AIR,WINDS,CLOUDS ,SUNLIGHT,SKY ETC

Air, Wind, Clouds
Fog, Sky, Light, Stars, Lightening, Heavens

"For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually.  For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives subjects their true value."
-  Claude Monet  

"O, wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"
-  Percy Bysshe Shelley    

"Listen!  the wind is rising,
and the air is wild with leaves,
We have had our summer evenings,
now for October eves!"
-  Humbert Wolfe 

"The sky and the strong wind have moved the spirit inside me till I am carried away trembling with joy."
-  Uvavnuk   

"Brew me a cup for a winter's night.
For the wind howls loud and the furies fight;
Spice it with love and stir it with care,
And I'll toast our bright eyes,
my sweetheart fair."
-  Minna Thomas Antrim

"No one but Night, with tears on her dark face,
Watches beside me in this windy place."
-   Edna St. Vincent Millay  

"The leaves lay like hands upon the ground. 
When the wind rustles them, they applaud softly."
-  Laura E. Stevens    

"Every dewdrop and raindrop had a whole heaven within it."
-  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"No cloud above, no earth below,
A universe of sky and snow."
-  John Greenleaf Whittier    

"We are the stars which sing,
We sing with our light;
We are the birds of fire,
We fly over the sky.
Our light is a voice:
We make a road
For the spirit to pass over."
-  Algonquin Song of the Stars   

"There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind."
-  Annie Dillard   

 Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow."
-  Helen Keller    

"There are no limits to either time or distance, except as man himself may make them.  I have but to touch the wind to know these things."
-  Hal Borland  

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."
-   John Ruskin   

"Nothing that is can pause or stay;
The moon will wax, the moon will wane,
The mist and cloud will turn to rain,
The rain to mist and cloud again,
Tomorrow be today."
-  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow   

"twisting inland,
the sea fog takes awhile
in the apple trees."
-  Michael McClintock   

"The wind shows us how close to the edge we are."
-  Joan Didion   

"The fog is rising."
-  Emily Dickinson's last words   

"Although the wind is very powerful and you can feel its presence, in and of itself it cannot be seen.   You know it is there by its effect on others.  The great trees, the grasses and waves on the sea bend with its force.  If you are aware of your surroundings, you know it is there long before you feel it.  So it is with the ineffable." 
-  Author Unknown  

"Zeus, the father of the
Olympic Gods, turned
mid-day into night, hiding the light
of the dazzling Sun;
and sore fear came upon men."
-  Archilochus (c680-c640 BC), Greek poet
    Refers to the total SOLAR ECLIPSE OF  6 April 648 BC.  

"Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads.
The wind is passing by."
-  Christina Rossetti 

"Love is like dew that falls on both nettles and lilies."
-  Swedish proverb   

"We all like to congregate at boundary conditions. Where land meets water. Where earth meets air. Where bodies meet mind. Where space meets time.  We like to be on one side, and look at the other."
-  Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless  

"The wind blows hard among the pines
Toward the beginning
Of an endless past.
Listen: you've heard everything."
-   Shinkichi Takahashi, Zen Poems of  China and Japan,
    Lucien Stryk, p. 125  

"No issue is more compelling than the air we breathe,
be it hot or cold, be it hawk or human."
-  Jack Nicholson  

"Rainbows apologize for angry skies."
-  Sylvia Voirol  

"The mountain remains unmoved at seeming defeat by the mist."
-   Rabindranath Tagore  

"Don't knock the weather, nine-tenths of the
people couldn't start a conversation if it
didn't change once in a while."
-  Kin Hubbard   

"But on the twenty-fifth of May, at sunset, a violent wind howled madly,
Battering and rending my plants;
Rain poured down, Pounding the vines and flowers into the earth.
It was so painful
But as the work of the wind, I have to let it be ..."-RYOKAN 

"The shell must break before the bird can fly."
-  Alfred Tennyson  

"The inner - what is it?
if not intensified sky,
hurled through with birds
and deep with
the winds of homecoming."
-  Rainer Marie Rilke  

Wind is the loving
Wooer of waters;
Wind blends together
Billows all-foaming.
Spirit of man,
Thou art like unto water!
Fortune of man,
Thou art like unto wind!
-  Goethe, 1789  

"What ideal, immutable Platonic cloud could equal the beauty and
perfection of any ordinary everyday cloud floating over, say, Tuba
City, Arizona, on a hot day in June?"
-   Edward Abbey  

"Through woods and mountain passes
The winds, like anthems, roll."
-  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Midnight Mass for the Dying Year, 1839.  

