Cheesecake and Hare Krishna Diet
by Gaura Natarja das
Ever since we were allowed to take prasadam into the Moundsville prison I have been regularly saving cheesecake and taking it to the prisoners. We have a fixed set of 6 devotees chanting 16 rounds and a floating attendance of 3-5 devotees attending the prison program. The cheesecake has become an essential part of the Friday programs so much so that when I say the word cheesecake, all the devotees give me a big “cheese” smile.
The best part of the program is the warden and Chaplain being very favorable are sitting through the programs and taking notes. For example the warden came to me last week and tells me “Hey Gaur , I have been noting down the important points of your lectures and tell me if I noted this down right,” He took out a small notebook from his back pocket, flipped through a few pages then began reading out “A for Association, B for books , C for Chanting Hare Krishna and D for diet, Is that right?” I was simply stunned. I said “Wow, that’s awesome. Thank you for taking so much interest”
I am also trying to help the Hare Krishna devotees get the right diet in the prison.
The devotees get special fruit on Ekadasi and a special vegetarian diet. There was little confusion initially with the prasadam as the cheese they used in the prison was mixed with egg. Our devotees in the prison had a lot of discussions with the officials. The problem was that the diet was being supplied by an outside company and they had no idea of the Intricacies of Hare Krishna diet and they were given a fixed set of diet guidelines like meat, Vegetarian (with onion garlic etc), low fat diet (both veg and non-veg). So they were having difficulty getting the special mix for the devotees.
Finally after a lot of negotiations the devotees had their way. Since the Chaplain and warden were attentively hearing the classes they understood the seriousness of the diet and implemented a new diet for the devotees called “HARE KRISHNA DIET” this is all vegetarian without onion, garlic or egg, only for the devotees.
So united we can achieve anything, the devotees in the prison have proved it, a special mercy of their Lordships Sri Sri Radha VrindabanChandra.
