By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Scholars, Indian and Foreign, from Pondicherry and other parts of the country who are well versed in the role of Sanskrit in the growth of Indic Civilization and culture and also the uniqueness of Sanskrit as a language in the light of Sri Aurobindo’s works were part of the first ever national seminar on “interrelation between Sanskrit and Indian culture with special reference to Sri Aurobindo” organized by Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan (RSS), New Delhi and the city based Sri Aurobindo Institute of Indian Culture (SAIIC) at its auditorium on Saturday.
The two day seminar was inaugurated by Member, North Eastern Council (NEC), PP Shrivastav and was attended by former Home Minister, RG Lyngdoh; registrar of RSS, Prof KB Subbarayudu besides conservator of forest, M Bala Krishna Reddy among others. Besides them Indian scholars from various parts of the country, a good number of local scholars from the region also participated in the seminar.
Shrivastav in his speech said that Sanskrit has every qualities, be it grammar, pronunciation, expression for a speaker of the language to communicate his ideas in crystallized words. While expressing concern as to why the society is deteriorating despite the richness of Sanskrit as a language and reasoned that the confinement of the language with priests mainly leaving behind the commoner is doing no good for its growth.
He cited that it is important to engage the commoners – who take this language more as a ritual – to know the bigger aspects and said what the harm is if we have a simplified version of the language. “Language should adapt to the needs of the people,” he said adding that India’s destiny is to spread its spirituality and enlighten the world besides there is a need to synthesize the past and the present.
Prof Subbarayudu said that Sri Aurobindo has lived to the meaning of his name, that is, Lotus – which never gets polluted by the surroundings around.
“He lived in UK for 14 years but was not influenced by westernization,” he said while drawing comparison with the modern civilization, who finds India dirty, its streets and roads and only wishes to return to the west. He has also proposed the SAIIC chairman and EX-MP, Shillong Dr BB Dutta to allow RSS to open a Sanskrit centre in the campus because an Ashram atmosphere is found to be best for the growth and imparting this language. He said that he will make Union Government funds available for such a noble cause out of the allotted funds for the region as Agartala has such a centre.
Lyngdoh emphasized on the need to look back to Sanskrit as a language and continue to thrive on the spirit since Sanskrit is the mother of so many languages.
He also spoke about the efforts of Sri Aurobindo, who wanted to see Sanskrit become the national language for its unifying pull. Reddy spoke about the significance of Purusha Suktam regarded very auspicious in the Rigveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda similar to the Gyatri Mantra while delivering the vote of thanks.
On the basis of these, he said that God performs sacrifices with the aid of sacrifices and let this seminar be treated as a sacrifice since it is the root of transformation.
Three academic sessions were also held where scholars presented their papers on the basis of the theme.
The first session was attended by professors from Guwahati University, such as, Dr Sudeshna Bhattacharjee, Prof Sujata Purkayastha and Prof Shrutidhara Chakraborty followed by Prof Subbarayudu (RSS), Dr Jagdish Sharma and Prof Nalini Devi Mishra in the second session and Prof Manjula Devi, Dr Hiren Sharma and Dr Ramakant Pandey in the third session. Dr BB Dutta, Ex-MP, Shillong gave the keynote address.