"You know the Zen question, 'The Bodhisattva of Great Mercy [Avalokitesvara,
or Kannon] has a thousand hands and a thousand eyes; which is the true eye?'  I
could not understand this for a long time.  But the other day, when I looked at the
pine trees bending before the cold blasts from the mountain, I suddenly realized
the meaning.  You see, all the boughs, branches, twigs, and leaves simultaneously
bend to the wind with tremendous vigor."
-  Two Zen Classics, Translated by Katsuki Sekida, Case 37, Joshu's Oak Tree  

"When we inhale, the air comes into the inner world.
When we exhale, the air goes out to the outer world.
The inner world is limitless, and the outer world is also limitless.
We say "inner world" or "outer world" but actually,
There is just one whole world."
-  Shunryu Suzuki  

"To garden is to open your heart to the sky.
The grandest view from the garden is the open sky. 
To garden in the rain: irresistible fragrances and fresh air."
-  Michael P. Garofalo, PULLING ONIONS 

"We saw the strong trees struggle and their plumes do down,
The poplar bend and whip back till it split to fall,
The elm tear up at the root and topple like a crown,
The pine crack at the base - we had to watch them all.
The ash, the lovely cedar.  We had to watch them fall.

They went so softly under the loud flails of air,
Before that fury they went down like feathers,
With all the hundred springs that flowered in their hair,
and all the years, endured in all the weathers -
To fall as if they were nothing, as if they were feathers."
-  May Sarton, We Have Seen the Wind, 1938 

"The pleasant air and wind,
with sacred thoughts do
feed my serious mind."
-  Rowland Watkyns, The Poet's Soliloquy  

"The substance of the winds is too thin for human eyes, their written language is too difficult for human minds,and their spoken language mostly too faint for the ears."
-  John Muir 

 "I hear the wind among the trees
Playing the celestial symphonies;
I see the branches downward bent,
Like keys of some great instrument."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Day of Sunshine   

" This is what I have heard
at last the wind in December
lashing the old trees with rain
unseen rain racing along the tiles
under the moon
wind rising and falling
wind with many clouds
trees in the night wind"
-  W.S. MERWIN 

"We had a sunset of a very fine sort. The vast plain of the sea was marked off in bands of sharply-contrasted colors: great stretches of dark blue, others of purple, others of polished bronze; the billowy mountains showed all sorts of dainty browns and greens, blues and purples and blacks, and
the rounded velvety backs of certain of them made one want to stroke them, as one would the sleek back of a cat."
-  Mark Twain 

"Everything passes away — suffering, pain, blood, hunger, pestilence.  The sword will pass away too, but the stars will still remain when the shadows of our presence and our deeds have vanished from the earth.  There is no man who does not know that.  Why, then, will we not turn our eyes toward the stars? Why?"
-  Mikhail Bulgakov, The White Guard  

"The winds gives me
Enough fallen leaves
To make a fire"
-  Ryokan  

"Look at your feet. You are standing in the sky.  When we think of the sky, we tend to look up,
but the sky actually begins at the earth."
-  Diane Ackerman  

A Meta Shloka of Gita Verses

A Meta Shloka of Gita Verses

Shri R. Visvanatha Sastri (Prof. VK's father) has written a shloka, which refers to 18 verses of Gita. Read more about it here. The shloka itself is this

OmahaM prakR^itiM nainam yogabhaktyA mayA yataH /
amAnitvaM sukhaM kAryaM IshvaraH purushaH sa yat.h // * //



The following is a translation of the 18 verses (source: Swami Gambhirananda), with the five verses 13.(7-11) included.

1. omityekaaksharaM brahma vyaaharanmaamanusmaran.h .
   yaH prayaati tyajandehaM sa yaati paramaa.n gatim.h .. 8.13.. 
   
   He who departs by leaving the body while uttering the single syllable, viz Om, which is Brahman, and thinking of Me, he attains the supreme Goal. [Emphasis on final thoughts. The implied meaning is the emphasis on thoughts in the entire life.] [In the entire Gita, this is the only shloka that begins with Om.]
2. ahaM sarvasya prabhavo mattaH sarvaM pravartate .
   iti matvaa bhajante maaM budhaa bhaavasamanvitaaH .. 10.8.. 
   
   I am the origin of all; everything moves on owing to Me. Realizing thus, the wise ones, filled with fervour, adore Me. [The wise know that things happen due to Him and Prakriti and hence adore him, as they see the beauty of everything as it is.] [The verses 9.16 (and hence the series 9.(16-19)), 10.20 and 15.14 also begin with aham. The verses 9.24, 16.18 and 18.53 also begin with aham, though it is less likely that they are being referred to here.]
3. prakR^itiM purushha.n chaiva vidyanaadi ubhaavapi .
   vikaaraa.nshcha guNaa.nshchaiva viddhi prakR^itisaMbhavaan.h ..
   13.20.. 
   
