Learning Samskritam

Last week I saw a pamphlet in Navjyoti ji's room. It talked of a 5 day residential Sanskrit learning shivir. To learn Indian languages has been in my plans for a long time, but I never considered Sanskrit among them. I never knew anyone who would speak Sanskrit and would be ready to teach me. So seeing this pamphlet I thought to give it a try. The cost of shivir for just Rs.150 for 5 days, something which I could afford. I also thought, learning Sanskrit could provide me the base to learn more Indian languages as it is the mother of all languages. I asked Navjyoti ji about it and he readily agreed for me to go there.

The shivir was organized in a Sai Dham ashram in a village on outskirts of Hyderabad. The venue was an added incentive for me. I thought it would give me another experience of spending some time in rural Andhra and therefore learn more about the local way of living. While on my way to the venue I thought not more than 5 people would be present. After all who would be interested in learning Sanskrit when better options like French, German and English were available. Maybe a few old people who have retired from jobs would come for such a workshop.

When I reached there I was surprised to see the number of people who had come. There must have been around 60 people, as young as Pranav who studied in class VII and as old a few people of my grandparents' age. I was also happy to see Prashant and Lini there. I knew then already from IIIT. When I reached there, a lecture was being delivered by a swami ji. He was speaking in Sanskrit, and I understood almost nothing of what he said.

Our classes started around 11am on the first day. I was looking forward to their way of teaching a language. To be able to learn a language in just 5 days was something I wanted to see how. The golden rule of the shivir was to speak in Sanskrit. Only in Sanskrit for the next 5 days, whether we are in class or outside. How would I do that when I don't know Sanskrit. Well you speak while enacting the actions. So for example if I'm asking for water, I enact out water and use the word 'Jalam' for it. If I don't know the word 'Jalam', then by the response from the other person I will get to know that water means 'Jalam'. I would also know the use of the word 'Jalam'. Our teacher Devki said, "we teach language the way a mother teaches it to her child, through actions". We all learned our languages not from grammar books but by observing our parents, by them enacting to us what they wanted to communicate. When I see my young nephew who is still learning our language, actions is what he uses to describe things to us. Thats the way you learn a language.

So the next 5 days were very interesting for me. We were speaking,acting,making mistakes and laughing. All that made us think in Sanskrit. Our time-table of the was also well packed. We would get up at 5am and sleep by 10 in the night. The Ashram was 10km from a near by village named Keesara. It was on top of a hill with hills all around. I asked Sanjeev Mahodaya (who was one of the organizers) next day in the morning about arrangements of toilet. He said I could just go anywhere. I just need to pick a bucket and walk in any direction, find a suitable place and then do the needful. When I asked about bathing, same was his answer. I could just fill my bucket and take bath in the open. WOW! thats what I was looking for. I have had not had this experience of going out in the field and bathing in open for some years now. The only place I find this luxury is in my village. I used it to the fullest here. This of course meant regularizing my diet. I could not afford to over-eat or eat at wrong timings. I cannot afford to have pressure at anytime of the day. I could also not afford to not have pressure at 5 in the morning. Luckily it all went well. I ate regularly, and it just went fine. A few steps closer to natural living.

Being there I also got an insight of Andhra way of eating food. The meals are eaten in number of courses. First rice if served along with dry vegetable and chutney. Once you have done with that, more rice would be served, this time with Sambar. Mind you, there are no bowls or spoons. The only utensil they have is a plate and they prefer eating with hands. So rice and Sambar is mixed well and eaten. When done with that, more rice is served with buttermilk. I do not know the local name of buttermilk, but since we were speaking in sanskrit it was referred as 'takram'. Rice was 'annam', dry vegetable was 'vyanjanam' and sambar was 'shakanam'. Water was of couse 'jalam'. This style of eating is quite different from north Indian way of eating. In north chapati (Indian bread) is a must in any meal, which is something not seen in south. Also in north people just eat everything together. So this experience was something new and wonderful for me. The food was more than usual spicy for me.

This shivir was organized by an organization named Sanskrit Bharti. In Sanskrit they see immense potential. A lady told us that the nation of Israel was built around Hebrew language. Few people spent their entire lives simplifying Hebrew and making it the national language and around that they were able to built a whole nation. Using Sanskrit, re-uniting the whole Bharat seemed one of the objectives. There was also a strong belief that chanting of Sanskrit slokas is good for mind, body and environment. And then there are the vedas. A lot of people including myself who believe the vedas have a lot of knowledge in them which needs to be explored. And to do that Sanskrit is the medium. So Sanskrit there was something more than a language. It was a means to save our culture.

For me there was another interesting observation. I got a feel of what traditional Indian way of knowing is and I could compare it with modern way of understanding things. The way I was grown up, I developed a habit of understanding things through logic. It is called the rationale way of thinking. That's how we understand things, and that how we believe things can be understood. But there has been another way of understanding which is seen in Indian tradition and also in Buddist. This is by first completely submitting oneself to what is being said. To completely being the way it is required to understand. And then have faith and patience both that understanding will come. In this method, faith is the most important thing to start with. You can not start by doubting the proposal. Where as in modern style, raising questions becomes an important part of learning.

I found myself devided between these two processes. I could not think of understanding by any other method than reasoning. But I could not neglect the traditional method too as I know people who have understood things using this method. For me, the 5 days were a struggle to decide what method I should adopt when listening to all that was talked about there.

The shivir also gave an opportunity to make new friends. Spending time together and learning a language made us gel together well. We all enjoyed each other's company.