In the second half of June, Falun Dafa practitioners organized several introductory sessions about the practice for the prisoners at Bhopal City Central Jail in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
With immense support and assistance from higher authorities, including the jail’s superintendent of police, a total of 14 Falun Dafa sessions were conducted from June 15 to July 2, 2023. Nearly all of the prison’s 3,520 male prisoners (excluding 170 women and around 15 child prisoners) attended the sessions in batches and learned the five sets of Falun Dafa exercises. Some showed keen interest in the exercises and even participated in more than one session; later on, several of the prisoners expressed their deep gratitude for the opportunity to learn the practice in detention.
Due to the large number of prisoners, all sessions were conducted in small groups in the jail’s assembly compound, which can accommodate roughly 500 people at a time. Every day, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. prisoners were shown the Falun Dafa introductory videos in Hindi and taught the five exercises. Some of the prisoners watched the videos with interest and looked forward to the next day’s session.
Bhopal practitioner Sudhir Garg, a retired senior officer from the Indian Oil Corporation who led all 14 sessions, told the prisoners about Falun Dafa’s moral principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance, and about their significance in daily life, and how the Chinese regime is persecuting this spiritual practice. At the end of the session, practitioners asked the prisoners to recite together “Falun Dafa is good. Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance is good” in Hindi.
“When they recited these two phrases, there were huge vibrations across the hall. Everyone felt positively impacted by the righteous energy of these universal principles,” Garg said.
The prisoners were given Falun Dafa fliers and were encouraged to share the information with their families during visits. The practitioners also donated seven sets of Falun Dafa books in Hindi and three sets in English to the jail library, which is regularly visited by the prisoners in their free time.
A Special Session on International Yoga Day
The jail also hosted a special assembly on International Yoga Day, on June 21, when the state’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra along with other dignitaries visited the jail to participate in the yoga day program. The Falun Dafa introductory session was also part of the schedule for these officials to experience.
Garg presented the home minister and his secretary with a set of Falun Dafa books, the 2023 edition of Minghui International, and fliers. He also had the opportunity to meet several other officials during the lunch and talk about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Dafa, which he says most of the officials were already aware of.
A Rangoli Dedicated to Falun Dafa
On June 26, the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, the jail authorities organized a competition to make rangoli—a traditional Indian artwork made on the ground using powdered colors—during their weekly inspection. At that time, some of the prisoners had been learning the Falun Dafa exercises for nearly two weeks.
One of the prisoners made a special rangoli to express his heartfelt appreciation of the universal principles of Falun Dafa and won the first prize. He illustrated Falun Dafa’s sitting meditation in his rangoli and wrote “Falun Dafa is Good. Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance is good” in Hindi below it.
Inmate: “I thank Falun Dafa’s founder for showing us the right path.”
Garg had a chance to talk to some of the prisoners who shared experiencing unique energy while performing the exercises. One prisoner said that he felt intense heat flowing through his palms while doing the Falun Dafa meditation. Two under-trial prisoners (names are withheld to avoid revealing their identities) who benefited a lot from a spiritual level shared their experiences of learning Falun Dafa in writing.
“There were many problems in life and I was getting frustrated with myself with no sense of hope. Then my life took a new turn and Falun Dafa came,” wrote the first prisoner. “I am able to calm my heart because of this practice. […] I thank Falun Dafa’s founder for teaching this practice and showing us the right path.”
The second person wrote that he was still waiting for his turn to read the Falun Dafa books in the jail library at the time, and he’d tell his family about the practice when he goes to visit them on parole. “The principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance are really great. Falun Dafa is good,” he wrote.
A prisoner who had been doing another meditation practice for over 15 months attended two sessions of Falun Dafa. He told the practitioner that what he experienced from his previous meditation is nothing as compared to what he gained in these two sessions. He felt peaceful, relaxed, and hopeful for a new life.
Garg said that the jail authorities helped and supported in every possible way for successfully conducting the sessions and often checked if the sessions were going well and if anything was needed. He is looking forward to conducting more follow-up sessions for the prisoners who are interested in the practice. In the meantime, interested prisoners still have the opportunity to watch the exercise video in the assembly hall and continue learning the practice on their own.
