GUEST COLUMN
Sanjeev Srivastava
More than 25 centuries ago, Lord Buddha attained enlightenment after austere meditation. When we were taught the chapter on Buddha in our school textbooks, we were taught, Buddha attained Bodhi, Gyan, Nirvana. But nobody told us what that Bodhi, Gyan was. And I am sure, many of us didn’t know exactly what that Gyan was. Only after going into Vipassana could I get what that really meant.
After getting enlightenment, Buddha spent 45 years, wandering from place to place, teaching Vipassana to whoever came in contact with him. He taught that he got free from all the pains and miseries, and everyone can get out of it if he/she follows this pure path of liberation. He also said, that you cannot outsource this most important task of your liberation but that you have to work hard for it, through self-purification and getting rid from all your accumulated sankharas (samskars/good or bad karmas) through this very systematic technique of Vipassana.
Buddha never said that he can liberate you from your miseries. He was against any gurudom, any organised religion. He used to say, “I am not a guru. I am just a common human being. I got Nirvana and I can show you the path I followed to attain it. But you have to work for it yourself.” He told his disciples that they are the disciple and also their own guru. They are the scientist and also the laboratory where they have to work wholeheartedly to realise the real truth of all this existence.
He didn’t create any religion called Buddhism. He always said, these organised religions are mere communities, a group of people following a certain ideology. But real Dhamma (Dharma) is the law of nature. Each and every one of us is governed by this law. To purify our mind, we have to completely accept it as it is. And there is a process to it and that is Vipassana.
Vipassana teaches us to look at the reality as it is. It is to merge with the law of nature, without any resistance, without applying your conditioned mind. Slowly as one gets down to his inner self, he starts seeing the reality; the reality that nothing is permanent, everything is changing. The biggest reason for our miseries is our attachment to things which are so impermanent; and ever changing from moment to moment.
When meditating, one starts to feel that when something happens in our mind, it immediately manifests itself in the form of body sensation somewhere. And one starts observing those sensations as a mere observer. So one starts to become an observer of the events rather than taking dips in those events. And when it happens, one starts to detach himself from the real happening and gets into non reacting mode. And when it happens, the real cause of misery starts to fizzle out and one starts to get free from it.
With practice, one becomes expert in this process and purifies his mind. Initially one starts to resolve small issues and then bigger and bigger issues with ease and frees himself from the rigmarole of miseries. One feels light, happy and peaceful. One learns this beautiful art of living whereby he resolves his problems with ease, love and care; at the same time creates understanding with a lot of compassion for others.
When one progresses on this path, he starts to feel the futility of this miserable life when one gets into this cycle of life and death. One also understands that till the time our good or bad sankhara are remaining, we will keep on taking birth and then eventually die….to take birth again. Vipassana creates deep awareness and teaches us to amicably pay the debt of our past sankharas accumulated from so many past lives; at the same time, not to create new sankharas. Hence the burden of those samskars will get reduced with time and practice….eventually will make one completely free from all old and new sankharas; and free him of this cycle of life and death.
(The author is a chemical engineer by profession who has been practising Vipassana for the past 12 years; views are personal)