   Know both Nature and also the individual soul to be verily without beginning; know the modifications as also the qualities as born of Nature. [Both of them are timeless without beginning.] [Though 9.8 and 13.1 both begin with the same word, it is less likely that this word refers to either of them.]
4. naina.n chhindanti shastraaNi naina.n dahati paavakaH .
   na chaina.n kledayantyaapo na shoshhayati maarutaH .. 2.23.. 
   
   Weapons do not cut It, fire does not burn It, water does not moisten It, and air does not dry It. [Though it is more subtle than space, Atman can be thought of as space, with space being one of the five elements. Just as the elements cannot interfere in each other, and hence the other four elements cannot interfere in the most subtle space, they cannot interfere in the Atman.]
5. yogayukto vishuddhaatmaa vijitaatmaa jitendriyaH .
   sarvabhuutaatmabhuutaatmat kurvannapi na lipyate .. 5.7.. 
   
   Endowed with yoga, pure in mind, controlled in body, a conqueror of the organs, the Self of the selves of all beings-he does not become tainted even while performing actions. [Even by doing, he is not contaminated.] [2.48 is a reasonable contender for this. What about 4.41?]
6. bhaktyaa maamabhijaanaati yaavaanyashchaasmi tattvataH .
   tato maaM tattvato GYaatvaa vishate tadana.ntaram.h .. 18.55.. 
   
   Through devotion he knows Me in reality, as to what and who I am. Then, having known Me in truth, he enters (into Me) immediately after that (Knowledge). [11.54 is a serious contender for this.]
7. mayaa tatamidaM sarva.n jagadavyaktamuurtinaa .
   matsthaani sarvabhuutaani na chaahaM teshhvavasthitaH .. 9.4.. 
   
   This whole world is prevaded by Me in My unmanifest form. All beings exist in Me, but I am not contained in them! [This verse, together with the next one (9.5), contains one of the three secrets of Gita. Prof. VK-ji explains it beautifully here.]
8. yataH pravR^ittirbhuutaanaa.n yena sarvamidaM tatam.h .
   svakarmaNaa tamabhyarchya siddhi.n vindati maanavaH .. 18.46.. 
   
   A human being achieves success by adoring through his own duties Him from whom is the origin of creatures, and by whom is all this pervaded. [The only shloka that begins with the word yataH.]
9. Ch.13-7: amAnitvaM adambhitvaM ... 

• amaanitvamadambhitvamahi.nsaa kshaantiraarjavam.h .
  aachaaryopaasanaM shauchaM sthairyamaatmavinigrahaH .. 13.7.. 
  
  (7.) Humility, unpretentiousness, non-injury, for-bearance, sincerity, service of the teacher, cleanliness, steadiness, control of body and organs;
• indriyaartheshhu vairaagyamanaha.nkaara eva cha .
  janmamR^ityujaraavyaadhiduHkhadoshhaanudarshanam.h .. 13.8.. 
  
  (8.) Non-attachment with regard to objects of the senses, and also absence of egotism; seeing the evil in birth, death, old age, diseases and miseries;
• asaktiranabhishhvaN^gaH putradaaragR^ihaadishhu .
  nitya.n cha samachittatvamishhTaanishhTopapattishhu .. 13.9..
  
  (9.) Non-attachment and absence of fondness with regard to sons, wives, homes, etc., and constant equanimity of the mind with regard to the attainment of the desirable and the undesirable;
• mayi chaananyayogena bhaktiravyabhichaariNii .
  viviktadeshasevitvamaratirjanasa.nsadi .. 13.10.. 
  
  (10.) And unwavering devotion to Me with single-minded concentration; inclination to repair into a clean place; lack of delight in a crowd of people;
• adhyaatmaGYaananityatva.n tattvaGYaanaarthadarshanam.h .
  etajGYaanamiti proktamaGYaanaM yadato.anyathaa .. 13.11.. 
  
  (11.) Steadfastness in the knowledge of the Self, contemplation on the Goal of the knowledge of Reality-this is spoken of as Knowledge. Ignorance is that which is other than this.

[There is no contention for these shlokas. They are the well known GYaana shloka, with GYaana here meaning sAdhana.]

10. sukhamaatyantikaM yattad.h buddhigraahyamatiindriyam.h .
    vetti yatra na chaivaayaM sthitashchalati tattvataH .. 6.21.. 
    
    When one experienece that absolute Blisss which can be intuited by the intellect and which is beyond the senses, and being established (thus) this person surely does not swerve from Reality; [About bliss of the Atman and the attitude of one who has experienced it.]
11. kaaryamityeva yatkarma niyataM kriyate.arjuna .
    saN^ga.n tyaktvaa phala.n chaiva sa tyaagaH saattviko mataH ..
    18.9.. 
    
    Whatever obligatory duty is performed just because it is a bounden duty, O Arjuna, by giving up attachment and the result as well,-that renunciation is considered to be based on sattva.
12. iishvaraH sarvabhuutaanaa.n hR^iddeshe.arjuna tishhThati .
    bhraamayansarvabhuutaani yantraaruuDhaani maayayaa .. 18.61.. 
    
