Vipassana is an ancient technique of meditation conceived and propagated by Lord Buddha in times even before Christ. It is said that through his continuous practice of the Vipassana technique, spanning several years, Lord Buddha achieved Enlightenment. Although conceived in times considered ancient, the technique has been meticulously handed down from generation to generation of Indian and Burmese monks who have not only kept it alive, but also maintained its pristine nature. A significant reason for its non-contamination or adulteration may perhaps be the fact that it is an extremely simple and bare technique, requiring nothing more than the human mind, body, spirit and an environment of calmness and serenity.

Although Vipassana originated in India 2500 years ago, over the years its practise and popularity gradually disappeared from India. I found out that in modern times the practice of Vipassana was discovered in the Sagaing Caves in Myanmar towards the end of the 19thcentury, then revived and propagated by the monk Ledi Sayadaw. However, this account is challenged by the tale of another monk Medawi, who lived before Ledi and has written considerable material on the technique. Regardless of the outcome of this debate, it is clear without doubt that the technique of Vipassana has re-emerged in modern times from Myanmar. Subsequently Ba Khin emerged a deserving protégé of Ledi Sayadaw and a master of the technique and Ba Khin in turn made a master of the practice out of S. N. Goenka. Goenkaji is perhaps the most popular Vipassana master and teacher of the 20thcentury. Goenkaji was born in Myanmar to Indian parents of Marwari ethnicity. At age 31 he turned to Vipassana in order to find a solution to his migraine malady. He was introduced to Ba Khin, mastered the technique over 14 years, and then went on to set up the Vipassana International Academy, also known as Dhamma Giri, in Igatpuri near Nasik, Maharashtra, India. With patience and integrity, he went on to establish more than 120 Vipassana Meditation Centres across the world and these centres have become the most popular institutes to learn Vipassana today.

The set up of Goenkaji’s Vipassana Meditation Centres

As per the Dhamma website today (14thApril 2015), there are 280 centres in 94 countries, although around 120 of these are non-centres; being centres not established by Goenkaji but being set-up and operated by local students of Goenkaji.
Vipassana courses are on-site, residential programs. Students are required to live at the centre for 12 days and nights, abiding by its rules. While there consist hours of meditation daily, delivery of instructions is done through taped messages of Goenkaji in English and Hindi, although there are translations available for specific regional languages in each centre across the world.
Dhamma Vipassana centres are generally located in small towns or on the outskirts of big cities.
Every centre has at least one teacher, supported by 3–4 volunteers. The teacher guides the students through the training while the volunteers ensure that the course is progressing smoothly as per schedule and that students are not facing any inconvenience from their stay at the centre. The teacher and volunteers who train and assist during a course all work on voluntary and pro bono basis.
Every centre comprises a main building, which houses the residential chambers, meditation halls, kitchen-cum-dining area, and is surrounded by beautifully landscaped gardens. The residential chambers are simple and bare but provide for all the basic needs through clean toilets, comfortable bedding and shelves for belongings; some may even have tables. Many centres provide air-conditioning as well. Food is available in abundance during the specified dining times and filtered water is provided round the clock. There is however, no housekeeping or room service and thus maintaining the cleanliness of the room and toilet is entirely the responsibility of the student occupying it. Most centres provide laundry service at an extremely nominal cost, although at some you may need to wash your own clothes. While this description of a centre is a standard generalisation, it is best to check with any particular centre for the list of services offered or not available.
Food is provided through sessions of breakfast, lunch and snacks, each lasting 30–45 minutes each day. The food is total vegetarian fare although the wide spread of dishes, which are freshly cooked, served piping hot and delicious; will not leave one undernourished or depressed. The menu is designed and food is prepared keeping in mind the nature of the course and the effects it has on the human body and mind.
Requisition slips are made available in case any student should require any permitted article from the outside world during the course. Typically one could request for toiletries and certain kinds of medication as most other items/articles are not permitted or deeply discouraged. A complaint book is also maintained for registering any inconvenience a student may be facing on account of management or operations of the centre. For both cases, the particular issues are addressed only if it is feasible for the centre and thus students are amply notified to carry with them, anything that they forsee they may require for the 12 days at the centre.
One of the most peculiar aspects of the Vipassana course is that it is completely FREE for every student. No student is charged any fees or even a deposit for undertaking the course. All the expenses of accommodation, food, electricity, services, maintenance of the centre and such forth are borne entirely out of donations received ONLY from students who complete the course. Again most peculiarly, only students who complete the course are permitted to make a donation and no one else. The rationale behind this is to maintain the purity of the practice where it cannot be misused for self-appreciating donations and consequently be turned into a money making racket or a converter of illegal/unauthorized funds.

