Move over Padmaavat here comes Leelaavat.

Word for the day : लीलावत् ..I am not using Itrans transliteration today cos it would appear like this ,lIlAvat...now tell me would anyone be able to decipher that? 

So I am transliterating  लीलावत् as Leelaavat.

Now what does लीलावत् mean?

Its an adjective and it means Flirtatious/Playful.

That's all for today...Leelaavat and no Khalibali Ho Gaya Hai Dil Khilji!

Justin Bieber - Despacito [Music Video] ft. Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee

DESPACITO!





How do we say "Despacito" in Sanskrit?



Firstly Despacito is Spanish and it means Slowly.



So what is the Sanskrit equivalent in this context?



Well..here it is.. शनैः शनैः (śanaiH śanaiH )

Duran Duran - Hungry Like The Wolf

Bheema...Hungry Like the Wolf!


Word of the day...वृकः (vRkaH) 

meaning : Wolf.


In Mahabharat Bheema was also known as वृकोदरः (vRkodaraH) literally meaning one who has a belly like wolf which translates as having an appetite like a wolf( a voracious eater)


Bhagavad Geeta Chapter 1 Verse 15:

pāñcajanyaḿ hṛṣīkeśo

devadattaḿ dhanañjayaḥ

pauṇḍraḿ dadhmau mahā-śańkhaḿ

bhīma-karmā vṛkodaraḥ

Lord Kṛṣṇa blew His conchshell, called Pāñcajanya; Arjuna blew his, the Devadatta; and Bhīma, the voracious eater and performer of herculean tasks, blew his terrific conchshell, called Pauṇḍra.

Geeta shloka taken from Bhagavad Geeta as it is(ISCKON)

Across languages.

Many other languages too have words that have similar meaning and sounds as words found in Sanskrit.

Its best not to go into debates who took from whom but just enjoy a world sans borders because as humans evolved cross cultural exchange of words took place and many words became staple even in our mother tongues.

For example we tend to use the word Waris to mean heir/inheritor even in Tamil  but its not a Sanskrit word or even a Tamil word to start with ....Waris is  Arabic(وارث)..also pronounced as Warith.

So what is the actual Sanskrit word for Heir/Inheritor?

Well...its अधिकारी(adhikArI).

Now lets focus on a word that has cut across two languages.

Pen!
Yes...a pen.

In Sanskrit its called कलमः(  kalamaH)  and in Arabic its called قلم (qalam)

Thirst


In the previous post I had uploaded the best song of this season Bint-E Dil.
As I had mentioned in my earlier post that this song is not a Sanskrit song...in fact its Urdu heavily spiced with Arabic and Persian with just a sprinkle of Hindi.

BUT...there are a few words in that song that have Sanskrit origins.(lets concentrate on just one word for now)

So click on the song again and hear this line.


Mehkash labhon pe aane lagi hai
pyasi  qurbatein

The word pyAs(प्यास) means Thirst in Hindi and its Sanskrit in origin, from the word pipAsA (पिपासा) meaning Thirst in Sanskrit.

That's why I had mentioned in my previous post..keep an open mind and enjoy other languages too ..did anyone expect to learn Sanskrit from a song so heavily spiced with Arabic and Persian?

Binte Dil Video Song | Padmaavat | Arijit Singh | Ranveer Singh | Deepik...

The best song of this season! Well...its not a Sanskrit song but its good to keep an open mind and enjoy other languages too.

No Need To Say GoodBye

No Need To Say Goodbye.





We never really say Good Bye in Sanskrit...we simply say "Till we meet again"

पुनः मिलामः punaH milAmaH.


punaH means again 

milAmaH means we meet.

Therefore no need to say Goodbye...we will meet again.

Vampire Waltz (music video)

Vampire Strikes Back!





Many of us(the older ones especially)would have read or at least heard about the stories of King Vikramaditya and the Vampire.


In Sanskrit a Vampire is called वेतालः (vetAlaH).

Also at times used to mean a Goblin.


 We would many a times find that the word Betal is used instead of vetAlaH.


No fears...both mean the same.

In Sanskrit its vetAlah but in colloquial lingo Betal is mostly used.


Anyway..these stories about King Vikramaditya and the Vampire were originally written in Sanskrit and you can find them online and also in You tube easily in various languages.



Signing of with a Sanskrit quote :


नाहमात्मनाशाय  वेतालोत्थापनं  करिष्यामि


"I shall not raise a devil for my own destruction"


Enjoy the song by the way!

One,Two,Three They Gonna Run Back To Me...Climbing Over Mountains And A Sailing Over -Seas

Well..its not about Elle King's Ex's and Oh's here.