    O Arjuna, the Lord resides in the region of the heart of all creatures, revolving through Maya all the creatures (as though) mounted on a machine!
13. purushhaH sa paraH paartha bhaktyaa labhyastvananyayaa .
    yasyaantaHsthaani bhuutaani yena sarvamidaM tatam.h .. 8.22.. 
    
    O son of Prtha, that supreme Person-in whom are included (all) the beings and by whom all this is pervaded-is, indeed, reached through one-pointed devotion.
14. yadaadityagataM tejo jagadbhaasayate.akhilam.h .
    yachchandramasi yachchaagnau tattejo viddhi maamakam.h .. 15.12.. 
    
    That light in the sun which illumines the whole world, that which is in the moon, and that which is in fire,-know that light to be Mine.

The shloka and the explanation of ProfVK-ji raises many questions:

1. Why these verses? Why this order? Is there any implied meaning in this verse? What does Prof VK-ji mean when he says "which makes sense if you look at the content of these slokas.".
2. Why does Prof Vk-ji say that this shloka is the capsule of whole Gita teaching?
3. Are 7.16, 7.17, 11.38, 11.18, 9.27, 9.22, 13.2, 18.55, 18.66 hiding somewhere?
4. Does the second word 'aham' refer to 9.16 and hence to 9.(16-19), rather than just to 10.8? If so, does the number of shlokas then becomes 18+3 = 21?
5. Why is this shloka written on a page of the 14th chapter?
6. Is the 9.4 really standing for 9.5 and 9.5 and thus adding one more to the number?
7. Can we add the 9.(16-19) shlokas, as well as 9.(4-5)? This makes the total number of shlokas as 22. Where are the rest 2 shlokas making up to the (next) magic number 24 (Gayathri)?

EXAMINATION TIPS

Some Tips for getting good marks in your examination

1.        Don’t fear about the examinations. Take it as challenge. Prepare psychologically to face it.

2.        First you refer the previous years’ and model question papers. This is the important stage of getting acquaintance with the subject and the theme of the examination.

3.        Read the Text books two or three times and note the important chapters and questions that  frequently occur. Understand the meaning of the subject. The subject is remembered for a long time, if it is understood in a way that is more dear to yourself.

4.        First read the subjects that you find  easy and interesting  and then move on to hard subject.

5.        Prepare synopsis on important topics. Prepare a code.

6.        Prepare a time-table allotting equal time available to you to all the subjects.

7.        Repeat the tough subjects and tough questions.

8.        Examiner does not see the face of the examinees. He gives the marks depending upon the answers written. Time, i.e. 3 hours, is allotted to all the students. The students who write more and appropriate matter, gets highest marks. Remembering the subject is not at all sufficient. It must be produced in the examination hall within 3 hours, i.e. 180 minutes. General typewriting speed is 25 to 40 words per minute. General handwriting speed in 10 words per minute. Therefore improve your writing speed by daily practicing. Often you get yourself examined, by writing the answers fixing the time for each question, thus improving your speed of writing.

9.        Discuss the subject with your friends. Get the suggestions from your Teachers, whenever required.

10.      Write 15 to 16  lines at the maximum on each page. Give sufficient space on top and bottom. Maintain left and right margins giving sufficient space. When you use several additional sheets, write serial numbers on additional sheets. Each additional sheet contains serial number. It does not help you to tag your answers sheets. Your own serial number, i.e. 1 to 72 (for example) helps you to tag the answer sheets in serial. If the answer sheets are not tagged, your answers become zigzag and lose valuable marks.

11.       Whenever necessary put the side headings, sub-headings and top-headings.

12.       If you remember correctly, then only write the definitions and quotes. Otherwise, it is better to write the contents. Remember all the important definitions and quotes.

13.       Prepare a time-table allotting equal time to all answers to be written, and write the answers accordingly. Example: You have to answer six questions out of ten. First you select the questions with pencil which you want to answer. Then you start writing the answers allotting 30 minutes for each answer. You can do justice to all the answers. If you write the first questions for 50 or 60 minutes, it means you will lose one question time, and in the ending you will get worry and anxiety to complete the questions. Prevention is better than cure. However in the examination hall there is no chance to cure at the ending time of 3 hours.

14.       Preference shall be given to short-notes, which fetch more marks.

15.       Writing must be legible, bold, attractive and without spelling mistakes.

16.       Divide the answers in paragraphs. Concluding remarks enhance the value of the answer.

17.       Don’t waste the time before the Examination, and in the Examination Hall.

18.       Don’t leave the Examination Hall until the last minutes. Verify all the answers, answer sheets and tag the answer sheets serially and properly.

