Sanskrit Quotes

“...The spiritual Oriental teachers say a person has three forms of mind,'' Beatrice was explaining to him once, while they were on break between one lesson and another at university, ''which are the dense mind, the subtle level and the ultra-subtle mind. Primary Consciousness, or the dense mind, is that existential, Sartrean mind which is related to our senses and so it is guided directly by human primitive instincts; in Sanskrit, this is referred to as ālaya-vijñāna which is directly tied to the brain. The subtle mind comes into effect when we begin to be aware of our true nature or that which in Sanskrit is called Ātman or self-existent essence that eventually leads us to the spiritual dimension. Ultimately there is the Consciousness-Only or the Vijñapti-Mātra, an ultra-subtle mind which goes beyond what the other two levels of mind can fabricate, precisely because this particular mind is not a by-product of the human brain but a part of the Cosmic Consciousness of the Absolute, known in Sanskrit as Tathāgatagarbha, and it is at this profound level of Consciousness that we are able to achieve access to the Divine Wisdom and become one with it in an Enlightened State.''

''This spiritual subject really fascinates me,'' the Professor would declare, amazed at the extraordinary knowledge that Beatrice possessed.''

''In other words, a human being recognises itself from its eternal essence and not from its existence,'' Beatrice replied, smiling, as she gently touched the tip of his nose with the tip of her finger, as if she was making a symbolic gesture like when children are corrected by their teachers. ''See, here,'' she had said once, pulling at the sleeve of his t-shirt to make him look at her book. ''For example, in the Preface to the 1960 Notes on Dhamma, the Buddhist philosopher from the University of Cambridge, Ñāṇavīra Thera, maintains those that have understood Buddhist teachings have gone way beyond Existential Thought. And on this same theme, the German scholar of Buddhist texts, Edward Conze, said that the possible similarity that exists between Buddhist and Existential Thought lies only on the preliminary level. He said that in terms of the Four Noble Truths, or in Sanskrit Catvāri Āryasatyāni, the Existentialists have only the first, which teaches everything is ill. Of the second - which assigns the origin of ill to craving - they have a very imperfect grasp. As for the third and fourth, which consist of letting go of craving, and the Noble Eightfold Path that leads to liberation from the cycle of rebirth in the form of Nirvāṇa - these are unheard of. Knowing no way out, the Existentialists are manufacturers of their own woes...”
― Anton Sammut, Paceville and Metanoia

“In Sanskrit, there exists no word for ‘The Individual’ (L’Individu). En Grèce antique, il n’y avait aucun mot pour dire ‘Devoir’ (Duty). In French, the word for ‘Wife’ is the same as the word for ‘Woman.’ En anglais, nous n’avons aucun mot semblable à l’exquise ‘Jouissance!”
― Roman Payne

“प्रेम गली अति संकरी, तामें दाऊ न समाई |
जब में था तब हरी नहीं, अब हरी है में नाहीं ||

The street of love is very narrow, two can’t pass through it at the same time

When I was, there was no God (Hari), now there is God but I am not.”
― Kabir

“The Sanskrit texts make it clear that a cataclysm on this scale, though a relatively rare event, is expected to wash away all traces of the former world and that the slate will be wiped clean again for the new age of the earth to begin. In order to ensure that the Vedas can be repromulgated for future mankind after each pralaya the gods have therefore designed an institution to preserve them -- the institution of the Seven Sages, a brotherhood of adepts possessed of unerring memories and supernatural powers, practitioners of yoga, performers of the ancient rituals and sacrifices, ascetics, spiritual visionaries, vigilant in the battle against evil, great teachers, knowledgeable beyond all imagining, who reincarnate from age to age as the guides of civilization and the guardians of cosmic justice.”
― Graham Hancock, Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization

“In a grandiose sweep that demolished history itself, Sanskrit was put forward as the ancestor of not just this brand new ‘Shuddh’ Hindi, but the ‘Mother of all languages’. We still find otherwise thoughtful Indians asking: Well, if not Hindi, which other modern Indian language came directly from Sanskrit? It is hard to let go of a crutch we have grown up with—one every bit as powerful as the myth that all of us mixed people in the north are actually Ārya, or, more crudely put, The Master Race.”
― Peggy Mohan, Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages

