Irish
Daily
Why
does my child study Sanskrit?
by
Rutger Kortenhorst
Rutger
Kortenhorst, a Sanskrit teacher in John Scottus School in Dublin, Ireland,
speaks to parents of his school children on the value of teaching Sanskrit to
children, based on his own experience with the language.
Good evening
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are going to spend an hour together looking at the
topic ‘Why does my child study Sanskrit in John Scottus?’ My bet is that at the
end of the hour you will all have come to the conclusion that your children are
indeed fortunate that this extraordinary language is part of their
curriculum.
Firstly, let us look at Why Sanskrit for my child? We are the
only school in Ireland doing this language, so this will need some explaining.
There are 7 JSS-type schools in UK and also around the world
in total that have made the same decision to include Sanskrit in their curriculum (they
are all off-shoots from the School of Philosophy).
They are:
1. Saint James’s Schools London age 5-18
2. John Scottus Schools in Dublin age 5-12
3. Saint James School Johannesburg age 5-12
4. Erasmus School Melbourne age 5-12
5. John Colet School in Sydney age 5-12
6. Renaissance School in Trinidad age 5-12
7. Ficino School in Wellington age 5-12
Secondly, how is
Sanskrit taught? You may have noticed your son or daughter singing Sanskrit
grammar songs in the back of the car just for the fun of it on the way home from
school. I’ll spend some time telling you HOW we approach teaching Sanskrit now
since my learning from India.But
Why Sanskrit?
To
answer that we need to look at the qualities of Sanskrit. Sanskrit
stands out above all other languages for its beauty of sound, precision in
pronunciation and reliability as well as thoroughness in every aspect of its
structure. This
is why it has never fundamentally changed unlike all other languages.
It has had no need to change being the most
perfect language of Mankind ever.
If
we consider Shakespeare’s English, we realize how different and therefore
difficult for us his English language was although it is just English from less
than 500 years ago. We struggle with the meaning of Shakespeare’s English or
that of the King James Bible. Go back a bit further and we don’t have a clue
about the English from the time of Chaucer’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ from
around 700 AD. We cannot even call this English anymore and now rightly call it
Anglo-Saxon. So English hadn’t even been born! All
languages
keep
changing beyond recognition. They change
because they are defective.
The
changes are in fact corruptions. They are born and die after seven or eight
hundred years –about the lifetime of a Giant Redwood Tree- because after so much
corruption they have no life left in them.
Surprisingly there is one
language in the world that does not have this short lifespan. Sanskrit
is the only exception. It is a
never-dying constant.
The reason for the constancy in Sanskrit is that it is
completely structured and thought out.
There is not a word that has been left out in its grammar or etymology, which
means every word can be traced back to where it came from originally. This does
not mean there is no room for new words either. Just as in English we use older
concepts from Greek and Latin to express modern inventions like a television:
‘tele [far] – vision [seeing]’ or ‘compute –er’. Sanskrit
in fact specializes in making up compound words from smaller words and parts.
The word ‘Sams – krita’ itself means ‘completely – made’.
So
what advantages are there to a fundamentally unchanging language? What is
advantageous about an unchanging friend, say? Are they reliable? What happens if
you look at a text in Sanskrit from thousands of years ago?
The
exceptional features of Sanskrit have been recognised for a few centuries all
over the world, so you will find universities from many countries having a
Sanskrit faculty. Whether you go to Hawai, Cambridge or Harvard and even Trinity
College Dublin has a seat for Sanskrit –although it is vacant at present. May be
one of your children will in time fill this position again?
Although
India has been its custodian, Sanskrit
has had universal appeal for centuries.
The wisdom carried by this language appeals to the West as we can see from Yoga
and Ayurvedic Medicine as well as meditation techniques, and practical
philosophies like Hinduism, Buddhism and most of what we use in the School of
Philosophy. It
supports, expands and enlightens rather than conflicts with local
traditions and religions.