19.       Add your own points in the below given comment system.

20.      Add your own points in the below given comment system.

ARYAN INVASION THEORY HOAX

Kazanas' comment on the controversy: 'Probability in Ancient India' 
Friday, July 8, 2011 
Comment by S. Kalyanraman: It is not surprising that the subject of 
Probability in Ancient India should result in the invocation of the 
hobby-horse, AIT doctrine. 
I agree with Kazanas. Witzel's froth of 'scientific facts' do, in 
fact, reveal the non-existence of any evidence at all for the 
mainstream AIT doctrine. 
Thanks to Witzel for the service rendered in debunking the AIT 
doctrine. 
This doctrine should disappear from all school text books. 
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/84073836/Probabilityinancientindia 
Probability in Ancient India: A debate 
About the controversy: 'Probability in Ancient India'. 
N. Kazanas 
6 July 2011 
In the recent controversy about 'Probability in Ancient India' on the 
Internet I couldn't but be surprised at the dignity with which Raju 
replies to Witzel even though the latter yet again feels it necessary 
to deride and distort. Raju does see, however, Witzel's usual trick 
of assigning a false position to his opponents and then attacking 
that. On the other hand one must feel grateful to Witzel since his 
comments always reveal the non-existence of any arguments and solid 
evidences for the mainstream Doctrine of the AIT. This time he sneers 
at bona fide scientific research calling it "Antiquity Frenzy" 
(perhaps unaware of anthropological evidences showing that much of 
our knowledge, theoretical and technological, was current in 
Mesolithic and Palaeolithic times) and then dismisses the probable 
Rgved date of 4000 BCE on "scientific facts", as he calls them. 
"The RV is full of horses and chariots; but horse-drawn spokewheeled 
chariots were invented only around 2000 BCE (either in the Ural 
steppes or in Mesopotamia, scholars disagree); and the steppe animal, 
the horse (equus caballus), was absent in South Asia until it was 
introduced from the steppes around 1800/1700 BCE (just as in 
Mesopotamia and Egypt). Other (inscriptional, linguistic and 
archaeological) data point to composition of the RV around 1400-1000 
BCE." (25,6,2011.) This vedist professor has not yet realised that 
there are no chariots of the Egyptian, Mesopotamian or Urallic sort 
in the RV. The two words anas and ratha mean much the same, 'car' or 
'cart'. The ratha is never described as one- or two-seated vehicle 
(as were the neareastern and european chariots) but as three-seated 
and even as eight-seated a??avandhura, i.e. a mini-bus! But our 
learned professor carries on about near-eastern chariots and horses. 
And again deliberately ignores that the rigvedic cars are drawn by 
birds, by antelopes, by donkeys and mules and by oxen and very rarely 
by horses. In fact the only realistic race is in the 10th Book and 
the car is drawn by an ox! 
As for horse-remains, there are several found in the mature Harappan 
phase, i.e. 2500-2100, and there is evidence of horses as far back as 
4500 BCE. Moreover, there we do not find any increase of horse- 
remains after 1500 BCE and the alleged entry of horse-riding Aryans. 
Increased evidence of horses and chariots appears only after 300 BCE. 
So Witzel's "scientific facts" are mere froth. So are his other date 
inscriptional, linguistic and archaeological; and I dare him to 
produce one hard fact from these areas showing that the RV was 
composed 1400-1000 BCE. There is none. 
On the contrary, all expert archaeologists from the 1980's agree that 
there is no evidence whatever of any entry of Aryans from 4500 to 600 
BCE. The RV knows nothing of the Harappan cities, deserted or ruined, 
and their culture but the post-rigvedic texts do know of baked 
bricks, of statues and paintings, of cotton and wheat and other 
features of the Indus Sarasvati culture. Then, Genetics shows that 
there is no flow of genes into N-W India but, on the contrary the 
flow is out of India. 
As I said, we must be grateful for Witzel's interventions which 
reveal so acutely the non-existence of any evidence at all for the 
mainstream Doctrine. 

Sanskrit- Why it is a great language?

what a write up ? It is not just about a language but about how and what a great impact a language can have on human race. Though I can at least understand eight languages including a few European languages my love affair though short with this language in my college days and later on especially of late enhanced by a personal experience of the vibrations of its sounds as manifested in some mantras has convinced me beyond doubt that a day will come that this language must and will regain its lost glory purely because of its impact and this is being realized many European countries now with France making  Sanskrit even compulsory in its primary schools. 

Read this write up without fail 

A Solid one - Select a leisure time and read  carfully you will enjoy every word of this.  Irony is we need a foreigner to convey the message / convince us...

Why does my child study Sanskrit (except in secular India)?

Irish Daily

Why does my child study Sanskrit?   by Rutger Kortenhorst

Rutger Kortenhorst, a Sanskrit teacher in John Scottus School in Dublin, Ireland, speaks to parents of his school children on the value of teaching Sanskrit to children, based on his own experience with the language.

