Hinduism and the original sources of it in Sanskrit language
and the myriads of unrecorded and geographically very widely spread, in times
of yore in many countries, various cultural practices in multiple local
languages are difficult to comprehensively comprehend by anyone that easily if
they are trying to understand it merely intellectually from any perspective and
based on that if they interpret it from any angle that is bound to be either
distorted or shortcoming in at least some way. Hinduism is, in short a puzzle
wrapped in mystery which is susceptible to multiple interpretations, including
many wrong ones. I mentioned Sanskrit because "I would like to quote a
wonderful and worthy observation from a wonderful blog maintained by my friend
Mike Magee http://www.shivashakti.com/ [don’t miss to see his page
http://www.shivashakti.com/datta.htm] about some aspect of Sanskrit language
“One of the unique but mysterious features of the Sanskrit language is how many
words can be used at three separate and distinct levels of thought. Even whole
verses have this remarkable feature. It is one of the factors which have made
translation into other languages so difficult. The difference presupposes three
groups of people. First there is the literal meaning intended for the
householder or worldly man, and a guide to better thought and action. The
second is the meaning on a higher level intended for the mumukshi or hungry
seeker for God. Here the same words take the reader from the mundane level to
the higher level, and the implications. The third is the meaning intended for
the soul who has attained or is nearly ready to attain liberation”. This
literally leads to both correct, crystal clear meanings and also gives room to
those who pander to chaotic and callous interpretations, more so in spiritual
texts, I stress spiritual texts, not religious ones, wherein there are always
many esoteric intrinsic meanings which unravel only to the enlightened souls
and not necessarily to a linguistic scholars or academic thinkers or even
intellectual giants.
So is the case with the very word GURU itself,....." http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2011/05/dear-all-i-was-asked-write-about-guru.html
Etymologically also you all would be surprised even many
English words for example the drink
called 'punch' we have with spirit, sweet, lemon/citrus stuff, a pinch
of salt and some other juice added got its name from Pancha of sanskrit then
into paanche in hindi referring to 5 ingredients to words like husband from the
sanskrit 'hasta bandham' all these are not my version but those of the great linguistic scholar David Crystal
through his programs in BBC and through his books. In fact in one of his books titled
‘words, words, words' in the chapter on etymology he writes with historical,
linguistic, lexicographical evidences if we trace back a few thousand years all
the following words along with another dozen more have a common root the words
are NICE, SCIENCE,CONSCIENCE, SHIT etc for those who are interested i shall
type half the chapter when i find time. so tracing the history, ancestry,
heritage , antiquity of anything when we dig up we may come up with many things
which may throw light on many things how we interpret them depends purely on
our own sense of aesthetics, concern for others' sensitivities, our own intense
or intolerant reactions, our own cultural and psychological make up etc. someone
must seriously look into Wendy's childhood or youth , she is just a tool
through which certain narrow interpretations of very great things came out . we
ourselves, i mean many Indians, many religious gurus themselves and Indian authors have also misinterpreted
many great words which by themselves could have even totally changed the
perspective of Indians as a whole on life , for example the word 'Dhrama' which
is central to many other activities, if not all, of life . The best definition
is in a sloka by none other than Adi shankara wherein he clearly says 'it refers
to doing anything for the MATERIAL and SPIRITUAL well being of the persons'
We misinterpret because of our tools of perception and our
own psychological reactions etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment