The New Year has
got off to a fabulous start.
With the
abundant blessings of His Holiness and the Divine Mother, I got
"Shaktipat" Deeksha on 1st January early in the morning, from a
renowned lineage of Siddha Gurus from the northern part of India. It was a
remote initiation at a specific time, and the experiences that I went through
in the one and a half hours that I was sitting in meditation, cannot be merely
explained in words! One has to really experience the bliss to believe.
Thereafter, I
was very fortunate to attend the 10-day Vipassana Mediation Camp at the Dhamma
Centre in Tiruvannamalai.
I had initially
applied for the camp in December, but could not make it for
various reasons. So, I cancelled and applied again for the January camp
and I was lucky that my application was accepted again. I read a lot
about Vipassana and the experiences of various people on the internet, so was
completely prepared for what I was going in for. I was curious to know about
what it was like and basically liked the 10 day noble silence which was an
important code of discipline at the camp.
The
Tiruvannamalai Centre is new probably a new centre, and the project is yet to
be completed in full. It has however all the basic facilities. We had to enroll
a day before the actual start of the course for a briefing in the evening that
day, and from that moment, the noble silence starts. There were over 70 of us
(about 50 men and the rest women). About 30% were foreign nationals.
Participants were from various backgrounds - doctors, software professionals,
medical students, school teachers, lecturers, business men, homemakers, senior
citizens, etc. There were all from different parts of Tamilnadu and neighboring
states. Came to understand that the Chennai and Bangalore Centres were running
full, but they managed to get a slot here. Among the Indians, there were a few
living overseas and had come to India on vacation, and wanted to utilize the time
effectively.
Interestingly, many of the participants were already proficient in Kundalini Yoga, Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga, Vaasi Yogam, Pranic healing, etc. Some of them were already affiliated to Vedthathiri Maharishi Centre, the Art of Living Centre, the Isha Yoga Centre, etc.
Accommodation was basic - a granite stone bed with a thin quilt laid, and an attached bath and toilet. We got hot water all through the day and it was blessing because It was pretty cold in the mornings. Mosquito nets were also provided for each bed. There were three of us in a room. One thing I liked is about the way they had allocated the rooms - based on the age group of the participants.
The Meditation sessions were held in one hall, where the men and women were segregated and given specific seats to be used during the entire camp. I normally cannot sit down for more than an hour at a stretch and raised my concern when I applied. They assured me they will give me a seat with a back rest which they were kind to do so on the second day itself. The entire course is from the pre-recording of the Sri Satya Narayan Goenka (S N Goenka), the Burmese-Indian teacher of Vipassana meditation, followed with apt Tamil translation. There were participants from Taiwan, Russia and France who did not speak good English and for them, the special important instructions were given in their own languages.
They take you through the entire technique, step by step. The first three days was the Anapana breathing technique only. Vipassna was taught only on the fourth day. Another advancement was instructed on the 7th day/ 8th day, and the program culminates with the metta bhavana dhayan taught on the 10th day.
The food is sattvik, which means no onion and garlic. You need to completely forget about coffee/tea, idli, dosa, roti, rice, milk and milk products for 10 full days! Breakfast is at 6.30 am, lunch at 11 am and a light snack at 5 pm. No dinner. The food consists of only fruits, fruit and vegetable juices, porridge, and dishes made from all different millets available in the region. You get plenty of servings of vegetables. Lemon/Ginger tea was served during breakfast and in the evening. I loved the puttu, pongal and the dates-coconut milk shakes we got on two days. The evening snack is always different types of sundal. The taste is very bland, though. They only add pepper and no spices at all. After 4/5 days, the lunch menu was difficult to eat. Many of us took just the vegetable curry after adding a little salt. They say that such kind of food is essential to help you mediate for about 11 hours in a day. I would suggest you carry some dried nuts and fruits with you so that you do not go hungry.
The day starts at 4 am and ends at 9.30 pm. You have breaks in the morning, noon and the evening for bath, laundry, etc. You have to be fully prepared mentally before you enroll for the course because meditation for over 11 hours in a day can be quite difficult. A couple of participants quit after 3/4 days and one inmate developed a heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital.
We had a very good teacher who would talk to us in small groups every second day to check how we were progressing in the technique and give us some useful inputs. Having got the Saktipat deeksha, I had a challenge. Those who were initiated were advised to always meditate in privacy because you don't know what the awakened mother energy in you can do. On the first day itself, my head started swirling! The teacher must have realized this and told me to try to keep myself still because I should not cause any kind of distraction to others! After a day or two, I managed to keep myself still! I had to also remove my anklets cause' it was disturbing the other mediators :)
One thing that I looked forward to was the discourse by Sri S N Goenka from 7 to 8.30 pm everyday. Very enlightening. Goenka Ji explains the purpose of whatever we learnt on the particular day and infact answers all the questions which will go through in your mind. The English discourse is a recording from the session held for a English speaking audience overseas in 1991. Translations in Tamil and other foreign languages were also available.
