[Music] namaste when I was a child my grandfather used to tell me stories from ROM iron from Mahabharata from bhagavata me from various other sources but in sanskrit in poetry he used to tell me feel feel the rhythm of this language feel the purity of the vibration of the sounds that each character hurts it sound feel the musicality of it and that left a lasting impression in me and Sanskrit became an integral part of my life when I completed my higher education instead of going for a formal job I set out with this mission of taking suspect to as many people as I can when I approached schools colleges universities groups individuals I was disappointed to listen to the kind of questions that people have in mind about Sanskrit even now it will keep asking the same questions people started asking me this question why Sanskrit what relevance it has it today in this age of science and technology is it not a language of religion rituals prayers is it not a dead language is it not a difficult language an archaic language and yes back when I started my journey I didn't have any convincing answers for these questions literally I had to stop eating sanskrit i started searching for those materials which could inspire an answer convincingly those questions and i am going to share with you all few of those inspiring material inspiring stories that I discovered I found out that Sanskrit is not just a language of religion rituals or prayer but it's a language in which every subject known to man was written have a look at this list you have Grisha Shastra for agriculture and horticulture you have a rasayana Shastra for chemistry you have loja sastra for metallurgy believe me the list is long in fact Sanskrit has more non-religious scientific literature than tests on religious subjects another important question people raised about Sanskrit is that it's a very difficult language and what adds more to this difficulty is that in Sanskrit there are many words for a single object while English uses only one word for water Sanskrit has Jhelum vari Ambu embers up in fact such PETA has more than 200 words for whatever alone more than 200 words why why sanskrit uses so many words for a single object is it not creating difficulty for learning the language this is because Sanskrit is not an object specific language it's a context specific language and a property based language let me explain it by giving you few examples when it says zalem for what all the words alam is derived from a root sound gel which means to harden to become stiff so it describes one of the properties of the water is that from its liquid state it can become solid the word needham comes from the root sound knee which means to lead to go ahead the word vari comes from the roots and grew to means to cover water it describes that water can evaporate become cloud and cover in this manner every word in sanskrit describes a property of the object but not specific to the object is it not interesting does it not add richness to the language this is where one finds how rich is Sanskrit in vocabularies I take up another point when I start teaching Sanskrit to the children the children asks so many questions so what is the Sanskrit word for dinosaurs what is the Sanskrit word for parachute what is the Sanskrit word for microphone what is the Sanskrit word for camera and often when I go for it it's training the teachers do ask this question where from we get new words which can be used in our day-to-day use that makes Sanskrit a language of day-to-day life but we lack words but friends Sanskrit is a language which has a very transparent system of root sounds from which any number of words can be created and used in our day-to-day life I'll give you some examples take the root sound crew which means to do to put into action to create to make by adding different suffixes and prefixes one can create literally thousands of words from a single mono syllabic root sound group by adding the suffix through you make a word cut through meaning or duo 1/hoe dots by adding the suffix honor you make the word karana which means action and a tool for action by adding the suffix here you get the word carrier which means anything to be done by adding the suffix tovrea you get kurt of via which means that must be done that should be done and there is another way of creating new words by bringing together many befitting words for example you have the word Aruba you know what does rupa mean form picture you can add the word gras hakham which means that which captures that with ceases and combine both the words and you get the word rupa gras Hakam which means a camera is it not simple and self-explanatory the same way you can add burning meaning sound to the word graha come and create a word for microphone Vani graha come you can create a word one agraja come for a call receiver and in this manner Sanskrit has a transparent system of deriving words from the root sounds and can create enormous amount of words which are needed for our day-to-day use I'll share with you another interesting feature of Sanskrit that it breathes have you ever experienced that the language breathes sound strange right but I will tell you and you can experience this their house has great brains when we learn a language which that learning