निताइ dasa
Nitai's servant's servant
Jaya Nitaai!
So, I've been putting off writing this post for quite some time now, but I thought I might as well get on with it. Throughout the course of my study of Hindu scripture as well as the works of the spiritual teachers of my school, I am constantly amazed at the brilliance, beauty and poetry of the language that is Sanskrit. I personally feel that there is no language quite like Sanskrit (except maybe for Bengali
) especially in its conciseness, color and overall structure. Unlike English which is packed with exception to the rules, Sanskrit is almost perfect in the sense that once you understand the grammar there are generally no exceptions. I am sure any Hindu can attest there is something magical in listening to Sanskrit chanting. Even if you don't understand what is being said, there is a sense of mysticism and beauty due to the meter, intonation and placement of the syllables. To understand what I am talking about, simply listen to the video below which is the chanting of the ancient Narayana Suktam from the Yajur Veda in classical meter. (translation is in the video, for those who want to understand).
And , Sri Suktam from Rg Vedam (for the Shaktas):
(I'd like to apologize to the Shaivas, I don't know of many Vedic Mantra glorification of Lord Shiva. I was going to post Shiva Tandava Stotram, but you know that was composed by Ravan so... If you guys have any, please feel free to post).
As a Vaishnav, the Sanskrit language is very important to us. It is the language of the spiritual world. All the languages of this world are actually material, but Sanskrit is one of the languages that is eternally spoken by the Lord and His associates in Vaikuntha. The way they speak Sanskrit is also very beautiful. When Lord Krsna converses with the Gopis and His friends they speak in the most sweetest way and their Sanskrit is extremely poetic often composed with double meanings and subtle symbolism. The Gopi Geet, which is found in Bhagavatam and is spoken by the Gopis in separation from God is in Sanskrit and each of these verses have a double meaning (one meaning glorifies Krsna, the other criticizes Him).
Furthermore composition in Sanskrit is not easy. Because Sanskrit is a syllabic language, when composing you need to follow specific meter in which the verse is situated. The meter determines how many syllables the verse is composed of and the order of short and long syllables that come in the verse. For example, most of the verses in the Gita are in the meter of “Anushtup" in which there are 32 syllables in each verse, with 8 verses in each line. The Mahamantra (Hare Krsna Hare Krsna...) is also in that meter.
Confirm for yourself in the following famous verse from the Gita (18-66):
sar-va-dhar-man-pa-ri-tya-jya
mam-e-kam-sa-ra-nam-vra-ja
a-ham-tvam-sar-va-pa-pe-bhyo
mok-sa-yis-ya-mi-ma-su-cah
That is why Sanskrit scriptures are amazing. Rather then being simply words telling a narrative most Hindu scriptures are composed in entire meters, making them huge works of poetry (Mahabharata for example, is the largest work of poetry in the world).In addition to the meter, Sanskrit poets also insert poetic devices called alankaaras (literally meaning ornaments), which act to increase the beauty of the verse.
In this respect, I would like to recall a beautiful pastime of Lord Chaitanya. Before taking Sannayasa, Lord Chaitanya lived in Navadwip and was known as Nimai Pandit. He was a scholar of nyaya (Hindu school of logic) and many scholars would come to debate with Him. One day a great scholar known as digvijayi came to Navadwip to challenge Lord Nimai in debate. So he approached Lord Nimai who was teaching His pupils on the banks of the Ganges (a Holy River)
The Digvijayi claimed that Saraswati (goddess of learning) herself resided on his tongue and since Nimai Pandit taught on the banks of the Ganges, the Digvijayi spontaneously composed in one hour, 100 verses on the glories of Mother Gangas. Nimai Pandit then recalled one verse of the Digvijayi and pointed out 5 kinds of grammatical faults within the verse and 5 kind of ornaments. If we study this verse, we can understand the structural integrity of the Sanskrit language and how difficult it is to actually compose a fault-free verse. The verse composed by Digvijayi is below:
mahattvam gangayah satatam idam abhati nitaram
yad esha shri-vishnosh carana-kamalotpatti-subhaga
dvitiya-shri-lakshmir iva sura-narair arcya-carana
bhavani-bhartur ya shirasi vibhavaty adbhuta-guna
“The greatness of mother Ganges always brilliantly exists. She is the most fortunate because she emanated from the lotus feet of Shri Vishnu. She is the second goddess of fortune, and therefore her feet is always worshiped both by demigods and by humanity. Endowed with all wonderful qualities, she flourishes on the head of Lord Shiva.”
