A request

[Guest guest]

Dear Peter, Greetings

 

I certainly resonate with your request, since I am sanskrit-illiterate

as well. But nonetheless, allow me to share my (so far short)

experience within this Advaitin List. At the very beginning I felt

more than lost and although I also submitted some posts pointing at

the same request, there was little response.

BUT, after ponding about it for a while and continue reading the

hieroglifical postings AS THEY WERE, I came to the conclusion that it

was my part of effort to look at those sanskrit words in online

dictionaries, and not entirely the duty of learned the members to

write in english. Strangely enough this back and forth from the

postings and the dictionaries started to bring some results... I

started recognizing and then understanding most of the vocabulary

expressed in sanskrit.

After all, most of the slokas (verses) that are integrally in sanskrit

are translated, and more often than none, sanskrit words are also.

Although the task seems hard and almost impossible, if one puts one's

energy in each and every word that one does not understand and try to

find the meaning by oneself, that word, one won't forget its meaning,

it's ours!!. It may be a slow process, but it pays off in the long

run. (Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi learned sanskrit that way also, having

as teacher his attendant and one or two books of Scriptures)

This was how things worked out for me (and still is because I'm very

far from understanding sanskrit as a language). May not be the same

for you or someone else.

 

Good luck!

 

Yours in All,

Mouna

 

 

" Peter " <not_2 wrote:

>

> Dear friends,

> I enjoy reading and reflecting on all these wonderful contributions.

May Imake a request?

> While I recognise the ignorance is solely on my part, and I do

attempt to increase my familiarity with sanskrit terms, would members

please give english translations when qouting sanskrit sources and/or

when interspersing sanskrit terminology with questions and

explanations. It would help me, and perhaps others also, to better

appreciate the good points that respected members wish to make.

[Guest guest]

--- On Tue, 9/9/08, Mouna <maunna wrote:

 

Mouna and peter

 

I can sympathize with your feelings. When I started learning some biology it was

a real struggle for me to learn all the Latin words in science -when my English

spelling itself is so-bad - can you imagin of Latin words? No wonder I could not

make it to medical school, although my daughter did. I settled in Engineering

where I can break the words and now materials too.

 

It is difficult to translate some of the Sanskrit words; and some are technical

and by translation the intended meaning gets lost. I understand it is the

responsibility of the poster to make sure what he wrote is understood by those

who are interested to learn. I tend to use the Sanskrit words and provide

English meaning at least first time. But some words have to be learned since

English translation looses its significance - like mithyaa translated as

illusion is not correct - it is transactional reality but is apparent only at

absolute reference.

 

If you find something is not clear, the best solution is to ask for

clarification. That is the only way otherwise it is assumed that things are

clear. Hence some responsibility is on the shoulders of the learners to ask.

 

Recommendation is of course for the posters to post in such a way that majority

of the members can read and understand the intended meaning.

 

 

Hari Om!

Sadananda

[Guest guest]

Dear Sadananda-ji,

 

Thank you for your thoughts. I agree with all that you have said regarding

the difficulty of providing a simple meaning of some Iif not many) of the

key sanskrit words. I am becoming more and more familiar with these. It's

when these are tied together in phrases left untranslated that the going

gets difficult for me. I hope members will appreciate that the spirit of my

request is that I recognise the ignorance is on my side and not feel my

request is a criticism of any one. Most senior members, like yourself,

write very clearly.

 

Thanks and best wishes,

 

Peter

 

 

advaitin [advaitin ] On Behalf

Of kuntimaddi sadananda

09 September 2008 14:28

advaitin

Re: A request

 

 

--- On Tue, 9/9/08, Mouna <maunna wrote:

 

Mouna and peter

 

I can sympathize with your feelings. When I started learning some biology it

was a real struggle for me to learn all the Latin words in science -when my

English spelling itself is so-bad - can you imagin of Latin words? No wonder

I could not make it to medical school, although my daughter did. I settled

in Engineering where I can break the words and now materials too.

 

It is difficult to translate some of the Sanskrit words; and some are

technical and by translation the intended meaning gets lost. I understand it

is the responsibility of the poster to make sure what he wrote is understood

by those who are interested to learn. I tend to use the Sanskrit words and

provide English meaning at least first time. But some words have to be

learned since English translation looses its significance - like mithyaa

translated as illusion is not correct - it is transactional reality but is

apparent only at absolute reference.

 

If you find something is not clear, the best solution is to ask for

clarification. That is the only way otherwise it is assumed that things are

clear. Hence some responsibility is on the shoulders of the learners to ask.

 

 

Recommendation is of course for the posters to post in such a way that

majority of the members can read and understand the intended meaning.

 

 

Hari Om!

Sadananda

 

---

 

 

[Guest guest]

Subramanyaji,pranamsthank you for telling us about this Samskrit course in Bangalore.Still I have to say that for now my focus is on studying the scriptures in English translation of vedanta teachers, keeping my sanskrit learning to those basic terms that repeat a lot. I simply do not have this extra half hour a day right now - and knowing my memory it probably will be more - to go into systematic study of the language. I do appreciate your advice though and would like to take it up when possible, time- and energywise.Om ShantiSitara--- subramanya.uh <subramanya.uh schrieb am Di, 9.9.2008:Von: subramanya.uh <subramanya.uhBetreff: Re: Re: A

requestAn: advaitin Datum: Dienstag, 9. September 2008, 2:07

 

 

Mouna wrote:

 

I certainly resonate with your request, since I am Sanskrit-illiterateas well. But nonetheless, allow me to share my (so far short)experience within this Advaitin List. At the very beginning I feltmore than lost and although I also submitted some posts pointing atthe same request, there was little response.

