The return of Vipassana to the land of its birth began with this man, Acharya Satya Narayan Goenka. We see him here with his wife, his lifelong companion, Mataji Illaichidevi Goenka.
Goenkaji’s story begins in 1924, when he was born into a staunchly conservative Hindu family from Mandalay, in Burma. He and Mataji married in 1942. It was a turbulent time. Japan invaded Myanmar, and the family was forced to flee to their ancestral home in India. Goenkaji was a skilful businessman. While in India he established trading firms in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
After the war, Goenkaji and his young family returned to Myanmar, where his entrepreneurial abilities continued unabated. He became actively involved in many business, cultural and charitable foundations. He established many organisations and served as a trustee on many boards.
Perhaps as a result of his stressful and busy life, Goenkaji was plagued by seriously debilitating migraine headaches. He took his problem to the very best medical practitioners in India, Myanmar, Europe and the United States. No one could help him. Eventually, when even the morphine was no longer effective, he took the advice of a friend, and made contact with Sayagyi U Ba Khin, a teacher at the International Meditation Centre in Yangon. He took the 10-day course, and this changed his life.
We will meet Sayagyi U Ba Khin at Stop 13.
For the next 14 years, Goenkaji meditated under the guidance of his teacher, until Sayagi U Ba Khin believed the time had come to return Vipassana to India. He made Goenkaji a Vipassana teacher and gave him the task of returning the invaluable gem back to the land of its birth. He said, “The time-clock of Vipassana has now struck – that is, for the revival of Vipassana in practice.”
On the 3rd of July in 1969, Goenkaji conducted the first Vipassana course in Mumbai. After an absence of 25 centuries, the first spark of the ancient teaching immediately took hold. Demand grew. People kept coming. Courses were offered all over India. The wheel of dhamma rolled on. Ten years later, Goenkaji travelled abroad to introduce Vipassana. By 2019, 225 residential Vipassana centres had been built. Each year, over 6,000 courses are held in more than 120 countries, and 200,000 people from everywhere, and every station, attend meditation retreats. The demand continues to grow.
Like an arahant, or monk, at the time of the Buddha, or one of Ashoka’s Dhamma Dutas, Goenkaji spent his life teaching the Dhamma, for the benefit and happiness of many, and out of compassion for the world.
Throughout the growth of Vipassana, Mataji, herself a Vipassana teacher, remained a steadfast, calm and vital source of support. With her by his side, Goenkaji said, “She sits with me, always giving metta – loving kindness and compassionate love.”
With his family by his side, S.N. Goenkaji left his mortal body at his home in Mumbai on the 29th September 2013. Three years later, on the 5th January, 2016, Mataji passed away. She too was surrounded by her children and grandchildren.
Now, make your way over to the Ashoka pillar, one of the most popular symbols of India.
This is the law of nature,
which no one can escape:
a defiled mind remains agitated,
an unstained mind is happy.