The 5 kinds of faults and 5 ornaments pointed out by Lord Nimai are below:
Five structural faults
1) avimṛṣṭa-vidheyāṁśa fault. Vimṛṣṭa means “clean,” and vidheyāṁśa means “predicate.” It is a general rule of composition to establish a subject first and then give its predicate. For example, according to Sanskrit grammar if one says, “This man is learned,” his composition is in order. But if one says, “Learned is this man,” the composition is not in order. Such a flaw is called avimṛṣṭa-vidheyāṁśa-doṣa, or the fault of unclean composition. The subject matter to be known of the verse is the glorification of the Ganges, and therefore the word idam (“this”), or what is known, should have been placed before instead of after the glorification. The subject matter already known should be placed before the unknown so that its meaning will not be misconstrued. In this verse, the subject is idam ("this, the Ganga"), while the predicate is the glorification of the Ganga (mahattvam gangayah, "the greatness of Ganga"). Hence the avimṛṣṭa-vidheyāṁśa occurs here.
2) avimṛṣṭa-vidheyāṁśa fault number 2 occurs in the words dvitīya-śrī-lakṣmīr iva (the second Goddess of Lakshmi is she). In this composition the word dvitīya (“second”) is vidheya, or unknown. Placing the unknown first to make the compound word dvitīya-śrī-lakṣmīr is another fault. The words dvitīya-śrī-lakṣmīr iva were intended to compare the Ganges to the goddess of fortune, but because of this fault the meaning of the compound word was bewildering.
3) The third fault is that of viruddha-mati, or contradictory conception, in the words bhavānī-bhartuḥ (meaning husband of bhavani i.e Lord Shiva). The wordbhavānī refers to the wife of Bhava, Lord Śiva. But since Bhavānī is already known as the wife of Lord Śiva, to add the word bhartā, “husband,” thus forming a compound meaning “the husband of the wife of Lord Śiva,” is contradictory, for thus it appears as if the wife of Lord Śiva had another husband.
4) The fourth fault is punar-ukti, or redundancy, which occurs when the verb vibhavati (“flourishes”), which should have ended the composition, is further qualified by the unnecessary adjective adbhuta-guṇā (“endowed with wonderful qualities”).
5) The fifth fault is bhagna-krama, which means “broken order.” In the first, third and fourth lines there is anuprāsa, or alliteration, created by the sounds ta, ra and bha, but in the second line there is no suchanuprāsa, and therefore the order is broken.
5 types of ornaments (2 ornaments of sound and 3 of meaning)
1) alliteration 1: In the arrangement of the first line the syllable ‘ta’ occurs five times, and the arrangement of the third line repeats the syllable ‘ra’ five times.
2) alliteration 2: In the fourth line the syllable ‘bha’ occurs four times. This arrangement of alliteration is a pleasing ornamental use of sounds.
3) ornament of meaning (nearly redundant): Although the words ‘śrī’ and ‘lakṣmī’ in the third line convey the same meaning and are therefore almost redundant, they are nevertheless not redundant. This is because while Sri is Laksmi, Sri Laksmi serves to increase the opulence of Lakshmi even more.
4) ornament of meaning 2 (simile): The use of the words ‘lakṣmīr iva’ [‘like Lakṣmī’] manifests the ornament of meaning called upamā [analogy]. There is also the further ornament of meaning called virodhābhāsa, or a contradictory indication.
