The prisoners themselves readily accepted the technique, Dr. Chandiramani said, and the cost of providing training was minimal. In addition to prisoners, several hundred police officers and prison staff voluntarily learned the technique for their personal development.
He found that it helped improve the prisoners’ discipline and their willingness to cooperate with prison authorities. His work also showed that prisoners who studied the technique were less prone to depression, feelings of hostility and helplessness, and a sense of hopelessness. They also smoked less often.
Message from teacher before starting their Vipassana course in Indian prison, 1994
Friends:
You have all gathered here to liberate yourselves, to free yourselves from all bondages, all misery. To be locked up in prison like this is a great torment. And to be freed from prison is a great happiness. But beyond the confinement within these four walls, there is a greater prison in which we all suffer so much. This is the prison of our own negativity, our own mental defilements, that continue to overwhelm us.
We have become slaves to our own anger, hatred, ill will and hostility; slaves to our defilements of desire, tenacity, greed, passion, attachment, ego. Every defilement that arises in our mind overwhelms us – so quickly makes us captive! We immediately begin to suffer. This suffering is not limited to the area within these prison walls. People inside this prison or outside this prison are all prisoners of their own habitual patterns. They keep generating one negativity or the other, and they keep suffering.
When we are freed from these negativities, we begin to enjoy the true happiness of liberation. We begin to enjoy real peace, real harmony. When our mind is freed from impurities, the entire habit pattern of our life changes. A pure mind is naturally full of love and compassion, infinite love and compassion; full of joy, sympathetic joy; and full of equanimity, perfect balance of mind. This is real happiness, real peace, real harmony.
The bondage to spiritual defilements is a universal bondage. And the happiness of liberation from these negativities is also universal. Whether one is Hindu or Muslim, Jain or Buddhist, Christian or Jew, Sikh or Parsi – it makes no difference. Anyone caught in the bondage of defilements will undoubtedly suffer. And everyone who comes out of this bondage begins to enjoy peace and harmony.
May all of you who participate in this camp work diligently, patiently and perseveringly to come out of the prison of impurities in the mind and out of all your misery. May Vipassana bring you complete freedom from suffering. May you enjoy real peace, real harmony. May a new era begin in your life.
What prisoners said after the course:
“Whatever seed you sow today, the future will produce the same kind of fruit. So I believe that no judge has the power to decide what will happen to me in the future, despite all his authority, only my own good and bad deeds.” ~ 33-year-old murder convict Brij Kishore with life imprisonment
“I had lost my mental balance and that was the culmination of negativity and trauma for me. But after Buddha’s method of Vipassana came into my life in Tihar, I realized that I am on a path of healing and self-discovery, which has also shown me the highest feelings of positivity. All this is not a sudden change, but comes from a process that continues as we practice.” ~ Sanjeev Kumar 39 years old
“No matter how much they wanted to provoke me or argue, I kept giving them mangal maitri (love) and slowly we became friends,” ~Mahavir is a murder convict and faces life imprisonment
“I realized that this was the experience I had been looking for all my life ‘in the outside world’. In that sense I feel lucky that I made it, because otherwise I would not have known this path at all. This is because all spirituality used to seem like a big deception to me. I used to curse my fate, but now I am healthy, happy and have even gained weight. I give a lot of maitri (love) to my wife for guiding me on this path even though she is no more. – “I owe her,” he said softly, his voice choked. ~ Chiranjeevi Singh is still on trial and spending his days in jail for allegedly causing his wife’s death.
“I was haunted by the way my life had taken shape. But now I am not sad because I discovered Vipassana here. I carried a deep sadness, like the pain of losing my mother, that I could not cope with even years after her death. But after I ended up in prison and took part in Vipassana, I got rid of that severe depression, among other things. As soon as I get out, which should happen soon, I will teach my grandchildren to do the Vipassana course,” ~ 60-year-old Sumit Sen