An ancient prophecy could contribute to the return of India's golden age.

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In India, the return of the 'golden age'

By Raja M

 

MUMBAI - " The 21st century is India's century, " India's new Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh said last tumultuous week, his remark

promptly splashed worldwide as his first " policy " declaration.

Contrasting factors including India's steady economic evolution,

historical patterns, a social revolution and an ancient prophecy

could contribute to this vision turning true, but not so much Singh's

jumbo 67-member cabinet....

 

But in a curious twist of history, Singh's vision has roots in this

heart of Laloo-land, the capital Patna.

 

Patna was earlier Pataliputra, the capital of Emperor Asoka (272-231

BC) whose administration awed historians call the " Golden Age " of

Indian history. H G Wells wrote: " His [Asoka's] reign for eight-and-

twenty years was one of the brightest interludes in the troubled

history of mankind. "

 

An ardent practitioner of the Buddha's teachings, Emperor Asoka

convened the Third Council in the 250 BC to reaffirm the authenticity

of the Buddha's 80,000 discourses. Later, the emperor sent

his " Ambassadors of Dhamma " (Dhamma, meaning the path, truth, laws of

nature), including his son Mahinda and his daughter Sanghamitta, to

neighboring South Asian countries to preserve the teachings of the

Buddha.

 

Among these Indian ambassadors were Sona and Uttara, who reached what

is now Myanmar and established the teaching. The effect of that cause

is currently benefiting India in a little-known but powerful way. A

crucial key behind Manmohan Singh's 21st-century India is Vipassana,

the practical quintessence of the Buddha's teachings that was widely

practiced in Asoka's Magadha Empire.

 

Systematically obliterated in India by vested interests - the

priestly class fiercely opposing the ritual-free, rational teachings -

Vipassana was preserved in Myanmar for two millennia after it was

lost in India.

 

From Myanmar - then known as Burma - Vipassana returned to India in

1969 through a leading Burmese industrialist of Indian origin, Satya

Narayan Goenka (80), and began taking root once again in the country

of its origin. It made true an ancient prophecy in Myanmar that

believed Vipassana would return to India 2,500 years after the

passing away of the Buddha, and from India spread throughout the

world.

 

Goenka was a successful entrepreneur who established sugar mills and

textile factories in Myanmar, with offices worldwide. Based in Mumbai

as an Indian citizen, Goenkaji (as he is known outside India) retired

from business and has since been voluntarily teaching Vipassana. At

present, nearly 1,000 trained assistant teachers and teachers conduct

courses on his behalf, using his recorded instructions and

discourses.

 

Currently practiced in more than 100 countries, including China, the

United States, Europe, Japan and Thailand, Vipassana is taught in

residential courses (from beginners' 10 days to advanced courses of

60 days) without any fee or charges, to maintain the millennia-old

non-commercial purity of the teaching. Students are required to

follow a demanding work schedule and a strict code of discipline that

includes maintaining silence for the duration of the course, having

no communication with fellow students, no reading, writing or contact

with the outside world, to minimize distractions.

 

As during Emperor Asoka's times, Vipassana is significantly spreading

among Asian government administrators and the business class, the

crucial segment to socio-economic change. In Thailand, the Vipassana

center Dhamma Kamala ( " Lotus of Dhamma " ) was inaugurated in 1993 in

the city of Prachinburi. Two more large centers have since opened,

and recently a special center in the capital Bangkok hosted courses

for executives.

 

The first Korean assistant teachers were trained this year, to meet

with increasing response for Vipassana courses from Korea. In

Singapore, three courses are planned this year. " Courses are being

held in mainland China, with Chinese and East Asian corporate

executives traveling to India for courses as well, " say Donald and

Sally McDonald, authorized Vipassana teachers and recently retired

information-technology consultants in Sydney.

