10 Days of Nobel Silence.

Golden Pagoda

Silence, the word can we used as a warning, reflexively prompting you to stop what you are doing. Silence is an escape, which many want to make into the deep oceans inside. Silence can be deafening when realized or it can be as sweet as the music of a peacock dancing in rain.  All of us have this calling from inside when we want to escape the reality into such world of subtle music and meditation is a one of the way to it.

I first chanced upon Vipassana meditation while reading about Buddhist traditions. Vipassana I read was a Buddhist meditation technique which Buddha himself used to attain enlightenment. I got very curious about this and started looking for the places in India where it is taught. I very easily found an organization; which was started by Shri Goenka and has more than 50 centers across India. I got myself registered to one of the 10 days courses in Pushkar center in Rajasthan for the month of May in 2015.

Rules of the course are pretty simple and not all that hard to follow if you are passionate about learning the technique. These rules are based on 5 sheels (शील  ) or the principles of morality which were given by Buddha and which act as a foundation for each meditator. According to Buddhism when you lie; their will always be a mental turmoil; which will hinder your meditation practice; therefore we were not allowed to speak for 10 days. Why was it so? Because human tendency is that whenever we speak, we either lie or exaggerate and to prevent that we were not allowed to speak. Also according to Buddhism you should not kill any living thing and therefore food that was served to us was pure vegetarian. The other three principles are :- you should not steal; you should not consume any intoxicating drinks and you should not do any sexual misconduct. So when a meditator follows all these five principles his mind is preconditioned for meditation. One of the great things to know about this course is that it is a free course which completely runs on donation and one is only allowed to donate if one has already attended at least one course. Boarding and lodging facilities are provided in the center itself and this too is without any charge.


After reaching Ajmer I took a bus to Pushkar and walked through colourful markets selling Rajasthani artwork. I took a small jeep from Pushkar, which dropped to the center, which was in an isolated village. Pushkar is one of the holiest places in the Hinduism as the only temple of Brahma; the creator of the world lies there. After reaching the center we were introduced to the course, given food and basic instructions; we were asked to relax for the night as we were supposed to wake up early at 4 AM from the next morning.

Schedule

Here is what the schedule looked like for next ten days that followed, we were woke up at 4 AM every morning by the sound of small bells that are used in puja ceremonies; a volunteer would come in front of each of our boarding spaces and ring the bell until he sees that you are up. Next from 4 AM to 4:30 AM we were allowed to complete our daily necessities and at 4:30 the volunteer will again come in front of your doorstep to ask to join the meditation session in the common room.  Till 6 AM in the morning we used to engross in deep meditation and no one utters a word, not a sound from instructor as well. At around 6:00 AM some chanting in Pali language used to start and as Pali is not all that different from Sanskrit we were able to understand it in essence. From 6:30 to 7:00 it was breakfast time it used to be one of the most delicious meals. We were given a fruit, porridge, toast and tea along with a special dish in the morning. After the meal you are supposed do your dishes. From 7:00 to 8:00 you could relax, I used to sleep in this duration and these sleeps, I can very confidently say were the most relaxing one.  From 8:00 to 11:00 we used to again sit for meditation, for initial one hour we are given the instructions and after that we are completely on our own. From 11:00 to 12:00 we had a lunch break, lunch again was very delicious although simple. We were generally given dal, rice, jaggery (for sweet dish), chapattis, curd and a vegetable. After the lunch we were allowed to relax from 12:00 to 1:00 and then from 1:00 to 5 we used to sit and meditate in our meditation quarters (Shayangrih). From 5 onwards till 6 we were allowed to walk around the center, most of time I used to sit in front of the golden pagoda and listen to the sound of bells on its top; which was created by the pattern of wind. From 6 to 7 we again use to sit and meditate in the common hall and from 7 to 8 the most important yet interesting time used to start, we used to listen to the discourse of Shri Goenka which used to be interesting and humorous. From 8:00 to 9:00 we used to have another session of meditation in which new technique was introduced and after the nine we used to break for the day.

I used to take some walk around the campus before finally retiring to bed at around 10 PM.

Dhamma Hall

The Technique

The road to meditation in Vipassana can be divided into three parts. One is sheel, which I have already described, Second is Samadhi(समाधी); which is about the right kind of concentration and the third one is Panya (पन्या) or wisdom and what is the right kind of wisdom.

So before starting the meditation itself the preconditioning of the mind is done. It has to be free from all the turmoil and be calm and still, it should be able to concentrate on the right thing to observe the truth clearly.  Sheel and Samadhi are used for these purposes. It should be reiterated here that in Vipassana course silence is not merely of words but also of action and mental thoughts.

