Satya Narayan Goenka (30 January 1924 – 29 September 2013), commonly known as S.N. Goenka, was a Burmese-Indian teacher of Vipassanā meditation. Born in Burma to a rich Indian family, he moved to India in 1969 and started teaching meditation. His teaching was notable for emphasizing that the Buddha’s path to liberation was non-sectarian, universal, and scientific in character. He became an influential teacher and established meditation centers worldwide.In November 2008 when the construction of the Global Vipassana Pagoda was completed on the outskirts of Mumbai. Goenka was an invited speaker at the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders on 29 August 2000 at the United Nations in New York City.He was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2012.
Goenka trained about 1300 assistant teachers to conduct courses using his recordings, and about 120,000 people attend them each year. Upon Goenka’s death, Jack Kornfield, noted American author on Buddhism wrote, “In every generation, there are a few visionary and profound masters who hold high the lamp of the Dharma to illuminate the world. Like the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh, Ven. S.N. Goenka was one of the great world masters of our time. He was an inspiration and teacher for Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg, Ram Dass, Daniel Goleman, and many other western spiritual leaders.”Jay Michaelson wrote in a Huffington Post article titled, “The Man who Taught the World to Meditate”, “He was a core teacher for the first generation of “insight” meditation teachers to have an impact in the United States.
(Ref : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._N._Goenka & www.ximalaya.com)