Denver, CO
In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, a new program in one state prison enlists inmates in peddling stationary bicycles – specially equipped to generate usable electricity. The electricity that each convict produces is exported to a popular city park outside the prison where it illuminates the streetlights around the periphery of the park. Not only this, but when the prisoners volunteer for this task, the warden reduces the length of their prison sentence according to the number of hours they cycle.
The journalist who broke the story remarks that prisoners are eager to sign up for this program because through their service, they not only feel useful but also experience a sense of connectedness to the free world outside the prison walls.
Living beings in the darkness and isolation of the material world are often compared to prison inmates.
Offering relief to these detainees, in the Gita, verse 3.16, Krishna advises them to apply the pravartitam cakram , the wheel of sacrifice or service to the Supreme Lord prescribed by the Vedas.
Commenting on this wheel of service, Srila Prabhupada writes:
“The Lord created this material world to enable the conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajnas (sacrifices) for the satisfaction of Visnu, so that while in the material world they can live very comfortably without anxiety and after finishing the present material body they can enter into the kingdom of God.” (Bg. 3.10)
As the prison cyclists of Rio reduce their sentence and feel relief by performing some small daily service, one who applies him or herself to the cycle of divine sacrifice recommended in the Gita, feels satisfaction by being at once linked to Krishna in the spiritual world – even while living under the prison-like restrictions of this dark material world. Moreover, scripture says that Krishna destroys the karma of those who engage in spiritual service and cuts the length of their stay in the material world.The bhakti yogi joyfully joins this cycle of divine service each day by carefully chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam, and offering her food to Krishna before eating it.
With gratitude and affection,
Vaisesika Dasa
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