Dipa Ma

Background

She was born Nani Bala Barua in 1911 in a small village in Chittagong, East Bengal, then in British India but now part of Bangladesh.

Career

He soon left to work in Burma, leaving her with her in-laws. Four years later, in 1950, Nani gave birth to a daughter, Dipa, whereupon she began to be called Dipa Ma "Mother of Dipa" as her daughter"s survival was a momentous event. One day a doctor suggested that she learn how to meditate.

She attended her first meditation retreat at the Kamayut Meditation Center in Rangoon.

There she experienced the first stage of enlightenment. In 1963 she was chosen to study the siddhis or spiritual powers with the Indian master Anagarika Munindra, a senior student of Mahasi Sayadaw.

In 1967, she returned to India, moving to Calcutta where she taught meditation. Her first formal student was her neighbor, Malati Barua, a widow trying to raise six young children alone.

Believing that enlightenment was possible in any environment, Dipa Ma devised practices that her new student could carry out at home.

Connections

teacher:

Mahasi Sayadaw