 

H P Liu, a former leading businessman in Hong Kong and China,

attended a Vipassana course in Taiwan, and encouraged his corporate

friends to help organize the first Vipassana courses in Hong Kong. A

small temporary center was established in Hong Kong in 1999, where a

monthly Vipassana course is held.

 

Another business executive in Hong Kong who benefited from Vipassana,

Hansel Wong, vice president of Gap Inc, apparel makers, supports the

Hong Kong center and hosted group meditation for old students in his

home, until he relocated to Korea last year.

 

As this correspondent has experienced from in-depth Vipassana

practice for 13 years, including undertaking the intensive 60-day

course this year, the influence of Vipassana as a powerful factor for

social change and economic growth cannot be underestimated. Vipassana

is a ruthless reality check. As senior corporate managers have

expressed (see Vipassana changes the spirit of business), a

concentrated, pure, egoless mind aids insightful thinking, correct

decision-making, efficiency and harmonious teamwork - basics that

boost bottom lines.

 

An increasing number of leading Indian companies, such as Zee

Television (the only Indian stock to hold its priceline in the May 17

Black Monday carnage of India's stock markets), the Oil and Natural

Gas Commission (ONGC), and auto maker Mahindras & Mahindras send

employees on paid leave to attend Vipassana courses.

 

Meaning " to see reality as it is " in the ancient Pali language,

Vipassana is a self-surgery of the mind. It purifies the mind,

opening oneself to inner reality. At the apparent level, it appears

that one reacts to the external world, for instance to someone's

abusive words. But at the actual level, the reaction is to the

pleasant or unpleasant biochemical flow within the body that arises

when the sense doors come in contact with the outside world.

 

The crucial junction, the critical missing link in understanding

mental machinery that the Buddha discovered, is the constantly

changing bodily sensations.The mind is constantly in contact with and

blindly reacting to bodily sensations (as when reacting to a mosquito

bite when in deep sleep). Vipassana trains the mind first to develop

the faculty to be aware of the whole gamut of bodily sensations -

from the grossest to subtler truths - and be equal to it, instead of

reacting blindly with like or dislike.

 

From blind reaction of craving for the pleasant and aversion to the

unpleasant, the mental-habit pattern changes to being more balanced

and positive in every situation. One understands at the experiential

level the impermanent nature of all material and mental phenomena.

Experiential wisdom arises of how everything changes, and nothing

lasts for ever.

 

The human resource development factor in Vipassana comes from

realizing that the root of one's problems is within, not outside.

From individuals making a strong effort to change himself or herself

for the better, corporates, institutions, administrations and society

change for the better.

 

Recorded feedback from thousands of Vipassana practitioners, studies

and participation from a range of institutions from the All India

Institute of Medical Sciences to the Indian Institute of Technology

show that Vipassana practice fundamentally changes outlook from

egoistic self-centeredness to cheerful compassion.

 

More crucially for a society's development, Vipassana removes

corruption. It enables one to experience the torment of biochemical

combustion and violent reactions within the body when even a trace of

negative thought arises in the mind. This stark inner realization

convinces one about the self-destruction involved in an unwholesome

thought process that leads to harmful actions.

 

In the 1950s, Sayagyi U Ba Khin, Goenkaji's Vipassana teacher and

independent Burma's first accountant general, eradicated corruption

in four governmental departments by conducting Vipassana courses in

government offices.

 

Recently, a series of Indian government circulars have encouraged

senior civil administrators, police trainees, prison inmates and

officials, scientists from nuclear power plants, and school students

nationwide to attend Vipassana courses. In a replay of history, the

quiet revolution of Asoka's Magadha Empire is again reviving in

India.

 

" The clock of Vipassana has struck, " Sayagyi U Ba Khin had said, its

chimes gradually ushering in a more non-sectarian and less corrupt

India of the 21st century, on an socio-economic development road in

which Singh's corruption-tainted ministry appears as merely a

temporary speed breaker.

 

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FE29Df03.html