Greetings Everyone
Well here we are all safe and sound back in Perth. What a great time we had in India! (Once we
got adjusted to the plumbing, sitting on the floor, and eating with our fingers!).
Our host at the Aksharam was Vasuvaj Ji and he looked after us extremely well. They hired a
professional chef (Indian) for the week to cook for us and he delighted us with a variety of
authentic Indian vegetarian food every day.
Some choice photos from the trip can be viewed at
www.philosophywa.com.au/SanskritForum/Bangalore.php
Our Sanskrit Tutors were all very highly qualified, most with Masters and some with PhD in
Sanskrit. Very quick and all good fun. All of them spoke Sanskrit like it was their first language,
which it was not.
We studied grammar, conversation, Patanjali's Sutras, & a play by Kalidasa. In addition we
also chanted Chapter 12 of the Gita everyday and attended a public Conversation class in the
evenings with about 30 locals. They soon left us far behind! So the day started with an optional
Yoga class at 6am which was a 15 minute walk from the Aksharam. This was the funniest thing I
think I did all week. To see all those Indian ladies dressed in their finery performing amazing feats
with their bodies, some of which were rather large, when I couldn't even begin to attempt half of
the positions! We laughed and laughed at ourselves, and the other Indian ladies joined in! After an
hour of that we showered and changed, meditated and arrived for breakfast at 8.15am.
Our first class started at 9.30am which was usually Sundya with our grammar class. Here we
learned new vocab and verb conjunctions and lots of useful nipata words for getting through the
day, like 'paryaptam' = enough, and 'kinchit' = little (useful at lunchtime!) and 'dhanyavada' =
thankyou and may others.
After a short morning tea break of 15 minutes, our next class was with Arti where we chanted
Chapter 12 of the Gita, under her instruction, to a traditional tune for the shloka meter. This was
my favourite part of the day. After that we then looked at a play by Kalidasa which told the story
of Parvati's endeavours to attract the attentions of Siva. Arti is particularly interested in Sanskrit
poetry and gave us a very in depth meaning of each verse relating the imagery back to the
traditions of the Indian way of life, even today.
Lunch was at around 12 noon and then we had some free time until our next class at 2.30pm. This
was usually Sri Pada and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Sri Pada's specialty is this area. Again much
like Arti's class he would read a verse and then explain the meaning in great depth as it related to
self realisation. These were more like Philosophy classes and we all found them to be fascinating.
Sri Pada also spoke at the Sanskrit Conference to the learned audience there. He is about 25 years
old, as is Arti.
Then at 4pm we had a short tea break before Vasuvaj came into give us some instruction in
Sanskrit Conversation. This was the most fun of all the classes, as Vasuvaj would act out short
stories for us to repeat and translate. He also went through the common forms of a variety of
verbs and how they are commonly used in speech.
After a very short break of only 5 minutes or so we would then join a Sanskrit Conversation
class to which the general public was invited. This went from 5.30pm to 7.30pm which was
bordering on just a bit too long for most of us. Dinasha was the tutor and he was very good. He
had a table full of objects for us to learn the vocab for and then would use these items in making
sentences with each day's new concept. So we started with singular forms then to plural, then to
present tense then past and future, then masc, fem and neuter forms and so on. Each day building
up the vocab and the ability to construct sentences. Other useful words were also introduced such
as left, right, quick, slow, near, far, under, above, isn't it, enough and many other such words
which were then used in the sentence construction. The 'public' were Indians from children of
about 6 through to adults aged above 60 or more. Because most of the Indian dialects have 40 to
60% of their words derived from Sanskrit they picked it all up very quickly, leaving us to struggle
on in their wake. Some of us managed to stay with them longer than the others, however, it was
good fun and we all enjoyed the play. Speaking of which, several of the students from this class
put on short Sanskrit plays for the last lesson, including Dianne, Margaret and Vincent! It was a
hoot, and the Indians thought so too!
