Translation of Academic texts into Sanskrit - An Arduous task but worth the wait..!!

“Sanskrit language, as has been universally recognized by those competent to form a judgment, is one of the most magnificent, the most perfect, the most prominent and wonderfully sufficient literary instrument developed by the human mind.” -Aurobindo

Sanskrit is the language of the future and is a repository of scientific and modern-day knowledge. While the West is quickly grappling with the Sanskrit fever to know about the advancements in this ancient language, we are busy aping the west which at the end of the day brings us back to our own inventions and knowledge. We realize that every modern invention or discovery or any idea finds its reflection in our ancient texts from flying objects, Yoga to viruses. While Europe and America are popularising Sanskrit Studies through the help of government and universities, Indian education is confined to Macaulay syndrome and busy treating Sanskrit as a third language. 

NASA has been researching the scriptures of Aviation Science i.e Vimana Shastras, and learning Sanskrit for a deeper understanding of Mathematics and Astrophysics. Even Yoga involves a trillion-dollar business in the West and is being researched as a subject of Consciousness Studies. It is a similar story to the study of Ayurveda, Linguistics, Psychology, and Diplomacy which are now being explored and dug out from our ancient knowledge. Even the digital world considers Sanskrit as a natural language processing for future interactions with the machines.

Sanskrit is the foundation of all the languages, be it all the  Indian languages, English, Latin or German. It has the potential to be accepted as a national tool to unite India. The Indianness in this language connects our hearts to this language. In the words of Nobel Laureate physicist, Dr. C.V. Raman, “Sanskrit flows through our blood. It is only Sanskrit that can establish the unity of the country.” It is a fact that Sanskrit has been a cohesive power to unite Bharat even before it was a political unit. It shows that Sanskrit united people not geographically or politically but by spirit and culture. 

Sanskrit is deeply connected to our mother languages, which makes it easy to learn. Sanskrit should be and can be promoted to be the national language as it is indeed the fountain of India’s all mother tongues. Though it may take years to make it a communication language, we must take it as a challenge and start with the first step. Israel sets an inspiring example before us when it led a movement to revive its traditional language “Hebrew” which was once a dead language, but after a long struggle and awareness, it is now the official language of Israel.

Our first step starts with translating our academic and university studies/knowledge into Sanskrit. Though there is no Sanskrit word for “translation”, a nearly synonymous word is “anuvada” which literally means repetition through illustrations, corroborations, reiterations, and further explanations to something which is already said. It is basically producing the closest natural equivalent of the message in meaning and style. Understanding academics through Sanskrit opens up scope to more ideas and interpretations because Sanskrit is never short of vocabulary which gives the learner the ability to understand in a more concrete way by expanding the horizons of the mind. 

Translating the University and School texts into Sanskrit will help us understand the concepts more dearly with reference to our ancient wisdom. We are aware that our rishis were scientists and believed in free and independent thinking for solving the deep mysteries of this universe. For them, education and research were spiritual processes to attain salvation. Sanskrit is magical and instinctively connects one to consciousness. It's more than the shallow understanding of concepts, mugging up, and memory-based learning. It will cultivate a young population that is culturally literate, aware, and conscious of its roots with universal thought patterns. However, translations to Sanskrit need to be done with the utmost care, sincerity, and responsibility.

Though the task looks arduous,  but slowly it must catch the attention of Sanskrit scholars to contribute their hands to this cause. Because as they say, "Every journey begins with the first step".