Guest guest Posted December 31, 2003 Report Share Posted December 31, 2003 ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- New Text 31 (255 lines) Sarvabhauma (das) (Vrindavan - IN) 31-Dec-03 17:14 (12:14 -0500) ICC (Indian Continental Committee) PRISON PREACHING UPDATE-VRINDAVAN --------------------------- ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- New Text 30 (244 lines) Sarvabhauma (das) (Vrindavan - IN) 31-Dec-03 17:14 (12:14 -0500) matthew97 (AT) aol (DOT) com PRISON PREACHING UPDATE-VRINDAVAN --------------------------- ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- New Text 26 (233 lines) Sarvabhauma (das) (Vrindavan - IN) 31-Dec-03 16:23 (11:23 -0500) mamasyama (AT) aol (DOT) com PRISON PREACHING UPDATE-VRINDAVAN --------------------------- indavan - IN) 20-Dec-03 17:57 (12:57 -0500) Shyamananda (das) RNS (Chowpatty, Bombay - IN) Attach: C:\COM\Users\sarvabha\FILES\KB.zip "pics" PRISON PREACHING UPDATE-VRINDAVAN --------------------------- Dear Maharaj's and Prabhu's Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. What follows is an upadate report on our Prison Preaching Programe from Sri Vrindavan Dham. Srila Prabhupada visited Tihar jail. Thank you all for your kind letters of encouragement. hare krsna Your servant Sarvabhauma Das YOUTH PRISON - TIHAR JAIL (Delhi) (27 Nov) by Sarvabhauma Das Over 1000 youth who are meant to be in schools and colleges are now offenders of the law. These youth between the ages of 16 to 20 looking very bewildered and totally lost, were the victims of unscruplous and malicious people who have misguided them. The young boys morose and confused paid no attention to the spiritual discourse delivered by different speakers. My opening statement,"you are not offenders, we are the offenders, for not training you properly," broke the ice. The young boys began clapping and had big smiles on their faces. They relaxed and listened attentively asI spoke in a loving fatherely way. "We want to rectify our fault, we come to offer our services to transform you from law-breakers into risi-kumars by imparting a simple and sublime process of transformation." I then asked them to sit in the eight fold lotus position and with closed eyes repeat, "om namo bhagavate vasudeva ya, the pancha tattva mantra and hare krsna maha mantra." The chanting reverberated in the area and caused a total change in the atmosphere. I then asked them how they felt. One boy ot up and said,"I feel light and peaceful." I asked him his name and where he came from; he mentioned he was a muslim. I handed him a Bhagavat Gita which he very happily accepted. The others also expressed a similar feeling. I then mentioned to them the extraordinary meeting between them and the Paramatma, who will never leave them under any circumstances. "Therefore our humble request is that you practise this everyday and at anytime, this is your personal prayer to God, this will purify you and on day your prayer will be heard." I asked them to repeat after me a joint prayer, the hare krishna maha mantra. Over 1000 youth and dozens of police officers stood up and ecstatically danced and sang with the devotees. hare krsna................ AGRA PRISON (19-20 Novemeber) by Deena Bandhu Das Prisoners applauded as devotees entered Agra prison, preceding the wonderful program the day before where they happily chanted and danced to the hare krsna maha mantra. Sriman Rama Krishna Goswami, head of the Bhartiya Charitra Nirman Samsthan who very kindly arranges all the prison programs for the devotees, addressed the prisoners first. I then spoke on the importance of the holy name and reminded the prisoners that Krsna was born in jail. My speech in hindi suprised them and put them in a relaxed mood. Head of ISKCON Prison Ministry in Vrindavan, His Grace Sarvabhauma Prabhu put the prisoners completely at ease with his wonderful fatherely nature. He pulled over his chair closer and very lovingly spoke to them as if he was their relative and friend. He said they were in fact related as Krsna was their common father. He said, "We are all offenders and if I was to judge myself, then I would also be in jail. And generally we commit crimes doe three reasons zar(money), zan(women) and zamin (land). As you can see none of these three has accompanied you to prison, only Krsna has acompanied you as Paramatma in the heart. We should never be attached to these things that donot accompany us, but be attached to the ONE who will never leave us." The program ended with an ecstatic kirtan where over 500 prisoners together with prison officers danced and sang the maha-mantra. Prominent newspapers covered he event, Prison turns into Temple." hare krsna......... WOMEN'S PRISON - TIHAR JAIL (29 November) by Parsada Devi Dasi As our jeep pulled up inside Tihar Women's Prison, we all shuffled out behind Sarvabhauma prabhu, it has been a long drive from Vrindavan. Sangeeta mataji, Shankapani Mataji, Sanjay Vancha das, Nathwar Bapu das, Janaki das and myself found an uneasy tense atmosphere. A death like energy enveloped us. I found the sadness ofthe women inside. After signing a few forms and standard security checks we were allowed into an open lawn where over 500 ladies young and old awaited us. Upon entering I noticed a young black bodied girl. She greeted me and I enquired where she was from, she mentioned Nigeria, I told her I was from South Africa. She was suprised. I told her I was a hare krsna devotee now living in Vrindavan, Lord Krsna's holy city. She smiled and I invited her for our program. Later I found out that there were quite a few black african women in this prison. What caught my eye though, was over a dozen children busy playing on the lawn next to their mothers. This was incredible sight, which suprised both Mother Sangeeta and myself, being foreigners. I did prison programs in South Africa but children were not allowed