Delinking Yoga from Hinduism
Western World's Churlish and petty behavior in not recognizing
Yoga's Hindu Roots?
Yoga is
Hinduism's gift to humanity
Christians Trying to Hijacking Yoga
Dr. Subhash Kak has written: "For example, in the US, almost every YMCA teaches yoga, although it is a different story that some Churches are speaking of Christian yoga, without mentioning the origins of this tradition.
This yearning for wisdom was expressed by Zimmer over fifty years ago when he said, 'We of the Occident are about to arrive at a crossroads that was reached by the thinkers of India some seven hundred years before Christ. This is the real reason, why we become both vexed and stimulated, uneasy and yet interested, when confronted with the concepts and images of Indian wisdom.'
(source: Globalization and the Knowledge Industry - By Subhash Kak - rediff.com).
Note: This tendency of Christianity to absorb spiritually ‘dangerous’ practices is an old trick of theirs. To speed the assimilation of the European pagan religions in the Middle Ages, the church specifically chose dates for Christian holidays that coincided closely with pagan holidays. Why do you think we celebrate Christmas so close to the winter solstice every year? You got to love the hypocrisy of Christians. They deny the knowledge, wisdom and mere existence of pre-Christian practices, but as we’ve seen throughout history that doesn’t stop them from completely ripping them off. “Yule tide?”. Yule is a Germanic pagan holiday.
Acknowledgement of yoga as one of Hinduism's great gifts to the World
Folks still don't get that it's not at all about ownership, but about origins. It's not about branding, but about acknowledgement. It's not about conversion, but about self realization. It's about understanding that yoga is but one of Hinduism's great contributions to humanity.
Perhaps some of the confusion is a result of the many ingredients of our modern lives -- mass marketing, crass consumerism, the worldwide Web and a Twitter-soundbite culture. It's a toxic cocktail that can lead to quick and faulty conclusions.
It started back in 2008, with the Yoga Journal. The summer issue was not particularly different from any other -- the mantra of the month, the sacred Hindu symbol, Om, sprinkled throughout the magazine, advertisements for products like bottom-shaping yoga pants and sticky yoga toe socks, and, of course, feature articles offering advice, insight and wisdom on yoga. What we did not find, however, was any reference to Hinduism. In fact, Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism were more overtly associated with the discipline.
It was as if the Yoga Journal, as well as much of the $6 billion yoga industry, had agreed to some sort of unwritten covenant to use code words rather than what they deemed the unmarketable "H-word." Vedic, yogic, Sanskritic, ancient Indian and Eastern were the pseudonyms of choice to source key elements of Hindu teachings: bhakti, karma and moksha, even the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism's most revered scriptures.
After writing a letter to the editor, HAF's suspicions were confirmed when, during a follow up phone call, the young woman answering said, "Yeah, they [the editors] probably avoid it [Hinduism]. Hinduism does, like, you know, have a lot of baggage." Really? Hinduism has baggage and the world's other religions don't?
As an advocacy group seeking to provide a progressive Hindu American voice and to promote a better understanding of Hinduism, we were compelled to act. And so started a quest to bring awareness to the Hindu roots of yoga and, in turn, gain acknowledgement of yoga as one of Hinduism's great gifts. Hindus across America, including my school-aged boys, face ridicule, discrimination and uninvited proseltyization as a result of caricature, misinformation and false judgment about our "religion." Idol worshipper, cows, caste, dowry, many gods (lower case "g") -- these are the terms that more commonly define Hinduism in Western popular culture. Thanks to Deepak Chopra, we can add "one-eyed" and "tribal" to the list too. At the same time, 15 million Americans, from all religions and no religion, are turning to the power and healing benefits of yoga; some are even going beyond the physical to study Vedanta and the Gita or other "yogic" texts.
(source: The origins and ownership of yoga – by Suhag A Shukla - huffingtonpost.com).
Refer to In U.S. Schools, Yoga Without The Spiritual - hinduismtoday.com
The rape of Yoga
Apart from distorting it beyond recognition, the proponents of America's $ 6 billion Yoga industry deny Yoga's inseparability with the Hindu way of life. The philosophy behind Yoga must be extolled
The burgeoning the Yoga industry, built off of $108 Yoga pants contoured to bind and sculpt the body, $185 Yoga studio membership fees and $100 yoga mats custom designed to decrease slippage from sweaty palms, continues to skyrocket in popularity. The latest fad at a spinning studio round the corner: "combination spin and Yoga", where the goal is to burn fat and loosen thigh muscles - ostensibly to decrease that pesky sore hamstring. But that shouldn't be surprising when there already exists Yoga in the nude, yoga and food, and even "Doga" - i.e. yoga with one's pet dog.
Welcome to Yoga 2010 sweeping the United States @ $ 6 billion per year, where it is legit to pair Yoga with just about anything, including faith. Apart from the aforementioned distortions of a 5,000-year-old science, we now see the rise of "Christian Yoga", "Muslim Yoga", "Kabbalah Yoga" and what have you.
Each of these "nuanced faith-yogas" have appropriated the knowledge of countless yogis without so much as a nod of gratitude towards Hinduism, the faith that gifted them this treasure.
Hinduism today is identified overseas more with holy cows than Gomukhasana, the arduous twisting posture and exotic and erotic gods rather than the unity of divinity of Hindu tradition - that God may manifest and be worshiped in infinite ways; as a religion of incomprehensible ritual rather than the spiritual inspiration of Patanjali, the second century BC commentator and composer of the Yoga Sutras, that has formed the philosophical basis of practical Yoga for millennium.
As Yoga becomes more "mainstream", its Hindu roots continue to be buried further and further by studios, practitioners and the media. While magazines such as Yoga Journal are replete with references to ancient India, new age blather and even Buddhism, it is only logical to ask why is there so much resistance to openly acknowledging Yoga's inextricable links with Hinduism.
Firstly, perhaps because not all of the great Hindu Yogis who introduced the West to this ancient philosophy took the uncompromising path of a Swami Vivekananda in his open assertion and embrace of his Hindu faith
From Ayurveda to meditation and Yoga to pranayama and riya, the path of least resistance for acceptance in the West is seen to simply indulge the consumer with homilies to wellness, holistic healing and rewiring the mental hard drive without eliciting the baggage of that pariah term: "Hinduism."
As these gurus highlight only the universal nature of Yoga while discarding overt references to Hinduism. They end up grabbing the transcendent philosophical fruits of the ancients, leaving Hinduism with stereotyped detritus of incomprehensible ritual and the cliched "caste, cows and curry." As the popularity of Yoga has skyrocketed and spiritual practice has morphed into a $6 billion industry, this delinking has become so prevalent and commonplace that many in the western yoga community are outraged that any faith, particularly one that is now largely associated with colorful rituals and multi-headed gods, could dare claim to be the mother of Yoga.
Even more baffling are the practitioners who learn to master asanas such as Hanumanasana or Natarajasana while simultaneously denying the Hindu roots of Yoga. Lord Nataraja's eternal dance precedes creation of this universe itself, but when will the Deepak Chopras of the world concede that the spiritual tradition moving to His divine rhythms is what we all accept as Hinduism?
(source: The Rape of Yoga - By Dr. Aseem Shukla and Sheetal Shah - dailypioneer.com).
If you have the root of Hinduism, then the stem is Hinduism, and the flower is Hinduism.
Yoga uncoupled with a
moral construct leads nowhere, except towards being more physically fit.
Hinduism provides that moral construct.
It is wrong to deny
that yoga's Hindu origin
Dr. Ramesh Nagraj Rao ( ) is Human Rights Coordinator for the
Hindu American Foundation, and professor and chair, Department of Communication
Studies and Theatre, Longwood University, US. He has expressed his views on the
theft of yoga thus:
"Yoga has been shamelessly rebranded to make it more acceptable to western
culture, but this is based on a lie
But as yoga became more popular, and as the
industry grew to be worth nearly six
billion dollars, and as a variety of savvy marketers begin branding
their "special" yoga techniques, it was hard not to notice that few
yoga teachers and journals mentioned the origins of the practice and its
connection to Hinduism. Yoga was "secularised" to rid it of any taint
of a "pagan" tradition.
The practice, the savvy marketers claimed, was "a spiritual path, but not
a religious one", to calm the committed Christian who wanted to hang on to
Jesus while doing the "surya
namaskara" (obeisance to the Sun).Hindus are an accepting lot, and they believe that each should be able to follow whatever spiritual path they chose, according to one's "ishta" (desire) and "adhikara" (qualifications). And as one scholar elegantly put it, Hinduism itself was "a rolling conference of conceptual spaces, all of them facing all, and all of them requiring all", enabling it to accommodate everyone in this grand cosmic munificence, label or no label. Hinduism which is a "rolling conference of conceptual spaces" got neatly pigeon-holed as a religion – a religion, very soon marked and demonised as "heathen", "pagan", "kafr", and so on.
Thus, when a neophyte yoga student, hanging on to Jesus, anxiously queried, "Is yoga part of Hinduism?", the savvy marketer claimed that the origins of yoga were lost in myth and mystery and that there "was no indication that it was ever part of an organised religion", accomplishing two things simultaneously – reifying Hinduism as a "religion" in the sense of "Abrahamic religions", and denying it as the fount and foundation of yoga.
Joining these local marketers were the Indian-origin marketers, with the lead being taken by the savvy Deepak Chopra – the glib, red-sneakers-and-red-designer-glasses-wearing Hollywood guru who would make PT Barnum proud. Thus, when Aseem Shukla of the Hindu American Foundation wrote an essay in The Washington Post in April this year arguing that there had been a deliberate attempt to represent yoga as separate from its origins in Hinduism, Chopra came pouncing. Ironically, he was joining hands with those demonising Hinduism and disemboweling it of its grand traditions. And when The New York Times, in a front-page article, recently commended the Hindu American Foundation for its intelligent activism, the nay-sayers screamed: "Hindu fundamentalists!"
But what do Hindus,
not the deracinated variety, actually want? It is simply to urge the world to acknowledge that yoga has its roots in
the millennia-old Indian traditions now known as Hinduism. There is no
demand that those who do yoga profess any attachment to Hinduism, let alone
become Hindus! There is no tithe to be paid, no conversion sought, no
allegiance to a land and its people demanded. Great teachers like T
Krishnamacharya, K Pattabhi Jois, and BKS Iyengar – all doing
their morning and evening prayers to their chosen Hindu deities, and proudly
wearing their Hindu identity on their foreheads.
What should also be acknowledged is that most
of the yoga that is taught and practiced in the West is "hatha yoga",
and that the focus on the body was only a very minor aspect of yoga delineated
by the great compiler of the yoga aphorisms, Patanjali. In fact, of the 196
sutras in Patanjali's Yogasutras, only three focus on the body. The primary aim
of yoga, Patanjali stressed in
the second sutra, is to still the mind for a transformation of consciousness.
Yoga is a complete psychological system, with clear and definite answers to
explain the human condition and relieve us of our psychological burdens. Alas, in the modern, westernised, noise-making world, the argument presented by Hindus is under attack from the professional anti-Hindu brigades, homegrown and foreign, whose aim is to proclaim yoga as "anaatha" – an orphan."
(source: It is wrong to deny that yoga has its origins in Hinduism - By Ramesh Rao - guardian.co.uk).
Allergic to the H-word? Hinduism
(Note:
It was as if the Yoga Journal, as well as much of the $6 billion yoga industry, had agreed
to some sort of unwritten covenant to
use code words rather than what they deemed the unmarketable "H-word." Vedic, yogic, Sanskritic,
ancient Indian and Eastern were the pseudonyms of choice to source key elements
of Hindu teachings: bhakti, karma and moksha, even the Bhagavad Gita, one of
Hinduism's most revered scriptures. After writing a letter to the
editor, HAF's suspicions were confirmed when, during a follow up phone call,
the young woman answering said, "Yeah,
they [the editors] probably avoid it [Hinduism]. Hinduism does, like, you know,
have a lot of baggage." Really? Hinduism has baggage and the world's other religions don't? - Try thinking of Dark Ages, Crusades, The Inquisition, Witch Hunt, Slavery, Colonization of Africa, Asia, America and Australia, Imperialism, World Wars, Holocaust, Bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, destruction and conversion of Native cultures to Christianity, Drugs, School shootings in American schools, Gun violence, Racism, Clergy sex Abuse, Jehad and terrorism... ).
Honor Thy Heritage - Dr. Deepak Chopra
Chopra claims that anyone who says that Yoga is a part of Hinduism is a Hindu fundamentalist and Yoga did not originate from Hinduism but “pure consciousness.”
Chopra is perhaps the most prominent exponent of the art
of "How to Deconstruct, Repackage and Sell Hindu Philosophy Without
Calling it Hindu!" To Larry
King, he has described himself as an "Advaita Vedantin"--one of the
major philosophical schools of Hinduism. Yet none of the plethora of his book
titles, that include several devoted to Jesus and one entire book devoted to
the Buddha, even skirt the word "Hindu."
The rishis did not call themselves Hindu. The moniker
"Hinduism" is of relatively recent origin, but it is accepted today
as a handy substitute for the perhaps more accurate but difficult to pronounce
name, Sanatana Dharma, the eternal religion.
(source: Honor Thy Heritage - Dr. Deepak Chopra - By Dr Aseem Shukla -
hinduismtoday.com and Snake-oil salesman Deepak Chopra - indianrealist.com and
Deepak Chopra does it again - sandeepweb.com. Refer
to Al Jazeera reports on Hijacking of Yoga
Christian Yoga is an Oxymoron?
“There is no physical
yoga and spiritual yoga. If it is exclusively physical, it won’t be
yoga. Yoga is dealing with the entirety; it is a union.” – Prashant Iyengar, son of B.K.S Iyengar
A Hindu Yogi Speaks:
"There is no Christian Yoga."
"It was quite astonishing to see on the flyer
'Christian Yoga!" I could feel the wheels spinning in my brain. 'Christian
Yoga,' I thought. Now while Christians can practice yoga, I am not aware of any
Christian teachings about yoga.
Yoga is not a
Judeo/Christian word!
It is not a part of the Roman Catholic teachings and
certainly not a part of protestant teachings. It is not found within the King
James Version of the bible.
It is a Hindu word, or
more correctly a Sanskrit word from the Vedic civilization.
