namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

Holy Jail is a compilation by HH Candramauli Maharaja on the activities and stories of ISKCON's Prison Ministries (IPM). In their thirty years of operation, the lives of hundreds of inmates have changed due to the practice of Krishna consciousness and the support received by devotees.

The prisoners very beautifully with great depth express how they came to Krishna through the help of ISKCON Prison Ministries and how their lives have been changed for the better through the love and care showered upon them by IPM sevaks.

There are also wonderful memories of those great devotees who have served with ISKCON Prison Ministries and sadly left their material bodies to continue their eternal service. You'll also find anecdotes, a history of the Prison Ministries, letters, art, and poetry from prisoners, as well as their vyasa-puja offerings to Srila Prabhupada—an interesting and uplifting read.

by Deena Bandhu das

Yesterday, our Prison Preaching team went for their regular program in the Bharatpur Jail, just forty km from Vrindavan in Rajasthan. They were wonderfully surprised when they reached the jail: the prisoners were having Srimad Bhagavatam class.

On their own, around fifty prisoners who are practicing Krishna consciousness have set aside time daily for Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam class. Many of this group are chanting thirty-two rounds, others sixteen rounds and follow the four regulative principles.

IPM Freedom Newsletter
July–September 2008

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,
founder-acarya of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness

Under the guidance of His Holiness Candramauli Swami

bhakti te mukti: Devotion is real freedom!

by Bhakta Mike, posted May 13, 2008

In response to a law suit citing obstruction of religious practice, the Arizona attorney general has requested the Tucson ISKCON temple and Govinda's Natural Foods Restaurant to provide three meals a day for inmate Jeff Walls, a Hare Krishna devotee in Federal Prison. Walls told the state that eating the prison food violated his religious practice of only eating sanctified food prepared in a clean, meat free kitchen by a brahmana with spiritual consciousness. The attorney generals office is negotiating with temple president Sandamini Mataji to provide those meals.

IPM Freedom Newsletter
April–June 2008

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,
founder-acarya of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness

Under the guidance of His Holiness Candramauli Swami

bhakti te mukti: Devotion is real freedom!

by bhakta Jason Matthews

It was 1973 when I first came into contact with Krishna’s pure devotees. I was five years old and traveling through the Frankfurt airport with my parents and older brother. In thinking back on the experience it’s really odd that I remember it so clearly now, especially as it has become covered by other experiences of conditional life and remained forgotten for thirty two years.

As a very inquisitive child, I liked to explore and ask many questions of my parents and others around me. Therefore, it was always necessary for either my mom or dad to hold my hand so I did not wander off into the environment. This occasion was no different. My eyes were darting around from one person to another. Looking up and down the airport corridors, I was indeed enarmoured by all of the activity.

by Madhava Smullen

ISKCON's Prison Ministry traces its roots all the way back to 1962, when Srila Prabhupada visited Tihar Prison in New Delhi. "If you give me the chance to speak to all the members of the Jail," he wrote to superintendent Sri Puri, "It is quite possible for me to turn them into ideal characters."

Yet it wasn't until 1988 Candrasekhara Dasa established the official ISKCON Prison Ministry in the USA, as an outlet for householders to preach without having to leave their homes; all they had to do was write letters. Shyama Priya Dasi, now an IPM volunteer for seventeen years, was gripped by the idea of such a personal service the moment she was first introduced to it in 1990. "Chandrasekhara showed me a photo album of all the inmates he was writing to," she says. "It was like they were family."

by Candra das

Do lotus flowers really blossom out of muddy waters? Or, can something pure really emerge out of a contaminated environment? The Vedas illustrate this analogy by citing the emergence of Prahlada Maharaja, a pure soul from birth, with respect to familial association with his first-class demon father Hiranyakasipu. Yet these and many historical facts from the Vedas are being covered, as similarly our natural habitats are being obscured by the expanding concrete jungles we call urban cities or metropolises.

IPM Freedom Newsletter
January–March 2008

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,
founder-acarya of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness

Under the guidance of His Holiness Candramauli Swami

bhakti te mukti: Devotion is real freedom!

by Chandrasekar das

“The benediction moon of the mercy of Sri Caitanyacandra shone only in the courtyards of the professional brahmanas proficient in various rituals, and the prominent and wealthy vaisyas who were as laden with laksmi as the beehives overflowing with honey in Sri Vrindavana-dhama. Sri Gaurahari and his brother Sri Nityananda Rama never chanted the holy names amongst the contaminated masses, which included prisoners of state, students, women, the lowborn, sudras, simple villagers, the forlorn, the distressed, and the unsophisticated.”

—Swami Bogananda’s Bogus Caitanya Upanisad