scholars, Scientists, translation

[Guest guest]

But it is indeed true that "West-bashing and academic-bashing " is meaningless

and serves no point and no sane person would like to do that and if it appears

to some that it is so, then there may be a mental mistake in interpretation .

But with great humility and respect to all concerned late me repeat what has

been already told by numerous savants, seers, mystics as well as scientists

who have made greatest discoveries but many of them branded as lunatics in

their own country and time, :

 

late it be the East or West or North or South ; academics or they who think

themselves as scholars because of some learning which they regard as greater

than others , who ever it may be let him or them not not think that their s is

the FINAL VERDICT, whatever they say in the name of science or academics or of

color for they dominated some lands and made it a colony for some period of

time , and should be accepted by all. Let them not feel that they have a

monopoly on Truth. Alone their method is true and to be accepted, in all

matters whatever it may be, they are the authority. And if anything they

understands not or defies their limited mind structure or incomprehensible to

their intelligence it is just meaningless and vague and the vocabulary of all

the languages must come under their language in which they are studying.

 

While the effort of science and west have been great to rediscover the ancient

sciences and if ever these divine sciences or Dharma or Sanskrit would be

re-established its true glory much credit must go to them, but as is true of

all sciences and discoveries of all ages and time we must be aware of the

misuse of the academics and science and the prejudice of the some westerners

who still think they are still the ruler of the east.

 

I must admit I am finding it increasingly difficult to separate east or west in

this connection as many of our friends from west have taken serious interest in

reviving Dharma than their eastern counterparts who forgetting their own

glorious culture seem more fascinated by the illusory and transitory nature of

modern world. And the prejudice is not only limited against east but also their

own kinsmen whom they did not understand.

 

Now here is an example how in the name of academics and so called science and

scholarship serve the prejudice of people of so called scientific temper:

 

THIS is an extract from the editorial from ASTRLOGICAL MAGZINE of India .

 

 

‘’ I can recall now not once but several times , a so called scintist and

science-fiction- writer and also a Sunday supplement free-lancer , neither of

whom losses no opportunity to talk disparagingly of astrology ***began to write

that a certain Professor Bernard Silverman of Michigan State University , got

records of 2,978 married and 478 divorced couple between 1967 and 1968. He

found no co-relation with astrologer’s prediction . Those married under “

compatible signs” married and divorced just as often as those born under

“incompatible” signs. This piece is research of was claimed to be based on Who

is Who .

***********after reading the report I addressed a letter dated 31-1-1995 to

PROF. Bernard Silverman , Psychology Department, Michigan State University,

Michigan, USA

 

but I was in for a disappointed when the letter came back to me on 25-2-1995

marked red ,’’ not at MSU—RETURN TO SENDER”.

 

Instead of giving of , I wrote another letter dated 18-5-199,. addressed not to

the professor but to the Head of Department of Psychology MSU .

 

DEAR SIR,

I would appreciate very much if you could kindly furnish the following

information relating to Prof. Bernard Silverman who was said to be the Head of

Department of your university in 1960s . Please clarify if he were head of

psychology dept. in either the late 1950s or 1960s or at any other time. Kindly

also late me know if any details of his studies (provided he was there in the

university) on astrological factors and marriages can be furnished . If he is

alive and if he is whereabouts are available. “Kindly let me have his address,

so that I can correspond with him direct.

 

Thanking you

Yousr sincerely

Gayatri Devi Vasudev.

 

***** the reply is reproduced here and is dated 31-5-1995

 

“********** I have never heard of Professor Bernard Silverman. He was never the

Head of the department of Psychology at Michigan State University. I was unable

to find his name in the directory of the American psychological Association. So

I can not provide you with any information about him.

 

Cordially

Gordon wood

Professor and Chairperson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fact I want to highlight that whether it is scholarship or science , it is

but an instrument in human hand and can be used for both proposes as a knife in

the hand of a surgeon saves a man and in the hand of a robber kills man.

 

Even Einstein has of prosecution and ridicule when Nazi Scholars (they are

also SCHOLARS) Phillip Lenard and Johannes Stark ( both of them Noble prize

owners) opposed Einstein s theory of relativity and did everything to outlaw

theoretical physics in Germany. They got together over a hundred Pro-Nazi

scientists in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall and after an emotional attack on

Einstein made a bonfire of his papers.

 

So being a scholar or scientist is not enough and more often than not it makes a

negative impact on the mind not to accept what it does not understand to

outright reject it or interpret in a different form.

 

 

Another revealing insight is provided by R.M. Friedman,

In 1921

 

***** Einstein must not receive the prize….No member approved of relativity

theory…Most committee members simply could not accept such work as being true

physics. Einstein’s manner of revising fundamental assumptions and of seeking

unifying theories seemed to them to be the work of a metaphysician rather than

a member of their scientific tribe. …As the clock approached midnight on

November 12, 1921, the Academy voted not to award that year a Nobel prize in

physics.”