So how did we get 'Christian Yoga'? From this I could
conclude that “Christian Yoga” could only indicate one of two
possibilities:
1) Christianity is threatened by yoga and is
attempting to take over this system that “invaded their turf” pertaining to
spiritual teachings and techniques.
2) Christianity is subconsciously attempting to return to the spiritual roots of civilization—the Vedic civilization.
I thought to myself, “why would they want to
take over yoga?” 2) Christianity is subconsciously attempting to return to the spiritual roots of civilization—the Vedic civilization.
Could it be due to the decline of members within the Christian church within the last 60 years? Is this an extensive marketing plan cooked up in some New York marketing guru’s head? Is it an attempt to water down the teachings of yoga and import their own teaching. I think the best reason might be that yoga, and eastern spirituality, offered answers to the spiritual questions that the spiritually hungry masses had. It offered a practical, rational, logical, and truthful approach to spirituality. It did not contain any form of self-righteous condemnation, but offered love and acceptance to all. It did not prey upon victims with terms such as “Sin” and “eternal damnation”. But most importantly, it had answers! It offered a practical approach to cultivating a relationship with divinity. It offered a systematic approach and an abstract approach to meet the varying temperaments of the spirituality hungry.
The second possibility was that Christianity was itself
looking for answers. A small book
filled with judgment, inflexibility, and condemnation was no longer fulfilling
the needs of the masses or the leaders of the church. Offering
yoga classes allowed the Christian to secretly practice Hinduism without having
to renounce their Christian tradition. Possibly by embracing the technology of
yoga and meditation, the Christian church could finally return to the idea of
love and acceptance that it believed it was founded upon. It is ironic
that one religion would need to look to another religion to teach them about
love, peace, harmony, and forgiveness. If successful, it could embrace these
ancient teachings and save itself from the fate it planted over the last few
thousand years.
But possibly in their wisdom, the current
fathers of the church realized that their time was coming to a close. So
within America they must absorb yoga before they are absorbed by it. This is a
common religious view that has appeared numerous times within world history.
Then they would immediately move their resources to India. Taking over
the country would allow them to own all the spirituality, and then ‘pick and
chose’ which tasty spiritual treats they would share. After all they have 2000 years practice with
this. Indians being a loving, peaceful people, openly embraced
their brothers from the west. They looked the other way as their temples
were torn down. They accepted it as karma as their families were torn
apart over differing religious beliefs. The Indians thought it was
thoughtful of the missionaries to dress up just like swami’s, to be “just like
them” and to share in their kindred spirit.
Modern day scholars from India frequently present the
attitude of “let them have yoga, I am interested in protecting Hinduism.”
I have heard this sentiment on numerous occasions, but the reality is that yoga
is a part of Hinduism. Allowing one part to be taken from Hinduism opens
a door for the distortion of the teachings. We must remember that the roots to modern day yoga comes from Vedic Yoga.
The same Vedic Yoga that is the
authority of Hinduism. Allowing one branch to be severed from the tree of
knowledge will not necessarily kill that tree, but it can produce strain and
have an unbalancing effect upon the tree.
Hinduism should reclaim its full heritage and not allow
other groups to rename its sacred teachings under their banner, especially when
they have no history of those teaching within their own system. If they
wish to ‘borrow’ and say this comes from our brothers and sisters in Hinduism,
then that is another thing. But frequently groups attempt to privatize
the information and present themselves as the original authority.
Hinduism should guard against its sacred traditions becoming distorted and
taken away. Scholars at
universities should take the stand that yoga is part of Hinduism, though one is
one required to be a Hindu to practice yoga. It is important to acknowledge the
roots of the tradition; after all we are expected to give credit to the
orginial sources within books and research papers, but yet Hindu scholars have
ignored this fundamental western view when it comes to their own heritage.
(source: A Hindu Yogi Speaks: "There is no Christian Yoga.").
We hope that Thomas Nelson, who publishes Yoga for Christians, American Family
Association, who sells Holy Yoga,
and emerging leader, Doug Pagitt,
who offers it at his church, will all read this article by Yogi Baba Prem. Vatican sounds New Age alert: The Roman Catholic Church has warned Christians against resorting to New Age therapies to satisfy their spiritual needs. Publishing the results of a six-year study of practices such as yoga, feng shui and shamanism, the Vatican said that whatever the individual merits of such therapies, none provided a true answer to the human thirst for happiness. "I want to say simply that the New Age presents itself as a false utopia in answer to the profound thirst for happiness in the human heart," Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said at the news conference. Many people, the report acknowledges, have rejected organised religion because they feel it fails to answer their needs. Our correspondent says that the report makes clear that the Vatican basically dislikes fuzzy spirituality.
(source: Vatican sounds New Age alert - BBC news.com - Feb 4' 2003). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com
Refer to Al Jazeera reports on Hijacking of Yoga. Refer to Another Indian “intellectual” (Meera Nanda) prostituting herself in White Man’s flesh market - indianrealist.com and Meera Nanda’s Ignorance Revisited - sandeepweb.com
The Audacity of Ignorance?
What is Take Back Yoga?
Nanda concedes
that American yogis say “Namaste,” quote from the Gita and play Kirtan music.
Why then is she so bothered by TBY? TBY makes three key contentions:
1. Yoga
is more than just asana
2. Yoga
is rooted in Hinduism
3. The
asana-based practice of yoga found in many Western yoga studios is inspired by
the Hindu Hatha yoga tradition
Meera Nanda's (of the Jawaharlal
Nehru University - JNU) Open story alleging that Hindu texts have few
asanas and that the yoga master Krishnamacharya borrowed most from European
gymnastics is the latest salvo against HAF’s
position, and mimics a similar rebuttal by Wendy Doniger. Nanda’s criticism of HAF’s ‘Take Back Yoga’ (TBY)
campaign as being based on a false, non-existent history misrepresents TBY and
maligns HAF as a casteist, sleazy political operation (Indo-American Lobby? HAF
is neither Indian nor a political lobby). Perhaps, as William Dalrymple said,
Nanda is “overtly hostile to many expressions of religiosity.” Whatever her agenda, her audacious and
flippant claims are both stunning and flawed.
Obfuscate, Confuse and Create a
Strawman
Nanda repeatedly fails
to acknowledge that “Take Back Yoga” (TBY) is all about the willful blindness
in the West to the Hindu roots of Yoga, even the spiritual side of it.
Disguised Hinduphobia
'Scholars' of Nanda’s
ilk have always disliked Swami Vivekananda. Being profoundly alienated from
their heritage and considering anything traditional as mere superstition, they
are no doubt discomfited that a Sanyasi who proudly called himself Hindu was
able to convey Vedanta in a manner that the West loved, and in immaculate
English to boot.
Nanda
gratuitously advises Hindu Americans to, “take a deep breath and get over it.”
So, in the same spirit, here is mine: Nanda should learn to get her facts about
the Hindu tradition straight, and from original sources. And learn to accord
the same respect to Hinduism as to other religions. The days of the Hindu community cowering before self-appointed
pseudo-scholars are over.
(source: Rebuttals to Take Back Yoga Attacks - Hindu American
Foundation). Refer to Another Indian “intellectual” (Meera Nanda) prostituting herself in White
Man’s flesh market - indianrealist.com and Meera Nanda’s Ignorance Revisited - sandeepweb.comThe Vatican, in a letter approved by Pope John Paul II, warned Christians Thursday against spiritual dangers deriving from Eastern methods of contemplative meditation used in Yoga and Zen Buddhism.
It said the symbolism and body postures in such meditation ''can even become an idol and thus an obstacle to the raising up of the spirit of God.'' It warned that to give ''a symbolic significance typical of the mystical experience'' to sensations of well-being from meditation can lead to ''a kind of mental schizophrenia which could also lead to psychic disturbance and, at times, to moral deviations.''
(source: Pope in 1989 - Eastern Religions are Moral Deviations). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com
According to the Rev. Peter E. Prosser, who is both a priest at Galilee Episcopal Church in Virginia Beach and a Christian history professor at Regent University’s divinity school says,
“Yoga is designed to bring you into a spiritual realm of demonic powers.”
(source: Christians try to Hijack Yoga). Refer to The theft of yoga - By Dr. Aseem Shukla - Hindu American Foundation
Yoga is Evil - says the Vatican
Vatican’s chief exorcist has claimed that practicing yoga and reading ‘Harry Potter’ brings evil. Father Gabriel Amorth, who has carried out more than 70,000 exorcisms in the past 25 years after being appointed by the late Pope John Paul II, surprised delegates at a conference by revealing his dislike for yoga and ‘Harry Potter’.
“Yoga is the Devil’s work. You thing you are doing it for stretching your mind and body but it leads to Hinduism. All these oriental religions are based on the false belief of reincarnation,” he said.
(source: Yoga is evil - says Vatican - telegraph.co.uk and foxnews.com). Watch Mark Driscoll on Yoga and refer to SNAP
Yoga effective in
treating psychiatric disorders
Yoga, whose all-round benefits are increasingly being
accepted across the world, has now been found useful in treating mental and
psychiatric disorders, a number of scientific studies have found.
'Some believe that yoga should be used only for prevention
and health promotion and not as a therapy for illnesses,' said B.N. Gangadhar,
who heads the psychiatry department at the National Institute of Mental Health
and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) here.
'The reality is that it is being increasingly used as a
method for treating various disorders, either alone or as in addition to other
therapies, including psychiatric ones,' Gangadhar, also director, Advanced
Centre for Yoga at NIMHANS, told IANS.
(source: Yoga effective in treating psychiatric disorders -
samachar.com).
Yoga gives immune
boost to breast cancer survivors
In breast cancer survivors, the Iyengar method of yoga not
only promotes psychological well-being, but seems to offer immune system
benefits as well, according to research reported Monday at the American
Physiological Society meeting in Washington, DC.
The
Iyengar method, created by B. K. S. Iyengar, "is considered to be one of
the more active forms of yoga," lead researcher and presenter Pamela E.
Schultz from Washington State University, Spokane, told Reuters Health.
"It still has the meditative component, but it's been shown to have a
physical output equivalent to a moderate-intensity exercise," she
explained.
(source: Yoga gives immune boost to breast cancer survivors -
newsyahoo.com). Doctors study the health benefits of yoga
Yoga is one of the hottest fitness trends sweeping the
country. Now many doctors think it can also cure what ails you. Physicians in
the U.S. and abroad are conducting a variety of studies gauging whether yoga
offers health benefits beyond general fitness and can relieve symptoms
associated with serious medical problems. Early results suggest that a regular
yoga regimen -- involving a variety of postures, deep breathing and meditation
exercises -- can offer relief for patients suffering from asthma, chronic back
pain, arthritis and obsessive compulsive disorder, among other problems.
(source: Doctors study the health benefits of yoga - By Tara Parker-Pope, The Wall Street
Journal).
Is yoga bad
for you?
The Islamic Fatwa council are in good company with the Christian
fundamentalists in the United States.
Several years ago, I developed something
called arthrosis in my knees. This is a first cousin to arthritis, and is
extremely painful. After a few months on painkillers, I enrolled in a yoga
class out of desperation. Initially, contorting my out-of-shape body into the
positions required by our teacher was very difficult, but soon I managed to
bully my joints into approximating the postures our elegant instructor assumed
so effortlessly. A few months into this routine, I began to look forward to the
thrice-weekly yoga classes. In our darkened room, soft music would play, while
we were encouraged to empty our minds and hold the positions for just a little
longer each time. My body became suppler, and crucially the pain in my knees
disappeared. Unfortunately, the timings of our class were changed, and I could
no longer pursue my new interest. Nevertheless, I have nothing but pleasant
memories of the year-long experience. Now, as my creaking body protests each
time I lower myself to pick up something from the floor, I wish I could have
continued my yoga lessons. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that
Malaysia 's top Islamic body recently issued a fatwa prohibiting Muslims from practising yoga due to elements
of Hinduism the ancient system
is supposed to contain. According to The Island, a Sri Lankan daily, the Malaysian National Fatwa Council's chairman, Shukor Husin, has said that "many Muslims fail to understand that yoga's ultimate aim is to be one with a god of a different religion". I had no idea that when our yoga teacher told us to empty our minds, she was doing so with the aim of making space in that limited cavity for a foreign god.
But the members of the fatwa council are in good company, for Christian fundamentalists in the United States have long opposed yoga classes in schools, arguing that it violates the secular principle of separating church from state. According to them, yoga's Hindu roots conflict with Christian teachings. And apparently, Egypt 's highest theological body banned yoga for Muslims in 2004. So what planet are these fundamentalists on? And what century do they live in? Surely everything that's good for us, or is fun, cannot be declared un-Islamic on a whim?
And if this kind of retrogressive mindset can hold sway in a relatively modern Muslim country like Malaysia , just think what is going on in nations like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan .
Whatever the reason, such desperate and ultimately futile measures only serve to further marginalise Muslims. Already viewed as a backward community by much of the world, Muslims risk withdrawing from the rest of mankind at a time when globalisation is breaking down barriers at a frenzied pace. Where will this madness end? It will end if and when Muslims decide that enough is enough, and that they do not want to live in the sixth century. Unfortunately, there is much confusion in the Islamic world, with the result that uneducated mullahs issue half-baked edicts on everything under the sun, and ordinary people, unsure of themselves, pay lip service to these teachings. How long will it take to yank fundamentalist Muslims like Abdul Shukor Husin into the 21st century?
(source: Is yoga bad for you? - By Irfan Husain - dawn.com). Refer to Is Yoga a Religion - By Georg Feuerstein.
Beware the Yoga Demon! The Christian Right’s fear of self-realization and spirituality
They’re still at it. Those paranoid Christian fundamentalists are again attacking yoga.
On On June 15, 2006, Agape Press carried this article: Author Wants to Enlighten Christians About Yoga's Demonic Influence Christian author Dave Hunt, co-founder of the Oregon-based ministry, The Berean Call, has written a new book called Yoga and the Body of Christ. In it, he contends that yoga is a spiritually dangerous practice designed to expose people to demonic influences.
Why would Mr. Hunt
fear “self-realization”? Why would he advise “Christians” to avoid it?