“The most unnecessary lesson however, in my memory as I realize it now, was a Sanskrit lyric, not in praise of God, but defining the perfect woman - it said the perfect woman must work like a slave, advise like a Mantri (Minister), look like Goddess Lakshmi, be patient like Mother Earth and courtesan-like in the bed chamber - this I had to recite on certain days of the week. After the lessons she released me and served food.
(Book: Grandmother's Tale in Antaeus #70: Special Fiction Issue)”
― RK Narayan

“Seeing the lovely red
of your lips, darling
the cherries hang themselves
from a tree in despair.”
― Suhas Mahesh, How to Love in Sanskrit

“She does every little thing I like,’ he gushes.
Little does he know
he likes every little thing she does.”
― Suhas Mahesh, How to Love in Sanskrit

“54. Every time you touch me

It teeters on that edge
between pleasure and pain.
Is it a daze? A dream?
Poison swirling in my veins?
Or is it madness?
Your every touch
blurs my senses
with a numbing cold
and a searing heat
all at once.

What Rama Did Next, Bhavabhuti, 700 CE, Kanyakubja”
― Anusha Rao, How to Love in Sanskrit

“87. Just maybe

These cool Himalayan winds
that burst open
the tender shoots of the deodar
and drink the fragrance of its sap
hurry southwards to me.
I embrace them, my love
for what if
by the tiniest chance
they had touched you?

Cloud Messenger, Kalidasa, 400 CE?”
― Anusha Rao, How to Love in Sanskrit

“Changing the family given name to a Sanskrit based name, doesn't make a person either free or holy - by doing so, one only exchanges one prison for another.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“Devices found in Sanskrit literature, including the use of frame stories and animal fables, have been identified by some scholars as lying at the root of the conception of the One Thousand and One Nights collection. Indian folklore is represented by certain animal stories, reflecting influence from ancient Sanskrit fables, while the influence of the Panchatantra and Baital Pachisi is particularly notable. The Jataka Tales are a collection of 547 Buddhist stories, which are for the most part moral stories with an ethical purpose.”
― testing testing testing, One Thousand and One Nights: Complete Arabian Nights Collection

“People are often surprised to hear that Romani is in fact a fully fledged language just like any other, that it has its origins in India, that it is related to Sanskrit, an ancient language associated with Indian scholarship and religion, and that it has been preserved by the Romani populations through oral traditions and in a variety of dialects for many centuries.”
― Yaron Matras, I Met Lucky People: The Story of the Romani Gypsies

“Yagya is a Sanskrit dialect that is not easily pronounceable by the people who speak English. They don’t have certain syllables in their vocabulary like Ksha, Tra, Gya, etc. So they pronounce Gya as Jna because syllable Gya is a combination of syllables Ja and Na; hence Yagya became Yajna.

Hindi Translation - यज्ञ संस्कृत का शब्द है जिसका अंग्रेजी बोलने वाले लोग आसानी से उच्चारण नहीं कर सकते। उनकी शब्दावली में कुछ शब्दांश नहीं हैं जैसे कि क्ष, त्र, ज्ञ, इत्यादि। इसलिए वे ज्न का उच्चारण करते हैं क्योंकि शब्द ज्ञ शब्दांश ज और न का एक संयोजन है; इसलिए यज्ञ बना यज्न।”
― Vikrmn: CA Vikram Verma, You By You

“She shines brightest at dawn. True to her name as Tara originates from Sanskrit meaning “star.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“अहं ब्रह्माण्डस्मि। (Aham Brahmandsmi.)”
― Abhijit Naskar, Insan Himalayanoğlu: It's Time to Defect

“प्रेमसत्यं ब्रह्मसत्यम्।
प्रेम विना अस्तित्वं नास्ति।।
प्रेमदर्शनं ब्रह्मदर्शनम्।
प्रेम विना ब्रह्माण्डं नास्ति।।”
― Abhijit Naskar, Insan Himalayanoğlu: It's Time to Defect

“इजरायल आक्रमणं स्थगयति, युद्धं समाप्तः। प्यालेस्टाइनः प्रतिरोधं स्थगयति, प्यालेस्टाइनः समाप्तः।।”
― Abhijit Naskar, Bulletproof Backbone: Injustice Not Allowed on My Watch

“Dear God,
make him hang out
with other women more.
He does not seem to realize
what a catch I am.”
― Hala, Gāthāsaptaśatī =: Gāhāsattasaī

“Dear God,
make him hang out
with other women more.
He does not seem to realize
what a catch I am.”
― Suhas Mahesh, How to Love in Sanskrit

“74. I’m no hero

They say that Rama,
parted from Sita,
held back the mighty ocean
to build a bridge.
And here I am,
parted from her –
can’t even
hold back
a few tears.