 

 

SO all were Scholars all were Scientists. So the point I want to drive is that

human ego, pride and prejudice does not leave one when he becomes a so called

scholar it rather obstructs him to see the truth.

 

However Truth wins and in this case also it would surely win.

 

Anther fact that has angered one of our friends is the fact that the

difficulties of Sanskrit- to English translation as pointed out by Prof B S

Rao. Now let me tell in a clear voice that not only he but all of those who

have ventured in to this realm has encountered the same difficulties. Even a

comparatively simple work as DHAMMAPADA written in Pali which was far more

simple than Sanskrit and was used by man of the street, and therefore was

chosen by Buddha so that the twists that is possible in the interpretation of

Sanskrit language could be avoided ( also there were other reasons) had several

translations, varied from each other. A word like Niravaana has been

translated as deathlessness, where as the word “death” is no where in nirvana .

and never describes its meaning properly. The word “Brahamana” has been verily

translated as priest , holy one , Brahmin etc. all of which even together fail

to describe the term perfectly.

 

In this connection let me give here 2 quotes none of them are Indians of course:

 

Since Sanskrit verses have very strict and definite metrical forms, complex

patterns of assonance and alliteration and qualities of rhythm and musicality,

it is difficult to render them directly into another language. The difficulties

of translation are complicated by the highly inflected nature of Sanskrit and

its capacity for building

 

~Dorothy Matilda Figueira

 

 

Eric Ormsby

 

“It is hardly surprising that the chief obstacle is the Sanskrit language. While

the difficulties of Sanskrit are legendary, it is not the intricate splendor of

its morphology and syntax that constitutes the sole barrier to translation.

Rather, the fact that the classic language was codified quite early arrested

its development as a living vernacular; thus, we have the peculiar anomaly that

the language in which the greatest works of Indian literature were composed for

nearly two millennia was traditionally considered perfect as it stood (indeed,

the name of the language, samskrta, means “perfected”). Panini, a grammarian of

genius who flourished around 500 BC, composed so thorough and definitive a

description of Sanskrit that his work, the Astadhyayi, became normative for all

later writers. (Panini’s treatise, in its rigor and precision, may have been

influential as well beyond the boundaries of Sanskrit; there is some evidence

that the work provided a distant model for early Arab grammarians, over a

millennium later, in such early Islamic intellectual centers as Basra and

Kufa.) Hence, while the language was living, in that it was spoken and written

actively, it did not undergo (as, for example, Greek did) the various

alterations and mutations most languages historically exhibit..”

 

 

He also commented:

 

“The problem for the translator, already reeling from some colossal compound

word (agglomerations of six or seven words are commonplace) or triple-layered

pun, is formidable. What appears in English as exotic —a cobra adorned with a

jewel or “the Lord of tortoises”—in the original represents the lovingly

polished reconfiguration of an age-old conceit. The delight arises from

encountering something old and cherished and familiar suddenly aglint with new

highlights, unanticipated shades. (To my knowledge this occurs in English

literature only when a writer echoes the King James Bible and gives some phrase

memorized in childhood a sly spin of the unexpected. It is of course common in

modern Hebrew poetry in which everyday words can still be made to emit Biblical

reverberations.) How is the translator from Sanskrit to convey or even suggest

such multifoliate densities of allusion and echo ?”

 

But that does not mean that the TRANSALTION work would not to continue . let

it be as perfect as possible . But we just pointed out the problems in

understanding of the language and what prevents the western mind to comprehend

it.

Let us not think that all wisdom can be achieved since we have an access to

Internet, we can understand anything and everything without going beyond the

bounderies of our mind or intellect and just translating the verses ancient and

mystique all their mysteries would be reveled and let us not forget that the

discovery of ancient India started with a motive by the British to make their

colonization strong, to spread Christianity and to break everything that the

Hindu feels important and great.

 

And let us remember this verse fro Shakespeare : Hamlets speech to Horatio:

“There are more things in heaven and earth , Horatio that can be dreamt in

your Philosophy.”

 

The letter has become very long, even though I think what is to be expressed has

not been said. However I am closing this letter with a verse from Rik-Veda.

 

Sam gacchadhvam sam vadadhavam

Sam vo manamsi jaanatoam

 

Come together speak in harmony

And may your minds see alike!

Rig Veda X-191

 

 

Be it east or west , heaven or earth let us be together and find out the Great

Truth, THE DHARAMA… and let the Dhrama fly everywhere, let us not cut its wings

but let us not presume that it’s wings are everything. Let us take it as a whole

with body and wings. And let us try to understand the nature of the bird let us

not only be confined to it bodily beauty.

Thanking you all

Sincerely

Gurudatta Dash