We Commented to Innovate/Re-invent !

//shriih//

Dear Friends,

Recently I participated in a national seminar(organised as a colloquium) on "Sanskrit Commentaries : Their Literary and Philosophical Evaluation" at DAV College,Naneola near Ambala in Haryana.

While delivering my address I came upon the question as to why first hand study of the commentaries is no more a practice in our colleges and universities and even in traditional seats of learning.I found that this is largely due to the fact that in the study and teaching of Sanskrit as a language or of the shaastras, Samskrit has taken a back seat and the learners aren'nt conversant with the idiom that was once the proud lingua franca of the whole subcontinent.

A student while reading Kalidasa doesn't care to go through Mallinatha and students of Upanishads don't look to the great commentaries.In Grammar the Mahabhashya has gone to the winds and who should take note of Pradiipa and Uddyota commentaries on it ?Baalamanoramaa and Tattvabodhinii are not browsed for Siddhaanta-kaumudii or the marvelous commentaries on the orthodox and heterodox darshana-suutras are out of taste of the new generation learners and teachers both.

The reason being that there are commentaries in other regional languages including Hindi which promise a easy to do facility beyond the scope of the Samskrit commentaries!Akke cen madhu bindeta kimartham parvatam vrajet ?The normal aim is to fetch good marks and get through exams and not shaastra-maniishaa!

If the shaastras are to be assured kshema-yoga,then we ought to be serious in replacing the practice of being prudent in regional languages during shaastra-carcaa with sincerity in making deft use of Samskrit so that students get to the habit of going back to the heart of the shaastras through our illustrious commentaries.

Some institutions are coming up with the ideal atmosphere for Samskrit and shaastras.
Samskrit is the natural habitat for the shaastras!

The key is in the hands of the teachers.But shall they contemplate and bring back Samskrit to the curriculum and classroom ?

Shall we take necessary steps to stop divorcing Samskrit from shaastras and prevent further erosion ?

With warm regards,
Surendramohan Mishra
Kurukshetram

//shriih// ittham me pratibhaati sanmatir iyam !---Is Paanini a Non-dualist/Monist ?

Esteemed Scholars,

Namaskaarah.

You will excuse me for this wild guess not unsupported by facts that Paanini,initially an unsuspecting dualist, has been pictured in the tradition of the following grammarians as a hardcore non-dualist thanks to the influences of Tantra,Advaita Shaivaagama of Kashmir and Advaita Vedaanta in due course.Paanini ought to be a Shaiva dualist sharing a number of common fundamentals with Vaisheshikas and Naiyaayikas in respect of ontology,metaphysics and epistemology.

The Paninian formations are more close to a multiple universe consisting of multiple reals with mutual interaction.It's basic layout and tenets are closer to atomism and ancient particle physics as one could denote it and not certainly a non-dual eternal verbum with an overdose of spiritual psychology as Bhartrihari and Naagesha etc have laid it to be largely believed.For such views the supportive germination is in the Mahaabhaashya of Patanjali which is considered as the mainstay of Samskrit grammatical edifice.The Vaartikas of Kaatyaayana were either assimilated or replied to therein.

Without contesting the brilliance of the Cuurni in matters of grammatical expedition of the wold of words,well a simple query could be entertained for consideration : Is Phanin unimpeachably faithful to the spirit(s) of Paanini in his basic treatise(s) ?What is it that Patanjali has of his innovated and added ? Has this extended vision and version not placed things in an order other than what initially darbha-pavitra-
paani Paanini could have in his illustrious mind?

Or is this an atiprashna ? To me let's find out causes to believe and not to believe in the possible digressions that have taken place resulting in ascribing attitudes to Paanini which on closer scrutiny would appear to be not his cup of tea !

I humbly submit this to the vidvats to elicit their considered response :

prashnah sa me baala-mataav udeti naa 'tiprashasto yadi vaa sadahsu,
santas tu satpaksha-nipaata-dakshaas tarka-pramaanair na tu ruudha-tantraah.

saprashraya-bahumaanam,

Surendramohan Mishra
Kurukshetram

//shriih//naa 'nartham vidyate 'ksharam /na varno vidyate 'narthah !

Dear Colleagues,
An input by N R Joshi in USA and some comments by scholars thereto in the site of Bharatiiya Vidvat Parishad has made me think on this fundamental issue.Sri Aurobindo i know provides the brightest clue so far after the Tantras in this regard.
This is a moot question regarding the smallest components in a sentence,viz.letters as to whether at this level some semantic content could be made out.Or that these are the merely the scaffolding and the sentence is entirely independent as perhaps implied by Bhartrihari in his celebrated Vaakyapadiiya at "pade varnaa na vidyante" etc.in the first kaanda.I think Bhartrihari is only partially justified if he tells this in a relative vein.But in absolute sense this is not true that like words having no independent meaning in a sentence,letters also do have no significative value.I have contested this in my blog in Sanskrit "surendrashastram.blogspot.com .