Could it be that if people achieve self-realization they
will recognize the sinister mind-control techniques of “ministries” such as The
Berean Call? Could it be that they would also realize that if they develop a
“personal relationship with God,” there is no need for ministries? The clergy
would become little more than “middlemen” who, like all middlemen, leech off
others for their own self-aggrandizement. In fact, the clergy would become
“demonic influences” interrupting, twisting and poisoning one’s personal
relationship with Divinity for their own power and profit. It must be noted,
however, that the Eastern spiritual philosophies that spawn yoga do not
advocate hatred toward or the murder of gays, or anyone else. Fanatical Rev. Fred Phelps has much in common
with other dogmatic monotheists, such as Muslim cleric Yusuf Qaradawi
who couldn’t decide whether gay people should be “throw[n] from a high
place” or whether “we should burn them.” Not surprisingly, Yusuf Qaradawi is
also a vocal supporter of suicide bombers.
So feel free to join the estimated 30 million Americans who
practice yoga, and beware those who argue against self-realization and thinking
for yourself. (source: Beware the Yoga Demon! The Christian Right’s fear of self-realization and spirituality - By By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D. - onlinejournal.com).
Yoga violates Islamic Law: Cleric - The growing enthusiasm for yoga in Egypt has received a setback with a mufti reportedly issuing an edict declaring it un-Islamic. The edict signed by mufti Ali Gomoa, considered the highest theological authority, says: "Yoga is an ascetic Hindu practice that is forbidden for use in any manner - neither for exercise or for worship", local media reported quoting an Al-Hayat report. "It is an aberration" whose practice in any form is "forbidden under Islamic law", the edict says. Yoga centres are said to have sprung up at all the tourist resorts in Egypt and is said to be very popular among western tourists.
(source: Yoga violates Islamic Law: Cleric - sify.com).
Indian Christians Protest Yoga in Schools
The practices of a majority religion should not be imposed
on other minority religions, said an Indian archbishop, reacting sharply to a
decision of an Indian state government. A Jan. 15 interview with the Indian Catholic,
the Internet news service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, Archbishop Pascal Topno of Bhopal said
that he had nothing against “Surya
Namaskar” or other Hindu rituals, but questioned the Madhya Pradesh
government's decision to make the practice compulsory in all government schools
and colleges.
(source: Don’t impose religious practices, Indian archbishop says of yoga measure
- catholic.org).
US pastor says yoga
'demonic', sparks row
Ever seen
a demon in padmasana? A pastor in Seattle,
US, is seeing millions of them. Mars
Hill Church pastor Mark Driscoll's
statement that yoga is an agent of Hinduism, and hence demonic, has many yoga
gurus seething and practitioners confused. Adding fuel to the fire, The Seattle Times newspaper last week quoted R Albert Mohler Jr, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, as saying that yoga was against Christianity. Some see the statements as acknowledgement of the popularity of yoga, which has been growing as rapidly as religions once did.
A system of meditation and exercise passed down generations in India, yoga has been found to give physiological, psychological and therapeutic benefits. An estimated 15.8 million people practice yoga in the US, where yoga studios are proliferating in every city. Contesting the pastor relating yoga with Hinduism because of use of Sanskrit words, Brenin said: "I suspect that there's a bit of racism and nationalism coming from church leaders, who harp on language issues and images of Hindu deities which for many studios are mere decorations or at most stories that inspire and challenge. There is no worship in a US yoga studio."
While many Indians in the US see in Driscoll's sermon a conspiracy against Indian culture, Hari Gopinathan, an Oracle employee in San Francisco, finds streaks of rebellion in Christian yoga practitioners, especially women.
"With an increasingly nuclearised society, women, at the first chance of a free choice, rebel. Yoga started off as one such sub-culture avenue for rebelling. It cuts out middle-men when it comes to spiritualism and offers freedom of expression and minimal diktats on things like sex and gender equality. Add to this the health benefits, and you have a potent adversary to organised religion," says Gopinathan.
(source: US pastor says yoga 'demonic', sparks row - timesofindia.com).
A Hindu view of 'Christian Yoga'
Christian Yoga - an oxymoron
While yoga is not a "religion" in the sense that the Abrahamic religions are, it is a well-established spiritual path. Its physical postures are only the tip of an iceberg, beneath which is a distinct metaphysics with profound depth and breadth. Its spiritual benefits are undoubtedly available to anyone regardless of religion. However, the assumptions and consequences of yoga do run counter to much of Christianity as understood today. This is why, as a Hindu yoga practitioner and scholar, I agree with the Southern Baptist Seminary President, Albert Mohler, when he speaks of the incompatibility between Christianity and yoga, arguing that "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine" is fundamentally at odds with Christian teaching. This incompatibility runs much deeper.
Yoga's metaphysics center around the quest to attain liberation
from one's conditioning caused by past karma. Karma includes the baggage from
prior lives, underscoring the importance of reincarnation. While it is
fashionable for many Westerners to say they believe in karma and reincarnation,
they have seldom worked out the contradictions with core Biblical doctrines.
For instance, according to karma theory, Adam and Eve's deeds would produce
effects only on their individual future lives, but not on all their progeny ad
infinitum.
Karma is not a sexually transmitted problem
flowing from ancestors. This view obviates the doctrine of original sin and
eternal damnation. An individual's karmic debts accrue by personal action
alone, in a separate and self-contained account. The view of an individual
having multiple births also contradicts Christian ideas of eternal heaven and
hell seen as a system of rewards and punishments in an afterlife. Yogic
liberation is here and now, in the bodily state referred to and celebrated as jivanmukti,
a concept unavailable in Christianity and in an afterlife somewhere else.
Ironically, the very same Christians who espouse reincarnation also long to
have family reunions in heaven.Yogic liberation is therefore not contingent upon any unique historical event or intervention.
The Abrahamic religions posit an infinite gap between God and the cosmos, bridged only in the distant past through unique prophetic revelations, making the exclusive lineage of prophets indispensable. (I refer to this doctrine elsewhere in my work as history-centrism.) Yoga, by contrast, has a non-dual cosmology, in which God is everything and permeates everything, and is at the same time also transcendent.
The yogic path of
embodied-knowing seeks to dissolve the historical ego, both individual and
collective, as false. It sees the Christian fixations on history and the
associated guilt, as bondage and illusions to be erased through spiritual
practice. Yoga is a do-it-yourself path that eliminates the need for
intermediaries such as a priesthood or other institutional authority. Most of
the 20 million American yoga practitioners encounter these issues and find them
troubling. Some have responded by distorting yogic principles in order to
domesticate it into a Christian framework, i.e. the oxymoron, 'Christian Yoga.'
(source: A Hindu view of Christian Yoga - By Rajiv Malhotra -
huffingtonpost.com).
Yogi Astounds Indian
Scientists
Gujarat,
India: An 83-year-old Indian holy man who says he has spent seven decades
without food or water has astounded a team of military doctors who studied him
during a two-week observation period. Prahlad Jani spent a fortnight in a
hospital in the western India state of Gujarat under constant surveillance from
a team of 30 medics equipped with cameras and closed circuit television. During
the period, he neither ate nor drank and did not go to the toilet.
The long-haired and bearded yogi was sealed in a hospital in the city of Ahmedabad in a study initiated by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the state defense and military research institute. The DRDO hopes that the findings, set to be released in greater detail in several months, could help soldiers survive without food and drink, assist astronauts or even save the lives of people trapped in natural disasters.
“We still do not know how he survives,” neurologist Sudhir Shah told reporters after the end of the experiment. “It is still a mystery what kind of phenomenon this is.” “If Jani does not derive energy from food and water, he must be doing that from energy sources around him, sunlight being one,” said Shah. “As medical practitioners we cannot shut our eyes to possibilities, to a source of energy other than calories.”
Jani has since returned to his village near Ambaji in northern Gujarat where he will resume his routine of yoga and meditation. He says that he was blessed by a goddess at a young age, which gave him special powers.
(source: Yogi Astounds Indian Scientists - hinduismtoday.com).The long-haired and bearded yogi was sealed in a hospital in the city of Ahmedabad in a study initiated by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the state defense and military research institute. The DRDO hopes that the findings, set to be released in greater detail in several months, could help soldiers survive without food and drink, assist astronauts or even save the lives of people trapped in natural disasters.
“We still do not know how he survives,” neurologist Sudhir Shah told reporters after the end of the experiment. “It is still a mystery what kind of phenomenon this is.” “If Jani does not derive energy from food and water, he must be doing that from energy sources around him, sunlight being one,” said Shah. “As medical practitioners we cannot shut our eyes to possibilities, to a source of energy other than calories.”
Jani has since returned to his village near Ambaji in northern Gujarat where he will resume his routine of yoga and meditation. He says that he was blessed by a goddess at a young age, which gave him special powers.
India Will Patent Yoga Asanas
New
Delhi, India. June 7, 2010: The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
has prepared patent formats of nearly 900 yoga asanas (postures), to prevent
European and American companies involved in fitness-related activities from
claiming them as their own. The asanas
have been collected from Patanjali’s classic work on yoga, as well as other
ancient classics like the Bhagwat Gita.
These asanas will all be included in the digitalised Traditional Knowledge Library, set up by the council to collect and record traditional treatment therapy knowledge. Medicines and yoga asanas registered with it enjoy the status of being patented. “Video recordings of the asanas are also being made and recorded to prevent them from being stolen,” said TKDL director Dr. V.K. Gupta. A number of countries have already laid claim to around 250 of these postures. some foreign companies have even patented some of them, says Gupta.
(source: India Will Patent Yoga Asanas - hindustantimes.com).These asanas will all be included in the digitalised Traditional Knowledge Library, set up by the council to collect and record traditional treatment therapy knowledge. Medicines and yoga asanas registered with it enjoy the status of being patented. “Video recordings of the asanas are also being made and recorded to prevent them from being stolen,” said TKDL director Dr. V.K. Gupta. A number of countries have already laid claim to around 250 of these postures. some foreign companies have even patented some of them, says Gupta.
There is no Christian Yoga - Not found in the bible
It was quite astonishing
to see on the flyer “Christian Yoga! This Thursday night….” I could feel the
wheels spinning in my brain. “Christian Yoga”, I thought. Now while Christians
can practice yoga, I am not aware of any Christian teachings about yoga. Yoga
is not a Judeo/Christian word! It is not a part of the Roman Catholic teachings
and certainly not a part of protestant teachings. It is not found within the King James Version of the bible. It is a Hindu
word, or more correctly a Sanskrit
word from the Vedic civilization. So how did we get “Christian Yoga”?
From this I could
conclude that “Christian Yoga” could only indicate one of two possibilities:
1) Christianity is threatened by yoga and is attempting to take over this system that “invaded their turf” pertaining to spiritual teachings and techniques.
2) Christianity is subconsciously attempting to return to the spiritual roots of civilization—the Vedic civilization.
I thought to myself, “why would they want to take over yoga?” Could it be due to the decline of members within the Christian church within the last 60 years? Is this an extensive marketing plan cooked up in some New York marketing guru’s head? Is it an attempt to water down the teachings of yoga and import their own teachings into the system? Or is it that they cannot stand not to own everything spiritual?
I think the best reason
might be that yoga, and eastern spirituality, offered answers to the spiritual
questions that the spiritually hungry masses had. It offered a practical,
rational, logical, and truthful approach to spirituality. It did not contain
any form of self-righteous condemnation, but offered love and acceptance to
all. It did not prey upon victims with terms such as “Sin” and “eternal damnation”. But most importantly, it had
answers! It offered a practical approach to cultivating a relationship with
divinity. It offered a systematic approach and an abstract approach to meet the
varying temperaments of the spirituality hungry.1) Christianity is threatened by yoga and is attempting to take over this system that “invaded their turf” pertaining to spiritual teachings and techniques.
2) Christianity is subconsciously attempting to return to the spiritual roots of civilization—the Vedic civilization.
I thought to myself, “why would they want to take over yoga?” Could it be due to the decline of members within the Christian church within the last 60 years? Is this an extensive marketing plan cooked up in some New York marketing guru’s head? Is it an attempt to water down the teachings of yoga and import their own teachings into the system? Or is it that they cannot stand not to own everything spiritual?
(source: There is no Christian Yoga - conversionagenda.blogspot.com).
Church protests, Croatia dumps yoga: Croatia’s education ministry has withdrawn its recommendation that teachers take yoga classes after the Roman Catholic Church accused it of trying to sneak Hinduism into schools. Croatia’s bishops issued a fierce protest of the planned yoga classes, calling it “unacceptable to introduce into the schools topics that are in contradiction with the generally accepted system of values and the European cultural tradition.” “Hindu religious practice will be brought into the schools under the guise of exercises,” the bishops said.
(source: Church protests, Croatia dumps yoga - timesofindia.com). Watch An Invasion through Conversion - videoyahoo.com
Yoga for Teachers Rouses Ire of Croatian Bishops - The Croatian Bishops' Conference said the program would "make an unacceptable favor to an organization and its founder who wants to introduce Hinduistic religious practice in Croatian schools." It said everything was being done under the guise of exercise. A Croatian yoga activist, who asked not to be named, said the bishops were "irritated by anything related to disciplines of oriental origin."
(source: Yoga for Teachers Rouses Ire of Croatian Bishops - reuters.com).
Fundamentalist Christians in Georgia stopped the Toccoa-Stephens County Recreation Department from offering a Yoga class. They claim that Yoga could lead to devil worship. Christian conservatives and other rigid and dogmatic religious sects have some serious issues with Yoga.
An English (Reverend Derek Smith) vicar who is in charge of St Michael's Church in the parish of Melksham in Wiltshire, decision to ban yoga classes from his church hall has underlined the fragility of Britain's continuing experiment with a multi-cultural society. Yoga is one of the fastest growing extra-curricular activities in the United Kingdom with a following among all sections of society.
A decade ago, it was actively promoted by one of India's most popular diplomats in Britain, High Commissioner H C Apa Pant, who delighted his friends by balancing on his head. In London a spokesman for Britain's Anglican Church backed the right of clergymen to take a stand against any practices which "do not square with Christian teachings". "Yoga is used as a kind of generic term for exercise and stretching, but there are many different types of yoga. Some have a more spiritual basis as handed down from Eastern religions. Last November another vicar in a different part of the country in Henham, Essex, took the same step. The British Wheel of Yoga, the governing body recognized by Sport England, condemned Rev Smith's action as "ignorant". "We Hindus are broadminded and it is surprising for us to hear a Christian vicar say he will ban yoga classes. "Most people practice yoga for health benefits, but even if they were aware of the links with Hinduism, what is the harm? There are many paths to God." The 50-year-old vicar said he had no regrets about his church hall's ban on the weekly yoga classes, which were incompatible with Christianity. Rev Smith said that even if followers in the West used it just for fitness, spiritual leaders in the East insisted it was inseparable from Hindu devotional practice.
