Anagarika Munindra

Anagarika Shri Munindra (1915 – October 14, 2003), also called Munindraji by his disciples, was a Bengali vipassana meditation teacher, who taught many notable meditation teachers including Dipa Ma,Joseph Goldstein,Sharon Salzberg, and Surya Das.Anagarika simply means a practicing Buddhist who leads a nomadic life without attachment in order to focus on the dharma.

Anagarika was born in Chittagong, Bangladesh and descended from Buddhists of India forced east by the eleventh century Muslim invasion.

He was an active member of the Maha Bodhi Society whose purpose was the resuscitation of Buddhism in India and the restoration of ancient Buddhist shrines there. Munindra was the superintendent of the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya from 1953 to 1957, the first Buddhist to hold this position in modern times. From 1957 to 1966 he lived in Burma, where he was a close disciple of Mahasi Sayadaw, who authorized him to teach vipassana meditation. While in Burma he also studied the Pali canon thoroughly, before returning to India, where he taught vipassana for many years in Bodh Gaya. He was known to be very open-minded and relaxed in the way he taught. He would encourage his students to study with other teachers, and investigate other traditions.

During his stay in Burma he came in close contact with S. N. Goenka and had dhamma discussions with him. Subsequently, he wished to learn Vipassana from Sayagyi U Ba Khin but since he had already learnt Vipassana from a monk, Sayagyi expressed his inability to teach him Vipassana in the tradition of Ledi Sayadaw.

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