I shall be obliged for more enlightening explanation.

Vidushah pranipatya,

Surendramohan Mishra

//shrih// vaco-vinyaasa-vaicitryam

Dear Friends !

Is there any semblance between sentence and sentience ? Our sentences are obviously homosapient and so also our sentience is.Our peculiar sentience engenders and definitively shapes our peculiar sentences for communication either with the external world in overtly verbal form or in covertly verbal form while dealing with oneself,that is when we think,we of course think in language.This is a very peculiar phenomenon which calls for a philosophical explanation.

Is sentence a form of sentience or even sentience itself ! Philosophers vary in their positions and related arguments.Kumaarila distinguishes between a vikalpa and a shabda and both to be generating each other.Both are essentially the same as averred by another realist Naiyaayika.The advaitin would put it all back to cit or sentience better put as consciousness.Bhartrihari does the same thing.But then this knower-known paradigm one couldn't in the ultimate count reject and that is just what is the position of the Advaita Shaivaagama of Kashmir and tacitly as though this is admitted by the Naiyaayikas although with their admitted unimpeachable realistic dualistic position.

And can we differentiate sentience from consciousness per se,taking the former in the sense of
a particular individualised homosapient or otherwise consciouness and the later as the universal base of it,which may help us in philosophising more accurately ?

Surendra

vaag eva vishvaa bhuvanaani jajne

Dear Colleagues and Friends !

There is a saying in the Vedas that it is out of the potent Word that the universe has manifested in it's multifaceted reality.A true word is born of a true mind and it prompts a true action.Thus language plays an important role in shaping our mind and action.The cliche 'mind your own language' has a deeper sense.An individual as well as a society and a country ought to have a language which brings into being better minds and nobler actions which always make our world better.Language is the repository of our past,is a guide to our present and is a promissory note for our future,for it is our resolve couched in language that opens up doors on the brighter or gloomier tomorrows.That's just why grammarians,linguists and philosophers or yogins all over the world nurse and nurture the best in language which helps us catch up with the truth here or hereafter.

Many languages we have in the world, a few centuries of them in India alone,but Samskrit is unique,now the psycholinguists and computer scientists are further lending proof to this.She is the breathing apparatus of India's longest living vibrant and incessantly self-rejuvenating culture.Now the world of languages and linguists must celebrate the fact that recently the state of Uttarakhand has declared Samskrit as it's second official language.The serene Himalayan state has set an example worth emulating by other states and even the centre by placing Samskrit by the side of Hindi which is the official language as spelt in the constitution.This will be doing a long due justice to saints and statesmen like Swami Vivekananda,Swami Dayananda,Sri Aurobindo,the Mother of Pondicherry,Mahatma Gandhi,B.R.Ambedkar,K.M.Munshi and many others who put a premium on Samskrit education which was ruthlessly repressed and distorted during the British rule.

Let Samskrit regenerate herself to prove her historic legacy and living vitality in serving her divine vision and mission of a great India leading a great world !

Yours in truth,

Surendra

vishvatascakshur uta vishvataspaat

Dear and Honoured Friend,

The Vedas state that all eyes are verily His and all feet are verily His too.Thus all seeing-knowing and movement in multiple directions are verily His !If this is a fact and if we can assure ourselves of the idealistic and pragmatic use of this in a globalised world plagued with innumerable divisions and none seems prepared to see and on the undivided whole.This holism the Vedas declare in unequivocal spirit.Why can't we have a universal morality and distributive justice.The self of globalization ought to be visited by the champions of international justice and human rights and and develop that much required global ethical quotient without which globalisation in the earnest would be a misnomer.

Kindly concentrate on a better tomorrow !

Love and regards,

Surendra

sarasvati shrutimahati mahiyataam

Dear Esteemed Colleagues,

Namaste !

I am creating this blog to come close to you,to interact and collaborate in bringing out the best in ideas and idioms latent in our roots and branches of culture and civilization which promise an ideal,peaceful and purposeful human life on earth and elsewhere if so possible which is at once sustainable and in harmony with the universe as such.

We shall contemplate in retrospect and prospect knowing our individual follies and foibles and ensure a better world to live in,by making matter and spirit in their best to meet,cohere and cooperate in shaping our tomorrows breathing in divine materialism and material divinity.

See you soon later.

Yours truly,

Surendra