5) ornament of meaning 3 (nearly contradiction): The verse says that the Gangas appears from the lotus like feet of Lord Vishnu. Everyone knows that lotus flowers grow in the water of the Ganges. But to say that the Ganges takes birth from a lotus flower (Vishnu's feet) seems extremely contradictory. The existence of mother Ganges begins from the lotus feet of the Lord. Although this statement that water comes from a lotus flower is a contradiction, in connection with Lord Viṣṇu it is a great wonder. In this birth of the Ganges by the inconceivable potency of the Lord, there is no contradiction although it appears contradictory. ‘Everyone knows that lotus flowers grow in the water but water never grows from a lotus. All such contradictions, however, are wonderfully possible in Kṛṣṇa: the great river Ganges has grown from His lotus feet.’ The real glory of mother Ganges is that she has grown from the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu. Such a hypothesis is another ornament, called anumāna.
In this way, Lord Nimai defeated Digvijayi Pandit. This is because the Digvijayi had become extremely proud of his learning and in order to teach him humility, the Lord defeated him in the form of a child. Saraswati mother also appeared in the Digvijayi's dreams and explain to him why he was defeated. However, what this pastime is meant to illustrate is the poetic thought that is given when we composed the verse. One who understands this can understand how beautiful these verses are.
Anyway, I always speaks too much so I shall end this specific post here. I have created this thread to go though some of the amazing and unbelievable verses which features these alankaaras and some of the verses in scripture and also written by Sanskrit scholars like the Goswamis and certain South Indian poets, in order to show some of the amazing features of these verses. In the next post I will discuss Rupa Goswami's citra kavitvani in which he creates entire pictures using verses and its syllables (I know it sounds strange but bear with me. There are some amazing findings I've encountered in my studies, and this post is simply serving as an introduction). If any sanskrit scholars or enthusiasts are here, please feel free to share other amazing verses and explain them, or just merely give your own experiences with sanskrit. Jaya Nitaai!
So, I've been putting off writing this post for quite some time now, but I thought I might as well get on with it. Throughout the course of my study of Hindu scripture as well as the works of the spiritual teachers of my school, I am constantly amazed at the brilliance, beauty and poetry of the language that is Sanskrit. I personally feel that there is no language quite like Sanskrit (except maybe for Bengali
) especially in its conciseness, color and overall structure. Unlike English which is packed with exception to the rules, Sanskrit is almost perfect in the sense that once you understand the grammar there are generally no exceptions. I am sure any Hindu can attest there is something magical in listening to Sanskrit chanting. Even if you don't understand what is being said, there is a sense of mysticism and beauty due to the meter, intonation and placement of the syllables. To understand what I am talking about, simply listen to the video below which is the chanting of the ancient Narayana Suktam from the Yajur Veda in classical meter. (translation is in the video, for those who want to understand).And , Sri Suktam from Rg Vedam (for the Shaktas):
(I'd like to apologize to the Shaivas, I don't know of many Vedic Mantra glorification of Lord Shiva. I was going to post Shiva Tandava Stotram, but you know that was composed by Ravan so... If you guys have any, please feel free to post).
As a Vaishnav, the Sanskrit language is very important to us. It is the language of the spiritual world. All the languages of this world are actually material, but Sanskrit is one of the languages that is eternally spoken by the Lord and His associates in Vaikuntha. The way they speak Sanskrit is also very beautiful. When Lord Krsna converses with the Gopis and His friends they speak in the most sweetest way and their Sanskrit is extremely poetic often composed with double meanings and subtle symbolism. The Gopi Geet, which is found in Bhagavatam and is spoken by the Gopis in separation from God is in Sanskrit and each of these verses have a double meaning (one meaning glorifies Krsna, the other criticizes Him).
