Los Angeles SD Newsletter, Vol. 4, Issue 12
LETTERS
JAILS ARE NOW BECOMING GOLOKA VRNDAVANA
A letter from Jivananda dasa, a prison inmate
Dear Mahat-tattva dasa Prabhu, Please accept my most humble and respectful obeisances! All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada!
Syamasundara dasa Prabhu has told me about your kind and wonderful service called Sastra Dana Project, and that you send him lots of books to send to prison libraries and inmates.
I want to say thank you. Srila Prabhupada’s books, as you know, have a touchstone effect, and Syamasundara Prabhu has sent books to hundreds of prisons. Like the sweetest nectar, they will change the hearts of the wicked, which has a snowball effect; a tidal wave of love and devotion will sweep through the prisons, making many new devotees.
I want to tell you a bit about my story, so you will see how much your service means to so manythose that know Krishna and those that don’t. I came to Krishna at New Dwarka in 1978. After the Bhakta Program, about 6 months after I came, Rameswara demanded I take initiation, but I did not think I was ready. He was very offended when I didn’t show up. Everyone was!!!
I left and went to a bunch of temples, and I ended up at New Vrndavan, where I worked on Srila Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold and with Krishna’s cows. I was there for years. Kirtanananda wanted to initiate me three times, but I did not take the big step! I felt I was not ready; it is a very big step. When they started to go through hard times I left.
I went to help my mother fix up a new house she had. There I came to the realization that I should have just surrendered to Rameswara. So I hitched to Los Angeles. and went straight to the Temple. I walked in and learned that Rameswara had left the Temple.
For the second time I was very hurt. But I stayed and learned how to worship Lord Krishna in my home. I would go to mangala-arati every morning, and the Sunday Feast.
I came to Oregon to help build a temple in 1993, and after that I lived in the woods for 6 years in southern Oregonreading, chanting and fasting. We had a small farm there.
In the year 2000 I had trouble with my heart and moved to Portland for the V.A. hospital. I had been initiated Jivananda das! I would go to the Sunday Feast at the little Portland temple. I got better and my heart got well!
No w, by the Lord’s causeless mercy I find myself in prison for five years for a crime I did not commit. In the last lifetime something must have happened, and now here I am preaching about Krishna.
When I got to the county jail in Portland, there were no books and no devotees! There were Bibles, Jewish books, Korans, books about Buddha, but not one book about Krishna. I was so sad. I didn’t know the address of the Portland temple, I didn’t know the address of any temple. It took over a month before the chaplain got me an Internet printout of ISKCON temples in the U.S.A. I wrote this poem a few days after I was taken to jail.
JAILHOUSE DEVOTEE DILEMMA
No temple to go to, no devotees with which to dance, Where can I find Krishna? Is there still a devotional chance?
No Guru Deity to pray to, no lotuslike feet to touch, Where can I find Krishna? I need Guru so much.
No spiritual food called Prasadam, only vegetarian jail-food on my tray. Where can I find Krishna? Will he please sanctify this day?
No transcendental books to look in, no pictures of Krishna to see. Where can I find Krishna? He means so much to me.
So, where can I find Lord Krishna? Maha-mantra, do your part, Oh, there you are, my Krishna! On the Lotus of my Heart!
So many lost men in the Portland jail, and no books to read! I knew about our Lord Krishna, but for others there were no books. Due to Syamasundara Prabhu and Chandra prabhu, the books came. A bunch of them. And many men now have become interested in Krishna consciousness! I left the books there when I was sent to this prison, Oregon State Penitentiary. The men are still reading them and writing to Chandra Prabhu and Syamasundara Prabhu. The Snowball Effect.
Now, here at Oregon State Pen we have two new bhaktas, and Syamasundara has sent books, lots of them, for the chapel library. Many men are now reading the books. Wherever there is Lord Krishna, there is Paradise. Krishna consciousness turns prison convicts into prison devotees of Lord Krishna. Our cells have become temples, and the whole prison is the paradise of Goloka Vrndavana. There is the loving exchange between the devotees. There is Bhagavad-gita class in the yard every afternoon, and men are becoming interested in Krishna consciousness. So due to your kind service, hundreds of prisons and jails are now becoming Goloka Vrndavana. The books you sent to Syamasundara Prabhu are entering the last frontier, this nation’s jails and prisons. There will be many new devotees made. I have seen it happen already.
You see, Prabhu, in prison men can see that there needs to be change in their lives. They are going to the religious bookshelves to look for that change. But they have been getting ripped off with half truths, and when they get out they forget all about it and re-offend. But with the real truth of Krishna consciousness, they taste the nectar of the Holy Name. Their lives will never be the same.
With Christianity, they wrote home, “Oh, I’m born again!” and their wives say, “So what! He always does this, but he can’t be a Christian when he gets out.” But with Krishna Consciousness, they have hope. The inmates write home, their wives get totally into Krishna consciousness on the outside, and their lives change. This is what has happened to the new bhaktas here at O.S.P., and their wives are encouraging them from the outside. Far out!!!
Also, Krishna consciousness makes time in prison a joyful time. With Srila Prabhupada’s books, chanting our rounds, and offering our vegetarian trays, life in prison is total bliss!!! So this is the wonderful service we have been called tospreading of Krishna consciousness in the last frontier, to men that might not have heard of Krishna any other way. A captive audience. Ha Ha!!! Total bliss!!
So I just wanted to write and say thanks! You are doing a great service by changing the lives of hundreds in prisons nationwide by glorifying Srila Prabhupada!!! Hari Bol!!!
I write poems as a devotional service; here is one inspired by your service.
LIGHT OF THE SASTRA-DANA PROJECT
A dark cloud came over them And into prison, covered with sin To pay for past deeds, karma to burn But, what a Righteous place, the Truth to learn.
Into the Darkness came the Light, Srila Prabhupada books, which shine so bright, Changing hearts, the transcendental touchstone, Back to Godhead, we welcome them home.
By the service of Sastra-Dana, so sweet, Through Guru’s books, Krishna to meet. With love and Devotion, our hearts make the call, And we find paradise behind the wall.
It’s all due to your desire and encouragement. Through the Guru’s books, your service sent Krishna, who came with his abode, paraphernalia, and fame. He came the first moment we chanted His Name.
Flowers of springtime, the colors we see. Can’t match the beauty, we see in Him. HARE KRISHNA!!!
(Poem based on The Science of Self-Realization, page 328)
Your Grace Sriman Maha-Tattva dasa Prabhu, please accept my most humble obeisances to your Service.
Your servant always, Jivananda dasa
"I have visited some of the best and the worst prisons and have never seen signs of coddling, but I have seen the terrible results of the boredom and frustration of empty hours and pointless existence."
former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger
America spends approximately 100 billion dollars a year on the criminal justice system, up from 12 billion in 1972.
Bureau of Justice statistics
In the early 70s, there were about 200,000 people locked up in the U.S. Today’s prison population of 1.8 million represents a growth of over 800% in the past 30 years.
Every 49 seconds, an American is busted for selling drugs.
Bureau of Justice statistics
The U.S. prison population recently hit the 1.8 million mark-and that's just counting those in prison or jail. Throw in parolees and probationers and the combined number of people under some form of correctional supervision rises to nearly 6 millionan estimated one out of every 38 adults.
Bureau of Justice statistics
Every year, more people are arrested than the entire combined populations of 13 American least populous states.
America incarcerates five times as many people per capita as Canada and seven times as many as most European democracies.
Bureau of Justice statistics