(source: rediff.com).
Gods in New Age film: The seemingly innocuous devices used range from Yoga meditation to a belief in reincarnation. We are given an extraordinary inside glimpse into an eerie world of cult mentality and mindless obedience, and we see how an outright attack against traditional American beliefs has been successfully launched, not only from Hindu missionaries, but from unsuspecting Americans who have accepted the surface manifestations of this religion as trendy and fun. Many of these concepts, amazingly. have found their way into American churches which, themselves, are the very target of the attack. The film covers the chilling parallels between the belief structure in today's New Age subculture and that in Hitler's Third Reich two generations ago.
(source: Gods in New Age - http://www.marianland.com/newage01.html).
Yoga in Aspen Public Schools Draws Opposition - Yoga has become as trendy as this glamorous ski hamlet, so it would not seem surprising that some local schools have added it to the students' day. But some parents and religious leaders here are objecting, saying that teaching yoga in school violates the separation of church and state. "We anticipate that the yoga classes will provide them with some skills to learn how to better focus and be more attentive," said the Aspen Elementary School principal, Barb Pitchford. "More and more kids seem to have trouble with their attention spans — which is about as long as TV commercials." Leah Kalish, an author of the curriculum being used in Aspen, said opponents took issue with any Sanskrit words. One was "namaste," a word that she said was used in yoga classes to say, "The light in you is the light in me," or more generally, "to acknowledge our common humanity." The students end class here by saying "peace" rather than "namaste." Mr. Grant said yoga had become so commercialized that it no longer was truly yoga. "Yoga has become an enormous fad and is completely adrift from its mooring as an ancient and classical tradition that has always been taught face to face with a master," he said. A Roman Catholic priest in Aspen also objected to yoga in the schools. "The ultimate goal of the yoga is to balance the body, the mind, the soul and the spirit," said the priest, the Rev. Michael O'Brien of St. Mary's Catholic Church. "When you are talking about the soul and the spirit, then aren't you in the realm of religion? And if so, which religion?" Mr. Woodrow, a father of four, said that even watered-down yoga incorporated aspects of Eastern religions that believe in reincarnation and pluralism, which conflict with his beliefs. "It's not fine, it's Hinduism, and it's a completely different value system," he said.
(source: Yoga in Aspen Public Schools Draws Opposition - by Mindy Sink - NewYorkTimes.com).
Shal-ohm! Jews who yoga in Kansas City
BKS Iyengar, one of the greatest yoga masters, said that yoga was given to the human race, not just to Hinduism. After the meditation, Kahn and Colbert both end with a gentle, "Namaste," a traditional Sanskrit greeting meaning "I honor the divine within you."
(source: Shal-ohm! Jews who yoga in Kansas City - Kansas City Jewish Chronicle - February 4 2005).
Christian Yoga - The new appropriation Strategy of delinking Yoga from Hinduism
Jan Markell wrote an article titled 'Eastern Mysticism and Christianity are Incompatible' to counter the increasing interest Christians are taking in 'Yoga'. Christian Strategists are worried that Christians who benefited from Yoga may further explore Hinduism and start appreciating that. This sense of respect for other religions would play doom to the evangelical Christianity which survives on generating ill will and hatredness towards the 'lost people', i.e., the term used for non-Christians.
(source: Christian Yoga - The new appropriation Strategy of delinking Yoga from Hinduism - christianaggression.com). Also Refer to Yogaunveiled.com
Let's Take Yoga Back
I have become keenly aware of an alarming trend that disassociates yoga from its Hindu origins.I regularly read Yoga Journal at my gym and am continuously amazed at how many times its editors blatantly avoid using the word "Hindu." As I perused the April 09 issue, I found the Upanishads described as "Tantric yoga texts." Exactly one year ago, HAF Hindu American Foundation wrote to the editors of Yoga Journal about the clear disregard for Hinduism. Our letter was never published, and upon following up with them, HAF was informed that the journal does intentionally avoid using the word "Hindu" because it carries too much baggage, and ultimately, their goal is to sell magazines! I immediately requested my parents to discontinue their subscription.
These issues plagued me, but it wasn't until I began furthering my own yoga practice that I found this disassociation so stark. When I look around the yoga studios I frequent, I am almost always the only Indian Hindu in the room. If I lived in a small mid-Western town, this observation may not be so surprising. But I reside in Manhattan, one of the most diverse cities in the US, where Hindus abound and yet, I can't seem to find any in my yoga classes.
So, perhaps it's time for the Hindu community to look inward and accept our share of the blame in losing the affiliation between Hinduism and yoga. How can we maintain and promote the Hindu origin of yoga if the majority of yoga studios don't have Hindu students, forget the idea of Hindu yoga teachers? Our Hindu forefathers understood the unique benefits of yoga and shared yoga with the Western world. The West understood, fell in love with yoga, morphed it into a physical and "spiritual" practice - thereby removing any religious association - and proclaimed their expertise.
In an effort to avoid such a catastrophe, I urge you, as a Hindu American, to reclaim yoga by once again becoming an expert in its practice. We cannot lay claim to a practice if we as a community don't follow it ourselves. As a proud Hindu, it is a humbling experience to learn a practice originating in Hinduism from so many non-Hindus.
(source: Let's Take Yoga Back - By Sheetal Shah - hinducurrents.com).
The Theft of Yoga - Delinking yoga from Hinduism
The Los Angeles Times last week chronicled
this steady disembodying of yoga from
Hinduism. "Christ is my guru. Yoga is a spiritual discipline much
like prayer, meditation and fasting [and] no one religion can claim
ownership," says a vocal proponent of "Christian themed" yoga
practices. Some Jews practice Torah yoga, Kabbalah yoga and aleph bet yoga, and
even some Muslims are joining the act. They are appropriating the collective
wisdom of millenia of yogis without a whisper of acknowledgment of yoga's
spiritual roots.
Not surprisingly, the most popular yoga journals and
magazines are also in the act. Once yoga was no longer intertwined with its
Hindu roots, it became up for grabs and easy to sell. These journals abundantly
refer to yoga as "ancient Indian," "Eastern" or
"Sanskritic," but seem to assiduously
avoid the term "Hindu" out of fear, we can only assume, that
ascribing honestly the origins of their passion would spell disaster for what
has become a lucrative commercial enterprise. The American Yoga Association, on
its Web site, completes
this delinking of yoga from Hinduism thusly:
"The common belief that Yoga derives from Hinduism is
a misconception. Yoga actually predates Hinduism by many centuries...The
techniques of Yoga have been adopted by Hinduism as well as by other world
religions."
(source: The theft of yoga - By Dr. Aseem Shukla - Hindu American
Foundation). Refer to Take Yoga Back - Bringing to Light Yoga's Hindu Roots - Hindu American Foundation
The ground for its introduction to the West was laid in
1893, with the arrival from India of Swami Vivekananda, who gained notoriety
when he represented Hinduism at the world Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
Soon after, the West's awareness of Indian philosophy grew, through the work of
such groups as the Theosophical Society, founded in the US by Madame Blavatsky.
The Society translated most of the ancient Indian philosophical texts available
at the time, including an interpretation of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by the
English novelist and playwright Christopher
Isherwood, a member of the Society. Other members of the
Society included some of the most prominent intellectuals of the day such as Aldous Huxley,
Frank Lloyd Wright and W. B. Yeats.
For the next few decades, the West's interest in Indian philosophy continued to
grow. An important voice for the universality of these teachings was the great
philosopher and teacher J. Krishnamurti. With awareness of the philosophy grew
an interest in the practice with which it was so closely linked – yoga. In
1935, the eminent Swiss psychologist Carl G. Jung even
described yoga as 'one of the greatest
things the human mind has ever created.'
One of his most distinguished pupils was the violinist Yehudi Menuhin,
who wrote the foreword for Iyengar's book Light on Yoga, published in 1966. It wasn't long before people
from all over the world were travelling to India to discover yoga and the Vedic
philosophy from which it emerged. Then with the Beatles' journey to India in
1968, to study Transcendental Meditation with their Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
that was Indian became firmly part of the hippy culture. In his memoirs, Unfinished Journey, he wrote: "On
our first evening in Delhi, challenged by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to show what I could do, I stood on my
head in a somewhat rickety fashion, under the critical gaze of his daughter
Indira, his sister "Nan" Pandit, and a few members of the government.
"Oh, that's no good!" said Nehru in his sharp way. "I'll show
you." He took off his little Gandhi hat and very elegantly - although not
more elegantly than I can manage it now - upended himself on the drawing room
carpet. Dutifully I did my best to emulate my first guru, and we were both on
our heads when the splendid turbaned and sashed butler threw open the door to
announce that dinner was served."
(source: Unfinished Journey - By Yehudi Menuhin p. 250 -
268).
According to Alan
Watts:(1915-1973) a professor, graduate school dean and research fellow
of Harvard University, drew heavily on the insights of Vedanta. He well known
in the 1960s as a pioneer in bringing Eastern philosophy to the West.
"For the intellectual type there is the Gnana Yoga, the way of thought; for the feeling type there is Bhakti Yoga, the way of love; for the worker there is Karma Yoga, the way of service. But for those exceptionally gifted, there is a fourth which comprises the other three – Raja Yoga, the royal way, and this contains not only the trinity of thought, love and service, but also that mainly psychic form of yoga known as Hatha…..so great are the powers which it develops that they are only safe in the hands of those of the highest moral discipline, those who can be trusted to use them without thought of personal gain."
"For the intellectual type there is the Gnana Yoga, the way of thought; for the feeling type there is Bhakti Yoga, the way of love; for the worker there is Karma Yoga, the way of service. But for those exceptionally gifted, there is a fourth which comprises the other three – Raja Yoga, the royal way, and this contains not only the trinity of thought, love and service, but also that mainly psychic form of yoga known as Hatha…..so great are the powers which it develops that they are only safe in the hands of those of the highest moral discipline, those who can be trusted to use them without thought of personal gain."
(source: The
Wisdom of Asia – by Alan Watts p. 27-28).
In a moving letter written to Yoga Journal magazine
Ukrainian yogi Andrey V. Sidersky
tells how yoga is ameliorating the effects from radiation exposure when the
Chernobyl nuclear power plant melted down. Sidersky writes, "Everything is
soaked with radiation. The immune system is undermined. One who practices yoga
can fight it. That is why yoga is so important here. My blood is still impure,
due to radiation, but not as much as it could be. We are approaching death much
more quickly than the rest of humanity. Those who practice yoga have a much
better chance to get ready."
In recent times, Sri
Aurobindo saw a new vision and possibility of advance in spiritual life.
He realized that it should and could be possible for a human race as such to
rise to a new and higher status of living, a supramental in place of the mental
which it now commands, but which is subject to partiality, fragmentaries and
division. A supramental status of wholeness, sure of truth, is the development called
for and needed in the present situation of human life. This, Aurobindo called
"The Integral Yoga", the yoga which should lift the integral nature
of man, by a wide integral process of growth to a new integral consciousness.
Integral Yoga was Aurobindo's answer to the fragmentation of Yoga that it has
suffered since its classical period.
(source: Yoga in Hindu Scriptures - By H. Kumar Kaul p. 6).
Yoga and Science
The one central insight into Truth to which all Indian
wisdom points is the oneness of all that exists. This truth has been stated in
myriad ways in the long history of India. In the Rig Veda, the earliest text we
find this in a cosmlogoical-theological form as the various gods and natural
forces transform themselves into each other. In the Upanishads, the supreme
identity of Atman and Brahman discovered in meditation indicates the oneness of
the deepest level in a person with the subtlest level of the cosmos. From
Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita one hears that those who truly know realize that
all there is is Krishna. It is one and the same Divine Energy that manifests
itself in the various forms engaged in the various forms engaged in the
wonderful dance of Prakriti (Nature, both manifest as well as un-manifest).
Ravi Ravindra observes: "Over a period of at least four thousand
years - as reckoned by western chronology - the sages in India have repeatedly
said that there is an underlying unity of all that exists, including everything
we call animate or un-animate, and that the cultivation of wisdom consists of
realization of this truth. Modern science is not the only avenue to truth.
The great spiritual traditions have perspectives on reality, based on more
direct and and intuitive perception in purified states of consciousness, which
are either ignored or denied by science. Among the examples of such insights in
the spiritual traditions is an acknowledgment of levels of being higher than
the mind which can be experienced but cannot be known by any mode of knowledge
that separates object and subject. The state of consciousness in which the
unitive insight is possible requires a radical transformation of being brought
about by spiritual disciplines such as Yoga."
"Yoga is as much religion, as science, and art since
it is concerned with being (sat), knowing (jnana) and doing (karma). The aim of
Yoga, however, is beyond all these three, and beyond any opposites that they
imply. Yoga aims at moksha, which is unconditional and uncaused freedom, by its
very nature this state of freedom is beyond the dualities of being-nonbeing,
knowledge-ignorance, and activity-passivity. The way to moksha is Yoga, which serves
as the path or a discipline for integration."
(source: Yoga and The Teachings of Krishna - By Ravi Ravindra p.
157-165). Also Refer to Yogaunveiled.com
Conclusion
Yoga, as a 'science' of achieving this transformation of
finite man into the infinite One, has to be recognized as something
intrinsically Indian. Yoga has been called a living fossil. It has had
five thousand years of glorious history.
It belongs to the earliest heritage of India's humanity. The Indian liberation
teachings - the great Yogas of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism - clearly
represent an invaluable resource for contemporary humankind.
The path ahead is difficult and dangerous, but that is
inevitable in any great undertaking. The goal of individual salvation and
collective transformation may be far away, and may need man generations to
arrive. Let us recall that immortal verse from the Katha Upanishad which exhorts us to arise, awake and move onwards
across the sharp and difficult razor-edged path laid out by the great spiritual
beings of the past ages:
Uttisthata jagrata prapya varan nibodhata,
Ksursya dhara nisita duratyaya
Durgam pathas tat kavayo vadanti.
