Touring Samskrita Bharati USA

Back in 2015 I took a tour of USA/Indian Sanskrit School, Samskrita Bharati.  Our bus arrived at 267-09 Hillside Ave in Queens New York, right in front of the building’s sign advertising the institutes Sanskrit training.  It’s a little ironic that while in India there is debate whether or not students should be learning the language of the gods, on the other side of the world the sacred language of Hinduism is making inroads in American urban centers.  Entering the building, I was given a tour of the institute’s facilities and learned a little about their program and philosophy.

Outside view of Samskrita Bharati, Qeens NY

Once inside the facility I met with directer Srinivas Mahankali and his associate Madhu Pillai.  Mr. Mahankali and Pillai took some time to speak to us about Samskrita Bharati and their vision.  The organization’s goal is to make the Sanskrit language an integral part of our daily lives.  Being the chosen language of the oldest religion on earth, Sanskirt provides a unique opportunity to understand the rich and diverse cultural heritage of Hinduism and allows us to grow spiritually and intellectually.  2015 marks a special year for Samskrita Bharati as the group will be celebrating 20 years in the United States.  The “Spoken Samskritam Movement” was first initiated in the United States in 1995, when Shri Chamu Krishna Shastry, a founding member of the organization from India, toured and conducted Spoken Sanskrit Workshops in various US cities. Since then, Samkrita Bharati has grown steadily and has introduced several programs including residential retreats, annual youth camps, Sanskrit As A Foreign Language (SAFL) for high school students, weekly classes for children, lecture series by scholars, formation of Sanskrit groups on college campuses, distance learning programs, Masters programs in collaboration with an India University and the publication of Sanskrit books.

Mr. Mahankali and Pillai explained to me how their program works. At Samskrita Bharati , Sanskrit is taught as its own language, meaning no intermediary language is used.  So when you take classes at the facility you are spoken to and speak in Sanskrit only.  Samskrita Bharati  works on the “known to unknown” principle, instructors give you a simple phrase or word that you come to know, and then slowly add unknown words or phrases which eventually become known through conversational context.  For example, our first lesson in Sanskrit started as such:

Mr. Pillai [pointing to himself]: “mama nama Madhu Pillai”

Mr. Pillai [pointing to Mr. Srinivas Mahankali]: “Bhavataha nama kim?” 

Mr. Mahankali [pointing to himself]: “mama nama Srinivas Mahankali”

Mr. Mahankali [pointing to Vincent]: “Bhavataha nama kim?” 

Vincent: mama nama Vincent.

Vincent [pointing at Sucheta (female)]: “Bhavathyaaha nama kim?”

Sucheta [pointing to herself]: “mama nama Sucheta”

Do you understand what was being said?  Mr. Pillai started the conversation by stating “my name is”, he then asked “what is your name?”.  By the context of the conversation we were able to quickly pick up the meaning of his words and could respond and ask questions on our own.  This is how the Samskrita Bharati method works, its called the “Natural Progression Method”.

Goddess Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge) patrons the institute

Mr. Mahankali and Pillai explained the “Natural Progression Method” like this, as children we learn our native language in four stages, these are the stages which Samkrita Bharti mimics in their curriculum:

Stage 1, Mananam (thinking/digesting): Intake into the mind through the environment (listening)

Stage 2, Vadanam (speaking): Speaking one to two words at a time followed by short sentences; doesn’t need to be grammatically correct, but understandable.

Stage 3, Pathanam (reading/study) : This stage correlates to the age of around 5-6 years old.  During this phase one learns structured sentences, grammar, and alphabets.

Stage 4, Lekhanam (writing): Writing essay and stories

We were brought over to the onsite workshop area where many of the institute’s programs are delivered in house and online.  Mr. Mahankali and Pallai briefly described some of their workshops and how they function.  The first workshop is a basic crash course on Sanskrit called “Shibriam” which means “theory”. The 16-20 hour course can be completed in one weekend for a nominal fee (approx $30.00).  It is a Mananam (listening) and Vadaman (beginning speaking) workshop where one will learn basic conversational Sanskrit [classes start January].  This course can then be supplemented by a 36 week course which elaborates on conversational Sanskrit.   Samskrita Bharati also offers a course in Sanskrit which can be used to fulfill some high school foreign language requirements and finally the institute has agreements with both American and Indian universities to offer BA/MA certificates in the Sanskrit language. But most interesting of all, Samskrit Bharati offers a free weekly Gita Class in Sanskrit every Wednesday from 7:30pm-9:30pm  which can be attended in person or online.

After seeing the classroom where they hold worskhops, Mr. Mahankali and Pillai took us into their bookstore/conference room where the conversation about their institute and its workshops continued. Samskrita Bharati publishes its own books.  Some are entry and higher level sanskrit learning texts, but they also have several books they have published dealing with the science and other advanced knowledge which was published in ancient Sanskrit.

 I was very excited to learn about this great organization and will consult them as a resource on the general agenda to bring Hindi and Sanskrit classes to college campuses and high schools internationally.  Maybe one day I hope to attend their weekly Sanskrit Gita class and encourage others to take advantage of their programs.  To learn more about Samskrita Bharati, please visithttp://www.samskritabharatiusa.org/.

