Prison Becomes Paradise
Each year devotees celebrate Baba’s birthday all around the world in places such as London, Buenos Aires, Casablanca, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. But perhaps the most inspiring celebration of all is the one held in Central Jail in India, where Baba’s divine grace is performing a silent transformation of souls.
A few weeks before the birthday, the jail library acquired a copy of Sathyam Sivam Sundaram [Truth, Goodness, Beauty], and through the pages of that book, Baba touched the heart of every prisoner and made it His own playground. Some of the inmates (including even life prisoners) had written to Him on the very limited number of cards they could use, craving for His blessings, and Baba graciously replied. That prison is now on its way to becoming paradise, as the prisoners themselves feel. Look at some of the letters they wrote back.
One prisoner notes, “We have gotten the immortal message You sent us in Your overwhelming love; we are feeding on it; we are relishing its sweetness. We are now immersed in the ocean of bliss. Our fortitude and suffering have yielded fruit; our lives at last have become worthwhile. This rain of joy You have vouchsafed us is due to the good deeds we have done in past births. From now on, we are Your dear little children. The craving for temporary joy has left us; we have only one desire left: to earn Your favor and the joy of seeing You. Alas, we have no wings! Assure us that we will see Your holy form. We are celebrating Your birthday on the 23rd and doing everything to make it a success.” See the earnestness and the yearning behind those words!
Another fellow devotee from inside the walls writes, “Pressing Your precious letter on our eyes, we lost all awareness of the outer world. O Lord, we are celebrating Your birthday on 23rd. We have derived consolation and sustenance all these days solely through the peace that the recitation of Your name confers. Now You are installed in our hearts as our guardian and our father. You, the incarnation of the Lord, the divine Sai. Mainly through past good deeds done not in this birth, we have secured Your blessings and the love that overflows from Your merciful heart. This prison is now a field of spiritual effort. Our lower cravings have been destroyed; the goal of our lives, as lived hereafter, will be not only to become men but superior men, ideal men. Correct us and complete us, O Lord. Wash away our dirt, clean our hearts, and make us fine pearls—that is what we ask of Thee.” Truly, this letter is an inspiration and a lesson for all prisoners bound by illusion in this vast prison house called world!
Another letter, too, is equally thrilling: “We could not understand how You anticipated our prayers and sent us just what we were most anxious to get, some copies of Your photograph. We were struck by this kindness. The chapter ‘sankalpa srishti’ [creative divine will] in a book about Your life made us wild with joy. Most of all, we wish for prayer books in time for the birthday festival.”
Thus, the brothers who are locked up by the law are struggling like us to free themselves from the clutches of delusion and desire, the twin foes of peace and joy. May the grace of Baba, upon which they so firmly depend, also save us and lead us, too, in the realm that knows no fear or darkness, that is all love and truth.
Surely the number of heroes who have transformed this jail into a forest hermitage is growing; Bhadrachalam Ramdas* has his followers in the great adventure, even in modern prisons.
~N. Kasturi
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, December 1961
* Seventeenth-century public official who went to jail because he took government funds to renovate Bhadrachalam, a famous temple in Andhra Pradesh state, South India.