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen, we are going to spend an hour together looking at the topic `Why does my child study Sanskrit in John Scottus?' My bet is that at the end of the hour you will all have come to the conclusion that your children are indeed fortunate that this extraordinary language is part of their curriculum.

Firstly, let us look at Why Sanskrit for my child? We are the only school in Ireland doing this language, so this will need some explaining. 

There are another 80 JSS-type schools in UK and also around the world that have made the same decision to include Sanskrit in their curriculum (they are all off-shoots from the School of Philosophy).

Secondly, how is Sanskrit taught? You may have noticed your son or daughter singing Sanskrit grammar songs in the back of the car just for the fun of it on the way home from school. I'll spend some time telling you HOW we approach teaching Sanskrit now since my learning from India.

But Why Sanskrit?

To answer that we need to look at the qualities of Sanskrit. Sanskrit stands out above all other languages for its beauty of sound, precision in pronunciation and reliability as well as thoroughness in every aspect of its structure. This is why it has never fundamentally changed unlike all other languages. It has had no need to change being the most perfect language of Mankind ever.

If we consider Shakespeare's English, we realize how different and therefore difficult for us his English language was although it is just English from less than 500 years ago. We struggle with the meaning of Shakespeare's English or that of the King James Bible. Go back a bit further and we don't have a clue about the English from the time of Chaucer's `Pilgrim's Progress' from around 700 AD. We cannot even call this English anymore and now rightly call it Anglo-Saxon. So English hadn't even been born! 

All languages keep changing beyond recognition. They change because they are defective. The changes are in fact corruptions. They are born and die after seven or eight hundred years –about the lifetime of a Giant Redwood Tree- because after so much corruption they have no life left in them. 

Surprisingly there is one language in the world that does not have this short lifespan. Sanskrit is the only exception. It is a never-dying constant. The reason for the constancy in Sanskrit is that it is completely structured and thought out. There is not a word that has been left out in its grammar or etymology, which means every word can be traced back to where it came from originally. This does not mean there is no room for new words either. Just as in English we use older concepts from Greek and Latin to express modern inventions like a television: `tele [far] – vision [seeing]' or `compute –er'. 

Sanskrit in fact specializes in making up compound words from smaller words and parts. The word `Sams – krita' itself means `completely – made'.

So what advantages are there to a fundamentally unchanging language? What is advantageous about an unchanging friend, say? Are they reliable? What happens if you look at a text in Sanskrit from thousands of years ago?

The exceptional features of Sanskrit have been recognised for a few centuries all over the world, so you will find universities from many countries having a Sanskrit faculty. Whether you go to Hawai, Cambridge or Harvard and even Trinity College Dublin has a seat for Sanskrit –although it is vacant at present. May be one of your children will in time fill this position again?

Although India has been its custodian, Sanskrit has had universal appeal for centuries. The wisdom carried by this language appeals to the West as we can see from Yoga and Ayurvedic Medicine as well as meditation techniques, and practical philosophies like Hinduism, Buddhism and most of what we use in the School of Philosophy. It supports, expands and enlightens rather than conflicts withlocal traditions and religions.

The precision of Sanskrit stems from the unparalleled detail on how the actual sounds of the alphabet are structured and defined. The sounds have a particular place in the mouth, nose and throat that can be defined and will never change. 

This is why in Sanskrit the letters are called the `Indestructibles' [aksharáni]. Sanskrit is the only language that has consciously laid out its sounds from first principles. So the five mouth-positions for all Indestructibles [letters] are defined and with a few clearly described mental and physical efforts all are systematically planned: [point out chart]

After this description, what structure can we find in a, b, c, d, e, f , g…? There isn't any, except perhaps that it starts with `a', and goes downhill from there.

Then there is the sheer beauty of the Sanskrit script as we learn it today. [Some examples on the board]

You may well say: `Fine, but so why should my son or daughter have yet another subject and another script to learn in their already busy school-day?' In what way will he or she benefit from the study of Sanskrit in 2012 in the Western world?

The qualities of Sanskrit will become the qualities of your child- that is the mind and heart of your child will become beautiful, precise and reliable.

Sanskrit automatically teaches your child and anybody else studying it to pay FINE attention due to its uncanny precision. When the precision is there the experience is, that it feels uplifting. It makes you happy. It is not difficult even for a beginner to experience this. All you have to do is fine-tune your attention and like music you are drawn in and uplifted. This precision of attention serves all subjects, areas and activities of life both while in school and for the rest of life. This will give your child a competitive advantage over any other children. They will be able to attend more fully, easily and naturally. Thus in terms of relationships, work, sport– in fact all aspects of life, they will perform better and gain more satisfaction. Whatever you attend to fully, you excel in and you enjoy more.

