Prasamrati Prakarana

Author(s): Umaswati, Umaswami, Mahesh Bhogilal, V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Nita M Bhogilal & Others

Page 13

slowly, if the Artha and Bhāva are absent but surely, these particles shall be rubbed off, by the repeated recitation of the words of the Great Writer. Hence the prescription against stopping it.
Now the question is: In which language to thus repeat the verses? In English (or in any other language known best to the student), or in the language of the Great Writer ? The Indian tradition very strongly believes that to repeat the words (i.e. its translation) in any other language than that of the Great Writer would in the long run cloud the meaning thereof. Another pertinent question is: Why repeat it so often? Did the great Rșis of the past learn and teach the Săstras from memory only because the writing and printing facilities were not there? It does not seem so to the translator, it is because, the simple and yet immensely profound depths of religion can never be reached by reading and understanding the Šāstras intellectually, that they insisted on memorizing - so that the knowledge has every chance to merge into the student's personality. The knowledge had to be in the words of the men who were that knowledge and not those who merely knew or understood that knowledge; so that as the beginner repeats it again and again, it slowly but surely unfolds its depths as it applies to the student in every moment of his everyday life. This also is a reason for not giving a long explanatory commentary on the translation, or adopting the methodology of a critical translation.
Thus for the fortunate who know Sanskrit there is the original verse; and for others, the translation in English (which at best is only a partial and incomplete reflection of the great Vācaka's knowledge but which, undoubtedly, at some time will become fuller for the seeker, who follows this Ancient Methodology of reaching the Eternal Wisdom.)