Many a time, Sri Goenka's views on our traditional rites and rituals cannot be accepted, and I admit that in the early days, I did not like them at all. But, as you near the end of the course, you realise that can always ignore the theoretical part of the Vipassana and imbibe the technique alone which is very good for you.
My take away from this course is:
1. The Anapana breathing technique is very good. You can also download them online and teach your children. It helps is keeping us focused and concentrate better.
2. The Vipassana technique itself is a Surgical Operation of the Mind, as Goenka Ji aptly puts it. In the beginning, you sometimes feel that all this does not makes sense and there is a strong urge to mediate on the mediation technique that you are already familiar with. But, it is best that you do not mix up anything in order to fully benefit from Vipassana, and the truth does dawn when you leave the campus on the 11th day.
3. Vipassana Meditation is not a stress buster! If you are looking for a calm and quite place for relaxing and do what you want to do, this is not the place. This is serious work, and you have to be mentally prepared to sit "doing nothing" for such long hours every day.
4. If you are like me who strongly believes in the Bhakthi margam, just try to ignore Goenka Ji's views on our scriptures, rites and rituals. Just because I attended this 10 day camp, I am not giving up my daily pooja and rituals which for me also includes daily ashtothram to Sri Maha Periva. No way! Infact, I strongly feel that it is my faith and nithya pooja which is taking me to various avenues on higher levels of consciousness. When the "Truth" dawns on us, when we "realize our self", our understanding will also broaden and we will start looking at life from a totally different perspective. But until then, it is important that we continue our nithya pooja and anushtanas. That is my view.
5. The Vipassana technique which is indeed a surgical operation of the mind helps you go deep inside your self. As you meditate, when you come to the third day, you find that a lot of trash comes to the surface - people or situations which has hurt you, made you angry, fear, sensual thoughts, etc. You slowly begin to realize that there is no need to be sorry, or guilty of the emotions which keep cropping up, because they are all natural. As you practice, you will find them diminishing. But, don't do anything in a hurry, just follow their step by step instructions patiently. There was a time, when you were asked to go deep within you after you reach a particular stage, and our teacher had already warned us that to take that step only if we were sure of ourselves and to ask him if in doubt. Not very sure of the consequences, when I went into my spinal cord, there was such excruciating pain! I then realized the power of our own minds!
6. The ultimate
aim of Vipassana Meditation is enlightenment. But, the technique also helps you
in your day to day life in your journey to realize "yourself". If you
have read The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by
Eckhart Tolle, you will understand what I mean. Vipassana helps you to live in
the present. As you practice correctly, you begin to remove your old sanskaras.
You learn to be balanced, steady and equanimous in all situations. In short, an
regular Vipassana practitioner can reach the stage of a "Sthithaprajna",
as extolled by Lord Krishna in the Bhagawad Gita.
Also, we all
know about the transformation that Kiran Bedi brought about at the Tihar Jail
when she was the head of one of the worlds's largest prisons. The measures she
took at the Tihar jail for the welfare of the inmates there got her a lot of
name and fame which we are all aware. But, little did I know that one of the
important measures she undertook was the introduction of the Vipassana Medidation
camp for the prison inmates. The results were so overwhelming that the
Government of India then permitted Vipassana Meditation to be conduction in
many other prisons in India. A short video on this was shown to us on the 10th
day.
Our wallets were
handed over to us in the morning on the 10th day so that we can make donations
if we wanted to. My card could not be accepted because the PIN number was
wrong. In 10 days, I had even forgotten my ATM PIN number!! We got back our
mobile phones at 8.30 pm on the 10th day.
One very unpleasant thing happened to me at the camp. A relative had passed away a few days ago, and my husband had called the office to give the message to me. But I was not informed! My husband had told me earlier he will pick me on the 11th day, and I called him as soon as we got our phones to ask at what time he was coming, and then he tells me this sad news. I was very upset and when I asked the organizers there as to why they did not pass on this message to me, all they said was "sorry, we forgot". Very irresponsible. I would hence suggest you ask the office everyday if there were any calls for you, so that you do not undergo the misery I went through.
The course completes at 6.30 am on the 11th day after a chanting, discourse by Sri Goenka Ji and the metta bhavana dhayan which is basically to share your merits with everyone - May all beings be happy, peaceful and liberated.
Overall, a good
experience. If you are attentive throughout the course, you find that your
perspectives of a lot of things slowly begin to change.
Sarva Loka Sukhino Bhavantu !
