'THE IMPORTANCE OF SANSKRIT TO HINDUISM' - by Shukavak N. Das

[and/or www.mantra.com/jai]

'THE IMPORTANCE OF SANSKRIT TO HINDUISM' - by Shukavak N. Das

[ From: Dr. Jai Maharaj
[ Subject: THE IMPORTANCE OF SANSKRIT TO HINDUISM
[ Date: Sunday, May 4, 2003

Forwarded article

Sanskrit

The Importance of Sanskrit to Hinduism

By Shukavak N. Das
SRI

Hinduism and Sanskrit are inseparably related. The roots of Hinduism
can be traced to the dawn of Vedic civilization. From its inception,
Vedic thought has been expressed through the medium of the Sanskrit
language. Sanskrit, therefore, forms the basis of Hindu civilization.

As language changes, so religion changes. In the case of Hinduism,
Sanskrit stood for three millennia as the carrier of Vedic thought
before its dominance gradually gave way to the vernacular dialects
that eventually evolved into the modern day languages of Hindi,
Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and so on. Although the
foundations of Hinduism are built on the vocabulary and syntax of
Sanskrit, these modern languages are now the primary carriers of
Hindu thought within India. While the shift from Sanskrit to these
regional languages forced a change in the meaning of words, and
therefore a change in how subsequent generations interpreted the
religion, the shift was at least within the context of languages that
were closely related to Sanskrit.

In the last century, however, a new phenomenon has been occurring.
Hinduism has begun to emerge in the West in two significant forms.
One is from Westerners who have come to embrace some variety of
Hinduism through contact with a Hindu religious teacher. The other is
through the immigration of Hindus who were born in India and who have
now moved to the West. One of the first and most striking examples of
the former scenario was Swami Vivekananda’s appearance in Chicago at
the Parliament of World Religions in 1896. At the time, Vivekananda
received wide coverage in the American press and later in Europe as
he traveled to England and other parts of Europe. Along the way he
created many followers. Swami Vivekananda was the trailblazer for a
whole series of Hindu teachers that have come to the West and who
still continue to arrive today. The incursion of so many Hindu holy
men has brought a new set of Hindu vocabulary and thought to the mind
of popular Western culture.

The other important transplantation of Hinduism into the West has
occurred with the increase in immigration to America and other
Western countries of Hindus from India. In particular, during the
1970s America saw the influx of many Indian students who have
subsequently settled in America and brought their families. These
groups of immigrant Hindus are now actively engaged in creating Hindu
temples and other institutions in the West.

As Hinduism expands in the West, the emerging forms of this ancient
tradition are naturally being reflected through the medium of Western
languages, most prominent of which, is English. But as we have
pointed out, the meanings of words are not easily moved from one
language to the next. The more distant two languages are separated by
geography, latitude and climate, etc. the more the meanings of words
shift and ultimately the more the worldview shifts. While this is a
natural thing, it does present the danger that the emerging Hindu
religious culture in the West may drift too far afield. The
differences between the Indian regional languages and Sanskrit are
minuscule when compared to the differences between a Western language
such as English and Sanskrit.

With this problem in mind, the great difficultly in understanding
Hinduism in the West, whether from the perspective of conversion or
from a second generation of Hindus, is that it is all too easy to
approach Hinduism with foreign concepts of religion in mind. It is
natural to unknowingly approach Hinduism with Christian, Jewish and
Islamic notions of God, soul, heaven, hell and sin in mind. We
translate brahman as God, atman as soul, papa as sin, dharm as
religion. But brahman is not the same as God; atman is not equivalent
to the soul, papa is not sin and dharm is much more than mere
religion. To obtain a true understanding of sacred writings, such as
the Upanishads or the Bhagavad-gita, one must read them on their own
terms and not from the perspective of another religious tradition.
Because the Hinduism now developing in the West is being reflected
through the lens of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, the theological
uniqueness of Hinduism is being compromised or completely lost.

Ideally, anyone attempting to understand Hinduism should have a
working knowledge of Sanskrit. Ideally, all Hindu educational
institutions and temples should teach Sanskrit, and all Hindu youth
should learn Sanskrit. In reality this is not occurring, nor is it
likely to occur. The critical mass that it takes to create a culture
of Sanskrit learning is not here.

Even within the Hindu temples that are appearing in the West as a
result of Hindu immigration, the demand for Sanskrit instruction is
not there. And why should it be there? After all, these first
generations of Hindu immigrants themselves do not know Sanskrit.
Their Hinduism is through the regional languages. One may argue that
Hinduism is still related closely enough to its Sanskritic roots
through the regional languages. The problem with this argument is
that even these regional languages are not being aggressively taught
to the new generation. And if the history of other immigrant cultures
to American is any gauge, the regional languages of India will die
out after one or two generations in the great melting pot of America.
This means that the Hindu youth of the second generation are
gradually losing their regional ethnic roots and becoming
increasingly westernized.

I do not suggest that this means the end of Hinduism. In fact I see
positive signs when Hindu youth come to temples for darshan and
prayer and increasingly ask for Hindu weddings and other pujas. But
it does suggest that the new Hinduism that is developing in the West
will evolve in a way that is divorced from its vernacular roots, what
to speak of its Sanskritic roots, as Christianity in the West has
developed separated from its original language base.

A solution to this problem of religious and cultural drift is to
identify and create a glossary of Sanskrit religious words and then
to bring them into common usage. Words such as brahman, dharm, papa
should remain un-translated and become part of the common spoken
language when we speak of Hindu matters. In this way, at least an
essential vocabulary that contains the subtleties of Hinduism can
remain in tact. To a limited extent this is already occurring. Words
such as karma, yoga and dharm are a part of common English speech,
although not with their full religious meanings intact. In the right
hand column is a list of terms along with a summary of their meanings
that I suggest should be learned and remain un-translated by students
of Hinduism. These are terms taken primarily from the Bhagavad-Gita
and the major Upanishads.

- Shukavak N. Das

To read this article with diacritics click here. (pdf download)

http://www.sanskrit.org/Sanskrit/Why%20study%20Sanskrit.pdf
[URL worked in 2003]

End of forwarded message

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

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