Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

PRISON ANGUISH

TRUMBULL, OHIO

My dear spiritual pal, Akilananda from Salem, Ohio, came to the Cleveland Airport to pick me up and drive me for an hour to a Correctional Services Centre. The two of us had planned to meet Aaron Catlin (now Arjuna) who is serving time in prison.

While in the waiting room a young woman came next to me to ask who we were.

“Hare Krishna!” and so I explained.

“When did you join?” She asked after introducing herself by the name ‘Liz’.
Akilananda answered “In 71”.

I asked Liz, “Where were you at that time?”

“My mother wasn’t even born then,” she laughed out her words.

We then got to talking about reincarnation which she firmly believed in. In fact she admitted that at times she feels very connected to snakes and that she herself was in the body of one.

Another woman waiting to be escorted to see her inmate friend was also curious about us. Within a dialogue with her she expressed that prisoners are often feeling guilty about what they had done and believe that God will not embrace them.

“But that is not the fact!” I said.

She concurred, “Yes I believe that God does come close to them.”
Our meeting with Arjuna went well. I was happy to hear him say that it was Krishna’s mercy that he’s in prison. “Everything is for a reason,” was his mood. “Good stuff, Arjuna!”

Outside of the prison I had taken a walk in the area surprised to see some abandoned homes which were in good shape.

Our evening brought us to Prabhupada Manor in Cleveland where we discussed about anxiety, some of which inmates experience a lot.

“Anxiety you can receive but anxiety you must not give.”

5 KM