STAMMERRING: THE FEAR FACTOR

I do not remember when I started stammering as my stammering may be as old as myself. My mother told me that suffered from whooping cough when I was 7 years old and there after I developed stammering.

I could hardly speak in school, at home and in public. People called me “Thotha.”I had been a subject of public comedy and fury sometimes. Whenever someone encountered some problems from me, he would try to win me over by copying my voice.

Nobody thinks of its treatment as this thought to be a natural and incurable disease. Not much research has been conducted on it. There are many qualified and unqualified persons are available to claim that they can cure your problem. I had taken some counseling at govt hospital when I was 20 years old. Doctor was very dedicated and I was benefitted. We are told some techniques and asked to practice these. I see many persons who are almost completely cured. My cure had been about 50%.The main problem was fear which one encounters when a stammered faces a stranger or in debate/discussion or when we are in a fit of anger. We generally do not stammer when we sing because of the fact that the words to be spoken are pre determined, our mind is cheerful and we are inadvertently following prolongation techniques.

My progress was struck because of fear factor. This is the problem with majority of the stammerers. We are told to eradicate this fear but we do not know how? Here is the answer that Vipassana gives.

The technique of Vipassana is a simple, practical way to achieve real peace of mind and to lead a happy, useful life. Vipassana means "to see things as they really are"; it is a logical process of mental purification through self-observation.

From time to time, we all experience agitation, frustration and disharmony. When we suffer, we do not keep our misery limited to ourselves; instead, we keep distributing it to others. Certainly this is not a proper way to live. We all want to live at peace within ourselves, and with those around us. After all, human beings are social beings: we have to live and interact with others. How, then, can we live peacefully? How can we remain harmonious ourselves, and maintain peace and harmony around us?

Vipassana enables us to experience peace and harmony: it purifies the mind, freeing it from suffering and the deep-seated causes of suffering. The practice leads step-by-step to the highest spiritual goal of full liberation from all mental defilements. It is taught free of cost (including food and lodging) at more than 100 centers in India and abroad. You may contact at following address: Vipassana Research Institute, Igatpuri, 422 403 District Nashik, Maharashtra, India Tel: +91 (2553) 244076, +91(2553) 244086; Fax: +91 (02553) 244176 E-mail: info@vridhamma.org

In 34^th year of my life, I landed in Vipassana meditation camp after full 7 years lame excuses to avoid it. The code of conduct was indeed very strict. Noble silence for first 9 days, waking at 4 a.m. in the morning , 10 hours daily meditation, no contact with any person and finally no dinner. But the benefits I reaped were immense. There after I continued to practice it regularly. I gained much in relation to my physical and mental health, my social and office working etc.But lessening of fear factor was my key byproduct. This was here, where previously my progress in stammering was struck. As my fear lessened, my speech became more and more fluent. Even now, I have to do a lot of work in this field.

Now I shall discuss two more factors that are spiritual but scientific and are closely associated with Vipassana and our cure in stammering. This in addition to what I have learned so far and hope shall be useful to the readers as well.

• Cause of our stammering :

This is Karma theory. Who-so-ever does the sin of teasing a stammered person by copying him or her, has to bear the consequential fruit of suffering from stammering for many births. We must bear it in our mind and should refrain from repeating such sin any more. In our present birth, circumstances are formed because of the outcome of our previous sin. Our cause of onset of stammering habit may be some extreme fearful and agonizing moments in our life which result our stammering problem. But the cause of extreme fearful and agonizing moments is the result of our previous sin.

• Treatment of stammering :

Presently we engage in Karma whose fruit is to get you cured of this problem. That is to engage one-self in a social activity which helps other stammers to come out of stammering. Just find out the stammers in our society and help them to come out of this problem.

Dr NK Tejpal (presently working as Veterinary Officer in Punjab University Chandigarh; He recently attended the 3 day TISA CommWS and shared his thoughts on Vipassana with participants. TISA congratulates him on his calm quiet way of encouraging others by listening patiently to them.).