Sometimes the order of the lessons changed to accommodate various festival obligations to be
attended to by our teachers. So the order was a bit different each day, but the times stayed the
same.
Our group consisted of me and Bernie (my husband), Dianne Kruger, Jean and Peter Wyder, and
Glenice Turner from Perth, Catherine Lennox from Sydney, Margaret Hassett and Vincent Wallace
from Dublin all from School of Philosophy and two others who joined our group for the 12 days.
They were Paul from Boston and Janaka a monk from Burma.
Also from Dublin, Mr Shane Mulhall joined us for a few days to attend the two day Conference
nearby entitled "The Indian Approach to Calming the Mind". Mr Mulhall was invited to speak to the
assembly of very learned and fluent Sanskrit buffs which of course, included our group. The
conference was held at a Gurukulam or High School on the outskirts of Bangalore. Mr Mulhall was
very well received and was even asked to stay the night, which he did even though the
accommodation was about -3 star!
He also gave a talk to the staff and administration of the Aksharam on the Monday morning before
he left for Ireland. He was most impressed by the work begin done in the area of Sanskrit by the
Aksharam and they too by the commitment to Sanskrit by the Philosophy Day Schools around the
world.
While there we had plenty of opportunity to experience the sights and sounds of India. We went
out to a restaurant one evening to celebrate Catherine's Birthday and also on our last evening
with our teacher Arti and her parents. Arti is a Brahmin and is working towards her PHD in
Sanskrit Poetry.
There was a temple next door to our Aksharam and everyday the noise of prayers and music to go
along with them was almost deafening at times. Everyday there seemed to be a festival, and one
or other of the temples (one on every street corner just about) was celebrating something. So
there were always lots of people everywhere we went, and all very colourful.
We all gave speaking in Sanskrit a good go, however, the Indians speak it so quickly we were
always having to ask them to repeat things again slowly! But they were very generous and patient
with us all. I have great sympathy for foreigners coming to our country with no English!
We also had a wonderful across town excursion to the Vedanta Bookshop and the temple of
Ramakrishna. We caught a bus! The traffic is really insane and horns tooting all the time. But we
made it, although we nearly missed our stop. Then we caught a tricharkra (motorised rickshaw
type vehicle) back and that was taking your life into your own hands! But much to our amazement
we all arrived back safely.
Many shopping trips were undertaken. With a walk of about 15 minutes we were in a 'high'
street lined with all sorts of shops (market style really). On the first day we had Indian 'dresses'
made and wore them during our stay. They make them to order in a day or so and are very cheap.
All the Indian ladies looked beautiful in these and in their silk saris as well.
The weather was really fantastic, not at all hot, and just pleasantly warm. Each day we had a
downpour of monsoon rain in the late afternoon, and if you got caught in that then you were most
certainly drenched within seconds. (And we all did get caught at one point or another)!
All in all a fantastic experience, and wonderful to hear the Sanskrit language spoken so clearly and
with such enthusiasm. Vasuvaj and his wife have made Sanskrit their foremost language at
home. They have two year old twins, who speak only Sanskrit and will do so until they go to
school and learn the local dialect Kanada, and later Hindi and English.
Most people we came across spoke English as well as two or three other languages, except the
shopkeepers! (Just when we needed it most!).
Many thanks to Margaret Hassett, whose enthusiasm and drive were very instrumental in
getting us from Perth to go on this Sanskrit Adventure. Vincent too, was very helpful and most
resourceful during our stay.
So if anyone is interested in going to this Aksharam please email Margaret at
margaret.hassett@city-learning.com as she is organising another trip at the end of December. It is
a once in a lifetime experience to discover Sanskrit at a grass roots level.
A set of CDs is available for learning to speak Sanskrit from the Samskrita Bharati Aksharam which
is very good. If you would like to acquire a set then please either email Margaret or me. The cost
is around 20 Euros plus postage.
Again some choice photos of the trip can be viewed at
www.philosophywa.com.au/SanskritForum/Bangalore.php