The practice of Vipassana

I would like to emphasise here that Vipassana is a COMMITMENT! It is not a retreat, resort, session, conference, seminar, workshop, stress-buster and definitely not a holiday. Once you enter the centre, you are in the hands of Dhamma for 10 days without the power to refute. Commit only if you fully understand and realize the enormity of the commitment being made. I would advise attending a short mediation retreat before, in order to assess how you handle change into a monastic lifestyle.
While the Vipassana course lasts for 10 days, the entire stay at a centre is 12 days. This includes the 10 days of the course, Day 0 for checking in and the morning of Day 11 for checkout.
On Day 0 all students are required to check-in, deposit mobile phones, valuables and practically everything other than clothes and toiletries.
After check-in, students are required to settle down into their rooms and acquaint themselves with the centre. This is the last time the students are permitted to speak to each other, look at each other and otherwise interact.
From 8pm on Day 0, the Noble Silence begins. From hereon no student is permitted to speak or make eye contact with any other person. Introductory and orientation talks are held to introduce and orient all students to the centre and the rules to be followed while residing at it. The 5 noble precepts also set in at this time.
The Introductory and orientation talks are followed up with an hour long mediation session in the main meditation hall. After the session, the day ends and students return to their room for the night.
From Day 1 the following schedule sets in and governs the life of every student for the next 10 days. The Noble Silence is to be maintained till the 10th day.
4:00 am Morning wake-up bell 4:30–6:30 am Meditate in the hall or in your room 6:30–8:00 am Breakfast break 8:00–9:00 am Group meditation in the hall 9:00–11:00 am Meditate in the hall or in your room according to the teacher’s instructions 11:00–12:00 noon Lunch break 12noon-1:00 pm Rest and interviews with the teacher 1:00–2:30 pm Meditate in the hall or in your room 2:30–3:30 pm Group meditation in the hall 3:30–5:00 pm Meditate in the hall or in your own room according to the teacher’s instructions 5:00–6:00 pm Tea break 6:00–7:00 pm Group meditation in the hall 7:00–8:15 pm Teacher’s Discourse in the hall 8:15–9:00 pm Group meditation in the hall 9:00–9:30 pm Question time in the hall 9:30 pm Retire to your own room–Lights out

The 8am, 2.30pm and 6pm mediation sessions are compulsorily carried out in the main meditation hall. Every student is required to sit through the entire session therein. For the remaining sessions, unless otherwise instructed by the teacher, students can perform them in the main meditation hall or in their respective rooms, although it is encouraged to meditate in the main hall.