Uttisthata jagrata prapya varan nibodhata,
Ksursya dhara nisita duratyaya
Durgam pathas tat kavayo vadanti.
Karel Werner writes: "The
uniqueness of Yoga and its great value for our time lie in the fact that it is
based on a living tradition that has remained efficient since ancient times;
that it has developed systematic methods for pursuing and reaching its aim; and
that these method can be applied and studied today both on the popular level by
people with personal inclinations towards following a spiritual path and on the
academic level by research workers in various fields such as comparative
religion, philosophy, psychology, psychotherapy, and physiology. All other
forms of mystical practice are, by contrast, largely a matter of the more or
less distant past (eg. the ancient Greek mysteries, Egyptian magic practices,
Gnosticism, various forms of shamanism, and medieval Christian mysticism) or if
they are partly alive, which some might claim to be, they are closed systems
accessible only to believers."
(source: Yoga and Indian Philosophy - by Karel Werner p. 98-99
).
George Feuerstein remarks: "But
nowhere on Earth ahs the impulse toward transcendence found more consistent and
creative expression than on the Indian peninsula. The civilization of
India has spawned an almost overwhelming variety of spiritual beliefs,
practices, and approaches."
(source: The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice
- By Georg Feuerstein p. xxv).
Karel Werner has observed:
"Unlike in Europe, philosophy in India has always
been concerned with the individual, his existential situation, his destiny and
salvation, i.e. with the final solution to the riddle of man's existence. The
world or the universe - although the question of its origin is the theme of one
of the earliest Indian philosophical texts (the hymn of Creation, RV 10, 129) -
soon appears to be viewed mainly as the stage on which the drama of life is
going on. The important and central problem of philosophical investigation is
the nature of man and the means of transcending his present limited
situation."
“According to the Indian tradition, the ancient Vedic
religion is not a product of the imagination of primitive minds reacting to natural
phenomena by personifying, worshipping, and dreading them, but on the contrary,
is the creation of exceptional individuals who had reached the fullness of
mystical vision, which gave them an understanding of and insight into the
problems of life and existence that may have amounted to the final knowledge of
the truth itself.” And some hymns of the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda, if studied
carefully, lead us to admit that only deep experience based on efficient Yoga
technique could have produced the profound insights that we find in them.”
"There is a spirit of discovery about Yoga that is
similar to that often found in modern scientific research. In this field of
activity of the human mind Yoga also shares with science the characteristic of
a methodical and systematic approach to its task."
(source: Yoga and Indian Philosophy - by Karel Werner p.97 and 101 - 103).
(source: Yoga and Indian Philosophy - by Karel Werner p.97 and 101 - 103).
L Adams Beck has written: "This
subject of Yoga is a high and difficult one. At points there is symbolism that
only the instructed can piece and reach the truth behind. Remember also that
Yoga is in many respects a key to the highest teachings of the Indian
philosophies, including that of the Buddha." He has endorsed Yoga as a gift to the West. We are only beginning to
realize what great gifts India brings us, gifts not to be feared but
welcomed.."
"The philosophy of Yoga, though inchoate, was ancient
when the Upanishads were comparatively young. The Svetasvatara Upanishad says:
"Where fire is churned or produced by rubbing sacrifice, where air is
controlled (by Yoga practices) then the mind attains perfection."
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan who had a great respect for Yoga wrote: "It is good
to know that the ancient thinkers required of us to realize the possibilities
of the soul in solitude and silence, and to transform the flashing and fading
moments of vision into a steady light which could illumine the long years of
life."
(source: The Story of Oriental Philosophy - By L Adams Beck p. 10w
-107).
Yoga is to transform the whole man, to discipline his
body, to purify his mind, to touch the very foundations of his being.
(references for Yoga
and Hindu Philosophy
are taken from as
under )
1. Yoga and The
Teaching of Krishna - by Ravi Ravindra
2. Yoga As Philosophy And Religion - By Surendranath Dasgupta
3. Yoga and Indian Philosophy - by Karel Werner
4. Essays on Hinduism - by Karan Singh
5. Yoga and The Bhagavad Gita - By Tom McArthur
6. Philosophy of Hinduism - By Galav
7. Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy - By Georg Feuerstein
8. The Hindu Mind - By Bansi Pandit
9 Yoga and the Hindu Tradition - By Jean Varenne
10. Divya Chakshu Yoga - By Bhim Sen Gupta
11. Yoga and Ayurveda - By Satyendra Prasad Mishra
12. The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice - By Georg Feuerstein
13. Yoga: A Vision of its Future - By Gopi Krishna
14. Yoga Samhita - by Swami Sivananda
15. The serpent power: being the Sat-cakra-nir¯upana and P¯aduk¯a-pañcaka, two works on Laya yoga, translated from the Sanskrit, with introd. and commentary by Sir John Woodroffe aka Arthur Avalon
16. The Yoga and Its Objects - By Sri Aurobindo
2. Yoga As Philosophy And Religion - By Surendranath Dasgupta
3. Yoga and Indian Philosophy - by Karel Werner
4. Essays on Hinduism - by Karan Singh
5. Yoga and The Bhagavad Gita - By Tom McArthur
6. Philosophy of Hinduism - By Galav
7. Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy - By Georg Feuerstein
8. The Hindu Mind - By Bansi Pandit
9 Yoga and the Hindu Tradition - By Jean Varenne
10. Divya Chakshu Yoga - By Bhim Sen Gupta
11. Yoga and Ayurveda - By Satyendra Prasad Mishra
12. The Yoga Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and Practice - By Georg Feuerstein
13. Yoga: A Vision of its Future - By Gopi Krishna
14. Yoga Samhita - by Swami Sivananda
15. The serpent power: being the Sat-cakra-nir¯upana and P¯aduk¯a-pañcaka, two works on Laya yoga, translated from the Sanskrit, with introd. and commentary by Sir John Woodroffe aka Arthur Avalon
16. The Yoga and Its Objects - By Sri Aurobindo
For more refer to The Magic of Yoga
- By Jahnavi Sheriff - rediff.com). Also
Refer to Yogaunveiled.com
and Kayayoga.net
Did You Know?
Shiva Temple: The Only
Hindu Temple Built by an Englishman in India
Lord Shiva rescued Lady Martin’s husband in Afghanistan
Lord Shiva rescued Lady Martin’s husband in Afghanistan
In 1879, when there was British were ruling in India, Lt.
Col. Martin of Agar Malva was leading the army in the war against Afghanistan.
Col. Martin used to regularly send messages of
his well-being to his wife. The war continued for long & Lady Martin
stopped getting messages. She was very upset. Once riding on her horse, she passed by the temple of Baijnath Mahadev. She was attracted to the sound of Conch & Mantra. She went inside and came to know that the Brahmanas were worshipping Lord Shiva. They saw her sad face and asked her problem. She explained everything to them. They told her that Lord Shiva listens to the prayers of devotees and takes them out of difficult situations in no time. With the advice of the Brahmanas she started the “Laghurudri Anushtthan” of the Mantra: “Om Namah Shivaya” for 11 days. She prayed to Lord Shiva that if her husband reaches home safely, then she would get the temple renovated.
On the last of the “Laghurudri” a messenger came and gave a letter to her. Her husband had written: “I was regularly sending messages to you from the battle grounds but suddenly the Pathans surrounded us from all sides. We were entrapped in a situation where there was no scope of escaping death. Suddenly I saw a Yogi of India with long hair, carrying a weapon with three pointers (Trishul). His personality was amazing and he was maneuvering his weapon with a magnificent style. Seeing this great man, the Pathans started running back. With his grace our bad times turned into moments of victory. This was possible only because of that man of India wearing a lion skin & carrying a three-pointer weapon (Trishul). That great Yogi told me that I should not worry and that he had come to rescue me because he was very pleased with my wife’s prayers.”
Tears of joy were falling down the eyes of Lady Martin’s eyes while reading the letter. Her heart was overwhelmed. She fell into the feet of Lord Shiva’s statue and burst in tears.
After a few weeks Col. Martin returned. Lady Martin narrated the whole incident to him. Now both husband & wife became devotees of Lord Shiva. In 1883 they donated Rs. 15,000 for renovating the temple. The information engraved slab for the same is still there in the Baijnath Mahadev Temple of Agar Malva. This is the only Hindu temple built by the British.
When Lady Martin left for Europe she said that they would make Shiva Temple at their home and pray to Him till the end of life.
The same Supreme Power is present in Lord Shiva… Lord Krishna… Mother Durga… One only needs strong faith....
(source: Yog-Yatra 4 of Sant Shri Asaramji Ashram - http://www.ashram.org/satsang_eng/ladymartin.html).
Sanskrit Language
Sanskrit was
considered as "Dev Bhasha", " Devavani "or the language of
the Gods by ancient Indians. The word sanskrita, meaning "refined" or
"purified," is the antonym of prakrita, meaning "natural,"
or "vulgar." It is made up of the primordial sounds, and is developed
systematically to include the natural progressions of sounds as created in the
human mouth. Jawaharlal Nehru has said that Sanskrit is a language amazingly
rich, efflorescent, full of luxuriant growth of all kinds, and yet precise and
strictly keeping within the framework of grammar which Panini laid down two
thousand years ago. It spread out, added to its richness, became fuller and
more ornate, but always it stuck to its original roots. The ancient Indians
attached a great deal of importance to sound, and hence their writing, poetry
or prose, had a rhythmic and musical quality. Our modern languages of India are
children of Sanskrit, and to it owe most of their vocabulary and their forms of
expressions.
Sanskrit
(meaning "cultured or refined"), the classical language
of Hinduism, is the oldest and the most systematic language in the world. The
vastness and the versatility, and power of expression can be appreciated by the
fact that this language has 65 words to describe various forms of earth, 67
words for water, and over 250 words to describe rainfall. The Sanskrit grammarians wished to construct a perfect language, which would belong to no one and thus belong to all, which would not develop but remain an ideal instrument of communication and culture for all peoples and all time.
RIT - The Language of Ancient India.
Sanskrit (meaning "cultured or refined"), the classical language of Hinduism, is the oldest and the most systematic language in the world. The vastness and the versatility, and power of expression can be appreciated by the fact that this language has 65 words to describe various forms of earth, 67 words for water, and over 250 words to describe rainfall.
Sanskrit was a complete success and became the language of all cultured people in India and in countries under Indian influence. All scientific, philosophical, historical works were henceforth written in Sanskrit, and important texts existing in other languages were translated and adapted into Sanskrit. For this reason, very few ancient literary, religious, or philosophical documents exits in India in other languages. The sheer volume of Sanskrit literature is immense, and it remains largely unexplored.
(source: Virtue, Success, Pleasure, Liberation - By Alain Danielou p.17).(For more about Indian influence in Southeast Asia, please refer to chapter on Suvarnabhumi)
Sir William Jones (1746-1794) came to India as a judge of the Supreme Court at Calcutta. He pioneered Sanskrit studies. His admiration for Indian thought and culture was almost limitless. He observed as long ago as 1784:
" The Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin and more exquisitely refined than either: yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs, and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all without believing them to have sprung from some common source which perhaps no longer exists..."
(source: Discovery of India - By Jawaharlal Nehru p 165).
Hindu literature is so vast, that he said: "human life would not be sufficient to make oneself acquainted with any considerable part of Hindu literature."
(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p.205).
Alain Danielou (1907-1994) son of French aristocracy, author of numerous books on philosophy, religion, history and arts of India and perhaps the first European to boldly proclaim his Hinduness. He settled in India for fifteen years in the study of Sanskrit. He had a wide effect upon Europe's understanding of Hinduism.
He has observed:
"The creation of Sanskrit, the “refined” language, was a prodigious work on a grand scale. Grammarians and semanticists of genius undertook to create a perfect language, artificial and permanent, belonging to no one, that was to become the language of the entire culture. Sanskrit is built on a basis of Vedic and the Prakrits, but has a much more complex grammar, established according to a rigorous logic. It has an immense vocabulary and a very adaptable grammar, so that words can be grouped together to express any nuance of an idea, and verb forms can be found to cover any possibility of tense, such as future intentional in the past, present continuing into the future, and so on. Furthermore, Sanskrit possesses a wealth of abstract nouns, technical and philosophical terms unknown in any other language. Modern Indian scholars of Sanskrit culture have often remarked that many of the new concepts of nuclear physics or modern psychology are easy for them to grasp, since they correspond exactly to familiar notions of Sanskrit terminology."
(source: A Brief History of India - By Alain Danielou p. 57-58). Refer to French version of this chapter - Le Sanscrit - By Dharma Today.
Will Durant (1885-1981) American eminent historian, would like the West to learn from India, tolerance and gentleness and love for all living things:
He has noted in his book, The Case for India:
"India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village community, of self-government and democracy.
(source: The Case for India - By Will Durant).
The renowned British Sanskrit scholar Arthur Anthony Macdonell (1854-1930) ummarized :
"Since the Renaissance there has been no event of such worldwide significance in the history of culture as the discovery of Sanskrit literature in the latter part of the eighteenth century."
(source: In Search of The Cradle of Civilization: : New Light on Ancient India - By Georg Feuerstein, Subhash Kak & David Frawley p. 257).
In the opinion of Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900) "Sanskrit is to the science of language what mathematics is to astronomy."
Schlegel in his book, History of Literature, says, "It has also the Divine afflatus of the Hebrew tongue."
(source: The Soul of India - By Satyavrata R. Patel p. 76-77).
Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1819-1899) was an Orientalist, professor of Sanskrit at Oxford in 1860. He made a lengthy and learned introduction to his monumental work: Sanskrit-English Dictionary.
In his book Hinduism, on page 13, he says:
"India though it has more than five hundred spoken dialects, has only one sacred language and only one sacred literature, accepted and revered by all adherence of Hinduism alike, however diverse in race, dialect, rank and creed. That language is Sanskrit and Sanskrit literature, the only repository of the Veda or knowledge in its widest sense, the only vehicle of Hindu mythology, philosophy, law, the mirror in which all the creeds, opinions, and customs and usages of the Hindus are faithfully reflected and the only quarry whence the requisite materials may be obtained for improving the vernaculars or for expressing important religious and scientific ideas."
Dr. T. W. Rhys Davids, famous Pali scholar has said: "The introduction of the use of Sanskrit as the lingu-franca is a turning point in the mental history of the Indian people. The causes that preceded it, the changes in the intellectual standpoint that went with it, the results that followed on both, are each of them of vital importance."