Vidyakara Mishra’s Thousand, 1800 CE”
― Anusha Rao, How to Love in Sanskrit

“निःशब्दं वनम्।
अन्तः पावनं मनः।
शान्तिः सर्वदा॥

My Sanskrit haiku on silence”
― Sunil Kumar

“But if it is to survive,’ he continued, ‘it must get rid of the curse of the heavy pedantic style contracted by it in its decline with the lumbering impossible compounds and the overweight of hair-splitting erudition.”
― Gautam Chikermane, Reading Sri Aurobindo

“Latin was the language of science, technology, medicine and law, apart from, of course, classical literature. It was also the language in Europe of international communication, scholarship and diplomacy. Since some of those countries which speak languages derived from Latin and value it as an ancient and classical language and the repository of much wisdom, were also ruthless colonisers, does that make Latin only a language of exploitation? Are the Vatican and the Pope only ‘colonisers’, since Latin is still the official language of the Holy See?
It is a moot point whether Sheldon Pollock would agree to see Latin only from such a narrow perspective. Why then does he not have the same approach to Sanskrit? Rajiv Malhotra makes a spirited critique of these kinds of double standards, and confuses it with a new Orientalism in some sections of American Indology. He accepts that Sanskrit was more a preserve of the elite and that some sections of its corpus do contain prescriptions for social and gender exclusion. But, it is essential that, as with other classical languages, a narrow dismissal is tempered with the right balance and judicious appraisal. Sanskrit, Rajiv Malhotra strongly argues, was also the ‘repository of philosophy, art, architecture, popular song, classical music, dance, theatre, sculpture, painting, literature, pilgrimage, ritual and religious narratives. It also incorporates all branches of natural science and technology—medicine, botany, mathematics, engineering, dietetics etc.’25 More than anything else, it was the vehicle of the great spiritual, philosophical and creative wisdoms distilled over millennia. Malhotra adds that it was not just a communication tool, but also a vehicle for ‘enduring sacredness, aesthetic powers, metaphysical acuity, and ability to generate knowledge in many domains’.”
― Pavan K. Varma, The Great Hindu Civilisation: Achievement, Neglect, Bias and the Way Forward

“Simple linear logic, in which principles come first and deductions
follow, is not very useful when it comes to comprehending a vidya,
because the sages who developed these vidyas employed an entirely
different mode of thinking. 'They thought rather in terms of what
we might call a fugue, in which all the notes cannot be constrained
into a single melodic scale, in which one is plunged directly into the
midst of things and must follow the temporal order created by their
thoughts' (de Santillana, p. xi). Probably the most essential condition
for becoming a capable jyotishi, which happens to be the most
difficult one for the average Westerner to fulfill, is to learn how to
think in this holistic, non-linear way. Because it is also very difficult
to write or teach non-linearly - it is simply impossible to 'square the
circle' - imperfections in books on Jyotish that are written in
modern languages are inevitable.
One reason why Jyotish's texts are written in Sanskrit is that
Sanskrit helps facilitate holistic thought. The Seers taught that
Sanskrit's very sounds are sacred, and they held that Sanskrit (when
properly intoned) speaks directly to the soul of living creatures,
transmitting, as does music, a universal meaning which does not
depend on its composition or lyrics. Because the essence of the
Vedas is believed to be transferred to the listener when Vedic
hymns are recited correctly, the Vedas must be studied vocally in
their original Sanskrit if they are to be truly understood. This also
applies to the Vedas' satellite vidyas such as Jyotish and Ayweda
(India's traditional medical system). Other languages may convey
the vidyas' theoretical meaning, but only Sanskrit captures and
conveys their quintessence. Anyone who wishes to become a master
jyotishi must eventually possess and be posscsscd by Sanskrit, and
although theoretical or book learning can be helpful, Sanskrit, like
Jyotish, can only be truly learned orally from a competent teacher.”
― Róbert Svoboda, Light On Life

