Thirteenth installment of the course.
Routine reiteration:
a. Do not get too bogged down by grammar and usage while you learn Sanskrit. Often Sanskrit is considered to be all about mugging up lots of declensions and conjugations and this fears off most students. Instead take is as a natural language. Feel free to make the most blatant grammatical errors so far you are able to convey your message. Develop a feel for the language instead of thinking about grammar.
How did we learn Hindi or English or our mother tongue? Did we learn grammar first or language first? And do we speak these languages in a grammatically correct fashion even today? Why burden Sanskrit with overdose of grammar in very beginning then?
Simply start talking on every other thing in Sanskrit and enjoy the funny pronunciations you make or blatant errors you make in grammar. Have a laugh on that and simply continue. Soon you will develop a natural grip over the language and grammar will be automatically taken care of.
b. Try using Sanskrit words even in your mother language. After all Sanskrit is the mother of all languages. Let the children associate with their Mom and have their foundations strengthened! And in process, your road to mastery of Sanskrit will also be traversed faster.
c. Download a copy of Introduction to Vedas (Hindi) from http://agniveer.com/2045/introduction-to-vedas/ if you know Hindi. This is an amazing text not only to understand Vedic concepts but learn Sanskrit naturally. Because most sections of the book are presented in very simple Sanskrit as well as Hindi. In some sections there are deviations in Sanskrit and Hindi message and it would be a good idea to explore those areas and form the right opinion!
Download: Sanskrut Lesson 54 – Month 13
For supplements, download from http://www.chitrapurmath.net/sanskrit/supplements_rev.asp
Source of Lessons – Sri Chitrapur Math http://chitrapurmath.net
Agniveer Sir,
Good thing! You have posted lessons on Sanskrit. But it isn’t right to only tell someone how to learn Sanskrit. In India (where Sanskrit was once most spoken language) today majority of people do not want to learn Sanskrit. This is because of their ignorance about Sanskrit. You should also tell WHY to learn Sanskrit. “Sanskrit is the primordial conduit between Human Thought and the Soul; Physics and Metaphysics; Subtle and Gross; Culture and Art; Nature and its Author; Created and the Creator.” – Said by Swami Vivekananda. NASA & Forbest Magazine has articles on Sanskrit’s greatness. Why not you post something on greatness of Sanskrit and educate the rest?