The
precision of Sanskrit stems from the unparalleled detail on how the actual
sounds of the alphabet are structured and defined.
The sounds have a particular place in the mouth, nose and throat that can be
defined and will never change.
This is why in Sanskrit the letters are
called the ‘Indestructibles’ [aksharáni]. Sanskrit is the only
language that has consciously laid out its sounds from first principles. So the
five mouth-positions for all Indestructibles [letters] are defined and with a
few clearly described mental and physical efforts all are systematically
planned: [point out chart]
After
this description, what structure can we find in a, b, c, d, e, f , g…? There
isn’t any, except perhaps that it starts with ‘a’, and goes downhill from
there.
Then there is the sheer beauty of the Sanskrit script as we learn
it today. [Some examples on the board]
You may well say: ‘Fine, but so
why should my son or daughter have yet another subject and another script to
learn in their already busy school-day?’ In what way will he or she benefit from
the study of Sanskrit in 2012 in the Western world?The
qualities of Sanskrit will become the qualities of your child- that is the mind
and heart of your child will become beautiful, precise and
reliable.
Sanskrit
automatically teaches
your
child and anybody else studying it to
pay FINE attention due to its uncanny precision.
When the precision is there the experience is, that it feels
uplifting. It makes you happy.
It is not difficult even for a beginner to experience this. All you have to do
is fine-tune your attention and like music you are drawn in and uplifted. This
precision of attention serves all subjects, areas and activities of life both
while in school and for the rest of life. This will give your child a
competitive advantage over any other children. They will be able to attend more
fully, easily and naturally. Thus in terms of relationships, work, sport– in
fact all aspects of life, they will perform better and gain more satisfaction.
Whatever you attend to fully, you excel in and you enjoy more.
By
studying Sanskrit, other languages can be learnt more easily; this being the
language all others borrow from fractionally. The Sanskrit grammar is reflected
in part in Irish or Greek, Latin or English. They
all have a part of the complete Sanskrit grammar.
Some being more developed than others, but always only a part of the
Sanskrit
grammar, which is complete in itself.
What
Sanskrit teaches us that there is a language that is ordered, following laws
unfailingly and as they are applied your child gets uplifted, not only when they
grow up, but as they are saying it! This means they get an unusual but precise,
definite and clear insight into language while they are enjoying
themselves.
They learn to speak well, starting from Sanskrit, the mother
language of all languages. Those
who speak well run the world.
Barack Obama makes a difference because he can speak well. Mahatma Gandhi could
move huge crowds with well-balanced words. Mother Theresa could express herself
with simple words which uplift us even now.
The language of the great
Master Teachers of mankind from times past is all we have got after centuries
and millennia, but they make all the difference. We can enter the remarkable
mind of Plato through his words. If your daughter or son can express themselves
well through conscious language they will be the leaders of the next
generation.Sanskrit
has the most comprehensive writings in the world expressed through the Vedas and
the Gítá. The Upanishads –translated by William Butler Yeats have given people
from all over the world an insight into universal religious feelings for more
than one century now.
To
know these well expressed simple words of wisdom in the original is better than
dealing with copies or translations as copies are always inferior to originals.
We really need clear knowledge on universal religion in an age faced with
remarkable levels of religious bigotry and terrorism arising from poorly
understood and half-baked religious ideas.Culture
Vivekananda,
a
great spiritual leader from India revered by all in the World Religious
Conference of 1880 in Chicago said:
You can put a mass of knowledge
into the world, but that will not do it much good. There must come some culture
into the blood. We all know in modern times of nations which have masses of
knowledge, but what of them? They are like tigers; they are like savages,
because culture is not there.
Knowledge is only skin-deep, as
civilization is, and a little scratch brings out the old savage. Such things
happen; this is the danger. Teach the masses in the vernaculars, give them
ideas; they will get information, but something more is necessary;
give
them culture.
Sanskrit
can help your child to express universal, harmonious and simple truths
better.
