A Celebration of Sanskrit in Boston

भाषासु मुख्या मधुरा दिव्या गीर्वाणभारती
bhAShAsu mukhyA madhurA divyA gIrvANabhAratI
(“Sanskrit is significant, sweet and divine among languages” – from a subhaashitam)

An enthusiastic crowd of Sanskrit enthusiasts from various towns in the Greater Boston area gathered at the Sadhu Vaswani Center, Dracut MA on Saturday June 17th, 2017, to celebrate the World Sanskrit Day organized by Samskrita Bharati USA. The evening of entertainment in Sanskrit included music, hilarious skits in Sanskrit with creative themes, scholarly expositions and a speech in Sanskrit by Chief Guest Aacharyaa Shashi Dwarakanath of Chinmaya Mission, Andover.

VISHWA SAMSKRITA DINAM

The full-moon day of the month of shraavana has been declared as Vishwa Samskrita Dinam - World Sanskrit Day. The Greater Boston chapter of Samskrita Bharati USA held a Sandhyaa (evening) filled with Samskrutam (the Sanskrit language) and Samskriti (culture) on Saturday June 17^th, 2017 (ahead of the declared day to coincide with the Boston kendra annual day celebrations) at Sadhu Vaswani Center, Dracut, MA, to celebrate  Vishwa Samskruta Dinam. Sanskrit, which is often called “deva-bhaashaa” or the language of the Gods, is a storehouse of Indian wisdom and knowledge transmitted down over the centuries. Samskrita Bharati USA, which is entering its 22^nd year of existence, is a non-profit volunteer-driven organization working to revive Sanskrit, and provides many immersive opportunities for adults, youth and children living in the United States to acquire proficiency in Sanskrit.

ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM

The entertainment program (मनोरञ्जन कार्यक्रमः) in which students (adult, youth and children) from the Acton, Andover, Ashland, Lexington, Walpole, Bellingham, and Nashua centers participated, was put together by Santhi Pasumarthi and was compered by a team cheerful youth volunteers (Srinidhi, Sadhana, Aditya, Amriteshwar, Pranav, Saketh and Srikar), who each introduced each item with a memorable Sanskrit number aphorism (such as “गुणत्रयं - guNatrayaM” – the three qualities, “चतुर्वेदाः - chaturvedA:” – the four vedas, “पञ्चभूतानि - pa~nchabhUtAni” - the five elements, “सप्तऋषयः - saptaRRiShayaH” – the seven rishis, “नवरसाः  - navarasAH” – the nine emotions, and “एकादश रुद्राः - ekAdasha rudrAH” – the eleven Rudras), to match the sequence number of the item. The memorable program, mostly in Sanskrit, featured melodious music, hilarious skits, enjoyable expositions and informative talks, riddles and quizzes, and was followed by dinner.

MUSIC

The program started with a hymn on Saraswati (“श्री सरस्वती नमोस्तुते - shrI sarasvatI namostute”) by Sadhana Venkatesh, and a prayer and oath to adopt and protect Sanskrit (“पठामि संस्कृतं नित्यं - paThAmi saMskRRitaM nityaM”) by Sadhana Venkatesh, Mahati and Rama. This was followed by a beautiful rendering of “तोटकाष्टकं - toTakAShTakaM” in a string of ragas by Janani Ganesh. Later students Rama, Mahati, Yashas, Sadhana Venkatesh, Sahana Venkatesh and Arhant from the Andover maadhyamika varghah sang “मुनिवर विकसित .. सुन्दर सुर भाषा - munivara vikasita ... sundara sura bhAShA”, a song in praise of Sanskrit composed by Sri Narayana Bhata. Shankari Lakshminarayanan and Bhavani Lakshminarayanan, students from Nashua sang the Sanskrit song “कृत्वा नवद्रुढ संकल्पं - kRRitvA navadruDha saMkalpaM “ proclaiming the resolve to uplift society. Sudhakar, Meghana, Lakshminarayan, Shashidhar, Lakshmi and Sukanya gave a chorus rendering of Sri Janardhan Hegde’s “प्रभुदात्मन् गायगीतं -  prabhudAtman gAyagItaM ” preceded by a translation and commentary on the song. Kids Uma, Tara, Sumedha, Anika, Siddhartha, Nikita, Niranjana and Adithi from the Acton bala varghah recited the alphabets through the great poet Kalidasa’s “का त्वं बाले - kA tvaM bAle”.

TALKS

Venkatesh Tyagasamudram introduced the Chief Guest of the event, Aacharyaa Shashi Dwarakanath, resident Acharya (आचार्या - AchAryA) of Chinmaya Mission, Boston. Aacharyaa Shashiji who served and retired as the Chief of Pathology at the Lowell General Hospital prior to her current role, is described by philanthropist Desh Deshpande as “one of the most complete human beings in our community, inspiring hundreds and thousands of young and grown up adults with her calming presence”. Acharya Shashiji has been honored with the 2017 India New England News Lifetime Achievement Award. In her five-minute speech (entirely in Sanskrit for the first time for her), Acharya Shashi spoke about the greatness and completeness of Sanskrit. She recalled her meeting in Mumbai with a young lady from Russia who studies Vedanta mantras in original Sanskrit, and pointed out that thanks to our ancestors who have pondered over every aspect of life, Sanskrit spans every aspect of study whether it is art, literature, science or medicine. Acharyaji urged everyone to study and spread Sanskrit, studying which can lead to attaining happiness in life (link to video).

