Satchidananda Prison Project

Satchidananda Prison Project

Sri Swami Satchidananda (Sri Gurudev) always cared deeply about serving men and women in prison. When he lived in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), he and the members of his ashram built temples for both minimum and maximum security facilities and conducted regular prayer meetings for the prisoners. Sri Gurudev and a few others were allowed to enter the prisons, give lectures on spiritual life and Yoga, and speak to the prisoners individually in their cells.

After he came to the United States, Sri Gurudev continued this service by visiting prisons across the country and giving Satsangs. He also encouraged his students with an interest in this type of service to teach Yoga in prisons, and there are many moving stories of inmates who were helped and rehabilitated by this service.

The Satchidananda Prison Project - Why?

Throughout the years, inmates have contacted the Ashram and Integral Yoga Institutes, looking for spiritual guidance. These letters come to us in a steady stream, making it clear that there are people in the prison system wishing for a better life and for spiritual direction.

Several of us were moved to organize our service with people in prison, making Sri Gurudev’s teachings more available to them.

The Satchidananda Prison Project - What?

We collect spiritual books to send to inmates and prison libraries and we offer them free subscriptions to Integral Yoga Magazine.

We correspond with inmates, answering their questions about spiritual life.

We are working with prison administrations to have Yoga classes taught in prisons around the country.

We hope to eventually connect with prison projects sponsored by other Yoga and Buddhist organizations so that we can join together in serving this population.

We’re also delighted to announce that Sister Maithreyi collected all of the transcripts of Sri Gurudev’s satsangs at prisons. Inspired by these transcripts, and by her own work in prisons, Rev. Kumari de Sachy wrote a book called Bound to be Free: The Liberating Power of Prison Yoga and has included the transcripts in the book. This book is now available to the public and is also being made available to prisons worldwide via SIS.

The Satchidananda Prison Project – How You Can Help?

We invite you to donate to the project, to donate new or used books. We also invite senior disciples of Sri Gurudev to help answer the letters we receive from prisoners and to send them books.

Special thanks for Reverends Lakshmi & Paraman Barsel for overseeing this project. For more information about the project or to contact the Barsels to see how you can get involved with this project, please email Rev. Lakshmi Barsel at: programs@iyiva.org

Rev Lakshmi & Rev Paraman Barsel

Rev. Paraman Barsel is a member of Satchidananda Ashram’s Board of Trustees. One of Integral Yoga's most humorous, lively and insightful speakers, he has taught all aspects of Yoga for over thirty-five years. He was one of the original designers and instructors of Integral Yoga Basic Hatha Teacher Training and has taught Raja Yoga Teacher Training, and beginning and advanced Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga and meditation workshops.

Besides teaching classes in Gentle Yoga, Hatha Yoga I & II, meditation and pranayama, and serving as spiritual director for silent retreats, Rev. Lakshmi Barsel teaches specialized teacher trainings, such as Raja Yoga and meditation, and on-going scripture classes on the Bhagavad Gita and the Thirukkural. She has a Ph.D. in Linguistic Anthropology and presently serves as the Yogaville Director of Program Development and Advertising.

More Prison Project NEWS

Folsom Prison Outreach

Opened in 1880, Folsom is the second-oldest prison in the state of California and was one of the first maximum security prisons in the United States. Vina Parmar founded The Folsom Prison Outreach program in 2007. Beginning on September 30, 2010, Vina is conducting a class on the Bhagavad Gita. Vina says, “The Living Gita by Swami Satchidananda, is one of my favorite translations of the Gita, so I have selected it as an introduction for the inmates at the prison.” Vina teaches a class on “Mandala Meditation” weekly. There are 17 inmates in the class, most of whom are on a life sentence in this maximum security prison. They will read one chapter per week of The Living Gita and each inmate will create their own mandala art based on the teaching that touches them most within the chapter.

SIS is happy to announce that we have donated The Living Gita books to Foldsom Prison Outreach program as part of the Satchidananda Prison Project. We are grateful to be part of this project and wish Vina and all the prisoners well.

Vina Parma

Vina Parmar, MBA, is an experienced facilitator who offers Creativity, Life and Business Coaching to help people achieve their goals and move forward in their lives.

For more information about this book please click here

Soledad Prison, USA

Sri Gurudev poses with the Yoga class of inmates at Soledad Prison, USA, early 1970s.

Tracy Prison, USA

Sri Gurudev gives a talk on Yoga to inmates at Tracy Prison, USA, early 1970s.

An Integral Yoga teacher giving a class to inmates

Main Navigation