As a result you will really have done your duty as a parent and the world will
reap the benefits in a more humane, harmonious and united society. Sanskrit can
do this as it is the only language that is based in knowledge all the way.
Nothing
is left to chance.
Just
think for the moment how confusing it is for a child to learn to say ‘rough’,
but ‘dough’. And why does the ‘o’ in ‘woman’ sound like an ‘e’ in ‘women’? How
come the ‘ci’ in ‘special’ is different from the ‘ci’ in ‘cinema’?
Teachers may well say ‘Just
learn it’ as
there is no logical explanation, but it only demonstrates to a child that
it
is all a bit of a hit-and-miss affair.
What else does this randomness in the fundamental building-blocks of language
teach a child about the world? That it’s just a confusing, random chance-event?
How can this give anyone any confidence?
Now go to a language where
everything is following rules. Where nothing is left to chance from the humble
origin of a letter to the most sophisticated philosophical idea. How will that
child meet the world? Surely with confidence, clarity and the ability to express
itself?
I have seen myself and others growing in such qualities, because
of our contact with Sanskrit. I have just spent a year in India. Though it felt
a bit like camping in a tent for a year, it was well worth it.
For many years, we taught Sanskrit like zealots i.e. with high
levels of enthusiasm and low levels of understanding, to both adults in the
School of Philosophy and children in John Scottus School. We did not perhaps
inspire a lot of our students and may have put a number of them off the study of
Sanskrit. It felt to me like we needed to go to the source.
Sanskrit
teachers worth their salt need to live with people whose daily means of
communication is in Sanskrit. I had already spent three summers near
Bangalore
at
'Samskrita Bharati'
doing
just that and becoming less of an amateur, but it really needed a more thorough
study. So I moved into a traditional gurukulam for the year. This meant living
on campus, eating lots of rice and putting up with a few power-cuts and water
shortages, but by December 2009, I made up my mind that I would step down as
vice-principal of the Senior School and dedicate
myself to Sanskrit for the rest of my teaching life.
It felt like a promotion to me as quite a few could be vice-principal
but right now which other teacher could forge ahead in Sanskrit in Ireland?
[Hopefully this will change before I pop off to the next world.] With Sanskrit
I’m expecting my mind to improve with age even if my body slows down a little.
Sanskrit is often compared to the full-time teacher, who is there for
you 24/7 whereas the other languages are more like part-timers. The effects of
studying Sanskrit on me have been first and foremost a
realistic confidence.
Secondly, it meant I had to
become more precise and speak weighing my words more carefully.
It also taught me to express myself with less
waffle
and
therefore speak
more briefly.
My power
of attention and retention
has undoubtedly increased.Teaching
method
Now,
let me explain for a few minutes, HOW Sanskrit is taught. To my surprise it is
not taught well in most places in India. Pupils have to learn it from when they
are around age 9 to 11 and then they give it up, because it is taught so badly!
Only a few die-hards stick with it, in time teaching the same old endings
endlessly to the next generation. This is partly due to India having
adopted a craving to copy the West and their tradition having been
systematically rooted out by colonialism.
For
learning grammar and the wisdom of the East, I was well-placed in a traditional
gurukulam, but for spoken Sanskrit I felt a modern approach was
missing.
Then I found a teacher from the International
School
belonging
to the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry.
His name is Narendra.
He has developed a novel, inspiring and light method to teach grammar, which
doesn’t feel like you do any grammar at all. At the same time it isn’t diluted
for beginners so you don’t end up with partial knowledge. I also followed a few
Sanskrit Conversation camps, which all brought about more
familiarity.
Narendra
says he owes his method to Sri Aurobindo and his companion The Mother who
inspired him to come up with the course we now follow in Dublin. This is one of
the many things The Mother said to inspire him: “Teach
logically. Your method should be most natural, efficient and stimulating to the
mind. It should carry one forward at a great pace. You need not cling there to
any past or present manner of teaching.”
