"Hanuman Express Dispatch" in Snake River

by Candra das

HH Hanumat Presaka Maharaja, lead navigator and the ship's captain for the “Hanuman Express Dispatch,” made a scheduled stop at Oregon’s largest prison, Snake River Correctional Institution, on 8 December 2007. Maharaja lectured and spellbound nine inmates with his express dispatch emanating from Bhagavad-gita As it Is.

Maharaja read verse 3:42: “The working senses are superior to dull matter; mind is higher than the senses; intelligence is still higher than the mind; and he [the soul] is even higher than the intelligence.”

After Maharaja read Srila Prabhupada's purport, many inmates expressed their realizations on how their working senses have misdirected them into being victims of prison culture.

Inmate Delaney Jones, recent attendee of the weekly Bhagavad-gita class, expressed how his working senses had him consumed in being a major player during his roughly twenty-year tenure in Oregon’s prison system:  “I had so much anger that I was only concerned about me.... I wanted others [inmates] to see that anger and give me ‘fifty feet.’... I was more concerned with my prison reputation.... Many of us come back to prison because we lose that stature when we leave prison.... I had that mentality it is better to ‘reign in hell than serve in heaven.’”

Inmate Jones was prompted to make this statement after Maharaja quoted a line from Milton's Paradise Lost: “It is better to reign in hell that serve in heaven.” Maharaja explained the fall of Lucifer and the fallen angels after their failed attempt to control and rule heaven. Maharaja highlighted this example in that it is comparable to our rebellious nature—to serve our gross senses, thinking that we are in charge, versus serving the Supreme Lord Krishna, who is factually in charge. Maharaja added that Lucifer only had to repent to resume his position; however, repentance takes work and conscientious effort.

Inmate Eggelston remarked, "Is there any hope for redemption? Does God simply just punish us for what we do, our bad karma?” Maharaja responded, “It takes time to correct behaviors, and it takes patience.”

To expand and facilitate the inmates’ understanding, Maharaja also explained that Krishna facilitates or makes arrangements for our senses to be gratified; when things are unfavorable we consider it punishment from God, but when we come to the realization that the duality of good and bad are both suffering, then we may seek a higher purpose beyond these distinctions.

Overall, Maharaja was impressed with the inmates' realizations. He said that they came prepared to ask questions about the real problems of life and reflect on them in a public setting, as opposed to those who frequent our temples but underestimate or don’t fully appreciate their freedom and opportunity to pursue devotional life.

As an example, Shawn Fretag, who has spent nearly twenty years in the Oregon prison system, writes Maharaja frequently with inquiries on how to overcome his lower nature and how to resolve his twenty years of prison conditioning. Bhakta Shawn is an inspiring disciple of Maharaja and has fully disclosed his mind, his crime, and his intentions to become Krishna conscious.

“The fortune is that these inmates know that they are in prison," Maharaja said. "At least they are trying to take advantage of this fact.” Apparently Maharaja is acknowledging that the toughest part of a Vaisnava’s mission is to get prisoners of the so-called free society to accept that they too are inmates. The “prisoners within the prison within the prison” have already come to that conclusion, and are now seeking help to be truly free from the folly that they acknowledge they have created.