Passage 5

Glance

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In plain words

The Vedas, Vedāṅgas, Upaniṣads, smṛtis, purāṇas and itihāsas of the Bharatiyas are great abodes of wisdom. These are great, great oceans of milk; sacred waters. However many pumps one sets to draw the water in the ocean, not even a fraction of it diminishes. A great deal of water, melted by the sun's heat, turns into vapor, takes on the form of a cloud, and gives the water back to the people in the form of rain. Through that, crops ripen and the country becomes verdant with crops. However much water evaporates, the ocean does not appear to have diminished by even a single inch. In just that way, even though water reaches the ocean through however many living rivers, the oceans do not grow even a trace. In just that way, great persons who have attained experiential knowledge, together with our scriptural knowledge, are also like the oceans. However many praise them, and however many more revile them, their mind remains unshaken, stainless, and utterly at peace. It is precisely the Bharatiya scriptural texts that are the abode of such essence.

However, depending on each person's patience and ability, they may relish that knowledge; and, having learned it, may then scatter that wisdom to the world. Such wisdom and experiential knowledge exist only within the Bharatiya scriptures alone. If one wants to understand them well and gain a proper understanding of them, one must, without fail, learn Sanskrit. The moment one says 'Sanskrit,' many among us hold one misconception: that it is a dead language, that it is an archaic language used by the uncivilized and the orthodox — these are today's people's opinions. This notion has taken root among ordinary modern people — that these are some or other unintelligible mantras, used for sacrificial rites and weddings and for ritual ceremonies, and that this is a difficult language. This misconception must first be removed from our minds. That Sanskrit is the language of immortality, the voice of the immortals, and that within it lies the root-essence of all languages,