Sanskrit - Language Of The Gods

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Sanskrit - Language Of The Gods

 

VNN

 

EDITORIAL, Jun 19 (VNN) — Sanskrit is the common language of the

Hindu Scriptures. It is the oldest language in the world. It is the

language of the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata,

Ramayana and the Puranas. Sanskrit literature is easily the richest

literature in the history of mankind. The word Sanskrit literally

means "Perfected Language" or "Language brought to formal

perfection". This is quite an appropriate name since NASA declared it

to be "the only unambiguous language on the planet". Sanskrit is a

scientific and systematic language. Its grammar is perfect and has

attracted scholars worldwide.

 

Recently well-known linguists and computer-scientists have expressed

the opinion that Sanskrit is the best language for use with

computers. Sanskrit has a perfect grammar which has been explained to

us by the world's greatest grammarian Panini. Sanskrit is also the

mother of all indo-european languages and the big sister of Greek and

Latin. It is the origin of all the Indian languages.

 

The Sanskrit alphabet is called "devanagari" and literally

means "cities of the gods". Rishis discovered Sanskrit and used it to

create the mantras. These mantras were made up of a combination of

sound vibrations, which when recited had a specific effect on the

mind and the psyche. In the times of the Rishis, the main aim was to

attain the truth, and what better medium than Sanskrit - the perfect

tool. Due to its specificity and purity this seemed the best language

with which to understand God's creation and as such is called "the

great spiritual language of the world" (Joseph Campbell).

 

Until 1100AD Sanskrit was without interruption the official language

of the whole of India. The dominance of Sanskrit is indicated by the

wealth of literature of widely diverse genres including religious and

philosophical, fiction, scientific literature to include mathematics,

linguistics, astronomy, medicine and politics.

 

Max Muller, the great German scholar (and probably the greatest

advocate for Sanskrit in the West) concluded that without knowledge

of Sanskrit a liberal education would hardly be complete-India being

the intellectual and spiritual ancestor of the race, historically and

through Sanskrit.

 

Even in translation the works of Sanskrit have evoked the supreme

admiration of Western poets and philosophers like Emerson, Whitman,

Thoreau, Melville, Goethe, Schlegel, and Schopenhauer.

 

Dead Language? There are at least a dozen periodicals published in

Sanskrit, all-India radio news broadcasts in Sanskrit, television

shows and feature length movies produced in Sanskrit, one village of

3000 inhabitants who communicate through Sanskrit alone, not to

mention countless smaller intellectual communities throughout India,

schools, as well as families where Sanskrit is fostered. The famous

Gayatri Mantra is on the lips of millions of Indians every morning.

Sanskrit is not dead; Sanskrit is alive and well.

 

 

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