11 hours of meditation everyday for 10 days!
Men and women are sequestered from each other. The only times they are together, albeit segregated, is in the main meditation hall.
Students must learn to live by the gong. Continuous gong chimes indicate the start of the day (at 4.30am) and the commencement of a meditation session. Gong chimes are followed up by bell ringing. For the compulsory sessions, there will be knocks on the door as well.
The food is served hot on the dot. As mentioned there is a wide spread of dishes available in abundance (unlimited servings). Breakfast typically had a south Indian dish being uttapa or idlis, parathas, salad, a savoury, lemon juice, four permutations of tea, milk and sugar and warm ginger water. Lunch typically consisted of rice, noodles, plain chapattis and ghee smeared chapattis, daal, curry, a dry vegetable prep, a savoury item, salad and the standard Indian condiments of pickles, chillies, lime, salt, sugar and pepper. All the food is served piping hot and delicious. Even a staunch non-vegetarian like me could not find a justifiable reason to complain. Although dinner is not served and is replaced by early evening fruits, it does not feel uncomfortable or under nourishing in the least. In the 4 nights that I was there, I was never hungry at night. Due to the nature of meditation and the effort required therein, overeating was strongly discouraged.
Vipassana demands complete isolation from the world outside your practice. There is absolutely no external stimulus or distraction.
As I did not complete the course, I am not able to describe the normal course completion and check-out procedure.
Why I left
I checked in on Day 0, completed all the formalities, understood all the rules and then checked out just after the 2.30pm prayer session began on Day 3, having spent a total of 3 nights and 4 days at the centre.
My expectations from the course were unfortunately grossly misaligned with the reality of the course. I was merely looking to learn meditation as a means to sharpen my mind. I did not expect, nor want to carry out “surgery on my mind” and “untrash the contents of my sub consciousness”, both of which are acclaimed consequences of completing the 10 day course. The course is overwhelming, to put it very mildly.
A sense of impatience conceived through perhaps the lack of any external stimulation (or in short, boredom) is definitely one of the top reasons from my leaving.
I went into the centre with in a state of flux. My professional and family life had simultaneously reached crossroads at the time I went for my course. The constant disquietude arising from not having made peace with either my professional or family life, caused a deep source of restlessness within me, which also contributed significantly in my deciding to leave.
I am slightly rebellious in nature and very anti-establishment. In all places, including places of employment, I have always found great thrill in indulging in the unpermitted (forbidden would be too harsh a word although wildly apt). I hunted down loopholes as I viewed them as trump cards or all-access permits to break rules. If I couldn’t break a rule, I would attempt to bend it to suit my needs. Several rules have taken their time to be tamed but they all have in the end, to immense personal satisfaction and great comfort in lifestyle. Whereas here, the Vipassana centre was a Wall! And because of the respect that I was developing for Goenkaji and the practice, I felt it wiser to back off than try any breaking/bending tricks here.
Now in hindsight, I believe I was pre-determined to leave early due to the subconscious knowledge that an early check-out option can be available (bending the rules). In the days leading upto the beginning of my course, I read more blogs posts and quora answers about leaving prematurely, than I should have. I now feel that this knowledge affected my subconscious to an extent where it decided in advance that it would create a trigger to leave. Even the morning of my course, I was in 14 different minds about attending it. Should have gone in with better perspective.
I learned that this Vipassana course is a much bigger commitment and not one I wanted to make now. I still wanted to enjoy the pleasures of the world and as much as I may complain about it, I have not been driven to the tip of insanity by modern society and its ways. The silver lining may be that, I wouldn’t have known this for certain, had I not undertaken the course.
Surprisingly, physical pain was not a factor for me wanting to leave. Till the 3rdday, despite almost 30 hours of cross-legged meditation, I did not feel any unbearable pain in the body.
Being only 45 minutes from Borivali, and thus just 90 minutes from my home, it was that much easier to come back. Without the hassle of worrying about temporary accommodation outside the centre, obtaining tickets to get back home and such other unplanned activities, perhaps, I may have been incentivized to stay on longer. Next time I will choose a place far away from home.
At some level, there is truth to my claim of not knowing what I was getting into. Despite reading or hearing, unless you experience that lifestyle, you wont have the slightest iota of what it “feels” like to live that life. Now that I have a glimpse into it, I have learned the magnitude of the cause and the commitment. Be very sure that you want to do the course, because you seriously haven’t felt anything like it in your life.
Stomach got upset the morning of Day 1, spent time shooting out water-from-the-end every morning I was there and a total of 5 times in 3.5 days. True story and very discomforting when I’m already struggling to get by.
I failed! Yes, despite all my efforts at sugarcoating the issue and no matter how defeating it may be to admit publicly, there is no simpler and “truer” answer than the fact that I gave up. I lost the battle. I had made a written commitment (the kind which is considered binding in today’s industry and everyday practice) 34 days before checking in, promising to stay in the centre for 12 days as per the terms and conditions lucidly written out to me on several communications, all of which was reiterated twice orally only to be affirmed in writing again on Day 0. The commitment was a no-questions-asked commitment. And then on noon of the third day, I told my teacher that I don’t want to follow up on my word. I was determined to break my promise. I had chosen to abandon all my brethren and sisters in the Main Dhamma Hall and the birds and the plants in the garden at the centre. Phew. Had there not been benefits in these 4 days of practise, the guilt would have killed me, if not my ego. They still taunt me.

