Nirvana by multimedia

Like a textbook illustration of the law of supply and demand, the quot;marketquot; is flooded by what are termed quot;self-development ...

Like a textbook illustration of the law of supply and demand, the quot;marketquot; is flooded by what are termed quot;self-development coursesquot;. quot;Art of Livingquot;, quot;Landmark Foundationquot;, quot;Pranic Healingquot;, quot;Reikiquot;, quot;Tushitaquot; and what have you. quot;Vipasanaquot;, a form of Buddhist meditation, is one of the most vigorous as well as one of the fastest growing such courses. It has about 25 centres in India as well as courses in the rest of Asia, North America, South America, Europe and Australia. In fact, it is almost like a government recognised course. The Maharashtra government declared that any government servant going for the course could avail himself of medical leave. Delhi8217;s Tihar Jail officially has Vipasana courses for inmates.

The technique itself lays claim to a 25-century-old tradition. Issues like a less stressful life in the material world are too mundane to be addressed by this form of meditation. Vipasana proclaims itself to be the pure form of meditation practiced and taught by the Buddha as a path to nirvana. The technique, apparently taken to Burma by one of the Buddha8217;s disciples, was revived by S.N. Goenka, a businessman.

Looking upon other forms of meditation as corrupted and laying claim to being the original, pristine, pure meditation can only create schisms, sects and disputes. Similarly, proclaiming itself as a path towards quot;compassion for all beingsquot; seems rather presumptuous. Equal redistribution of material resources is a small but necessary first step in moving towards the stupendous conception of quot;compassion for all beingsquot;. Yet, the course does not address the question of poverty, exploitation, income disparities, elitism. In fact, in amazingly bad taste, the penultimate discourse declares: quot;If you give water to a thirsty man, he will be soon thirsty again; if you give food to a hungry man, he will be hungry again at the time of the next meal; if you give clothes to a naked man, he will be naked again in a year; but if you give money to conduct Vipasana courses, you will contribute to setting people on the eternal path of dhamma.quot;

There is no fee for Vipasana. It runs only on donations accepted from persons who have completed a 10-day course. Theoretically, it is open to the poorest of the poor. Yet, in practice it seems to attract, besides foreigners, mostly the middle and upper sections of society. The orientation itself seems to be to attempt a change in the influential sections of society. Bureaucrats and managers appear to be a special target group. In a recent course in Hyderabad, students of a management course had come as part of their curriculum, thus making a total mockery of the notion of voluntarily seeking the path to spirituality.

The entire thrust seems to be more of an adjustment to the status quo. Emanating from the core Buddhist philosophy of impermanence, or quot;anichaquot; in the original Pali, it is a technique to not get perturbed about anything. It totally ignores the multitude of social ills and injustices which should disturb a society whose members remain unperturbed.

The Vipasana technique of meditation seems unexceptionable for moving towards a calmer frame of mind. Possibly, it also helps in management of bodily pain and is worth a try from that point of view as well. Creditably, it does not claim to solve problems through a 10-day course and advocates benefits only if practiced over a long period of time. The course itself involves nine days of total silence, 11 to 12 hours of daily meditation.

Like Vipasana, the Art of Living basic course also aims at a higher spiritual objective. It is like a vending machine, instant cooking a Maggie noodle version of Karmayoga. For some reason, the self-development courses seem compelled to proclaim an objective higher than the entirely laudable one of quot;helping people cope better with a stressful urban lifequot;.