[Advaita-l] Traditional Scholarship vs Modern Pseudo-Intellectualism

[rajaramvenk at gmail.com]

Samskrta Bharathi's method is not modern. It is traditional environment of speaking in sanskrit created for modern audience. In Universities, sanskrit is not spoken by many professors even. They write philosophy thesis in English. How ridiculous is that? Saguna Brahman  is translated as Brahman with character. It has kalyana gunams, right?! Here comes the hilarious part. Nirguna Brahman is also translated as characterless brahman :) 

I'm not opposed to use of English or any language for the benefit of people like me who are not trained in the language. I saw a man in the train reading Buddhism for Dummies. It explained how to restore the mind to its natural state of purity. Its perfect for him but a serious scholar in Buddhism should know the original texts in Pali etc. Likewise, a serious scholar of vedanta should know enough sanskrit. 
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-----Original Message-----
From: Venkata Subramanian <venkat_advaita at yahoo.com>
Sender: "Advaita-l" <advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2013 23:01:55 
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta<advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Reply-To: Venkata Subramanian <venkat_advaita at yahoo.com>,
 A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
 <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Traditional Scholarship vs Modern
	Pseudo-Intellectualism

since the teaching methodology for Sanskrit is here, this point is relevant.
 
I have observed that in the famous Sringeri Sadvidya Patashala there, not many students are able to talk simply in Sanskrit...they listen, they may quite understand well.   They have a four year first semester system where they learn by heart the entire Amara kosha with meaning, Laghu Sidhanta Kaumudi in full, parts of Sidhanta Kaumudi, parts of pancha kavya of kalidasa ....in addition to the vedAdhyayana...but still...the Bangalore Sambashana people have made so many people speak fluent sanskrit....without so much of rigour.....  I have observed those students unable to reply to simple sanskrit questions put to them.......
 
Of course that sambhashan is not fully grammatic....which students are expected to improve later....but the point worth noting is that - even Chamu krishna sastri once wrote that this sambhashana method had been in vogue in tradition much earlier...before the Vibhakti memorisation method took up its place....
 
Moral:-  what i am trying to say is that....what is "Modern" may always not be wrong.....we have an example of Swami Dayananda Saraswathi's classes, that are lucid to us....while many of us may not understand the proceeding at the Ganapati Vakyartha Sabha...am NOT into the language here...am into the method of oration, the style of exposition, the modern way of putting a traditional thing......it all matters.....
 
I personally feel that when topics of given to traditional scholars, who lack modern day college training, they write essays but dont know how to present things in comprehensible manner.....we cannot ignore that.
 
 

________________________________
From: Venkatesh Murthy <vmurthy36 at gmail.com>
To: Venkata Subramanian <venkat_advaita at yahoo.com>; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, 23 July 2013 10:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Traditional Scholarship vs Modern Pseudo-Intellectualism



Namaste

Even in teaching Sanskrit also the modern methods are making the learning interesting for students. The old tradition methods make the students to learn more by memorization but not giving a lot of examples. They were good for olden times. Students knew a lot of Sanskrit words already and were good in spoken Sanskrit. But now students do not know many Sanskrit words and Sanskrit is not the mother tongue. Examples must be given at every step. 




On Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 2:56 PM, Venkata Subramanian <venkat_advaita at yahoo.com> wrote:


>
>
>
>________________________________
>From: Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com>
>To: Advaita List <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
>Sent: Monday, 14 November 2011 8:57 PM
>Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Traditional Scholarship vs Modern Pseudo-Intellectualism
>
>
>
>
>
>b. There is  something to be learnt from professors in a modern academic
>institution. If in today's world, we want to articulate a nuanced restatement
>of traditional positions on the role of revelation in our own philosophical
>traditions, we HAVE to reckon with more than three hundred years of academic
>study of Indian traditions that has now been firmly established. And rather than
>find fault with all of academia in a blanket sweeping fashion, learn from it and
>reconfigure how to utilize the skills you may learn from it, in order to further
>your own intellectual purposes.
>
>== Well said.
>
>Regards,
>Venkat.                         
>
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-- 

Regards

-Venkatesh
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