKCON prison ministries ki jai! What a light in the nation’s darkest holes! I know it for a fact. My name is Bhakta Chris Matthews, and I am the director of the ISKCON Atlanta prison ministries, a project Bhaktin Ginger Burnette and I have been working on. In a very short time the mercy of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has shined on us tremendously, and I am positive that Srila Prabhupada is smiling on this endeavor.
First, let me say thank you to Chandra Sekhara Prabhu of the main ISKCON prison ministry. Thank you for your selfless service and compassion in reaching out to the nation’s incarcerated, for I was one of those that your compassion reached, and it has inspired in me to do the same in spreading Krishna consciousness into the world's prisons.
Atlanta
Prison Ministry
Update 12.01.02
From Bhakta
Chris Matthews
Posted
December 1, 2002
Hare Krishna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada ki jai!
I just wanted to let everyone there know that the ISKCON Atlanta prison ministry is coming along great. In a few weeks we’ve been able to contact more than one half of the state’s prison systems, and all the religious coordinators have agreed to let us send in books and materials to the individual institutions.
Atlanta
Prison Ministries
By Bhakta Chris
Matthews
Posted
November 28, 2002
Hare Krishna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Please accept my obeisances, all the devotees who read this page.
My name is Bhakta Chris Matthews, and I am managing the ISKCON Atlanta prison ministries. We have recently been in contact and are working in conjunction with Chandrasekhara Prabhu of the main ISKCON prison ministries. We need devotees who would be willing to render service to Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada by corresponding with devotees that have been made by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada while incarcerated in our nation’s various penal institutions.
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