RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL PRACTICES

Why Should One Learn Sanskrit?

An essential part of the seeking for a universal tradition is the looking for a universal language. Such a universal language exists within Sanatana Dharma as Sanskrit, the ancient spiritual language of the great yogis and seers. Sanskrit is the oldest of the Indo-European languages and has been looked upon as the Mother of all languages.

Language is based upon sound and meaning. The meaning is the most important thing but the sound should be appropriate to it. This is why poetry, which blends sound and meaning, has so much power. Each sound has a certain energetic quality that can be useful for conveying certain meanings. Sanskrit is a purely spiritual language in which sound and meaning are united in the right way.

Sanskrit reflects the laws and powers of cosmic intelligence. It patterns human speech after universal law. As such it is an extremely precise language for working with spiritual experiences. Not surprisingly we have had to import many Sanskrit words into English - like guru, mantra, prana, shakti, kundalini - to help understand this realm that our ordinary language and mentality has not had much experience with.

Learning Sanskrit can be an important tool for developing the mind, controlling thought, sharpening perception and increasing creativity. It also provides access to the largest literature of Self-knowledge and Yoga in the world, including Hindu, Buddhist and Jain teachings going back for many thousands of years. However we should not merely learn to read Sanskrit or approach it as a dead language. Much of the power of Sanskrit is in its sound. We should learn to speak and chant it or otherwise we really don't know the language.

Classical Sanskrit was codified by the great grammarian Panini (c. 500 BC), whose classic the Ashtadhyaya is still studied for a proper understanding of the language. His model of language was recently found to be the most scientific for use with computers. Sanskrit is thus both the language of the past and the future and through it we can communicate with all time.

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