(source: Cultural Heritage of Ancient India - By Sachindra Kumar Maity p.48).
According to Forbes magazine, (July, 1987), "Sanskrit is the most convenient language for computer software programming."
(Source: The Hindu Mind -Fundamentals of Hindu Religion and Philosophy for all Ages - By Bansi Pandit pg - 307).
NASA and others have been looking at Sanskrit as a possible computer language since its syntax is perfect and leaves little room for error.
(source: American Sanskrit Institute http://www.americansanskrit.com). Refer to French version of this chapter - Le Sanscrit - By Dharma Today.
Rick Briggs a NASA researcher, has written:
"In ancient India the intention to discover truth was so consuming, that in the process, they discovered perhaps the most perfect tool for fulfilling such a search that the world has ever known -- the Sanskrit language. There is at least one language, Sanskrit, which for the duration of almost 1000 years was a living spoken language with a considerable literature of its own. Besides works of literary value, there was a long philosophical and grammatical tradition that has continued to exist with undiminished vigor until the present century. Among the accomplishments of the grammarians can be reckoned a method for paraphrasing Sanskrit in a manner that is identical not only in essence but in form with current work in Artificial Intelligence. This article demonstrates that a natural language can serve as an artificial language also, and that much work in AI has been reinventing a wheel millennia old.
The discovery is of monumental significance. It is mind-boggling to consider that we have available to us a language which has been spoken for 4-7000 years that appears to be in every respect a perfect language designed for enlightened communication. But the most stunning aspect of the discovery is this: NASA the most advanced research center in the world for cutting edge technology has discovered that Sanskrit, the world's oldest spiritual language is the only unambiguous spoken language on the planet. Considering Sanskrit's status as a spiritual language, a further implication of this discovery is that the age old dichotomy between religion and science is an entirely unjustified one.
It is also relevant to note that in the last decade physicists have begun to comment on the striking similarities between their own discoveries and the discoveries made thousands of years ago in India which went on to form the basis of most Eastern religions.
Why has Sanskrit endured? Fundamentally it generates clarity and inspiration. And that clarity and inspiration is directly responsible for a brilliance of creative expression such as the world has rarely seen.
Another hope for the return of Sanskrit lies in computers. 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 world. 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."
(source: Knowledge Representation in Sanskrit and Artificial Intelligence - By Rick Briggs Artificial Intelligence Magazine 6(1) 32-39 1985).
W. C. Taylor wrote in The Journal of Royal Asiatic Society: "It was an astounding discovery that Hindustan possessed, in spite of the changes of realms and variety; a language, the parent of all those dialects that Europe has fondly called classical - the source alike of Greek flexibility and Roman strength. A philosophy, compared with which, in point of age, the lessons of Pythagoras are but of yesterday, and in point of daring speculation Plato's boldest efforts were tame and commonplace. A poetry more purely intellectual than any of those of which we had before any conception; and systems of science whose antiquity baffled all power of astronomical calculation. This literature, with all its colossal proportions, which can scarcely be described without the semblance of bombast and exaggeration claimed of course a place for itself - it stood alone, and it was able to stand alone.
"To acquire the mastery of this language is almost a labor of a life; its literature seems exhaustless. The utmost stretch of imagination can scarcely comprehend its boundless mythology. Its philosophy has touched upon every metaphysical difficulty; its legislation is as varied as the castes for which it was designed.'
Count Magnus Fredrik Ferdinand Bjornstjerna (1779-1847) says:
"The literature of India makes us acquainted with a great nation of past ages, which grasped every branch of knowledge, and which will always occupy a distinguished place in the history of the civilization of mankind."
Rev. William Ward wrote:
"No reasonable person will deny to the Hindus of former times the praise of very extensive learning. The variety of subjects upon which they wrote prove that almost every science was cultivated among them. The manner also in which they treated these subjects proves that the Hindus learned men yielded the palm of learning to scarcely any other of the ancients. The more their philosophical works and lawbooks are studied, the more will the enquirer be convinced of the depth of wisdom possessed by the authors.
Mrs. Charlotte Manning says: "The Hindus had the widest range of mind of which man was capable."
(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p.201 - 203).
Jean Le Mee born in France in 1931 and studied Sanskrit at Columbia University, has observed:
"Sanskrit is the artificial language par excellence, patiently refined sound by sound...embracing all the levels of being physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. It is ideally suited to describe and govern the nature of phenomena from the spiritual level to the physical. This range of applicability in the realm of nature paradoxically makes this most artificial language the most natural language, the language of nature."
(source: Hymns from the Rig Veda - By Jean LeMee ISBN: 0394493540 1975. p. xii).
Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900) in Science of Languages p. 203, calls Sanskrit the "language of languages", and remarks that "it has been truly said that Sanskrit is to the Science of language what Mathematics is to Astronomy."
(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p.205).
S N Dasgupta and S. K. De have written:
"The majesty and grandeur of the Sanskrit language, the sonorousness of the word music, the rise and fall of the rhythm rolling in waves, the elasticity of meaning and the conventional atmosphere that appears in it have always made it charming to those for whom it was written. ...The wealth of imagery, the vividness of description of natural scenes, the underlying suggestiveness of higher ideals and the introduction of imposing personalities often lead great charm to Sanskrit poetry."
(source: History of Sanskrit Literature - By Dasgupta, S. N. and S. K. De).
"There is at least one language, Sanskrit, which for the duration of almost 1000 years was a living spoken language with a considerable literature of its own. Besides works of literary value, there was a long philosophical and grammatical tradition that has continued to exist with undiminished vigor until the present century. Among the accomplishments of the grammarians can be reckoned a method for paraphrasing Sanskrit in a manner that is identical not only in essence but in form with current work in Artificial Intelligence."
This paragraph demonstrates that a natural language can serve as an artificial language also, and that much work in AI has been reinventing a wheel millennia old. The discovery is of monumental significance. It is mind-boggling to consider that we have available to us a language which has been spoken for 4000-7000 years that appears to be in every respect a perfect language designed for enlightened communication. But the most stunning aspect of the discovery is this: NASA the most advanced research center in the world for cutting edge technology has discovered that Sanskrit, the world's oldest spiritual language is the only unambiguous spoken language on the planet."
The discussion until now has been about Sanskrit, the language of mathematical precision, the world's only unambiguous spoken language. But the linguistic perfection of Sanskrit offers only a partial explanation for its sustained presence in the world for at least 3000 years. High precision in and of itself is of limited scope. Generally it excites the brain but not the heart.
Sanskrit is indeed a perfect language in the same sense as mathematics, but Sanskrit is also a perfect language in the sense that, like music, it has the power to uplift the heart. Why has Sanskrit endured? Fundamentally it generates clarity and inspiration. And that clarity and inspiration is directly responsible for a brilliance of creative expression such as the world has rarely seen.
"The richness of Sanskrit language is almost beyond belief. Many centuries ago that language contained words to describe states of the conscious and the subconscious and the unconscious mind and a variety of other concepts which have been evolved by modern psychoanalysis and psyche-therapy. Further, it has many a word, of which there is no exact synonym even in the richest modern languages. That is why some modern writers have been driven occasionally to use Sanskrit words when writing in English.
Consider, for example, the following passage in Dr. Raynor C. Johnson's The Imprisoned Splendour.
"To facilitate discussion I propose to call this higher level buddhi (coming from a Sanskrit word meaning 'wisdom'). Buddhi apprehends Truth directly - fragments of truth only, of course...It offers no reason for its perceptions, but it makes no mistakes, and this wisdom is passed through the level of Mind, to be there clothed in intelligible form."
And the following words by J. Robert Oppenheimer in Einstein: A Centenary Volume:
"Einstein is also, and I think rightly, known as a man of very great goodwill and humanity. Indeed if I had to think of a single word for his attitude towards human problems, I would pick the Sanskrit word Ahimsa, not to hurt, harmlessness. "
(source: India's Priceless Heritage - By Nani Palkhivala published by Bharati Vidya Bhavan 1980 p. 24-25)
Georges Ifrah ( ? ) French historian of Mathematics and author of the book, The Universal History of Numbers has written:
"Sanskrit means “complete”, “perfect” and “definitive”. In fact, this language is extremely elaborate, almost artificial, and is capable of describing multiple levels of meditation, states of consciousness and psychic, spiritual and even intellectual processes. As for vocabulary, its richness is considerable and highly diversified. Sanskrit has for centuries lent itself admirably to the diverse rules of prosody and versification. Thus we can see why poetry has played such a preponderant role in all of Indian culture and Sanskrit literature. "
(source: The Universal History of Numbers - By Georges Ifrah p. 431).
Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), was one of the foremost interpreters of myth in our time. Campbell was a prolific writer, dedicated editor, beloved teacher, inspiring lecturer, and an avid scholar of spiritual and cultural development. He referred to Sanskrit as:
"The great spiritual language of the world."
Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) most original philosopher of modern India. Education in England gave him a wide introduction to the culture of ancient, or mediaeval and of modern Europe. He was described by Romain Rolland as ' the completest synthesis of the East and the West.' He was a great Indian sage and 20th century poet philosopher.
No one has expressed this more eloquently than him when he wrote:
"The Ancient and classical creations of the Sanskrit tongue both in quality and in body and abundance of excellence, in their potent originality and force and beauty, in their substance and art and structure, in grandeur and justice and charm of speech and in the height and width of the reach of their spirit stand very evidently in the front rank among the world's great literatures."
The language itself, as has been universally recognized by those competent to form a judgment, is one of the most magnificent, the most perfect and wonderfully sufficient literary instruments developed by the human mind, at once majestic and sweet and flexible, strong and clearly-formed and full and vibrant and subtle, and its quality and character would be of itself a sufficient evidence of the character and quality of the race whose mind it expressed and the culture of which it was the reflecting medium.'
(source: The Foundations of Indian Culture - By Sri Aurobindo p. 255-256).
Professor A. L. Basham, taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London.
He has noted in his book The Wonder That Was India:
"Though its fame is much restricted by its specialized nature, there is no doubt that Panini's grammar is one of the greatest intellectual achievements of any ancient civilization, and the most detailed and scientific grammar composed before the 19th century in any part of the world."
(source: The Wonder That Was India - By A. L. Basham p. 390).
Alain Danielou (1907-1994) founded the Institute for Comparative Music Studies in Berlin and Venice, author of several books on the religion, history, and art of India. He said:
"Sanskrit is constructed like geometry and follows a rigorous logic. It is theoretically possible to explain the meaning of the words according to the combined sense of the relative letters, syllables and roots. Sanskrit has no meanings by connotations and consequently does not age. Panini's language is in no way different from that of Hindu scholars conferring in Sanskrit today."
(source: Virtue, Success, Pleasure, Liberation - By Alain Danielou p. 17).
Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeran (1760-1842) in his Historical Researches Vol II p. 201, says: "The literature of the Sanskrit language incontestably belongs to a highly cultivated people, whom we may with great reason consider to have been the most informed of all the Epics. It is, at the same time, a scientific and a poetic literature." He also says: "Hindu literature is one of the richest in prose and poetry."
(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p.203).
Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad (1891-1953) English philosopher and author of The Story of Indian Civilization has said:
"Sanskrit, a language which belongs to the Indo-European group and has been the chief literary vehicle of Indian thought, is an instrument admirably adapted to give expression to every subtlety of human thought, every nuance of human feeling...
The writings of Indian poets and dramatists, historians and biographers, contain evidence not only of richness of imagination and variety of feeling, but of a remarkable talent for expressing precisely those adventures of the spirit, which chiefly give to human life its meaning and significance.
(source: Indian Culture and the Modern Age - By Dewan Bahadur K. S. Ramaswami Sastri Annamalai University. 1956 p.179-180).
Judith H. Morrison has observed:
"Sanskrit is a beautiful, powerful, resonating language, with a structure and richness not found within most modern languages. The logic and beauty within Sanskrit reflect the two levels needed to appreciate Ayurveda fully..."
(source: The Book of Ayurveda: A Holistic Approach to Health and Longevity - by Judith H. Morrison p. 17). Refer to French version of this chapter - Le Sanscrit - By Dharma Today. Watch video - Brahmins in India have become a minority
Grammar
The Sanskrit term for grammar is vyakarana, which etymologically means "differentiated analysis."
Panini's Sanskrit grammar, produced in about 1300 B. C. E. is the shortest and the fullest grammar in the world. Panini composed a Sanskrit grammar called the Ashtadhyayi. In 4,000 short verses, it revealed the inner mechanics of Sanskrit - how the language worked and how new words evolved.
Panini, the legendary
Sanskrit grammarian of 5th century BC, is the world's first computational
grammarian! Panini's work, Ashtadhyayi (the Eight-Chaptered book), is
considered to be the most comprehensive scientific grammar ever written for any
language.
"
Sir Monier-Williams (1819-1899) Orientalist, professor of Sanskrit at Oxford
in 1860. He made a lengthy and learned introduction to his monumental work:
Sanskrit-English Dictionary. He wrote:"The Panini grammar reflects the wondrous capacity of the human brain, which till today no other country has been able to produce except India."
“By Sanskrit is meant the learned language of India - the language of its cultured inhabitants, the language of its religion, its literature and science - not by any means a dead language, but one still spoken and written by educated men by all parts of the country, from Kashmir to Cape Comorin, from Bombay to Calcutta and Madras.
For example, the great linguist Panini gave the concept for meta-language-and constructed one-thousands of years before computer scientists began exploring the same idea. No one has been able to match him to this day.
The Sanskrit language is of wonderful structure, more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin and more exquisitely refined than either. An example of the resemblance: the word for ten is dasha in Sanskrit, deka in Greek, and decem in Latin. Thousands of Sanskrit words such as pitah, brahta, raja have cognates in nearly all European languages. Based on the undeniable resemblance of these languages, philologists termed them Indo-European language.
"The grammar of Panini is one of the most remarkable literary works that the world has ever seen, and no other country can produce any grammatical system at all comparable to it, either for originality of plan or analytical subtlety."
His Sastras are a perfect miracle of condensation."
(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p. 229).