By studying Sanskrit, other languages can be learnt more easily; this being the language all others borrow from fractionally. The Sanskrit grammar is reflected in part in Irish or Greek, Latin or English. They all have a part of the complete Sanskrit grammar. Some being more developed than others, but always only a part of the Sanskrit grammar, which is complete in itself.

What Sanskrit teaches us that there is a language that is ordered, following laws unfailingly and as they are applied your child gets uplifted, not only when they grow up, but as they are saying it! This means they get an unusual but precise, definite and clear insight into language while they are enjoying themselves.

They learn to speak well, starting from Sanskrit, the mother language of all languages. Those who speak well run the world. Barack Obama makes a difference because he can speak well. Mahatma Gandhi could move huge crowds with well-balanced words. Mother Theresa could express herself with simple words which uplift us even now. 

The language of the great Master Teachers of mankind from times past is all we have got after centuries and millennia, but they make all the difference. We can enter the remarkable mind of Plato through his words. If your daughter or son can express themselves well through conscious language they will be the leaders of the next generation.

Sanskrit has the most comprehensive writings in the world expressed through the Vedas and the Gítá. The Upanishads –translated by William Butler Yeats have given people from all over the world an insight into universal religious feelings for more than one century now. 

To know these well expressed simple words of wisdom in the original is better than dealing with copies or translations as copies are always inferior to originals. We really need clear knowledge on universal religion in an age faced with remarkable levels of religious bigotry and terrorism arising from poorly understood and half-baked religious ideas.

Culture

Vivekananda, a great spiritual leader from India revered by all in the World Religious Conference of 1880 in Chicago said:

You can put a mass of knowledge into the world, but that will not do it much good. There must come some culture into the blood. We all know in modern times of nations which have masses of knowledge, but what of them? They are like tigers; they are like savages, because culture is not there. 

Knowledge is only skin-deep, as civilization is, and a little scratch brings out the old savage. Such things happen; this is the danger. Teach the masses in the vernaculars, give them ideas; they will get information, but something more is necessary; give them culture.

Sanskrit can help your child to express universal, harmonious and simple truths better. As a result you will really have done your duty as a parent and the world will reap the benefits in a more humane, harmonious and united society. Sanskrit can do this as it is the only language that is based in knowledge all the way. Nothing is left to chance.

Just think for the moment how confusing it is for a child to learn to say `rough', but `dough'. And why does the `o' in `woman' sound like an `e' in `women'? How come the `ci' in `special' is different from the `ci' in `cinema'? 

Teachers may well say `Just learn it' as there is no logical explanation, but it only demonstrates to a child that it is all a bit of a hit-and-miss affair. What else does this randomness in the fundamental building-blocks of language teach a child about the world? That it's just a confusing, random chance-event? How can this give anyone any confidence?

Now go to a language where everything is following rules. Where nothing is left to chance from the humble origin of a letter to the most sophisticated philosophical idea. How will that child meet the world? Surely with confidence, clarity and the ability to express itself?

I have seen myself and others growing in such qualities, because of our contact with Sanskrit. I have just spent a year in India. Though it felt a bit like camping in a tent for a year, it was well worth it. 

For many years, we taught Sanskrit like zealots i.e. with high levels of enthusiasm and low levels of understanding, to both adults in the School of Philosophy and children in John Scottus School. We did not perhaps inspire a lot of our students and may have put a number of them off the study of Sanskrit. It felt to me like we needed to go to the source. 

Sanskrit teachers worth their salt need to live with people whose daily means of communication is in Sanskrit. I had already spent three summers near Bangalore at 'Samskrita Bharati' doing just that and becoming less of an amateur, but it really needed a more thorough study. So I moved into a traditional gurukulam for the year. This meant living on campus, eating lots of rice and putting up with a few power-cuts and water shortages, but by December 2009, I made up my mind that I would step down as vice-principal of the Senior School and dedicate myself to Sanskrit for the rest of my teaching life. 

It felt like a promotion to me as quite a few could be vice-principal but right now which other teacher could forge ahead in Sanskrit in Ireland? [Hopefully this will change before I pop off to the next world.] With Sanskrit I'm expecting my mind to improve with age even if my body slows down a little. 

Sanskrit is often compared to the full-time teacher, who is there for you 24/7 whereas the other languages are more like part-timers. The effects of studying Sanskrit on me have been first and foremost a realistic confidence. Secondly, it meant I had to become more precise and speak weighing my words more carefully. It also taught me to express myself with less waffle and therefore speak more briefly. My power of attention and retention has undoubtedly increased.

Teaching method

Now, let me explain for a few minutes, HOW Sanskrit is taught. To my surprise it is not taught well in most places in India. Pupils have to learn it from when they are around age 9 to 11 and then they give it up, because it is taught so badly! Only a few die-hards stick with it, in time teaching the same old endings endlessly to the next generation. This is partly due to India having adopted a craving to copy the West and their tradition having been systematically rooted out by colonialism.

