Art of living lessons for jail inmates

lucknow: an international charitable organisation, the art of living foundation, will offer prison smart programmes in the jails of uttar pradesh for relieving jail inmates from stress and other negative feelings. the foundation, which has a consultative status with the united nations as an ngo, will teach pranayam, yoga, meditation and above all a unique breathing practice, sudarshan kriya.these courses have been suitably tailored to increase energy, youthfulness, enthusiasm and eliminate negative emotions such as anger, anxiety, depression, sadness and fear, said an official of the prison department. superintendents of various jails in the state have been told to be prepared for this programme at the earliest. the idea to impart this programme in jails first came from dy dgp, delhi, kiran bedi. in a letter to the dg prisons, ms bedi had explained in length how she had successfully reformed the jail inmates in delhi with the help of these training programmes. "the foundation, which has over 4000 centres all over the world, will train inmates with the help its gurus. the gurus will work in the spirit of seva and provide prisoners opportunities so that they can wash off their past and begin life afresh," said sri sri ravi shankar of the foundation. the course will be held for a duration of three hours daily on consecutive days and on the last day two extra hours would be added to it. cassettes would be used to make the programme more effective. in the spirit that charity begins at home, a one-week sudarshan kriya programme was organised at the dg prisons headquarters from august 21 to 28 where, apart from the dgp, senior jail superintendent suresh chandra and director industry c p srivastava took part in the programme. mr jiggy of the art of living foundation imparted the lessons.