Lokmanya Tilak: remembering the man who gave us Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi is the Hindu festival which celebrates the birth of Lord Ganesh, Hinduism's most well known and widely adored figure, the supreme personification of that force we call "obstacles". The commemoration of his birth will start on September 5th, 2016. Traditional Hindu homes will create a colorful clay representation of the elephant headed god, and after many ceremonies and feasts he will be dunked into a body of water and dissolve just like the obstacles he removes. While Ganesh has become one of the most popular deities of the Hindu pantheon, most Hindus know that Ganesha is a relatively new addition to the family of Hinduism, and so his public festivities must have appeared relatively recently. It should come as no surprise to the faithful that the remover of obstacles was brought to the forefront by one of Hinduism's most heroic, inventive and vigilant freedom fighters, Lokmanya Tilak. 

It is not known exactly when Ganesh Chaturthi began as a public festival, be we do know that this celebration was limited only to certain regions of India. Shivaji Raj who fought off the Mughals and established the Martha Empire in the 1600s claimed Ganesh as his household deity and so Ganesh Chaturthi was a public event during his reign. With the passage of this aristocracy and the arrival of the British in the 1800s, Ganesh's public festivals faded and he returned to his place as a home and family deity. But Ganesh's power has alway attracted vibrant, truthful and courageous characters and soon his mantle was taken up by one of Hinduism's most ardent warriors, Lokmany Tilak. 

Bal Gangadhar Tilak was something of a Renaissance Man; a mathematician, teacher, and journalist, but above all else an independence activist. Tilak was born in 1856, his father was a Sanskrit scholar and following in his father's scholarly steps, Tilak graduated from Deccan College with a Bachelors in Mathematics. He became a math instructor at a private school but soon fell out with the administration over ideological differences;. Tilak wanted to see an India free and independent from British rule, and to him that meant instilling nationalism and an appreciation for Indian culture at a young age. Tilak organized the Deccan Education Society and later the Fergusson College where his independence ambitions were infused into the curriculum for the students. 

In 1890 Tilak joined the Indian National Congress and soon became one of its most outspoken and adroit members, preaching a message of self rule and freedom from the British. When the British began playing partition politics with Bengal, redrawing lines which would create Hindu minority areas in the North East, Tilak quickly supported the Swadeshi (self-rule) movement and also encouraged boycotts of foreign goods, the goal was a strong and independent India. Such politics eventually led to a rift in the Indian National Congress between the "radicals" and the "moderates", with Tilak heading the radical element of the party himself. 

In 1908 two Bengali youth accidentally killed two British women in an attempt to assassinate the usurper puppet Chief Presidency Magistrate Douglas Kingsford of Calcutta. Tilak immediately defended the two youth in the newspaper Kesari and advocated revolutionary action to obtain independence. For this Tilak was imprisoned for nearly 6 years on charges of sedition. While in prison he wrote extensively on independence politics, including his book "Gita Rahasya" which sold many copies and helped to fund other Indian independence movements. After his imprisonment Tilak softened a bit on his rhetoric but still officially opposed the doctrine of "total non-violence" (complete ahimsa). 

At the end of his life Tilak committed himself to propagating the ideal of self-rule in India, traveling from village to village enlisting farmers and peasants to the cause. Talik believed in a modern federal system to govern India where every human being could be free. He also promoted Devangari Hindi as the official language of India. His Deccan Education Society runs to this day in Pune India and his Fergusson College was part of the independence movement until its final victory in 1947. The Indian government released a commemorative coin to celebrate Talik's 150th birthday in 2007.

After reading such a biography it is of little wonder that the Lord who removes our obstacle (or puts them in our way if needed) chose this man to be the one who would return him to his seat of public veneration. It was Tilak who in 1893 restored the public festival of Ganesh and made it a universal practice across Hindudom. It was his hope to use the festival to bridge the gap between all sects and "castes" of Hinduism and create a stronger feeling of grassroots unity and nationalism. It was he who prompted our modern ceremony of dropping Ganesha into the river as one community, dissolving away our petty differences like clay in a river. Under Tilak's encouragement, the festival facilitated community participation and involvement in the form of intellectual discourses, poetry recitals, performances of plays, musical concerts, and folk dances.

Of course, Ganesh Chaturthi has a deeper meaning than the life of one man, but it was this one man, Tilak, who brought us one of our most beloved festivals today. No matter the struggle, Tilak continued and like Ganesh he removed obstacles for all Hindus everywhere. This August when we participate in the exciting festival surrounding the birth of Ganesh, take a moment to think about how only a little more than 100 years ago, this festival didn't even exist and the nation of India was under the yoke of British Christian imperialism. Today, this one festival is celebrated across the globe by Hindus of every race and nationality. Under Ganesh's auspices, we truly unite into one people, a spiritual nation, undivided and unanimous in our joy. If Tilak were alive today I am sure he would be proud and he would thank Lord Ganesh for removing just one more obstacle for the human race.