Frigyes Karinthy may have come up with the idea of "six degrees of separation" -- that every person is a "friend of a friend" within six relations -- but I'm convinced that for Ahmedabad, the Indian city of 6 million in the state of Gujarat, and its diaspora, the degrees that separate are only three.
Case in point: this past weekend, my family had the privilege of spending a relaxed, yet intellectually exhilarating evening with renowned Sanskrit scholar, Dr. Lakshmesh V. Joshi, a professor emeritus and former head of Sanskrit at Gujarat University with numerous publications, awards and recognitions to his name. Last year, my mother-in-law, Charugita Shukla, a classical dancer, poet and Director of Gitamrutam Vedic Arts, had consulted Dr. Joshi in Ahmedabad to gain a fuller understanding of Purusha Suktam for an upcoming music and dance production on the same. The Purusha Suktam is a chapter, if you will, from the Rig Veda, the oldest of the Vedas, that describes the beginning and nature of Creation. It turned out that Dr. Joshi was also a colleague of my mother-in-law's father, a Sanskrit scholar in his own right.
Fast forward to four weeks ago: someone sends to Dr. Joshi's son, who happens to live in the Twin Cities, a link to "The Great Yoga Debate,"a back and forth on the Hindu roots of yoga between Hindu American Foundation co-founder Dr. Aseem Shukla (and also my husband) and the famed Deepak Chopra. The son sees that Aseem is based in the Twin Cities, so reaches out by email. One reply and a phone conversation later, we quickly realize that this "chance" virtual meeting has connections that go back two generations.
But discovery of these few degrees, while entertaining, were inconsequential in comparison to the conversations we enjoyed with the professor. In India, Dr. Joshi's time and expertise are in high demand -- meetings are secured by appointment only. But while he's visiting his son in the Twin Cities, life's pace is slow and a summer evening over a homemade Indian meal brought forth a rare Vedas 101.
Sanskrit words are often translated rather simplistically (or mistranslated), especially by many Western scholars of religion or linguistics who have gained only a cursory knowledge of Sanskrit. But each word in the Sanskrit lexicon, Dr. Joshi explained, has a much subtler, almost poetic meaning -- an understanding that can only emerge from full immersion in the language. He gave us the example of a basic word, shakha. Shakha is commonly translated as "branch," like a branch of literature or a physical branch of a larger organization. But delve deeper into the word, he explained, and one will find that shakha is the derivative of several roots -- kh means "sky," khe to kha then is "in the sky." Sh or shete means "that which lies down or flat across." Shakha is therefore, "that which lies flat across the sky." In this breakdown exercise of just one word, not only did our respect for Sanskrit grow another tenfold, but we gained a possible reason, aside from malintent and Freudian lenses, as to why we see so many translations of Hindu scripture from "experts" in unions like the American Academy of Religions that are completely divorced from their emic understandings.
The true gem of the evening, though, was learning about Jatapatha. Jatapatha is a complex combination of the individual words of mantras from the Vedas. The Vedas, Hindus believe, contain eternal truths received or heard by the ancient rishis (seers) through Divine revelation and after years of meditation and contemplation. There are four Vedas, the Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva. These four tomes, in turn, consist of four sections, namely Samhitas (mantras or hymns), Brahmanas (methodology of ritual), the Aryanakas (special rituals) and the Upanishads (philosophy).
Totaling 100,000+ verses, the Vedas, for thousands of years, have been transmitted orally from one generation to the next. In that vein, one could argue that the Vedas that we hear today, may not be the same as the original. But such an argument is moot because the ancient rishis foresaw this very potential of alteration, said Dr. Joshi, and came up with a built-in mechanism to prevent exactly that. And the way in which they did so can be described only as sheer mathematical ingenuity. To ensure that the Vedas remained unchanged in content, intonation, and inflection, a number of techniques of recitation with increasing complexity and difficulty were developed, including Jatapata.
The first is Samhita, the simplest form of recitation that approaches the mantra as it is, for example,"the sky is blue" (abcd). Next is Padha, where each word is broken down, as in, "the/sky/is/blue" (a/b/c/d). Krama, the third technique, adds the first real level of difficulty into the recitation through a pattern of "the sky/sky is/is blue" (ab/bc/cd). Jatapatha, the first of the more challenging, alternates between a repetitious interposing and transposing of words to create a pattern of "the sky sky the the sky/sky is is sky sky is/is blue blue is is blue" (abbaab/bccbbc/cddccd). Between Jatapata and the last technique are six other techniques (called Mala, Shikha, Rekha, Dvaja, Danda and Ratha) that again are built-in combinations and permutations that have ensured that the order and words of the Vedas remain unchanged. The ultimate and most complex technique is called Ghanam. Its mind-boggling backwards and forwards pattern is, "the sky sky the the sky is is sky the the sky is/sky is is sky sky is blue blue is sky is blue" (abbaabccbaabc/bccbbcddcbbcd).