For learning grammar and the wisdom of the East, I was well-placed in a traditional gurukulam, but for spoken Sanskrit I felt a modern approach was missing.

Then I found a teacher from the International School belonging to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry. His name is Narendra. He has developed a novel, inspiring and light method to teach grammar, which doesn't feel like you do any grammar at all. At the same time it isn't diluted for beginners so you don't end up with partial knowledge. I also followed a few Sanskrit Conversation camps, which all brought about more familiarity.

Narendra says he owes his method to Sri Aurobindo and his companion The Mother who inspired him to come up with the course we now follow in Dublin. This is one of the many things The Mother said to inspire him:"Teach logically. Your method should be most natural, efficient and stimulating to the mind. It should carry one forward at a great pace. You need not cling there to any past or present manner of teaching."

This is how I would summarize the principles for teaching Sanskrit as we carry it out at present:

1. Language learning is not for academics as everyone learns to speak a language from an early age before they can read and write and know what an academic is. So why insist in teaching Sanskrit academically?

2. The writing script is not the most fundamental thing to be taught. A language is firstly made of its sounds, words and spoken sentences. [The script we use -though very beautiful- is only a few hundred years old.]

3. Always go from what is known to what is new.

4. Understanding works better than memorisation in this Age. Learning by heart should only take up 10 percent of the mental work, rather than the 90 percent rote learning in Sanskrit up to the recent present.

5. Don't teach words and endings in isolation; teach them in the context of a sentence as the sentence is the smallest meaningful unit in language.

6. Any tedious memory work which cannot be avoided should be taught in a song.

7. Do not teach grammatical terms. Just as we don't need to know about the carburetor, when we learn to drive a car.

8. The course should be finished in two years by an average student according to Narendra. This may be a little optimistic given that we are a little out of the loop not living in India, which is still Sanskrit's custodian. At present I would say it is going to be a three-year course.

9. Language learning must be playful. Use drama, song, computer games and other tricks to make learning enjoyable.

We have started on this course since September and it has certainly put a smile on our pupils' faces, which makes a pleasant change. I now feel totally confident that we are providing your children with a thorough, structured and enjoyable course. Our students should be well prepared for the International Sanskrit Cambridge exam by the time they finish –age 14/15- at the end of second year. We will also teach them some of the timeless wisdom enshrined in various verses. At present we are teaching them: "All that lives is full of the Lord. Claim nothing; enjoy! Do not covet His property"- in the original of course.

The future

Let us look at the 500 – year cycle of a Renaissance. The last European Renaissance developed three subjects: Art, Music and Science to shape the world we live in today. It had its beginning in Florence. The great Humanist Marsilio Ficino made Plato available to the masses by translating it from Greek to Latin. We live in exciting times and may well be at the beginning of a new Renaissance. It also will be based on three new subjects: Some say that these will be Economics, Law and Language.

Language has to become more universal now as we can connect with each other globally within seconds. NASA America's Space Program is actively looking at Sanskrit in relation to I.T. and artificial intelligence.

Sri Aurobindo said "…at once majestic and sweet and flexible, strong and clearly-formed and full and vibrant and subtle…".

What John Scottus pupils have said:

It makes your mind bright, sharp and clear.

It makes you feel peaceful and happy.

It makes you feel BIG.

It cleans and loosens your tongue so you can pronounce any language easily.

What Sanskrit enthusiasts like Rick Briggs in NASA have said:

It gives you access to a vast and liberating literature.

It can describe all aspects of human life from the most abstract philosophical to the latest scientific discoveries, hinting at further developments.

Sanskrit and computers are a perfect fit. The precision play of Sanskrit with computer tools will awaken the capacity in human beings to utilize their innate higher mental faculty with a momentum that would inevitably transform the mind. In fact, the mere learning of Sanskrit by large numbers of people in itself represents a quantum leap in consciousness, not to mention the rich endowment it will provide in the arena of future communication. NASA, California

After many thousands of years, Sanskrit still lives with a vitality that can breathe life, restore unity and inspire peace on our tired and troubled planet. It is a sacred gift, an opportunity. The future could be very bright.

Rick Briggs [NASA]

You may well have a few questions at this stage after which I would like to introduce you to a plant in the audience. A parent turned into a blazing ball of enthusiasm over Sanskrit grammar: John Doran. I would like him to wrap up.

I'll give NASA's Rick Briggs the last word from me:

One thing is certain; Sanskrit will only become the planetary language when it is taught in a way which is exiting and enjoyable. Furthermore it must address individual learning inhibitions with clarity and compassion in a setting which encourages everyone to step forth, take risks, make mistakes and learn.