to be in prison with their mothers. If they did not have someone to take care of them they were put in shelters. Some mothers had babies in their arms. These children grew up in prison, recieved an education in prison, and were practically prisoners themselves for they will only see the outside world after the mother finishes her sentence. The women from the ages of 18 to 60, had dark circles under their eyes and the luster from their faces gone. They looked totally dejected and helpless. After two speakers, Mother Shankapani sweetly sang the pancha tattva mantra, this immediately lightened up the mood, the women looked up and nodded as she spoke on the suffering of Queen Kunti, they smiled when she mentioned how Queen Kunti, the aunt of Lord Krishna prayed to Him to put her into more suffering for only this will remind her of Him. And how this prison, is the best place to practise chanting and remembering Lord Krsna. She ended her speech with a beautiful brijbasi song on Krishna, this had all the women clapping and singing along with her. Next Sarvabhauma Prabhu spoke, pulling his chair closer to them and addressed them as mothers. Tears rolled down their faces. We all felt their pain saddness. He mentioned to them that it is only envy that has put them in this predicamant. And it is this envy that has seperated us from our true protector Lord Krishna. And he mentioned the process for regaining our original position. He then called us over for a kirtan, he chanted the maha mantra and everyone chanted together with raised hands. A few bold ladies came to the front and danced and chanted. The children and female police also joined in. After the kirtan we handed them prasadam of bananas, Sarvabhauma prabhu called thechildren first. The women got up and ran to touch his feet. They broke the normal code of conduct trying to get the blessings of a sadhu. They had to be restrained by the police women. He asked us to hand over Bhagavad-Gita's and japa beads to them. I noticed an extremely young girl clapping and chanting, I went over to her and asked her the reason for being in prison, she mentioned that she had murdered her neighbour and another young girl came over and spoke to me, she had murdered her sister. She asked me for a book, I gave her "Beyond Birth and Death" which she happily accepted. As we were leaving they surrounded us asking for japa beads and Srila Prabhupada's books, what a receptive audience they were! Mother Shankapani(a brijbasi from Gokula and disciple of Lokanath Maharaj) under the able guidance of Sarvabhauma Prabhu will be heading up the preaching in this jail. I noticed they all looked happy and blissful as they spoke to their fellow inmates or hugged their babies. A transformation had taken place. hare krsna................ REALIZATONS OF PRISON PREACHING by Sarvabhauma Das 1. Since they have no access to the outside world, exposure to saintly persons with spiritual motive give them good relief. I found them to be more attentive when listening tothe discourse, then a distracted outside audience. 2. They are in distress, the hope through prayer is more appealing and we find them enthusiastically chanting hare Krishna maha mantra with the feeling of Ajmila in distress, not simply with the tongue. 3. When we take out books and japa beads, they become delighted to have them. 4. At the end of the discourse 80% of the inmates of over 500 generally pay obeisances and touch the feet, which is not commonly observed in outside preaching. 5. The one theme which we preach is,"you inmates are living like celibate ashramites, sleep on the floor, depending on whatever is given to you. This is very similar to life od practising spiritualist therefore if you add this chanting of the holy names in your life during your stay in prison, by the time your sentence is over, the outside world will accept you as sadhu rather then criminal." They applaud to this. 6. When the program is over they watch us with a deep yearning, hoping to see us again. 7. Newspaper reporter asked them about the effect of Bhagavad Gita, listening and chanting the holy names, couple inmates said, "they will give up envy and enmity towards their enemies. Their life is short, so rather live peacefully than create havoc. This is the purpose of human life. We should learn to love and serve God and not fight like cats and dogs. This human birth is a rare opportunity." Prison preaching is purifying our consciousness, I found the prison preaching best method od practising "nishkam karma yoga" where you are not expecting an oral reception, asana to sit on, garland of honor, some feast prasdam and daksina. Therefore the effect of this preaching is instant and spontaneous, because our consciousness is not polluted and feeling of mercy for the suffering souls is felt the most. In our recent 18 days (17 Nov to 4 Dec) continous preaching in 11 prisons, starting from Mathura prison (where Lord Krsna appeared), through Agra, Jaipur, Tihar (Delhi) and Kurushektra (where Bagawad Gita was spoken by Lord Krsna) on Gita Jayanti Day, was indeed an enthralling experience, devotees who accompanied us will have this etched in their memories forever. We feel blessed and inspired by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, since the the decision for this program was taken on the Appearance day of His Divine Grace, in Sri Vrindavan Dham. Any success we might have regarding this program is only due to Srila Prabhupada's causeless mercy. hare krsna...................... (Text 13) ----------------- ------- End of Forwarded Message ------ (Text 26) ----------------- ------- End of Forwarded Message ------ (Text 30) ----------------- ------- End of Forwarded Message ------ (Text 31) ----------------- ------- End of Forwarded Message ------ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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