This
is how I would summarize the principles for teaching Sanskrit as we carry it out
at present:
1. Language learning is not for academics as everyone learns
to speak a language from an early age before they can read and write and know
what an academic is. So why insist in teaching Sanskrit academically?
2.
The writing script is not the most fundamental thing to be taught. A language is
firstly made of its sounds, words and spoken sentences. [The script we use
-though very beautiful- is only a few hundred years old.]
3. Always
go from what is known to what is new.
4. Understanding works better than
memorisation in this Age. Learning by heart should only take up 10 percent of
the mental work, rather than the 90 percent rote learning in Sanskrit up to the
recent present.
5. Don’t teach words and endings in isolation; teach them
in the context of a sentence as the sentence is the smallest meaningful unit in
language.
6. Any tedious memory work which cannot be avoided should be
taught in a song.
7. Do not teach grammatical terms. Just as we don’t
need to know about the carburetor, when we learn to drive a car.
8. The
course should be finished in two years by an average student according to
Narendra. This may be a little optimistic given that we are a little out of the
loop not living in India, which is still Sanskrit’s custodian. At present I
would say it is going to be a three-year course.
9. Language learning
must be playful. Use drama, song, computer games and other tricks to make
learning enjoyable.
We have started on this course since September and it
has certainly put a smile on our pupils’ faces, which makes a pleasant change. I
now feel totally confident that we are providing your children with a thorough,
structured and enjoyable course. Our students should be well prepared for the
International Sanskrit Cambridge exam by the time they finish –age 14/15- at the
end of second year. We will also teach them some of the timeless wisdom
enshrined in various verses. At present we are teaching them: “All
that lives is full of the Lord. Claim nothing; enjoy! Do not covet His
property”-
in the original of course.
The
future
Let
us look at the 500 – year cycle of a Renaissance. The last European Renaissance
developed three subjects: Art, Music and Science to shape the world we live in
today. It had its beginning in Florence. The great Humanist Marsilio Ficino made
Plato available to the masses by translating it from Greek to Latin. We live in
exciting times and may well be at the beginning of a new Renaissance. It also
will be based on three new subjects: Some say that these will be Economics, Law
and Language.
Language has to become more universal now as we can connect
with each other globally within seconds. NASA America’s Space Program is
actively looking at Sanskrit in relation to I.T. and artificial
intelligence.Sri
Aurobindo
said
“…at once majestic and sweet and flexible, strong and clearly-formed and
full and vibrant and subtle…”.
What John
Scottus pupils
have said:
It makes your mind bright, sharp and
clear.
It makes you feel peaceful and happy.
It
makes you feel BIG.
It cleans and loosens your tongue so you can
pronounce any language easily.
What Sanskrit enthusiasts like
Rick
Briggs in NASA
have
said:
It gives you access to a vast and liberating
literature.
It can describe all aspects of human life from the
most abstract philosophical to the latest scientific discoveries, hinting at
further developments.
Sanskrit and computers are a perfect fit.
The precision play of Sanskrit with computer tools will awaken the capacity in
human beings to utilize their innate higher mental faculty with a momentum that
would inevitably transform the mind. In fact, the mere learning of Sanskrit by
large numbers of people in itself represents a quantum leap in consciousness,
not to mention the rich endowment it will provide in the arena of future
communication. NASA, California
After many thousands of
years, Sanskrit still lives with a vitality that can breathe life, restore unity
and inspire peace on our tired and troubled planet. It is a sacred gift, an
opportunity. The future could be very bright.
Rick Briggs
[NASA]
You may well have a few questions at this stage after which I would
like to introduce you to a plant in the audience. A parent turned into a blazing
ball of enthusiasm over Sanskrit grammar: John Doran. I would like him to wrap
up.
I’ll give NASA’s Rick Briggs the last word from
me:
One thing is certain; Sanskrit will only become the planetary
language when it is taught in a way which is exiting and enjoyable. Furthermore
it must address individual learning inhibitions with clarity and compassion in a
setting which encourages everyone to step forth, take risks, make mistakes and
learn.
