[Advaita-l] Indology, traditional learning and the state of affairs in India

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

PraNAms to all

Shree Ramesh has raised some important points.

My father who was a great Sanskrit scholar, who translated many Telugu prabandhas into Sanskrit, discouraged us from studying Sanskrit in the school, since he himself experienced that there is no support for it. He hoped we will study sanskrti at home and professional education in school. Unfortunately with loaded no of books (we see children carryings bags full of school books heavier than their own weight) and pressure to excel in the school, we had no time for external studies. 

My question to Ramesh and others is given all these problems, how do we propose to solve this problem. In olden days kings used to support gurukula system. Now it is left to the govt or public. WAVES is one such organization which is making some conscious effort to bring the problem to lime light. Chinmaya International Foundation in Kalandi in Kerala is trying to make some progress in this, particularly in Indology studies. Samskrita  Bharati is trying to propagate Sanskrit communication. 

I agree with Ramesh that the traditional methodology and modern scientific approach need to be combined similar to what has been done with Navya Nyaaya, although very few western logicians are familiar the Navya Nyaaya methodology.

May be we need to keep churning these ideas and present them to some of these organizations that are involved. But giving the ideas is one thing, but what extent we are ready to support is another thing. Unless both are combined it will be just another of those - everybody and nobody story. 

Hari Om!
Sadananda 

--- On Thu, 10/1/09, Ramesh Krishnamurthy <rkmurthy at gmail.com> wrote:

> In a sense, the inability of the university system to
> nurture the
> shaastra-s is a good thing. At least, it has protected
> shaastraic
> scholarship from being subverted by a state that has its
> own agenda.
> It has also given an opportunity to those committed to the
> shaastra-s
> (such as many members of this list) to actively contribute
> to the
> preservation of the shaastra-s.

> Ultimately, the future of shaastraic study &
> scholarship lies in the
> hands of those who value it, and that includes several
> members of this
> list. Granted that we are busy with our careers, families,
> etc but if
> we are concerned about the future of the shaastra-s, then
> we need to
> get out of our silos, put aside our petty differences and
> work
> together to nurture and preserve the system. In other
> words, we need
> to do more than just personal study and practice.