Sam Mohan, coordinator of Samskrita Bharati’s Boston Kendra, gave the inaugural welcome speech in Sanskrit, and spoke about recipes, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, written in Sanskrit that were discovered in the royal palace at Tanjore. Did you know that Pakora is called “पक्व-वट - pakva-vaTa” in Sanskrit? Giri Bharathan announced that Samskrita Bharati’s popular “Samskritam as A Foreign Lanaguage” (SAFL) program has received accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, making it eligible for High School credit. He also invited Sanskrit enthusiasts to attend Jaahnavi, the annual residential camp for families to be held during the Labor Day weekend in New Jersey, in which participants live in an immersive Sanskrit environment. Recent graduates of the SAFL program shared their reminiscences from the program. Ananthakrishnan announced the inauguration of a new बालकेन्द्रं - bAlakendraM at the Sri Kalikamba Temple at Bellingham, MA.

SKITS

The program included several humorous skits that provided a great opportunity for conversational Sanskrit enthusiasts to demonstrate their Sanskrit speaking skills. Students from the Acton prauDha varghaH (प्रौढ वर्घः) brought to life the silly cartoon character Suppandi, who is popular among readers of the India children’s magazine Tinkle. In one act, Suppandi who is sent to the market to purchase Apple and Blackberry phones returns with apples and berries instead. In another act, Suppandi drives a technical support team in India crazy when he tries to help fix a computer for his mother to watch the recent super-hit Indian flick Bahubali.  Students Srikanth, Madhukar, Surendranath, Alpana, and Jaahnavi, from the Andover prauda varghah enacted a hilarious skit called “आधुनिक शोले - Adhunika shole” (based on the 1975 Bollywood blockbuster Sholay), in which the lazy loafer Veeru falls in love with cab driver Jaahnavi at first sight, and then dismisses her rejection with a sour grapes reaction (video link). A team of youth Amrutesh, Guha, Srinidhi, Ragaprasanna and Aditya enacted a humorous skit in which fresh graduates wile away their time discussing future business plans (including supplying vada and sambhar to college cafeterias) to make it big in life. Acton kids Ansh (Trump), Gautham (Trudeau), Meenakshi (Merkel), and Rohan (Macron), did a Saturday Night Live-style spoof of the recent Paris conference, in which they humorously dealt with Trump’s denial of global warming as fake news, all in Sanskrit. The skit included a burlesque of Trump’s handshake. Another amusing Saturday Night Live-style lampoon, imagined Trump and Kim Jong-Un banding together at a “लोकशान्ति संमेलनम् - lokashAnti saMmelanam” to promote world peace. Kim introduces himself with “my name is Kim” in Sanskrit, which also translates to “what is my name?” creating comical confusion. Kim advises Trump to mine the border to prevent illegal immigration, while Trump invites Kim to come study at Trump University to boost his popularity. Adult students from the Lexington kendra presented a humorous skit based on impersonation in an interview for a sales job (साक्षात्कारः - saakshhatkkarah).

EXPOSITIONS

Arvind Krishnamoorthy and Venkatesh Tyagasamudram presented both in Tamil and Sanskrit along with English annotation (link to video), selections from the 2000-year old Tamil work “Thirukkural” composed by the sage Thiruvalluvar. The Sanskrit version was based on the work of the great Sanskrit and Tamil scholar and Presidential Award winner nonagenarian Sriramadesikan mahodayah. Sahana, Pranav, Arhant, Mahati, Yashas and Sadhana provided an overview of “Thirukkural”, Thiruvalluvar, and Sriramadesikan mahodayah in the form of a Sanskrit question and answer session, prior to this presentation. Venkatesh Tyagasamudram delivered a presentation on the rhetorical elegance of Sanskrit, in which he talked about a fascinating Sanskrit composition called “राम विलोमकाव्यं - rAma vilomakAvyaM” by the 14^th century poet and scholar Surya Kavi. He highlighted a couplet in this composition in which each of the two lines convey two entirely different themes separated by millennia in time (one on Lord Rama and another on Lord Krishna), yet the second line is a word-palindrome of the first. 

Santhi Pasumarthi conducted an engrossing quiz (प्रश्नोत्तरी/भाषा क्रीडा – prashnottari/ bhAShA krIDA) in which she identified many words that are cognate in Sanskrit and English. Did you know that the English words bandanna (बन्धन - bandhana), path (पथ - patha), grass (ग्रास -grAsa), serpent (सर्पः - sarpaH), argentine (अर्जुन - arjuna), barbarian (बर्बर - barbara), geriatric (जर - jara), perimeter (परिमा - parimA), genuflect (जानु - jAnu), ignite (अग्नि - agni) share roots with Sanskrit?

The program also included numerous other lively and entertaining items by children and adults, many of which are captured in pictures that can be viewed at this link.

तं भूसुतामुक्तिमुदारहासं वन्दे यतो भव्यभवम् दयाश्रीः

I pay homage to Him (Rama) who released the daughter of Earth (Sita), whose laughter is deep,

whose embodiment is grand and from whom mercy and splendor arise everywhere

श्रीयादवं भव्यभतोयदेवं संहारदामुक्तिमुतासुभूतम् ॥

I bow down before Krishna, the descendant of the Yadava clan, who is the Lord of the Sun as well as the Moon, who liberated even her (Putana) who wanted to bring his life to an end, and who is the soul of the entire Universe.

(A word-palindrome from “राम विलोमकाव्यं - rAma vilomakAvyaM” composed by 14th century scholar Surya Kavi, in which the first line is just the second line read in reverse word-order, but conveys a different theme from a different era)

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