Furthermore composition in Sanskrit is not easy. Because Sanskrit is a syllabic language, when composing you need to follow specific meter in which the verse is situated. The meter determines how many syllables the verse is composed of and the order of short and long syllables that come in the verse. For example, most of the verses in the Gita are in the meter of “Anushtup" in which there are 32 syllables in each verse, with 8 verses in each line. The Mahamantra (Hare Krsna Hare Krsna...) is also in that meter.
Confirm for yourself in the following famous verse from the Gita (18-66):
sar-va-dhar-man-pa-ri-tya-jya
mam-e-kam-sa-ra-nam-vra-ja
a-ham-tvam-sar-va-pa-pe-bhyo
mok-sa-yis-ya-mi-ma-su-cah
That is why Sanskrit scriptures are amazing. Rather then being simply words telling a narrative most Hindu scriptures are composed in entire meters, making them huge works of poetry (Mahabharata for example, is the largest work of poetry in the world).In addition to the meter, Sanskrit poets also insert poetic devices called alankaaras (literally meaning ornaments), which act to increase the beauty of the verse.
In this respect, I would like to recall a beautiful pastime of Lord Chaitanya. Before taking Sannayasa, Lord Chaitanya lived in Navadwip and was known as Nimai Pandit. He was a scholar of nyaya (Hindu school of logic) and many scholars would come to debate with Him. One day a great scholar known as digvijayi came to Navadwip to challenge Lord Nimai in debate. So he approached Lord Nimai who was teaching His pupils on the banks of the Ganges (a Holy River)
The Digvijayi claimed that Saraswati (goddess of learning) herself resided on his tongue and since Nimai Pandit taught on the banks of the Ganges, the Digvijayi spontaneously composed in one hour, 100 verses on the glories of Mother Gangas. Nimai Pandit then recalled one verse of the Digvijayi and pointed out 5 kinds of grammatical faults within the verse and 5 kind of ornaments. If we study this verse, we can understand the structural integrity of the Sanskrit language and how difficult it is to actually compose a fault-free verse. The verse composed by Digvijayi is below:
mahattvam gangayah satatam idam abhati nitaram
yad esha shri-vishnosh carana-kamalotpatti-subhaga
dvitiya-shri-lakshmir iva sura-narair arcya-carana
bhavani-bhartur ya shirasi vibhavaty adbhuta-guna
“The greatness of mother Ganges always brilliantly exists. She is the most fortunate because she emanated from the lotus feet of Shri Vishnu. She is the second goddess of fortune, and therefore her feet is always worshiped both by demigods and by humanity. Endowed with all wonderful qualities, she flourishes on the head of Lord Shiva.”
The 5 kinds of faults and 5 ornaments pointed out by Lord Nimai are below:
Five structural faults
1) avimṛṣṭa-vidheyāṁśa fault. Vimṛṣṭa means “clean,” and vidheyāṁśa means “predicate.” It is a general rule of composition to establish a subject first and then give its predicate. For example, according to Sanskrit grammar if one says, “This man is learned,” his composition is in order. But if one says, “Learned is this man,” the composition is not in order. Such a flaw is called avimṛṣṭa-vidheyāṁśa-doṣa, or the fault of unclean composition. The subject matter to be known of the verse is the glorification of the Ganges, and therefore the word idam (“this”), or what is known, should have been placed before instead of after the glorification. The subject matter already known should be placed before the unknown so that its meaning will not be misconstrued. In this verse, the subject is idam ("this, the Ganga"), while the predicate is the glorification of the Ganga (mahattvam gangayah, "the greatness of Ganga"). Hence the avimṛṣṭa-vidheyāṁśa occurs here.
2) avimṛṣṭa-vidheyāṁśa fault number 2 occurs in the words dvitīya-śrī-lakṣmīr iva (the second Goddess of Lakshmi is she). In this composition the word dvitīya (“second”) is vidheya, or unknown. Placing the unknown first to make the compound word dvitīya-śrī-lakṣmīr is another fault. The words dvitīya-śrī-lakṣmīr iva were intended to compare the Ganges to the goddess of fortune, but because of this fault the meaning of the compound word was bewildering.
