Spoken Samskrita Seminars Begin At Kiev
By Basu Ghosh Dasa

A 3-month tour of Europe and the United States to promote spoken Samskrita in ISKCON.

Dear Readers,

Namonamaha. Hare Krishna!

Acharya Samskritananda Hari and Basu Ghosh Dasa (an American-born disciple of Srila Prabhupada who has been serving in India for the past 27 years) Temple President of ISKCON-Baroda, inaugurated the first of several Spoken Samskrita seminars at Kiev, Ukraine, on 9 May 2001, to a group of more than twenty devotees of ISKCON from Kiev and various other places in the Ukraine.

The aim of the seminars is to help devotees and friends of ISKCON to develop, in the shortest amount of time, a working knowledge of this most beautiful language of the Vedas.

The seminar in Kiev came to fruition primarily due to the enthusiasm of Sriman Achyuta Priya Prabhu, ISKCON Regional Secretary for Ukraine, after he had attended the first of the past two annual Spoken Samskrita seminars held at ISKCON's World Headquarters, Sridham Mayapur, West Bengal.

This year the seminar at Mayapur was part of the MIHE, organized by Janmastami Prabhu.

Acharya Samskritananda Hari commented that for the first time in Ukraine, a number of prabhus, matajis, and also several senior students participated in such a Spoken Samskrita workshop. He noted that most of the participants were able to pronounce the words correctly, and that they would take notes on what they were hearing during the seminar. "It is my hope that very quickly this entire group will be speaking in Samskritam," he said.

Achyuta Priya Prabhu commented: "For me, the semiar is like learning an old truth that I forgot, because we are exposed to Samskritam every day, and we know so many shlokas and have so much information, but this information is not so systematic in terms of language. After attending the seminar Samskritam now looks very familiar."

Damodar Charan Dasa Brahmachari, a native of Chernovtsy in Western Ukraine, graduate computer programmer, and ISKCON devotee for the past ten years in Ukraine commented: "It was a surprising experience, because from the very beginning we started to speak in Samskritam. It was a wonderful and memorable introduction to Samskritam--a very good samskara.

Ishwari devi dasi, a native of Odessa (the large, well-known resort city located on the shore of the Black Sea in Ukraine), graduate of Moscow State University, and ISKCON devotee for the past seven years, commented that she could now understand the importance of speaking in Samskritam. In fact, when she was a student at Moscow State University it was her desire to learn Samskritam. She very much appreciated the method employed at the seminar for speaking Samskritam. She was determined to memorize the "Samskrita-panchamritam," the five key sentences presented in the first session. However, she found it a bit difficult to concentrate on the subject matter for the entire three-hour period. Govardhandhari dasa, from Chernigov, graduate of a Polytechnical Institute, and ISKCON devotee in the Northern Ukraine since 1983, said that he had actually been dreaming for his entire life to learn Samskritam. "I very much enjoyed hearing spoken Samskritam at the seminar and repeating the lesson along with the group," he said. "I found it a bit difficult because I couldn't understand the entire plan, nor do I understand how I will be able to continue to study at home after the seminar."

The next seminar will be held at the Oxford Institute for Vaishnava and Hindu Studies at Oxford, England. Following that, seminars will be held in June and July at various locations throughout the United States, some of which will be ISKCON's school in North Carolina, New Vrindavan, Seattle, and San Francisco.

Besides the 2-week and 10-day formats, there will also be several "intensive" 3-day seminars.

Those interested to participate in, or to organize, any of these seminars may please kindly contact us via e-mail at basu.ghosh.acbsp@pamho.net.

Hare Krishna!

© CHAKRA 14 May 2001

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