Aan – Paan – Sati

For three days initially we try to get into right kind of concentration and to do that we focus on our breath. Why breath? One could argue. Here are a couple of reasons. When we are generally taught how to meditate in schools and other places we are asked to either imagine an object or create a sound and then try to focus on that, the problem with such a thing is that firstly, we are not observing what is truth as what we are focusing on is imaginary. Secondly, we are playing two roles for example, creating a noise and focusing on the same so here we are doer and the observer together and this dichotomy actually leads to more turmoil and can never keep the mind still. There are a lot of advantages in focusing on your breath Firstly, breath is the only process in your body; which can work either under a control or without any control, it is both voluntary and involuntary. The voluntary actions of your mind are controlled by your conscious mind and the involuntary actions of your mind are controlled by unconscious mind and breath in fact is a bridge between your conscious and unconscious mind. When you start focusing on your breath you slowly start traveling on this bridge; which takes you away from your conscious mind toward the unconscious mind.  Also here there is no dichotomy as there is no doer, as breath is involuntary and you only play the role of an observer. This process of focusing on breath is called Aan-Paan Sati.

Aan-Paan Sati is practiced for three days. In Buddhism there is a concept of Sama Samadhi, which literally means the right kind of mental state and Aan-Paan Sati gives that right kind of mental state for any meditator to move forward in the path of Vipassana.

Vipassana

For next seven days we practice Vipassana. Vipassana is about observing the truth as it is and in as much detail as possible within the framework of your body. Gautama came to a conclusion after observing the whole world that the world is filled with miseries and there are four kinds of dukkha, old age; illness; birth and death. In his pursuit to remove humanity from the cycle of birth and death, happiness and misery he came up with the idea of Vipassana.


Buddha divided the unconscious mind into four parts, First part has the function to receive the signals from outside world through Six sense doors (mind being one of them) Second part is responsible in analysing the signal, it works in binary; it decides whether the signal is good or bad. Third part is responsible for generating the sensation; which is also called Vedana (वेदना)  and the last part is supposed to react and this reaction is known as Sankara(संस्कार). It is believed that for a man to live a complete life, he will have to free himself from all the worldly pleasures and pains and for doing that he will have to stop responding to each and every Vedana and stop generating Sankara. This will only happen when the unconscious mind is properly trained and has attained mental equanimity and attaining mental equanimity is the ultimate aim of Vipassana.

After three days when you sit for meditation your mind will be so still, so focused and already on the unconscious level that you will start observing these Vedanas or sensations. These sensations are always present in the unconscious level of the mind but we are almost never able to observe them.  When you sit to meditate you can observe a lot of different kinds of sensations, the most prominent of them being, perspiration on the upper lip; itching due to biochemical reactions on the skin and pain in the back and in legs. The only task of a Vipassana yogi is to observe these sensations objectively without reacting to them or branding them as sensations of pleasure or pain. You are only supposed to realise the fact that such sensations exist and that you have observed it keeping the mind in perfect equanimity.

Different kind of sensations result from different experiences, It is said that the root cause of all the miseries of a man arise from three things, ignorance, aversion and passion. If the man is ignorant at present he will be in misery; if a man has  hateful thoughts or aversion for something that happened to him in past is will be in misery and if a man is too passionate about his future he will always be in misery. Passionate thoughts always invoke a good sensation within the body and the general habit pattern of the mind is to keep the good sensations flowing in the body which finally leads to a Sankara, Aversion of the past always leads to a bad/unpleasant sensation in the body and the mind wants to quickly do away with it which leads to another Sankara.


When one sits for meditation one will experience both good and bad sensation, to break out of general habit pattern of the mind you will have to start observing these sensations objectively without the understanding of them being good or bad. When the mind is equanimous the old Sankars; which are there in the mind also start coming up and they too are dissolved when we stop reacting to them.

As easy as it appear to sound it is a very tough thing to maintain equanimity in the face to severe pain or under a very pleasant sensation but this when understood properly, works greatly.

Residential Quarters

Learning Outcomes

The experience of undergoing such a rigorous course is very different from any thing in the world. When you silent for ten days you start question your actions in the world and try to understand where all you went wrong. Also, once you come back home you would very much like to continue this habit of meditating and following the Sheels because you know what it is like to be in that state of meditation to live in that moment of bliss which unlike the belief of most people cannot be attained from any drug or drink and can only come from within.


Also you start understanding the value of simple living and of mortality of your life.  This practice of meditation made me more interested to read Indian thinker and philosophers and ideas of Buddha.

Also the underlying philosophy of Buddhism which strikes one is very amazing, there no dichotomy between you and the God, here the is concept is  “ तत त्वाम असि “ or you are that.  It is not a belief or a devotion it is a logical and conscious attempt to attain enlightenment. There is no God and everyone can become one.

Walking back home I was a changed man.