Nicholas Ostler ( ? ) a British scholar and author. His 2005 book Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World documents the spread of language throughout human history. He is currently the chairman of the Foundation for Endangered Languages. He has written:
"Indian culture is unique in the world for its rigorous analysis of its own language, which it furthermore made the central discipline of its own culture. The Sanskrit word for grammar, vyakarana, instead of being based, like the Greek grammatike, on some word for word or writing, just means analysis: so language is the subject for analysis par excellence.
The vocabulary is vast: there are over ten thousand
nominal, roots in the traditional thesaurus for poets (Amarakosa, ‘the Immortal
Treasury’, organized of course into sutras for memorization) and, when verbs
and compounds are allowed in, Monier Williams’ 1899 dictionary runs to 180,000
entries. This means that there are vast resources in near-synonyms: at an
extreme, John Brough claims there are fifty synonyms for ‘lotus’, a favorite
concept of Sanskrit poetry in both literal and metaphorical senses.
In every sense of the
word, then, Sanskrit is a luxuriant
language, Sir William Jones, Chief Justice of India and founder of the
Royal Asiatic Society, memorably described it in 1786: “The Sanskrit language,
whatever may be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than
the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than
either."
Asked about his affection for Sanskrit, he has
said:"Sanskrit has many virtues that attract. Its grammar has been rigorously analyzed, but not in a doctrinaire way – there is room for intellectual debate. The classical Indian culture in which Sanskrit first flourished offers an immense variety of material, from romantic comedy and sensual poetry to epic, massive-word play, political science and philosophy. It embodies a contradiction, that a language whose literature is so lithe, should be indigenously analyzed as a sort of architectural structure. And I suppose I like the fact that it is so difficult (coming from English, certainly), yet so familiar in another way (coming at it from Latin, Greek and Russian)."
(source: Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World - By Nicholas Ostler p. 174 - 213 and Interview with Nicholas Ostler).
(For more refer to Electronic Panini - http://sanskrit.gde.to/all_pdf/aShTAdhyAyI.pdf
and Sanskrit Learning Tools - http://sanskrit.gde.to/learning_tools/learning_tools.html and A Software on Sanskrit Grammar based on Panini's Sutras - http://www.taralabalu.org/panini/greetings.htm).
Albrecht Weber (1825-1901) author of History of Indian Literature, wrote:
"Panini's grammar is distinguished above all similar works of other countries partly by its thoroughly exhaustive investigation of the roots of the language, and the formation of words; partly by its sharp precision of expression, which indicates with an enigmatical succinctness whether forms come under the same or different rules. This is rendered possible by the employment of an algebraic terminology of arbitrary contrivance, the several parts of which stand to each other in the closest harmony, and which, by the very fact of its sufficing for all the phenomena which the language presents, bespeaks at once the marvelous ingenuity of its inventor, and his profound penetration of the entire material of the language."
(source: Civilization Through the Ages - By P. N. Bose p. 136).
Arthur A. Macdonell (1854-1930) author of History of Sanskrit Literature has remarked:
"The Sanskrit grammarians of India were the first to analyze word forms, to recognize the difference between root and suffix, to determine the functions of suffixes and on the whole to elaborate a grammatical system so accurate and complete as to be unparalleled in any other country."
(source: Main Currents in Indian Culture - By S. Natarajan p. 100 and India's Past - By A A Macdonell p. 123).
Horace Hyman Wilson (1786-1860) says: "The Hindus had a copious and a cultivated language."
"The Sanskrit," says Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeran (1760-1842) writes in Historical Researches vol. II p. 109-110, "we can safely assert to be one of the richest and most refined of any. It has, moreover, reached a high degree of cultivation, and the richness of its philosophy is no way inferior to its poetic beauties, as it presents us with an abundance of technical terms to express the most abstract ideas."
The distinguished German critic, Schlegal, in History of Literature p. 117, says:
"Justly it is called Sanskrit, ie. perfected, finished. In its structure and grammar, it closely resembles the Greek, but is infinitely more regular and therefore more simple, though not less rich. It combines fullness, indicative of Greek development, the brevity and nice accuracy of Latin; whilst having a near affinity to the Persian and German roots, it is distinguished by expression as enthusiastic and forcible as theirs."
He again says: "The Sanskrit combines these various qualities, possessed separately by other tongues: Grecian copiousness, deep-toned Roman force, the divine afflatus characterizing the Hebrew tongue." He also says: Judged by an organic standard of the principal elements of language, the Sanskrit excels in grammatical structure, and is, indeed, the most perfectly developed of all idioms, not excepting Greek and Latin."
The importance of this "language of languages" is clearly recognized when we consider, with Sir William Wilson Hunter, the fact that "the modern philology dates from the study of Sanskrit by the Europeans."
"I am not a little surprised to find that out of ten words in Du Perron's Zind Dictionary six or seven were pure Sanskrit." wrote Sir William Jones.
Mons. Dubois says that Sanskrit is the original source of all the European languages of the present day.
(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p.205 - 207).
William Ward (1769-1823) notes: “These grammars are very numerous, and reflect the highest credit on the ingenuity of their authors. Indeed, in philology the Hindoos have perhaps excelled both the ancients and the moderns."
(source: A View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos - By William Ward volume II p 469 London 1822).
Antoine Leonard de Chézy (1718- 1798) was a determined French scholar, an engineer who finally became director of the École des Ponts et Chaussées.
He became a passionate admirer of Sir William Jones' translation of the Sakuntala. He was seized by the desire to read the masterpiece in its original. With the help of Pons' grammar of the Amarakosa, and later of Wilkins' translation of the Hitopadesa, he began learning Sanskrit. By Sheer perseverance and remarkable ingenuity he was finally able to realize the dream - to read, and even publish, the text of the Sakuntala, He, like many contemporary French thinkers, realized that Euorpe should be acquainted with the achievements of Asian nations.
Among his works were: La Reconnaissance de Sacountala (1830), from the Sanskrit.
(source: India and World Civilization - By D. P. Singhal Pan Macmillan Limited. 1993. Part II p. 213).
"Probably in no other single sphere have Western scholars been so indebted to traditional India as in that of grammar. "
Sir William Wilson Hunter (1840-1900) has observed:
"The grammar of Panini stands supreme among the grammars of the world, alike for its precision of statement, and for its thorough analysis of the roots of the language and of the formative principles of words. By employing an algebraic terminology it attains a sharp succinctness unrivalled in brevity, but at times enigmatical. It arranges, in logical harmony, the whole phenomena which the Sanskrit language presents, and stands forth as one of the most splendid achievements of human invention and industry. So elaborate is the structure, that doubts have arisen whether its complex rules of formation and phonetic change, its polysyllabic derivatives, its ten conjugations with their multiform aorists and long array of tenses, could ever have been the spoken language of a people."
(source: The Indian Empire - By Sir William Wilson Hunter p. 142).
Sir John Woodroffe aka Arthur Avalon (1865-1936) the well known scholar, Advocate-General of Bengal and sometime Legal Member of the Government of India. He served with competence for eighteen years and in 1915 officiated as Chief Justice.
He wondered why Sanskrit was not taught in British India:
“As regard the first point I am told that in an Indian
University even Sanskrit is taught in English which means that only those who
know the latter tongue can learn the classic language of event their own
country. To me this seems an absurdity…In the same institution a European
Sanskrit grammar is prescribed, the production of which was paid for at a
larger price than would be offered to any Indian. Who offered it? Not the
English. The Indian cannot I suppose write a grammar. Yet India has Panini, Patanjali, Patanjali’s Mahabhasya, Supadma, Kalapa,
the Vakyapadiya, Bhopadeva, Sangkshiptasara, Siddantakaumudi, Laghukaumudi,
amongst the ancient, while the Vyakarana Kaumudi, Upakramanika of
Ishvara Chandra Vidyasagara, and the Ashubodha of Taranatha Vachaspati head the
moderns. How is it that all these have been displaced? A distinguished European
Sanskritist once aksed me where I had learned Sanskrit, but that I had been and
was still learning Sanskrit in this country. “Oh what a pity,” he said, “Why” I
asked? “They cannot teach Sanskrit in this country: they have no system.” He
replied. I laughed. “They cannot teach
Sanskrit in this country.” – the country of Panini the founder of the science
of language, the greatest grammarian the world had known, and of
innumerable pandits, men of real learning, few though men of the highest
attainment now be. How has Sanskrit learning come down to us today if no one
has been able to teach it?
(source: Bharata Shakti – Collection of Addresses on Indian Culture - By Sir John Woodroffe - Ganesh & co. Madras1921 p. xix xx). For more on Sir John Woodroffe refer to Quotes 251-270).
Albrecht
Weber (1825-1901) is laudatory in his
appraisal of the achievement of Panini. He wrote: (source: Bharata Shakti – Collection of Addresses on Indian Culture - By Sir John Woodroffe - Ganesh & co. Madras1921 p. xix xx). For more on Sir John Woodroffe refer to Quotes 251-270).
"We pass at once into the magnificent edifice which bears the name of Panini as its architect and which justly commands the wonder and admiration of everyone who enters, and which, by the very fact of its sufficing for all the phenomenon which language presents, bespeaks at once the marvelous ingenuity of its inventor and his profound penetration of the entire material of the language."
(source: Yoga: A Vision of its Future - By Gopi Krishna p. 123).
Mrs. Charlotte Manning says: "The celebrated Panini bequeathed to posterity one of the oldest and most renowned books ever written in any language."
"The scientific completeness of Sanskrit grammar appeared to Sir William Jones so unaccountable that he wrote it with amazement and admiration."
Mrs. Manning further wrote: "Sanskrit grammar is evidently far superior to the kind of grammar which for the most part has contented grammarians in Europe." "Vyakrana," says the same authoress, "was not merely grammar in the lower acceptance of being an explanationo f declension, conjugation and other grammatical forms, but was from its commencement a scientific grammar or grammatical science in the highest sense which can be attributed to this term."
Lord Mountstuart Elphinstone observed: "His work (Panini's) and those of his successors have established a system of grammar, the most complete that ever was employed in arranging elements of human speech."
Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900) wrote: "Their (Hindus) achievements in grammatical analysis are still unsurpassed in the grammatical literature of any nation."
"Panini, Katyayana, and Patanjali, are the canonical triad of grammarians of India," and, to quote Mrs. Manning once more, "such (grammatical) works are originated as are unrivalled in the literary history of other nations."
William Ward (1769-1823) author of A view of the history, literature, and mythology of the Hindoos, says: "Their grammars are very numerous and reflect the highest credit on the ingenuity of their authors."
As regards lexicons, Ward says: "Their dictionaries also do the highest credit to the Hindu learned men, and prove how highly the Sanskrit was cultivated in former periods."
Alexander Thomson, the late Principal of the Agra College, and one of the best philologist in India, used to say that the consonantal division of the alphabet of the Sanskrit language was a more wonderful feat of human genius than any the world has yet seen."
(source: Hindu Superiority - By Har Bilas Sarda p. 225-230).
Walter Eugene Clark writes in The Legacy of India, p. 339-340:
"Panini's grammar is the earliest scientific grammar in the world, the earliest extant grammar of any language, and one of the greatest ever written. It was the discovery of Sanskrit by the West, at the end of the 18th century, and the study of Indian methods of analyzing language that revolutionized our study of language and grammar, and gave rise to our science of comparative philology. The most striking feature of Sanskrit grammar is its objective resolution of speech and language into their component elements, and definition of the functions of these elements. Long before Panini (who names over sixty predecessors) the sounds represented by the letters of the alphabet had been arranged in an overly systematic form, vowels and diphthongs separated from mutes, semi-vowels, and sibilants, and the sounds in each group arranged according to places in the mouth where produced (gutturals, palatals, cerebrals, dentals, and labials). Words were analyzed into roots of which complex words grew by the addition of prefixes and suffixes. General rules were worked out, defining the conditions according to which consonants and vowels influence each other, undergo change, or drop out. The study of language in India was much more objective and scientific than in Greece or Rome. The interest was in empirical investigation of language, rather than philosophical and syntactical. Indian study of language was as objective as the dissection of a body by an anatomist."
(source: Our Heritage and Its Significance - By Shripad Rama Sharma p. 152-153).
Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949) American linguist and author of Language, published in 1933) characterization of Panini's Astadhyayi ("The Eight Books")
He has remarked:
"as one of the greatest monuments of human intelligence is by no means an exaggeration; no one who has had even a small acquaintance with that most remarkable book could fail to agree. In some four thousand sutras or aphorisms - some of them no more than a single syllable in length - Panini sums up the grammar not only of his own spoken language, but of that of the Vedic period as well. The work is the more remarkable when we consider that the author did not write it down but rather worked it all out of his head, as it were. Panini's disciples committed the work to memory and in turn passed it on in the same manner to their disciples; and though the Astadhayayi has long since been committed to writing, rote memorization of the work, with several of the more important commentaries, is still the approved method of studying grammar in India today, as indeed is true of most learning of the traditional culture."
While in the classical world scholars were dealing with language in a somewhat metaphysical way, the Indians were telling us what their language actually was, how it worked, and how it was put together. The methods and techniques for describing the structure of Sanskrit which we find in Panini have not been substantially bettered to this day in modern linguistic theory and practice. We today employ many devices in describing languages that were already known to Panini's first two commentators. The concept of "zero" which in mathematics is attributed to India, finds its place also in linguistics.
"It was in India, however, that there rose a body of knowledge which was destined to revolutionize European ideas about language. The Hindu grammar taught Europeans to analyze speech forms; when one compared the constituent parts, the resemblances, which hitherto had been vaguely recognized, could be set forth with certainty and precision."
(source: Traditional India - edited by O. L. Chavarria-Aguilar refer to chapter on Grammar - By Leonard Bloomfield Hall - Place of Publication: Englewood Cliffs, NJ Date of Publication: 1964 p. 109-113).