“After citing his impressive list of publications and awards, he turned to me and asked: ‘How could you think I hate Hinduism when I have spent my entire life studying the Sanskrit tradition? How could someone possibly hate the tradition that he has devoted his life to studying? Only a person in love with the tradition could work so hard to understand it.’ This logic would certainly have impressed the vast majority of Indians he deals with. The mere fact that a famous westerner is working so hard to study our tradition is enough to bring awe into the minds of many Indians.


However, my response was different from what he might have anticipated. I told him he must have heard of certain American academicians who are considered Islamophobic (a well-known term referring to those who hate Islam). He replied, ‘Of course there are those scholars.’ Then I pointed out that Islamophobic scholars spend their entire lives studying Islam. By Pollock’s logic, their long-term investment in Islamic studies ought to make them lovers of Islam. Nevertheless, they hate Islam and they study it diligently for that very reason. Their careers are made by studying a tradition with the intention of demolishing it and exposing its weaknesses. Similarly, I said, there are scholars in many disciplines who study some phenomenon for the purpose of undermining it, not because they love it. People study crime in order to fight it. There are experts on corruption who want to expose it, not because they love corruption. There are public health specialists who study a disease with the intention of being able to defeat it. Therefore, I argued, it was fallacious to assume that merely studying Sanskrit made him a lover of sanskriti (the Indian civilization based on Sanskrit).”
― Rajiv Malhotra, The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred, Oppressive or Liberating, Dead or Alive?

“I found Sheldon Pollock to be remarkably well informed about Sanskrit and sanskriti, as well as on modern Indian politics in which he takes strong positions. I also found him to be a worthy opponent with whom to engage, and doing so has expanded and sharpened my own thoughts. What I take exception to is his allowing himself to be positioned as a spokesperson for Sringeri Peetham, a central institution of Hinduism, his lack of self-awareness about the ways in which his own assumptions and world view prejudice his analyses of Sanskrit and sanskriti, and his failure to fully disclose the ideology and agenda that underlie his scholarship when soliciting support from the faith community.


Surprisingly, Pollock acknowledged knowing about some of the contents of the letters I had sent confidentially to the Shankaracharya of Sringeri. Earlier I had found out that the NRIs involved in setting up the chair also mentioned receiving copies of the letters I had sent to Sringeri. Clearly someone in a senior position at Sringeri was intercepting faxes and e-mails and forwarding them to these men in the US. I felt disturbed that there was a potential security leak in Sringeri Peetham itself. The loyalties of such persons ought to be completely to the peetham, and not to a third party like Columbia University.”
― Rajiv Malhotra, The Battle for Sanskrit: Is Sanskrit Political or Sacred, Oppressive or Liberating, Dead or Alive?

“If we ever needed any evidence that Sanskrit was slipping away as a first language, this is it. Brahman men were not learning Sanskrit as a first language, or they would have had no problem with the most complex Sanskrit verb morphology. But by this time Sanskrit was something they slipped into briefly, before going back to their 'real' lives.”
― Peggy Mohan , Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Languages in South Asia

“Sanskrit was oral: for centuries it had no writing system, and when it did get one, it was not much used, as there were elaborate procedures in place for memorizing texts. Maybe it was a good decision to keep it oral, as this restricted access to all but a small and inbred group of Vedic men who had full control of the valuable srauta rituals. As a result, the sound of the language was the first thing anyone would notice, and this made it clear who was 'us' and who was not.”
― Peggy Mohan, Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Languages in South Asia

“At the heart of my approach to finding the skeletal structure of the Indus Valley languages is my belief that the features of the modern Extended Indus Valley Periphery languages that do not come from Sanskrit and the prakrits are likely to be calques, literal translations of structures that existed in languages that lived in the region before Sanskrit and the prakrits appeared.”
― Peggy Mohan, Father Tongue, Motherland: The Birth of Languages in South Asia