Dzukou Valley Trek, Nagaland

Valley of Flower - Dzukou Valley, Nagaland 

Nagaland is a microcosm of India, many different languages, people with different religious beliefs and places of worship, multiple cuisine, different musical instruments and weapons for hunting (this although is not very Indian)


On my last trip to Nagaland I was totally taken by the diversity of Nagaland and hospitality of Naga people. I made couple of good friends and I was always trying to find ways to meet them again. Last trip was also a great learning experience as I got to learn a lot about Geography of Nagaland and I was advised by a good friend to trek around Dzukou Valley as the winter subsides and that is exactly what I did.

IIT has a very weird culture of Holi, we dig a hole in the ground, fill it with water and then you pick up everyone in the hostel and throw him in the mud. After having gone through all this for first year I planned to escape all this. Dzukou Valley essential came in my mind as it is a short trek, barely takes some 5-6 hours to climb up. So I called up my friends in Nagaland about this and they were all excited for the get together.

I planned on traveling during the night to Nagaland because of the time crunch. So I took a train from Guwahati to Dimapur which dropped me there at 6:30 AM. There is a taxi stand just outside the railway station, there taxis directly go to Kohima and charge around INR 200. It takes some two hours to reach Kohima.

The road to Kohima is beautifully dotted by the scenic expanse of the green valley, you can see the valorous Assam Rifles troops near the road and the prettiest faces of the Naga Women, awe-inspiring. At around 8:30 we were already in Kohima. As I got down the memories from the last visit flashed in my mind. I took a little walk around the city, on my way I saw the World War Two memorial with all its glories, it feels good to revisit the memories sometimes. As a general habit before any trek, I buy some chocolates for the way as they are good source of instant energy. Moku, a friend from Nagaland was waiting for me near the bus stop, so I stopped the train of memories and rushed towards it.

I requested Moku to make this trip with me but due to his preoccupations he could not make it. So he helped us in getting the right bus, after half an hour we landed in Vishwema Village from where the trek actually begin.


It was 9:30 in the morning and we started our trek, it is a short trek but not the effortless one. All along the trek one has to follow a stream which runs parallel. You can see a lot of local people on the way who are quite friendly in showing you the way. No guide of porter service offered for this trek, and one doesn't even feel the need of it. I could not find anyone else on the trek and this was giving me a strange sense of uncertainty.

So after five hours of trekking through the forest, we finally landed on the top. While taking the final steps, at first you don't see anything but when you span your sight around you a valley whose beauty is unparalleled. I sat there for half an hour and then made the journey forward. After walking for one more hour we saw couple of huts and from them was emanating an enchanting sound of christian music.

Meditating on Nature.

We went inside one of these huts, introduced ourself. We were advised to buy some firewood for the night as the temperature in the valley goes subzero. After spending some time interacting with another group of trekkers from Manipur we went to for a walk around the valley. From here I saw one of the most beautiful sunset in my life.

At night I went to meet the other group and had a nice time talking to them, they taught me how to light the fire, we discussed about the internal politics and problems in Manipur. I also got to know, in a great detail about the Arunanchal Pradesh. One very interesting thing that I noticed about Arunanchal Pradesh was that they speak hindi over there and that to in a "Bihari Accent" while the other parts of North East like Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland us english as a common language to communicate. I also go to know about the some very strange traditions in Arunanchal Pradesh.

At night we realised that the sheet which we brought on the trek was not enough as the temperature went below zero. I for the first time in my life realised slept inside my backpack and was just wishing that the night would end. When the cold became unbearable I covered went out to light the fire again, it took an effort of around one hour to light up the fire for a short duration of half and hour but anyway the efforts themselves kept me warm.


Next morning we could see the layer of ice on the valley, we could also see the small stream frozen. We walked around the valley to witness some amazing sights, an abandoned cave and sparse vegetation. We took some tea in one of the huts and than I started talking to the owner of the house. As always I am always curious about the traditional drinks of hill people and I was introduced to one such drink called "Sigmai". When I asked if they had some Zouthou, the drink which I had the last time in Nagaland they declined, but Sigmai did its job, it surely does lighten your mind.

After spending some time with local people and knowing some ghost stories about the place we trekked down the valley, it took us some four hours to trek down and just after climbing down for two hours we were able to find the motorable roads. You can find a lot of people, relaxing on there jeeps with hunting guns in there hands, if they see that it is discomforting they come to you to explain.

At the base we were lucky to find a jeep to Kohima, where we eat in one of shops managed by a marwadi. We were lucky meet Moku and his friends again and they bid us farewell.

The train from Dimapur to Guwahati was at night and we had some time in Kohima to spend. I got in  conversation with some Manipuri students and got an understanding about the AFSPA law there. At 3 PM around we left Kohima for Dimapur.


Thereon we had another train journey back to Guwahati.

On my second visit to Nagaland,  I have become more comfortable around Naga people. I also learned the differences in Political ideologies, need and necessities of minorities in our country. Also the fact that a ban in one part of a country on something can raise the insecurity in the minds of minorities living in the other part. If I have to sum up in one line, this trip really made me more diplomatic.