3) The third fault is that of viruddha-mati, or contradictory conception, in the words bhavānī-bhartuḥ (meaning husband of bhavani i.e Lord Shiva). The wordbhavānī refers to the wife of Bhava, Lord Śiva. But since Bhavānī is already known as the wife of Lord Śiva, to add the word bhartā, “husband,” thus forming a compound meaning “the husband of the wife of Lord Śiva,” is contradictory, for thus it appears as if the wife of Lord Śiva had another husband.
4) The fourth fault is punar-ukti, or redundancy, which occurs when the verb vibhavati (“flourishes”), which should have ended the composition, is further qualified by the unnecessary adjective adbhuta-guṇā (“endowed with wonderful qualities”).
5) The fifth fault is bhagna-krama, which means “broken order.” In the first, third and fourth lines there is anuprāsa, or alliteration, created by the sounds ta, ra and bha, but in the second line there is no suchanuprāsa, and therefore the order is broken.
5 types of ornaments (2 ornaments of sound and 3 of meaning)
1) alliteration 1: In the arrangement of the first line the syllable ‘ta’ occurs five times, and the arrangement of the third line repeats the syllable ‘ra’ five times.
2) alliteration 2: In the fourth line the syllable ‘bha’ occurs four times. This arrangement of alliteration is a pleasing ornamental use of sounds.
3) ornament of meaning (nearly redundant): Although the words ‘śrī’ and ‘lakṣmī’ in the third line convey the same meaning and are therefore almost redundant, they are nevertheless not redundant. This is because while Sri is Laksmi, Sri Laksmi serves to increase the opulence of Lakshmi even more.
4) ornament of meaning 2 (simile): The use of the words ‘lakṣmīr iva’ [‘like Lakṣmī’] manifests the ornament of meaning called upamā [analogy]. There is also the further ornament of meaning called virodhābhāsa, or a contradictory indication.
5) ornament of meaning 3 (nearly contradiction): The verse says that the Gangas appears from the lotus like feet of Lord Vishnu. Everyone knows that lotus flowers grow in the water of the Ganges. But to say that the Ganges takes birth from a lotus flower (Vishnu's feet) seems extremely contradictory. The existence of mother Ganges begins from the lotus feet of the Lord. Although this statement that water comes from a lotus flower is a contradiction, in connection with Lord Viṣṇu it is a great wonder. In this birth of the Ganges by the inconceivable potency of the Lord, there is no contradiction although it appears contradictory. ‘Everyone knows that lotus flowers grow in the water but water never grows from a lotus. All such contradictions, however, are wonderfully possible in Kṛṣṇa: the great river Ganges has grown from His lotus feet.’ The real glory of mother Ganges is that she has grown from the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu. Such a hypothesis is another ornament, called anumāna.
In this way, Lord Nimai defeated Digvijayi Pandit. This is because the Digvijayi had become extremely proud of his learning and in order to teach him humility, the Lord defeated him in the form of a child. Saraswati mother also appeared in the Digvijayi's dreams and explain to him why he was defeated. However, what this pastime is meant to illustrate is the poetic thought that is given when we composed the verse. One who understands this can understand how beautiful these verses are.
Anyway, I always speaks too much so I shall end this specific post here. I have created this thread to go though some of the amazing and unbelievable verses which features these alankaaras and some of the verses in scripture and also written by Sanskrit scholars like the Goswamis and certain South Indian poets, in order to show some of the amazing features of these verses. In the next post I will discuss Rupa Goswami's citra kavitvani in which he creates entire pictures using verses and its syllables (I know it sounds strange but bear with me. There are some amazing findings I've encountered in my studies, and this post is simply serving as an introduction). If any sanskrit scholars or enthusiasts are here, please feel free to share other amazing verses and explain them, or just merely give your own experiences with sanskrit. Jaya Nitaai!
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