Its about another One,Two and Three which we might need to climb over mountains and sail over seas of knowledge for a deeper understanding...here goes..

1) प्रथमपुरुषः(prathamapuruSaH) 3rd person 

2)मध्यमपुरुषः(madhyamapuruSaH) 2nd person

3)उत्तमपुरुषः(uttamapuruSaH) 1st person.


पुरुषः (puruSaH) means Person.

प्रथम:(prathama) means First.

मध्यम:(madhyama) means Middle

उत्तम:(uttama) means Foremost.


प्रथमपुरुषः(prathamapuruSaH) 3rd person  Singular is सः(He) , सा (She)

But you might wonder why is the 3rd person called prathama(1st person) here.

Well this is where Sanskrit differs a little from English.

In Sanskrit He/She is called prathamapuruSaH (meaning first person though it denotes He/She) because the cultural concept of giving importance to another person more than self.
Therefore even though He/She is actually 3rd person but we give respect to the other person and call him/her 1st person.

Next ...मध्यमपुरुषः(madhyamapuruSaH) 2nd person singular is त्वम् (You)
Middle person here denotes 2nd person in between 1 and 3.


Last but not least...uttama villain! Sorry..I mean उत्तमपुरुषः(uttamapuruSaH) 1st person...अहम्(I)

story in sanskrit

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!









Tips on effective learning.



At times our sense organs functioning at one go can actually prove to be "distracting" because inputs are coming in from all sources and the mind has not enough time to process the data.



In learning a language the most important aspect is HEARING...yes the auditory apparatus.

We learnt to speak as children through hearing.

No sense of hearing..we fail to develop speech.



From time to time its advisable to sensitize our ears to a language by only focusing on hearing and nothing else.

Hence today I have uploaded this video because it does not have a script ..only a story.

But try to only listen to it..do not see the video..minimize the screen so that you only hear the words spoken.

Give the eyes a rest so that the visual apparatus does not distract us from sensitizing our ears.



Try to listen to the audio and then transcript the audio..initially we might make mistakes and write the wrong words but with time we would have trained our ears to pick up sounds of words and that is stored in our mind.



The next time when we hear the same word we would be able to "recognize" the word after all the brain learns by recognition of sounds,images and sensation(touch).



In Mahabharat when the Pandavas were being taught archery each of them were asked to describe what they see.



Four out of the five Pandavas answered that they see the target..the branches..the leaves around the target etc.



It was only Arjuna who answered "All I see is the target"



Likewise...learning is all about target practice.

No shooting arrows today..but just target practice using our ears.

Image(Google Images)


Star Wars , Panini's Grammar and the Throat.

In Ashtadyayi ...the great grammarian Panini  explains the anatomical location of phonetics employed in Sanskrit.

Today we would get familiar with a Sutra from Panini's asthyadyayi that talks about the letters produced from the throat.

There is no need to study Panini's sutras right away but I just want to introduce the origins of any definition so that we understand the basis of grammar instead of just memorizing it without a knowing its roots.

For example  most of us saw Star Wars,Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi..then we had the Prequel to it that started of with the Phantom Menace as the Episode 1.

So its like this here...Panini's sutras is the Episode 1.

Just observe the screen play..lets start!

अकुहविसर्जनीयाः कण्ठ्याः

akuhavisarjanIyAH kaNThyAH

What does this mean?

Ok....it means that the location for the utterance of the letters  
अ आ , क=कवर्ग(क ख ग घ ङ) ,ह and विसर्ग  are from the throat hence called कण्ठ्य kaNThya(Throat or sometimes even called Guttural)


Stay tuned for the Return of the तालव्य tAlavya (palatal).

BJ Thomas - Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head [LYRICS]

What has Raindrops keep falling on my head got to do with Learning Sanskrit?
Nothing!
Just enjoy the song.

प्रहेलिका

Prahelika means riddle and in these we will find verbal gymnastics!


अपदो दूरगामी स साक्षरो न च पण्डितः
अमुखः स्फ्टवक्ता च यो जानाति स पण्डितः

He travels far though devoid of feet; not a scholar though literate;
speaks with frankness though bereft of a mouth.
One who knows who he is, is a scholar.


Answer: Letter!


Well...we can also say its a text message or email too after all an email/text message too travels far sans feet..not a scholar though literate..speaks with frankness though without a mouth(no doubt of that here..our messages carry much more than frankness even emojis).
One who knows who he is, is a scholar.
(But does one have to be a scholar to read an email or text message?LOL)