Can meditation make people non-violent? Can it help people who are incarcerated?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: We have been doing our program in prisons around the world. If you can take some time to visit the website and read the experience of the prisoners, you will see the impact it has had on them. Nearly 400,000 prisoners around the world have done the program, and their negative mindset has completely changed from a criminal mindset to a compassionate mindset.
We have also been doing this program in schools; where there are challenged children and many incidences of violence, it has helped there too. In a Chicago school district where there were 260 incidences of violence, after the program was taught to all the children, it came down to 62 incidents, within a short period of time. So, the impact is very clear. It is obvious that meditation can make people non-violent, from within.