Spoken samskrita seminars begin at Kiev

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

I received the following in the email today:

 

SPOKEN SAMSKRITA SEMINARS BEGIN AT KIEV

 

A 3-month tour of Europe and the United States to promote spoken Samskrita

in ISKCON.

 

 

Dear Readers,

 

Namonamaha. Hare Krishna!

 

Acharya Samskritananda Hari and Basu Ghosh Das (an American-born disciple of

Srila Prabhupada who has been serving in India for the past 27 years) Temple

President of ISKCON-Baroda, inaugurated the first of several Spoken

Samskrita seminars at Kiev, Ukraine, on 9 May 2001, to a group of more than

twenty devotees of ISKCON from Kiev and various other places in the Ukraine.

 

The aim of the seminars is to help devotees and friends of ISKCON to

develop, in the shortest amount of time, a working knowledge of this most

beautiful language of the Vedas.

 

The seminar in Kiev came to fruition primarily due to the enthusiasm of

Sriman Achyuta Priya Prabhu, ISKCON Regional Secretary for Ukraine, after he

had attended the first of the past two annual Spoken Samskrita seminars held

at ISKCON's World Headquarters, Sridham Mayapur, West Bengal.

 

This year the seminar at Mayapur was part of the MIHE, organized by

Janmastami Prabhu.

 

Acharya Samskritananda Hari commented that for the first time in Ukraine, a

number of prabhus, matajis, and also several senior students participated in

such a Spoken Samskrita workshop. He noted that most of the participants

were able to pronounce the words correctly, and that they would take notes

on what they were hearing during the seminar. "It is my hope that very

quickly this entire group will be speaking in Samskritam," he said.

 

Achyuta Priya Prabhu commented: "For me, the semiar is like learning an old

truth that I forgot, because we are exposed to Samskritam every day, and we

know so many shlokas and have so much information, but this information is

not so systematic in terms of language. After attending the seminar

Samskritam now looks very familiar."

 

Damodar Charan Das Brahmachari, a native of Chernovtsy in Western Ukraine,

graduate computer programmer, and ISKCON devotee for the past ten years in

Ukraine commented: "It was a surprising experience, because from the very

beginning we started to speak in Samskritam. It was a wonderful and

memorable introduction to Samskritam--a very good samskara.

 

Ishwari devi dasi, a native of Odessa (the large, well-known resort city

located on the shore of the Black Sea in Ukraine), graduate of Moscow State

University, and ISKCON devotee for the past seven years, commented that she

could now understand the importance of speaking in Samskritam. In fact, when

she was a student at Moscow State University it was her desire to learn

Samskritam. She very much appreciated the method employed at the seminar for

speaking Samskritam. She was demtermined to memorize the

"Samskrita-panchamritam," the five key sentences presented in the first

session. However, she found it a bit difficult to concentrate on the subject

matter for the entire three-hour period.

Govardhandhari das, from Chernigov, graduate of a Polytechnical Institute,

and ISKCON devotee in the Northern Ukraine since 1983, said that he had

actually been dreaming for his entire life to learn Samskritam. "I very much

enjoyed hearing spoken Samskritam at the seminar and repeating the lesson

along with the group," he said. "I found it a bit difficult because I

couldn't understand the entire plan, nor do I understand how I will be able

to continue to study at home after the seminar."

 

The next seminar will be held at the Oxford Institute for Vaishnava and

Hindu Studies at Oxford, England. Following that, seminars will be held in

June and July at various locations throughout the United States, some of

which will be ISKCON's school in North Carolina, New Vrindavan, Seattle, and

San Francisco.

 

Besides the 2-week and 10-day formats, there will also be several

"intensive" 3-day seminars.