By the end of the evening, I was both inspired by the ingenuity of the Ancients and exceedingly overwhelmed. As a second-generation Hindu American immersed in English, though raised bilingually, how could I ever hope to fully comprehend the detailed knowledge found in the Vedas and other Sanskrit texts? Being fluent in my parents' native language, Gujarati, which evolved from Sanskrit, perhaps there will be a time when I can lose myself fully in the Mother of all languages. In the meantime, I'll continue to strive toward studying, practicing and living the essence of Hinduism's eternal teachings, knowing full well that there's infinitely more beauty waiting to be discovered.
Vedas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
About the Vedas: A Brief Introduction to the Vedas
He's teaching from a text by Abhinavagupta (12th century sage in the Kashmir Shaivism tradition), and references some of the Sanskrit passages, including chanting a sloka or two in the traditional manner - and so, I thought the sounds of the spoken/chanted Sanskrit, as well as his Sanskrit-based exposition of the teachings might be of interest (as you'll see in the video, he references back to the Sanskrit words, to expound on the teaching itself -- in Kashmir Shaivism, the language of Sanskrit is central to that spiritual path, and understanding Sanskrit, a yoga - a means - in its own right).
Finally, Swami Lakshmanjoo spoke Sanskrit (in conjunction with Kashmiri, English, etc.) for his entire adult life, and his comfort-level with the language kind of "brings it alive", to my ear, at least.
Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tSfscBpsFo
For those interested in a gentle introduction to this beautiful language, you can check out the Sanskrit Primer app (http://sparshapps.com) that is available for iOS/iPhone and Android devices.
The app looks very cool; only issue: it appears you have to be able to read Devanagari (Sanskrit alphabet, for anyone who doesn't know) to make use of it.
Is that true?
If that's the case, that narrows your market quite a bit.
I'd get that app in a heartbeat, if it offered Roman (English alphabet) transliteration.
Thanks for the info, though, and I agree about the Ashtadhyayi; please see some of my other comments in this thread, for some details regarding how profound it is still seen to be, even among scholars who are working with Sanskrit and Computational Linguistics.
Sanskrit itself is far more advanced than most people realize, as a language, or, more accurately, a meta-language. The division between Sanskrit ("well-enacted") and Prakrits ("naturally-enacted") languages isn't arbitrary; Sanskrit was engineered, using deeply-sophisticated design facets which imply an understanding of everything from logic and mathematics to human physiology, to the vibrational dynamics of sound, that are unequaled, currently.
So, repetition and reversion of Mantra, in Sanskrit, creates a poetry without losing it's original form nor meaning.
At UMass Dartmouth (2008),
[QUOTE]
... Pandit Ramadheen Ramsamooj, director of Three Rs Foundation. “Among our highest priorities is to develop innovative teaching strategies, rooted in Indian culture.”
The Three Rs Foundation is the lead sponsor of the Super Accelerated Learning Theory (SALT), a school model that emphasizes whole brain education that integrates music, suggestions, and childlike play to facilitate learning.
Preceding the announcement, the center’s Board Chairman Rajiv Malhotra said that the accelerated learning movements in the U.S. regard Georgi Lozanov, a Bulgarian educator and neuroscientist, as their founding father. What is seldom considered is that Lozanov had studied traditional Vedic learning systems in India in the 1960s under UNESCO programs, in order to determine how Vedic pandits were able to memorize and impeccably recite tens of thousands of verses.
Malhtora said, “Today, the Three Rs Foundation is reviving that learning system from its source, and creating a program which could be a breakthrough even beyond Lozanov’s. This deserves all our encouragement and support.”
[END QUOTE]
Source: http://www1.umassd.edu/indic/final_fall_08_indic_news.pdf
In certain parts of India, especially Andhra, there is a strong "tradition" that lots of sanskrit texts were stolen by Europeans. Growing up there I thought this was just blabbering by people who were hopelessly out of touch with reality. Some of the claims may be exaggerated but in light of Rajiv Malhotra's research and CK Raju's research there must be truth in this societal memory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEfZaiWv03E
Vunde gurunam caranaravinde
Sandarsita svatma sukhavabodhe
Nisreyase jangalikayamane
Sansara halahala moha santyai
Hala hala
Ahahu purusakaram sankha cakrasi
Ahahu purusakaram sankha cakrasi
Dharinam dharinam sahasra sirasam
Dharinam dharinam sahasra sirasam
Vande
Om Shanti
Om Shanti
Shanti Shanti
Shante Om
**
I worship the gurus' lotus feet
Awakening the happiness of the self-revealed
Beyond comparison, working like the jungle physician
To pacify loss of consciousness from the poison of existence
In the form of a man up to the shoulders
Holding a conch, discus and sword
Thousand headed, white
I bow respectfully
Peace
AUM
**
Adapted from a poem by the 8th century Advaitic sage, Shankaracharya, as recorded in the Yoga Tiravali.