with its alphabet right and Sanskrit alphabet is the most systematic logically arranged alphabet that you have today here the vowels and consonants ounds are separated in two groups they are not mixed of you have the vowel sounds ah e e and the whole list is there what is it well sound if you ask this question many people will not be able to answer what is a vowel sound they may say that okay bowel sound is an independent sound and if you ask what is a consonantal sound it is a dependent sound it cannot be articulated by without a vowel sound but Sanskrit offers a very simple technique if you know that you can identify the difference between vowels and consonants of any language known or unknown to you all the vowel sounds or us prester meaning open sounds free-flowing sounds singing sounds in tuning sounds you can sing the vowel sounds are and go on and the Continental sounds are preached means sounds with contact whatever the language may be this is the rule this is a universal rule that continental sounds are mutes stops try pronouncing ba without closing your lips it's not possible the Continental sounds are sounds with contact you have this continental sounds in Sanskrit starting with gah gah gah gah no and you can see that there are ends vertically and horizontally so you have this sound the arrangement of sounds based on the human vocal anatomy and a very logical the first group of sounds they come from a position from the throat the position number of one cow girl girl no when you see it the root of the tongue comes into contact with the soft palate then you have the next group of sounds cha-cha-cha-cha young where the upper middle of the tongue comes in contact with the back of the Arts then you have the third group of sounds where the tongue lips and that makes a contact with the front roof and you get duh-duh-duh-duh no you have the fourth group of sounds where the tip of the tongue hits the back of the upper teeth and you get the the no and he was the last group of sounds where both the lips pressed together and he would ba ba ba ba ma and when you recited you feel the sound shift from position number one - two - three - four - five very logical and within the group the sound curve is different from car the sound girl is different from God then the sound na is different from the rest of the Psalms and when you try pronouncing it Zeca then say ha don't you feel that when you say go there is minimal breath release and with the sound car there is a maximum breath release the same is the case with girl and girl so you can see the play of minimal maximal minimal maximal and the last sound is where the breath is released both through the mouth and the nose and this way you can find that the language the alphabet itself breathes and very quickly I will show you 3 others sounds on Eswari is a very unique sound in sanskrit when it is added to any vowel sound it sounds like um mm oh and when you do it with all the vowel sounds it has the effect of bhramari pranayama which is beneficial in whole brain development you have the next sound visarga which means release when you add it to any vowel sound it sounds like ah it puts the breath from prison and then holds it out this is similar to Baha kombucha which is used for focus concentration if it's Aldi's hypo give him the visarga sounds and it will cure him it'll balance him you have the sounds aggressive these are not very popularly known the last sound in the alphabet her is a guttural sound within its maximum breath relates and when it is added to na na ma yo la la whoa it becomes eraser or pectoral and see what effect it has when you pronounce it nah nah ma yeah rah rah rah and if you recite it consciously it has the benefit of kapalabhati kriya I go to another example in sanskrit to show you the immense flexibility that this language has have you heard this sentence able was i ere I saw Elba read it one second but read it now from right to left sit read same able was i ere I saw Elba from right to left and left right from the sound point of view from the sense point of view I'll show you something similar in Sanskrit which is good more creativity in it look at this verse dumbu suitum de madera has some Vandalia to ba-ba-ba-boom they are sri this is the first half of the verse and the second half of the verse is formed by reversing the first half you can read the first line from right to left and it becomes the second half Sri yada Wamba via Whataya they were some harada Mukti mutasa put'em and from beginning to end and end to beginning it's a palindrome is it not amazing and another interesting fact about this verse is that when you read the same line from left to right it is the story of Rama and when you read the same line from right to left it is a story of Krishna how does it create it keeping the grammatical rules perfect the metrical rules the rules of poetry the rhythmic pattern the arrangement of syllables by short and long doesn't change when you read it reverse this shows the amazing flexibility of Sanskrit and what I want to say today this creativity of Sanskrit the immense flexibility of Sanskrit the scientific structure of this language makes the language relevant not just today but for the progressive evolution of the humanity the Nevada [Applause] [Music]