Conversational Sanskrit

Vedanta is the essence of the teaching of the vedas. The foundation of Vedanta rests on three sources  also referred to as the three points of departure or  प्रस्थानत्रय 1. उपनिषद ्     sruti prasthana, the revealed texts (sruti - that which is heard). The Upanishads are an extraordinary collection of philosophical texts that are considered  by many to be among the most influenctial texts in the human experience . 2. भगवद्गीता     smriti prasthana, composed by sages, is based on their understanding of the Vedas (smriti - that which is remembered). It is a part of the महाभारत and contains the essence of the उपनिषद्. It is rightly said of भगवद्गीता  that सर्वोपनिषदो गावो दोग्धा गोपालनन्दन|  all upanishads are cows, milked by Nandagopal 3. वेदान्तसूत्र   of बादरायण  or  nyaya prasthana, the logical text that sets forth the philosophy systematically and logically  in a ...

श्लोकार्धेन प्रवक्ष्यामि यदुक्तं ग्रन्थकोटिभिः| ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन् मिथ्या जीवो ब्रह्मैव नापरः || shlokaardhena pravakshyami yaduktam granthakotibhi.h | brahma satyam jaganmithyaa jiivo brahmaiva naapara.h || In half a shloka I will say what has been said in crores of books; Brahman is real and the world unreal, the individual self and brahman are the same and not different

At the other end of the spectrum from the Caravaka school is the philosophy of Adi Sankara i.e. Advaita. Should we call him a renaiassance man, or perhaps the renaissance superman. By the time of his death at age 32 he had not only written epic commentaries on 10 upanishads, bhagavadgita and vedantasutra but also walked on foot from Kerala to Kashmir, Nepal, Assam, Andhra, Tamil nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat and Odisha and trounced all the renowned scholars in Buddhism and Jainism and other schools of thought in debate and established Advaita vedanta as the dominant school of thought. What a guy! Advaita put quite simply says that the ultimate reality ( Brahman) is pure consciousness which is formless and without attributes and all categories of intellect ( nirguna), that Atman the individual soul is but a part ( not separate, not two but one) of Brahman just like the space in a jar is part of space at large, that it is only ignorance that limits Jiva from Brahman and that knowledge is t...

In their criticism of the excesses of the brahminical ritualism, the materialistic views of the caravakas lost because they went too far. They negated not only the existence of god but all that is noble in the human condition, of the concept of right and wrong, of the role of inference in thought and the existence of the soul. It still has a place as a school of thought because it was the first protest movement that culminated in the self examination, intellectual debate and ultimately the reformation and renaissance of vedic hinduism.

Among the philosophical schools of the Indian tradition, there is one, which is so contrary that it's very acceptance as a school of thought appears incomprehensible. This is the Caravaka or lokayata philosophy. It negates not only the primacy of the Vedas, but also the existence of a supreme being, the very existence of the soul or its transmigration from one birth to other, the concept of r ight and wrong, all Vedic rituals, the testimony of the sages and anything that cannot be perceived by the senses. The purpose of life is described as nothing but the enjoyment of the senses!. The preceptor of this school was Brhaspati. They quote shlokas from the Rgveda, BrhadAranyaka Upanishad, Mahabharata and Ramayana as authority for their viewpoint. Here are some doozies of shlokas from this system: न स्वर्गो न अपवर्गो वा नैव आत्मा पारलौकिकः | न एव वर्णाश्रमादीनां क्रियाश्च फलदायिकाः || There is no heaven, no final liberation, nor any soul in another world nor do the rituals o...

‎ Samskrita Bharati has pioneered the spread of samskritam as spoken language.With the focus on speaking the language.Freed from the focus on memorizing the rules of grammar you begin to enjoy the beauty of the language. Very soon a window opens up for you to the vast treasure of Indian thought, literature and heritage. Over the last 32 years Samskrita Bharati has taught spoken samskritam to 100, 0 00, 000 people in 13 countries ( http:// www.samskritabharati.org/ ). My wife Uma, and I have been learning samskritam through Samskrita Bharati for the last 6 years and are currently doing our MA final in Samskritam. This has been a defining moment in our lives and I cannot say enough, how about how much our lives have been enriched by learning samskritam. We have been teaching samskritam since the last 4 years, beginning at the Sri Venkateshwara temple in Pittsburgh. Having learnt samskritam while pursuing our extremely busy careers in academic medicine, we reached out to busy motivat...