Report on the 'Sanskrit Getaway-2006'

[Guest guest]

Vasuvaj . [vasuvaj (AT) hotmail (DOT) com]

 

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"Sanskrit Getaway"

 

Every year many people from different countries come to 'Aksharam' - the

 

office of Samskrita Bharati located in Bangalore to learn Sanskrit.

 

They generally find it difficult to learn Sanskrit when they attend a

class with Indians who have some knowledge of an Indian language.

 

The method of teaching Sanskrit to these sincere students should be

different from the manner in which an Indian is taught.

 

Keeping this in mind, last year a 30 day residential camp named

'Sanskrit

Getaway' was organised. Participants came from Italy, South Korea and

England.

It was well received.

 

With this encouragement, a camp was conducted this year also. People

from

Ireland, Italy and USA attended this year's camp.

 

The camp which started on August 1, concluded on August 30,2006.

Every day there were five one-hour sessions. The first session was at

6.15A.M., during which Yoga and Pranayama was taught.

During the next four sessions, important shlokas from Bhagavadgita,

reading,

pronouncing and writing Sanskrit script, basic Sanskrit grammar,

selected

passages from the famous Sanskrit poet Kalidasa's beautiful poem

Kumarasambhavam were taught.

 

 

The classes were conducted by six teachers who were well versed in

Sanskrit

and English. All the inmates of 'Aksharam' speak Sanskrit only. During

the

non-class hours, the participants could interact with these people and

as a

result they had numerous "Sanskrit teachers".

 

The participants were also taken to numerous temples, Veda Vijnana

Gurukulam, Prashanti Kuteeram, Ramakrishna Ashram, a school for tribal

children located in the dense forest , places of scenic beauty and other

 

places of cultural and social interest.

 

In the month of August there were numerous Hindu festivals like

Naagapanchami, Sraavana poornima /Rakshabandhan, Krishnaashtami

,Varamahalakshmi vratam, Mangala Gauri pooja,Ganesh Chaturthi etc.

During

these festivals, the participants were taken to different homes to see

how

the festival is celebrated in a traditional manner. They also got to see

 

"gana-homam"- a religious fire ritual.

They got opportunity to meet and discuss various topics of interest with

 

scholars and social workers like Vidwan Ramachandra Bhat,Dr.Nagendra

,Sri.Suryanarayana Rao,Sri Krishnappa,Sri Dinesh Kamath etc.

 

Besides Sanskrit, the participants also got a bird's eye view of Hindu

Sanskriti -culture.

 

All the participants enjoyed the camp very much.

They promised that they would participate and motivate their friends to

join

the -

August 1-30, 2007 camp.

 

 

 

 

 

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