What I learned
Vipassana may be a technique, but once the skill is acquired, it becomes a way of life. A life with a steady, tamed and trained mind. A life that we cannot imagine and can ONLY achieve by learning and practicing the technique in the rigorous manner prescribed.
After 32 hours of meditation in 72 hours, I definitely did feel a sense of time slowing down and a better with connect with the present, a sense of better awareness of my surroundings at the moment. I do not write those words as a method to fill up space here, but each word is well thought out and accurately describes the effect this very short-term adherence to discipline had on me. Even after completing the 10 days, you are merely introduced to the power of the practice. To have whipping control over it will take much more than 10,000 hours, spanning into the scale of a decade, and again I am not one to say with authority. It is said, Buddha achieved it in 8 years, Goenkaji took 14.
With the leniency of restricted movement, I can endure the pain of sitting cross-legged for hours every day for 4 continuous days, with stamina for more. While we were permitted to shift our legs and bodies within the confines of our seat, I will never admit that I can do it pleasurably and without any pain, simply that it is something I can tolerate without screaming or otherwise breaking down in forms such as pitiful howling, uncontrollable anger and a sense of an explosion of inner frustration and other such. Must keep stretching.
The modern mind is a BITCH! A BITCH! I do apologise but there is no other publishable manner to describe it. It is such a fleeting, uncaring, unfocussed, erratic, arbitrary, noisy scoundrel; you think you’re the boss, but wait till it shows you. Goenkaji compares the mind to an elephant. Taming both are achievements made possible only by the extremely disciplined and focused. You think you’re focused when you get “into the zone” on your respective work assignments, be it writing, travelling, accounting, managing businesses, but let me tell you, you don’t even know what true focus is unless you can reach this state of tamed, trained mind. We are all performing a fraction of our mental ability because our mind, figuratively has a mind of its own.
Morning meditations were the worst for me. There was no way I could concentrate as all my mental and physical abilities were co-operatively engaged in the struggle to keep me awake. The first 20–25 minutes were stable although with much effort on my part, after that for 1.5 hours I just focused on keeping myself awake (and with the need to keep your eyes closed, its not easy, let me tell you). I would pray for the morning chanting to begin, which signaled breakfast in 30 minutes. After breakfast and walking for about 10 minutes, I finally started coming into my sense. But it was this bad only in the morning.
Afternoon and evening meditation sessions were the best for me. The schedule permitted hour-long breaks before each during which I would take power naps and be charged up to go. On the third afternoon, I had a very steady mind (wavering but steady) focus for about 70 minutes and on an average could cover an hour in 3 short bursts of 20 minute spans. Its on account of my brethren with a wristwatch seated beside me that I can narrate these timelines with such accuracy. And I was definitely making progress. Each session was getting better than the previous, with the odd shake-ups.
Of course there were the bad times too. For a few sessions, I could not concentrate for more than 10 minutes at a time and then began growing restless. I figured I would do 5 ten minute sessions with breaks in between, in a manner similar the way bodies are built at gyms. While all these ten minute “shots” at meditating weren’t successful, it got me threw hours successfully. Since no single session is more than 2 hours, there was incentive for me to follow through in this cyclic method I created.
Meditating in groups was a fine way for me to instill the discipline and maturity of mind, but once I achieved the twenty minute sessions with relative comfort, I felt like getting my own room as even the slightest distractions in the form of loud movement or coughing, burping was affecting me. The room offered complete non-human zone, which seemed to work for me.
While I did face crisises in my life, especially some big crisises leading upto my departure, I was quite delighted to be back. The very things such as hundreds of people, scores of vehicles, dozens of machines, a few animals and millions of honking were being perceived as if anew, with renewed vigour. Not sure what to label this down to, but definitely made me realize I wasn’t totally ready to give up the chaotic ways of the modern world.

Today I feel that Vipassana is the best thing that has yet to happen to me. I may have not have succeeded in my first attempt, but on account of the glimpse I got into its potential to improve the mind and life, I will definitely try it out again, sooner, than later and this time that much wiser. Again, in spite of the enormous benefits that may be obtained by a disciplined practise of Vipassana, it is not something that I would recommend to everybody. You’ll know when you want it and it is only at such time that you should try it.

For this post, I would have preferred taking more pictures of the centre. However, having left the centre prematurely against the wishes of the teacher and volunteers, I did not find it worthy on my part to indulge in a photo session before leaving. You can find pics through a google search.