Goenkaji’s First Course in India

In 1969 Goenkaji left Burma to go to India to teach the Dhamma to his parents who had moved to Bombay. At that time he called himself U S.N. Goenka. All the early literature referred to him that way. He considered himself Burmese and fully intended to someday go back there to live, so he used the traditional Burmese title “U”, which means Mr.

He conducted that first course on July 3, 1969 at the Panchayatwadi in Bombay and there were 14 students. The first course was set up for his parents and some family friends. They were all new students.

Panchayatwadi was a hostel for religious travelers and many early courses were held there. A lot of early Western students remember having done their first course there. The second course was held on July 24th in Madras with 15 students. Only one of them was an old student. From then on, courses would grow and grow with more old students attending each course.

He would have looked liked this when he conducted the first course. He was 49 years old. Mataji had not come out of Burma yet. It was very hard to get a photo of him in those days and the few that were available were shared endlessly. He was shy about having his picture taken in those days. The Dhamma is important, not me was his attitude.

After that first course those attending asked that he do another course and another until it evolved to what we have today. Now there are over 184 centers and 134 non-center courses.