Do you know of a link that illustrates the repetition forms discussed in this article? I happened upon it once when looking up something for a friend, and I cannot find it to save my life. That was the first time I'd heard of such a thing, and hearing the various forms of more complicated recitation was quite helpful.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedic_chant
... which covers the names of the various forms, which could serve as a good place to start, I'd guess.
When I want to learn something new via Google, I just start with the one or two keywords I know, and add keywords that seem like they might be a good idea -- until I start finding interesting stuff.
It never takes long.
It hope that's useful ... and please let us know if you do find anything interesting.
You can hear an mp3 as well of the repetitive chanting.
The true strength of a language is its ability to stand the test of time. In that sense Sanskrit along with Latin has failed miserably. I don't understand people's obsession with Sanskrit. It is a dead language and the best we can do is give it a decent burial.
In a country of a billion less than 50,000 people can speak (I used the word speak liberally) Sanskrit and people who talk passionately about Sanskrit neither make any effort to learn it or would let thier children waste time learning it (oh French is so much cooler!).
Now coming to Vedas, as the author points out the first three sections are nothing but meaningless chants to lesser gods of that time. Only the last section Upanishad has what passes for philosophy. Among hundreds of upanishads only 18 are considered impportant. So we should translate those 18 Upanishads and get on with our lives.
'You can always find examples of this sort in any language for any number of words. Sanskrit is just one of them.' - this is your first stand,
'Now coming to Vedas, as the author points out the first three sections are nothing but meaningless chants to lesser gods of that time.' - this is your conclusion.
Your second stand is falsified by your own first stand and hence your conclusion is illogical and baseless.
Your arguments fail miserably and shows your ignorance of both the knowledge on languages as well as Vedas.
'Half knowledge is always dangerous'.
Our generations and humanity is losing its original meaning and confused to understand its connection with supreme-consciousness amidst the cacophonic contestations of various religious authorities and their interpretations. It is the spirituality which binds us to gather unlike religions (-ism), which indoctrinates. I wish and pray that let us rejuvenate and rediscover ourselves with a spiritual search of father of ‘fathers’ through guided learning from such a Gyani (knowledgeable) Gurus. Long live fathers and Gurus!
Hari Ohm Shanti- Peace and Bliss to all.
Shailesh Shukla
Om shanti, shanti, shanti.
Here's a sky picture with the names of 7 Seers identifying the 7 stars... http://www.deepyoga.ca/dy-pages/yoga-vasistha-full.html
Here is an example of 'heard', or 'seen' in this case...
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan
"Ramanujan credited his acumen to his family Goddess, Namagiri of Namakkal. He looked to her for inspiration in his work,[80] and claimed to dream of blood drops that symbolised her male consort, Narasimha, after which he would receive visions of scrolls of complex mathematical content unfolding before his eyes.[81] He often said, "An equation for me has no meaning, unless it represents a thought of God."[82][83]
Hardy cites Ramanujan as remarking that all religions seemed equally true to him."
"Ramanujan's talent was said by the English mathematician G.H. Hardy to be in the same league as legendary mathematicians such as Euler, Gauss, Newton and Archimedes.[1]"
***
"Those who could fly in the wind" can be taken to mean those who can expertly conduct 'pranayama'... towards 'Samadhi', the goal of Yoga: More on that here, including a breakdown and meaning of these 2 Sanskrit words... http://www.deepyoga.ca/dial_up/pages/breath_prana_samadhi.html
What I see is a unique, individual process by which a person has managed to establish a connection with the hidden depths of mind/self/reality. To underscore this view, I point to the Yoga Vasistha where the goddess Saraswati herself tells the protagonist that he should realize that she herself is a projection of his mind... and this exists within a teaching story told by Sage Vasistha to Prince Rama, and where the sage is trying to teach Rama about deep reality.
When this is left as "divine revelation'" and one does not go beyond this easy to arise but hugely problematic concept, then one has committed the 'fallacy of misplaced concreteness' and blocked one's own growth to self-knowledge. People make this mistake, it is an easy mistake to make, but the Hindu corpus itself is there to help one correct one's course.
YOU
Who appear
in the forms given to your worshipper's imagination.
Lead us on the path of awareness,
so that all may gain contentment of both kinds,
enjoyment and final realization.
