About Us

Hare Krsna!
Thank you for visiting our website.
We would like to give a short insight into who we are and how we got started.

The International Pure Bhakti Yoga Society (IPBYS) OutReach Prison Program seemed to create itself in a very organic manner. We can only conclude, that it was inspired by Srila Gurudeva himself and that he is continuing to make all arrangements. A few years ago, an organization called Books Behind Bars wrote us a letter asking us to donate some of Srila Gurudeva's (Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja's) transcendental literatures, to be given to any inmates who request spiritual books. We gladly sent a full set to them.

A few months after that, Vasanti dasi was up late one night in her room in Vrndavana, thinking that if this organization requested books, then there must be more organizations like this that would also like to receive them. She spent some time googlesearching it and finally came across a Resource Directory for Prisons of religious/spiritual groups. She added the IPBYS contact information and explained the process of receiving a donation of Srila Gurudeva's books for those prisons and inmates who were interested.

Time went by and slowly but surely, inmates sent letters requesting information about bhakti-yoga and spirituality.

Gopika dasi kindly volunteered to send books and letters to inmates until it became too big of a seva for her to handle balance with her studies and other seva.

Radhika dasi then took over and became a penpal to many inmates. She began sending out a quarterly newsletter, which includes a personal letter from her and a lecture of Srila Gurudeva.

Kesava prabhu also became a steady penpal.

Mahabuddhi Prabhu is steadily connecting with Prison Chaplains throughout America, giving them the golden opportunity of receiving a set of Srila Gurudeva's books for their prison libraries. He has said that they are accepting this offer with great joy.

Special thanks to Bhakta Jacob for being instrumental in preparing the monthly lessons - from typing, formatting, advising and being a via medium to correspond with Bhakta Carl.

Also, we thank Iccamayi dasi for designing our flyer about the program, and who always makes herself available for any graphic art work.

The program gradually expanded to needing the assistance of more volunteers and Srila Gurudeva magically sent Bhagavati Kanta prabhu and his team in North Carolina. They are so organized that they are keeping track of all letters and books being sent. Now they have even created this Prisonseva website for the pleasure of Srila Gurudeva and our Guru-varga, who bestow their mercy on all, regardless of any qualification.

We pray that this site will be informative and inspiring to all and that many more volunteers can join in, in any capacity, by becoming a penpal by helping with mass mailings, by learning how to do programs in the prisons, or by giving donations for books and postage.

Contact By Email

Prison Seva Program: vasantidasi@gmail.com

Web Support: bkdasa@gmail.com

Our Postal Addresses