Dear Mouna and Peter,

There is lot of danger in self study of Sanskrit in as much that there are techniques/rules for splitting the words of the sentences, making Vigraha Vakya, making Anvaya, getting the Bhavarthas correctly , unless learnt through Sanskrit teachers, either traditionally or through correspondence. Else the words are split wrongly whose meanings are not available even in Dictionaries, and hence understood wrongly.

 

The main job is to identify Dhatus or root words and then know their meanings. There are hardly 2000 Dhatus in Sanskrit ( as I leant from my teacher, I have got a Dhatu Kosha also) and lakhs of words are woven from them. For Ex: Khaga has got 2 roots 1. Kha- means space and 2. ga- gamanam meaning that moves. Khaga means a Bird, that moves in space.

This one is a simple example. There are many rules which confuse you and easy to mis understand. These pages are not sufficient to provide all the examples. To give another example of splitting words, take MithyAjnana, of Adhyasa Bhashya; it can be split as MithyA + jnana or MithyA + ajnana. both are correct. soAmrutatvaya has to be split sah + Amrutatvaya, which is spelt as somrutatvaya since while writing there is a symbol like "S" called as Avasarga, which is called as silent 'a".

 

Swadhya is for self study after learning basics of Sanskrit.This is taught to desciples even in Taittariya for the students who are graduated " swadhAya pravachanAbhyam na pramaditavyam"

 

What I mean to say is that it is not difficult to learn Sanskrit even if you are 60+. You can get lessons from "Samskrit Bharati, Aksharam, II Stage Girinagar, 8th Cross, Bangalore 560085" Tel : 080-26721052. There are 4 levels of study materials which will teach you all tricks of the language. The stages are called Pravesha, Parichaya, Shiksha, and Kovida. Each step is for 6 months and the fee is negligible Rs. 200/- per stage. You can choose the media of instruction like, Kannada, Hindi, English, Telugu etc. Once you complete the course you can understand the meaning of even Adhyasa Bhashya as one reads the sentences. It is enough if you devote 30 minutes a day for learning Sanskrit for a period of two years. The greatest advantage is that you can understand the meanings of many Mantras also, which we chant without understanding. ( Remember the example quoted by Dr. Yadu Moharir that the ass don't enjoy the fragrance of the Sandal load it is carrying)

 

As this site is not for teaching Sanskrit, perhaps members might have avoided giving the rules of the grammar, how the words are formed(Nirukta),etc. , and some times members have given word by word meaning. Good! One need not learn Panini grammar rules to translate any of our scriptures like Gita or Upanishads or Brahma Sutra or texts like Viveka Chudamani etc.

This is my humble opinion. I invite feedback on this.

With regards to all

Subrahmanya UH

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Dear Mouna and Sitara,

 

I still recommend you to spare some time to study the greatest language of the world. Anything said about the language is less. The only language suitable for Computer algorithms, where everything is specific and nothing left to choice.

 

If you want to make a crash course, there are ways. There are five books written by Sri Sri Sri Sachidanandendra Saraswathi swamiji of Holoenarasipur, written in Kannada which can be downloaded from their web site www.adhyatmaprakasha.org and viewed using dJView software . Even Shringeri Shankar Mutt has published such 5 books for learning Sanskrit. The resources are plenty. I mentioned in one of my postings that a CD is available from Thirupathi Sanskrit University in English medium also.

 

The joy of reading the scriptures in Sanskrit is 'Aloukik' than English translation. Equivalent words are not found in English. The Shukla and Krishna Yajurvedas are translated as white and Black Vedas, which is simply meaningless. The grammar is very accurate in Sanskrit. . There are 10 Tenses in Sanskrit against 3 in English.(Present, past and future). I cannot explain the glory of Sanskrit in words. It has to be experienced like "Atmajnan". Words cannot explain.

 

An investment of 30 minutes a day for 2 years is a great asset which one can enjoy till death presuming , one lives for a century.(Ayurvarsha shatam parimitam - Read Niti Shstaka of Bhartuhari ). Refer Gita Ch.13 -11 which says 'Etad jnanamidam proktam, ajnanam yadatoanyathA'. The worldly pursuits can wait but not the real knowledge.

Thanks and regards to all

Subrahmanya UH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-

Mouna

advaitin

Wednesday, September 10, 2008 12:53 AM

Re: A request

 

 

Dear Subramanya,Thank you for your response and the advice (with the address to thesanskrit lessons). I echo my voice with Sitara regarding a serious study of sanskrit. Ionce asked one of the senior learned members of this list if hesuggested me to learn sanskrit taking into account my age (53) andthat I was very commited to study Vedanta, this was his answer:"The study of sanskrit helps but it should be done only on the side. Imyself do not know enough sanskrit but just developed workingknowledge to study. In your case I do not advise you to learn sanskritunless you want to teach Vedanta. Then knowledge of Sanskrit helps. Asyou study, you will pick up sanskrit slowly. No need to spendconsiderable time on that, leaving vedantic study."As I said on my previous post, every case is different.And as the postings go, we, unlearned sanskrit members, will have tocontinue understanding and doing what we can.Thanks,MounaSitara Mitali <smitali17 wrote:>> Subramanyaji,> pranams> thank you for telling us about this Samskrit course in Bangalore.> Still I have to say that for now my focus is on studying thescriptures in English translation of vedanta teachers, keeping mysanskrit learning to those basic terms that repeat a lot. I simply donot have this extra half hour a day right now - and knowing my memoryit probably will be more - to go into systematic study of the language. > I do appreciate your advice though and would like to take it up whenpossible, time- and energywise.> Om Shanti> Sitara