a perspective on Study of Sanskrit

I posted my views on Sanskrit and Indian ethos in a closed group, but I feel the issue deserved wider exposure. So I re post it here.

The person who found that Sanskrit could be used as a language for computer programming, could have done that only after having studied Sanskrit in great depth .. so he must be a Sanskrit Scholar in his own way..

The very fact that such a research has been done is evidence enough to the fact that something tangible has been done..

The knowledge of Sanskrit and the practice of chanting mantrams and performing rituals by Vadhyars of today have very little in common..

The average Purohita to day just learns something like a parrot..

Even the youngsters who claim that they have learned part of vedam. like purusha sooktham, rudram etc, just learn the chanting of these parts of the scriptures without either understanding or in most case not caring to understand even the peripheral meaning..

So to mix up the present day mamopaatha samsatha(the opening stanza in any brahmin ritualistic chant ).... with scholarship in Sanskrit is very odd..

We Palakkad iyers talk Tamil and Malayalam in our own way sometimes not knowing how to read or write such languages..

Does it mean becoming scholars?

I think I am using English Language fairly well and would have acquired knowledge even in some other vital subjects using this knowledge as the key to open the vast repertoire of materials for study..

But Sanskrit language has also in its store equally precious stock, which unfortunately the children of the language have failed to note..

Some people would have used hyperbole, in extolling the virtues of Sanskrit but we cannot say they were off the mark in bringing home a worthy point..

For a Hindu. if he is to understand where he really stands in history,unique identity as a social unit, and religion, knowledge of Sanskrit is the ultimate thing, the ultimate weapon..

. A situation has arisen where majority of Indians have no knowledge of Sanskrit..

It is a sad and disturbing fact.

And maybe people survive even without such knowledge..

That is little solace..

A human being can survive without religion, without even cultural or historic sense.

For eating food, mating and such primary human needs, one may not need any language..

Inadequacies and imperfections cannot be claimed as virtues..

Even though English language is rich in vocabulary, culture and all, we can take pride in the knowledge of language only as a foreign language..

I do not think anyone of us can ever claim English as our mother tongue or as forming the basis of our own Indian heritage and cultural growth..

Alien culture can be followed but they cannot become our culture..

One failure cannot be justified with reference to another failure.