Cybernetics:
It has even been suggested (by Rick Briggs NASA researcher - refer to Quotes221_250) that the 'structures' constructed by Paanini (followed by shaabdabodhas written later) could be useful in the development of efficient, high-level computing languages [we may presume here that these would eventually be based the systematics of deriving words from "roots" (dhaatus), avoiding the use of alphanumeric operator symbols, so characteristic of 'computer languages']. As of now, I understand that computer-based tests of the internal consistency of the "Ashtaadhyaayee" are being developed by Dr. P. Ramanujan at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing. Software based on Paaninean rules for the retrieval of word forms has been developed at the Siddhaganga Mutt, Karnataka Research of an advanced nature is also being carried out at the Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melukote, also in Karnataka. While these could be regarded as very active areas of fruitful investigation, the practicality of some suggestions on the possibility of using the structure of Sanskrt for machine translation (See, for example, a method of numerical representation of inflections put forward by the present writer in an article contributed to "Samskrti-94" (the 1994 issue of the organ of the Samskrta Sangha of the Indian Institute of Science), remains to be tested. Paanini's ideas may also contain the germ of an understanding, based on linguistics, that could lead to the unraveling of the connections between brain activity and how the apparatus of human speech works. The pertinence here is in trying to answer, for example, the question, "Why is it easier to say jagat + naatha as jagannaatha or abd-ul + rahman as abd-ur-rahman (both of which exactly follow the relevant Paninean rule, the second, from a Semitic language, showing the universal applicability of Paninean phonetics)? Such investigations can be expected to yield results only in the far future, however, after much greater progress has been achieved in understanding how the speech centres of the brain function.
(source: Whence and Whither of Indian Science - Can we integrate with our past and carry on from there? – Contributed by S. N. Balasubrahmanyam - (Retd) Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore).
(For more refer to Electronic Panini - http://sanskrit.gde.to/all_pdf/aShTAdhyAyI.pdf
and Sanskrit Learning Tools - http://sanskrit.gde.to/learning_tools/learning_tools.html and A Software on Sanskrit Grammar based on Panini's Sutras - http://www.taralabalu.org/panini/greetings.htm).
Panini to the rescue
Research team turns to the "world's first computational grammarian!".
Panini, the legendary
Sanskrit grammarian of 5th century BC, is the world's first computational
grammarian! Panini's work, Ashtadhyayi (the Eight-Chaptered
book), is considered to be the most comprehensive scientific grammar ever
written for any language.
According to Prof
Rajeev Sangal, Director of IIIT (Hyderabad) and an expert on language
computation, Panini's epic treatise on grammar came to the rescue of language
experts in making English unambiguous. English is more difficult (as far as
machine translations are concerned) with a high degree of ambiguity. Some words
have different meanings, making the analysis (to facilitate translations) a
difficult process. Making it disambiguous is quite a task, where Panini's
principles might be of use.
Ashtadhyayi, the earlier work on descriptive linguistics, consists of
3,959 sutras (or principles). These highly systemised and technical principles,
some say, marked the rise of classical Sanskrit.
Sampark, the multi-institute effort launched to produce a
translation engine, enabling users to translate tests from English to various
languages, will use some of the technical aspects enunciated by Panini.
"We looked at alternatives before choosing Panini," Prof Sangal says.
Incidentally, Prof Sangal co-authored a book, Natural Language Processing - A
Panini Perspective, a few years ago.
Besides the technical side, Panini would be of great help
to researchers on the translation engine on the language side too. A good
number of words in almost all the Indian languages originate from Sanskrit.
"That is great because Indian languages are related to each other,"
Prof Sangal points out.
(source: Panini to the rescue - thehindu.com). Refer to French version of this chapter
- Le Sanscrit
- By Dharma TodayFrederich von Schlegel, (1772-1829), German philosopher, critic, and writer, the most prominent founder of German Romanticism Educated in law, he turned to writing. His brother, August Wilhelm Von Schlegel was a scholar and poet. With his brother, August Wilhelm, he published the Athenaeum, the principal organ of the romantic school. Schlegel study of Sanskrit and of Indian civilization, On the Language and Wisdom of India (1808), was outstanding. He said that:
"There is no language in the world, even Greek, which has the clarity and the philosophical precision of Sanskrit," adding that " India is not only at the origin of everything she is superior in everything, intellectually, religiously or politically and even the Greek heritage seems pale in comparison."
(source: Arise O Arjuna - By Francois Gautier ISBN 81-241-0518-9 Har-Anand Publications 2000 p. 25).
According to Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900) even a modern language like English does not have sufficient means to express :
"high state of mental excitement" as done by Sanskrit. This shows the cultural development of the ancient Indians."
Max Muller continues his thoughts on the importance and primordiality of Vedic literature:
"Sanskrit no doubt has an immense advantage over all other ancient languages of the East. It is so attractive and has been so widely admired, that it almost seems at times to excite a certain amount of feminine jealously. We are ourselves Indo-Europeans. In a certain sense we are still speaking and thinking Sanskrit; or more correctly Sanskrit is like a dear aunt to us and she takes the place of a mother who is no more."
(source: Chips From A German Workshop - By Max Muller Volume I p 163).
Franz Bopp (1791-1867), German philologist, born in Mainz. He became professor of philology and Oriental literature at the University of Berlin. He became known as the founder of the science of comparative philology. Among his works is A Comparative Grammar of the Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, German, and Slavonic Languages (1816). 36 years later, in 1852, Worterbuch (dictionary) appeared in Sanskrit.
Arthur A. Macdonell (1854-1930) author of
History of Sanskrit Literature Motilal Banarsidass Pub.
ISBN: 8120800354 p. 717 has written:
"We
Europeans, 2,500 years later, and in a scientific age, still employ an alphabet
which is not only inadequate to represent all the sounds of our language, but
even preserve the random order which vowels and consonants are jumbled up as
they were in the Greek adaptation of the primitive Semitic arrangement of 3,000
years ago."It is a Western deception of the Christian world to deny the Ancient Sanskrit language its due compliments.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad (1884-1963) first President of India, said, “Sanskrit provided perhaps the most important focal point from which emanated cultural and political unity.”
K. M. Munshi (1887-1971) aptly pointed out that “without Sanskrit Bharat would be nothing but a bundle of linguistic groups.”
Shrimat Upendramohan,
founder of Shastra Dharma Prachar Sabha, in his book “Hindu Glory” had written:
“ The Sanskrit language is a marvel of marvels,
an epitome of the people’s genius, a picture of people’s character, absolutely
unique as a reflection of the perfect uniquity of the people of this land, of
its social structure and of its Dharma.
The vastness of the language, the copiousness of its lexicons, its
fluidity or the capacity to embrace the existent and the non- existent equally
marks out the Sanskrit language as the language of languages, the language of
the Gods (Deva Bhasa), the language of mere mortals, with their restricted
notions, limited wants and closed outlook.”
Sardar K. M. Panikkar (1896-1963)
pointed out:
“It is one common inheritance of Bharat. The unity of Bharat will
collapse if it breaks away from Sanskrit and the Sanskritic traditions.”
(source: Reviving Sanskrit Teaching - By Mohan Gupta http://www.newsindia-times.com/20010622/viewpoint01.htm
(source: Reviving Sanskrit Teaching - By Mohan Gupta http://www.newsindia-times.com/20010622/viewpoint01.htm
“If I was asked what is the greatest treasure which India possesses and what is her greatest heritage, I would answer unhesitatingly that it is the Sanskrit language and literature and all that it contains. This is a magnificent inheritance, and so long as this endures and influences the life of our people, so long will the basic genius of India continue.” ...India built up a magnificent language, Sanskrit, and through this language, and its art and architecture, it sent its vibrant message to far away countries.
(source: Know your values - K R Malkani http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/291101/detide01.asp).
B S V Prasad has written: "Sanskrit literature is a perfect form of a perfect pleasure. It becomes a lifelong obsession for most connoisseurs; I know of no other body of literature that is so wholesome, so cultivating and uplifting, and so timeless in its appeal to readers. Sanskrit literature easily spans a period of some 5000 years; even though the language was no longer being spoken in the streets as far back as 1000 BC, literature continues to be created in Sanskrit to this day."
(source: Kalidasa and Ancient India - B S V Prasad - sulekha.com).
The sheer volume of Sanskrit literature is immense, and it remains largely unexplored. History, philosophy, music, astronomy, geography, medicine and other disciplines. It is an immense reservoir that needs to be tapped so that we understand our own history over the past five millennia.
Sanskrit is a very scientific language. Linguists hold that it shows no trace of a growing language. Its entire grammatical mechanism is perfected, every tense, mood, every number and person of the verb is fixed and all terminations of the casts are firmly established. The antiquity and affinity in forms of grammar and roots of verbs induces the linguists to believe that the Persian, Greek, Teutonic, Slavonic and Celtic races are probably descendents of a common ancestor. Professor Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949) of Chicago University holds that Sanskrit language specially the scientific basis of its grammar is "one of the greatest monuments of human intelligence." William Humboldt of Germany is of opinion that language cannot be created artificially, it is the manifestation of power and divinity in man.
The first drama and musical notes are also supposed to have originated from the Vedas. The beautiful literature of the Hindus took thousands of years to develop. It raised the status of Indian civilization and culture. Without knowing this one cannot know the inner soul and glory of India. Speaking only of the vast Vedic literature, the wonderful manifestation of human genius developed through hearing alone.
Moriz Winternitz (1863-1937) wrote, "As the Veda, because of its antiquity, stands at the head of Indian literature no one who has not gained an insight into the Vedic literature can understand the spiritual life and culture of the Indians."
(source: Ancient Indian Culture at a Glance - By Swami Tattwananda p. 93-94). Refer to French version of this chapter - Le Sanscrit - By Dharma Today.
Justice Markandey Katju (1946 - ) is the Chairman, Press Council of India. He was formerly a Judge of the Supreme Court of India. He has observed:
"The foundation of India culture is based on the Sanskrit language. There is a misconception about the Sanskrit language that it is only a language for chanting mantras in temples or religious ceremonies. However, that is less than 5% of the Sanskrit literature. More than 95% of the Sanskrit literature has nothing to do with religion, and instead it deals with philosophy, law, science, literature, grammar, phonetics, interpretation etc. In fact, Sanskrit was the language of free thinkers, who questioned everything, and expressed the widest spectrum of thoughts on various subjects. In particular, Sanskrit was the language of our scientists in ancient India. Today, no doubt, we are behind the Western countries in science, but there was a time when India was leading the whole world in science. Knowledge of the great scientific achievements of our ancestors and our scientific heritage will give us the encouragement and moral strength to once again take India to the forefront of science in the modern world.
The word `Sanskrit' means “prepared, pure, refined or prefect”. It was not for nothing that it was called the `devavani' (language of the Gods). It has an outstanding place in our culture and indeed was recognized as a language of rare sublimity by the whole world. Sanskrit was the language of our philosophers, our scientists, our mathematicians, our poets and playwrights, our grammarians, our jurists, etc. In grammar, Panini and Patanjali (authors of Ashtadhyayi and the Mahabhashya) have no equals in the world; in astronomy and mathematics the works of Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta and Bhaskar opened up new frontiers for mankind, as did the works of Charak and Sushrut in medicine.
In philosophy Gautam (founder of the Nyaya system), Ashvaghosha (author of Buddha Charita), Kapila (founder of the Sankhya system), Shankaracharya, Brihaspati, etc., present the widest range of philosophical systems the world has ever seen, from deeply religious to strongly atheistic. Jaimini's Mimansa Sutras laid the foundation of a whole system of rational interpretation of texts which was used not only in religion but also in law, philosophy, grammar, etc. In literature, the contribution of Sanskrit is of the foremost order. The works of Kalidas (Shakuntala, Meghdoot, Malavikagnimitra, etc.), Bhavabhuti (Malti Madhav, Uttar Ramcharit, etc.) and the epics of Valmiki, Vyas, etc. are known all over the world. These and countless other Sanskrit works kept the light of learning ablaze in our country upto modern times.
As already stated above, there is a great misconception about Sanskrit that it is only a language to be recited as mantras in temples or in religious ceremonies. However, that is only 5% of the Sanskrit literature. The remaining 95% has nothing to do with religion. In particular, Sanskrit was the language in which all our great scientists in ancient India wrote their works."
(source: Sanskrit as a Language of Science – By Justice Markandey Katju).
Sanskrit - Mother of European Languages.
Prof. Dean Brown was a Prof. of Physics, U. of Hawaii , Manoa, an eminent Theoretical Physicist cosmologist, philosopher, and Sanskrit scholar who has recently translated the Upanishads. He is the author of the book - The Upanishads: Seven Upanishads and the Aphorisms of Patanjali of Ancient India .
He points out that most European languages can be traced back to a root language that is also related to Sanskrit - the sacred language of the ancient Vedic religions of India . Many English words actually have Sanskrit origins. Similarly, many Vedic religious concepts can also be found in Western culture.
Watch Sanskrit Tradition - An Interview with Prof. Dean Brown - Thinking Allowed TV.
The Indian Theatre
The Indian Theatre - had its earliest beginnings in the Rig Veda which have a certain dramatic character. There are references to Nataka or the drama in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. It began to take shape in the song and music and dances of the Krishna legends. Panini, the great grammarian of the 6th century B.C.E. mentions some dramatic forms. A Natya Shastra - is a treatise on the Art of Theatre.
The dramatic writings of the Hindus are equally
remarkable. External nature, as might be expected in a country which is “the
epitome of the world,” is the special forte of the Hindu poets, and, in no
country, ancient or modern, has Nature (in contradistinction to man) been
treated so poetically or so extensively introduced in poetry.
Creation in perfect harmony with nature is a feature of
the Hindu drama. The characters are all creations, perfect in themselves and in
their fidelity to nature.
With regard to the extent to which the dramatic literature
has been cultivated in India, Sir
William Jones says that the Hindu theatre would fill as many volumes as
that of any nation of modern Europe. The Mohammedan conquest of India
resulted in the effectual repression of Hindu dramatic writings. Instead of
receiving further development, the Hindu drama rapidly declined, and a
considerable part of this fascinating literature was forever lost.
Horace Hyman Wilson (1786-1860) says: “It
may also be observed that the dramatic pieces which have come down to us are
those of the highest order, defended by their intrinsic purity from the
corrosion of time.” Rupaka is the Hindu term for “Play,” and “Dasa Rupaka” or
description of the ten kinds of theatrical compositions, is one of the best
treatises on dramatic literature and shows the extent to which dramatic
literature was cultivated by the Hindus.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My humble Pranam, Honour
and also gratitude to Ms. Sushma Londhe ji for her
noble, magnanimous and eminent works on the peerless Wisdom
of our Sacred Scriptures)
(My
humble salutations to , H H Swamyjis, Hindu Wisdom, great Universal
Philosophers, Historians, Professors and Devotees for the
discovering collection)
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