*** Here, final realization refers to the non-dual experience, which completely removes the "fallacy of misplaced concreteness" mentioned above... see below:
Yoga in Pictures: http://www.deepyoga.ca/dy-images/b-yoga_in_pics-flute/index.html
Samadhi in pics: http://doctorseth.ca/build/build-flash-samadhi.html
*** Also, 'worship' is only one of many possible attitudes towards what the Upanishads call "THAT"... there is also silence, a smile or even just a wink, or a joining (Yoga).
*** The value of Sanskrit is in carrying words like "Samadhi", to which there is no english equivalent... of course lots of other words and concepts make it far more valuable than you have been saying. Its dismaying to me that left to you we might see a China/Maoist style "Cultural Revolution" in India. Your suggestions continue to be extreme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yS-Jky997Y
And here's a more modern iteration of an ancient Sanskrit poem (The Shiva Tandava Stotram).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwMyiDbQrjY
And here's some 8th century Sanskrit chanted by some 21st century Americans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5VwexJ7mUY&feature=related
And here are the lyrics, with translation (the main song / poem, after the invocation completes).
http://livingunbound.net/inspiration/atmastakam_shivoham/
Finally, here's an interesting combination of English and Sanskrit, by Jai Uttal, with a bit of help from John Lennon (the English lyrics).
http://livingunbound.net/inspiration/living-unbound-net-is-launching-today-february-12-2010/
thank you thank you thank you so very much for these links!
One of the reasons for this, is because Sanskrit is highly-consistent in structure, but much more organic (non-linear, flexible) with respect to meanings.
It literally does not translate well into the "one word - one meaning" structure of English.
The best-selling American Kirtan artist is Krishna Das - and on his most recent tour, he sold out 1500 to 2000 person clubs and theaters, all across the country.
Here's an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tohRhqzptV4
Hi, Doug, I like that one. Mind if I "steal" it?
I've seen it attributed to several different people, included Anais Nin, and a Kabbalist Rabbi whose name I can't recall right now.
"Enjoy." --- Glad you like it; it's pretty profound, and a very helpful reminder, for most of us.
I attended one of those, last year -- and it was pretty awesome to chant (in the "a lot like singing along with a rock song" sense of that term ....) along with 1500 or so regular Americans (of the apparently non-yogic variety, I mean) in a sold-out theater.
I've actually chanted with KD (as he is known) a lot. A few years ago, I did a weeklong chant workshop with a bunch of American chant artists at Kripalu, and was at the sound-check for KD's workshop (I was one of only a handful of non-band members present).
We were providing the "response" part, as we went through a few songs. He asked what we wanted to do as a last song, and someone said "Hanuman Chalisa", and he said, "You guys don't know it ...."
A couple (literally) of us said that we did, and he said ... "Okayyyy ...." ... and started it ... and, as you can imagine, it was much fun.
It's in Hindi, not Sanskrit, but here it is, just for reference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZf-kxnU7bk
(That's kind of a triple-time version ... I selected it, because it has the lyrics and the meanings on the video - so you can pause and read, if you're interested).
http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Sanskrit.htm
The pioneer of Sanskrit studies, and thus, the modern field of linguistics, was Sir William Jones, whose experience with Sanskrit was profoundly revelatory:
"The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin and more exquisitely refined than either: yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs, and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident."
Example:
Yoga Sutra 1.2 states Yogash Chitta Vritti Nirodhah - Yoga (Union) is the non-attachment (nirodhah) to the movements (vritti) of the mind/consciousness (chitta).
Nirodhah is often translated, wrongly, as "control".
I know that Ni or Nir are negating prefixes in Sanskrit - but I didn't know what "Rodhah" meant, and so, looked it up (there are quite a few good Sanskrit dictionaries online, for anyone who is interested).
Rodhah is defined is a couple of primary ways - the first having to do with over-attachment, emotionally, as in a romantic situation. The second has to do with resistance, or opposition - rebelling against.
These two sets of definitions seemed very opposite, until I got it: they're equally *attached* - attachment and aversion, clinging and resistance, are equally involved with whatever the object we are engaging with (lover, employer, child, state, etc. - anything).
And so, ni-rodhah is literally non-attachment ..... and Yoga Sutra 1.2 becomes much more clear, powerful, and in line with the deepest teachings of yogic wisdom -- whereas "control" seemed very un-yogic in its intent (for, with attempted control, we remain attached).
For anyone who wants to check out some Sanskrit in bite-sized pieces, here's my favorite online translation of the Yoga Sutras:
http://www.swamij.com/index-yoga-meditation-yoga-sutras.htm
That article shows nirodha(h) as "settling", which isn't a bad translation, either; better than "control".