Efforts to improve the mental state of prisoners through spirituality in Raipur Central Jail

Raipur : The Raipur Central Jail administration has formed a Ramayan Mandal of about 60 prisoners for the mental and spiritual upliftment of the prisoners. The Mandal is conducting the recitation of Ramayan on every festival in various barracks and Hanuman Chalisa every Tuesday and Sundarkand every Saturday.

The main singer of the Ramayan Mandali, Bodhan’s father Raghunath, who is serving a life sentence, told that whenever he goes home on parole, when he joins the Ramayan Mandali in the village, his villagers are also surprised and say that the jail has changed from being a jail to a reformatory. The villagers also tell him that it is amazing that you have learnt such a good Ramayan while being in jail. He has also formed a Ramayan Mandali in his village Diyagarh, Thana Lailunga, District Raigarh.

Similarly, prisoner Chakradhar, father of Banshidhar, who is serving life sentence and learns Gita daily and writes commentary on Ramayana, said that spirituality is the basis of his life and he has handed over everything to the God. He recites the verses of Gita that he has learned every day and discusses their meaning with other fellow prisoners in his barrack. He inspires other prisoners to do the same. When he goes to his village and his villagers discuss Gita, Ramayana, Puranas with him, and on hearing his correct pronunciation, they say that you have acquired so much knowledge even while living in a place like jail. He says that he remains happy by reciting it daily with his fellow prisoners Dronacharya, Dharam, Vasudev and is serving his sentence well.

The administration of Central Jail Raipur has provided harmonium, Casio, tabla, dholak, manjira and mike system to the group. Through such efforts, the prisoners are connecting with spirituality in jail, resolving all their queries and are becoming positive towards life and free from depression. Due to which there is a significant change in their behavior also. Along with this, the prisoners are being given training in the knowledge of Gita and correct pronunciation for one hour every day through Geeta Parivar. At present, 21 prisoners have passed the examination conducted by Geeta Parivar by learning and memorizing the Gita.