I grew up in a time and place where kids studied Latin, which I loved and did for 7 years through the 12th grade. That was truly the only way that I developed a modest facility with English grammar, which I applied to a lifetime of teaching English. You demonstrate how Sanskrit is at an entirely different level and that your command of the "grammar" is, to use your word, "masterful." You often say that the myths always teach us that ¾ is hidden. This is such a wonderful and rich teaching. With this brilliant essay on Sanskrit, I feel that ⅞ might be hidden from me. Thanks for the brilliant "unpacking" you did which leaves me simply saying, "Wow, Ji, Wow!"
Admire the essay. I still remember you teaching about the Grammarians in 'Hindu & Buddhist Philosophy ' about 20 years ago at the UR. I thought, and still think, they are among the coolest philosophers I've studied in my lifetime of studying philosophy worldwide, ancient to modern. I went out buying every book I could find about them, though I found very little work on the subject at all, and far less from scholarly sources.
I especially recall Bhartṛhari, who particularly interested me and influenced my deep administration for Sanskrit (I might not be good at at, but I still love and admire it!). It's a whole different way of seeing the world one can obtain through just the knowing the foundational rules and how the Grammarians use the operations of Sanskrit to understand ideas relating to the nature of experience, reality. Really cool stuff stuff to learn; difficult, but worth the reward--and I'm mediocre at best on the subject, though I still found it incredible.
I think this gives me grammatical grounds for my aversion to the popular yoga meme “you’re a human being, not a human doing.”
I think I know a lot of English speaking people who like to thread their rhetorics in the sky… but I also think that’s another topic.
I grew up in a time and place where kids studied Latin, which I loved and did for 7 years through the 12th grade. That was truly the only way that I developed a modest facility with English grammar, which I applied to a lifetime of teaching English. You demonstrate how Sanskrit is at an entirely different level and that your command of the "grammar" is, to use your word, "masterful." You often say that the myths always teach us that ¾ is hidden. This is such a wonderful and rich teaching. With this brilliant essay on Sanskrit, I feel that ⅞ might be hidden from me. Thanks for the brilliant "unpacking" you did which leaves me simply saying, "Wow, Ji, Wow!"
Admire the essay. I still remember you teaching about the Grammarians in 'Hindu & Buddhist Philosophy ' about 20 years ago at the UR. I thought, and still think, they are among the coolest philosophers I've studied in my lifetime of studying philosophy worldwide, ancient to modern. I went out buying every book I could find about them, though I found very little work on the subject at all, and far less from scholarly sources.
I especially recall Bhartṛhari, who particularly interested me and influenced my deep administration for Sanskrit (I might not be good at at, but I still love and admire it!). It's a whole different way of seeing the world one can obtain through just the knowing the foundational rules and how the Grammarians use the operations of Sanskrit to understand ideas relating to the nature of experience, reality. Really cool stuff stuff to learn; difficult, but worth the reward--and I'm mediocre at best on the subject, though I still found it incredible.