Samskrita Bharati’s Vishwa Sammelan was a whooping success, as people from various walks of life graced the occasion. Volunteers from 22 countries participated in the world conference where the delegates discussed future plans for rejuvenation of Samskrit. Samskrita Bharati has been actively working towards promotion of Samskrit as a common men’s language for over three decades. It was for the first time that the language was celebrated on such a huge scale as the diplomats and social influencers also joined the cause of promoting Samskrit as a language of daily life. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi sent his best wishes for the Conference. His message was read out by Education Director of Samskrit Promotion Foundation Prof. Chand Kiran Saluja.
Speaking at the conference, Vice President of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu stressed that Samskrit was the language that united India. He urged the nation to join Samskrit Bharati’s efforts to make Samskrit a common men’s language. “The heritage of knowledge that our ancient scholars left for us is in Samskrit. I believe Samskrit has the solution for every problem in the world. That probably is the reason why Samskrit is being studied across world now and researches are being done on the ancient texts in Samskrit,” he said.
Shri Naidu emphasised that we should all learn Samskrit so that we maintain a living link with our rich past and truly understand what it means to be an ‘Indian’. He called upon the Government and voluntary organisations to join hands to preserve, promote and propagate Samskrit language and literature, stressing that ‘we cannot think of India without thinking of Samskrit.’ Calling Samskrit a ‘remarkable language’, he said students should be encouraged to learn it to understand the depth and richness of Indian heritage. “Governments and Educational institutes should provide an opportunity to learn Samskrit,” he said. He also advocated the need of schooling in mother tongue. “Governments should take steps to have medium of instruction to 10th standard in mother tongue”, he said. “There is no problem in learning English or any other language, but the foundation should be in mother tongue,” he added.
The Vice President further said that almost all of our ancient knowledge and wisdom is in Samskrit, be it Chankaya’s ‘Arthashastra’ or Bhaskaracharya’s ‘Mathematics’ or Patanjali’s ‘Yoga’. With this knowledge, our ancestors enriched our nation. We should also make use of this knowledge treasure given to us by our sages. On Samskrit’s contemporary relevance, he said today world is facing many challenges relating to environment, water planning and health. Sanskrit has a lot on these issues. Many countries in the world are studying Samskrit for this reason. Our educational institutions should also carry out similar research.
Talking about the geographical expanse of Samskrit, Shri Naidu said in addition to Indian subcontinent, significant collections of Samskrit manuscripts and inscriptions have been found in China, Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. Samskrit inscriptions, manuscripts or its remnants have been discovered in dry high deserts and mountainous terrains such as in Nepal, Tibet, Afghanistan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. Some Samskrit texts and inscriptions have also been discovered in Korea and Japan. He said Samskrit was the language of education in the Universities of Nalanda, Takshashila, etc. which were teaching almost all the subjects like economics (Arthashastra), warfare (Dhanur Veda), physics (Boutikam) mathematics (Ganitam), medicine (Ayurveda), literature (Sahitya), etc.
Acharya Mahamandaleshwar Swami Avadheshanand Giri said Samskrit is the only option to attain the ultimate truth. It is very pleasing to see the young generation developing a keen interest in studying the language. Importance of Samskrit was evident through the participation of people from across the world. The need for extensive study of literature available in ancient Samskrit texts was felt as the school and college students visited the Vishwa Samskrit exhibition at the conference. The highly informative exhibition has triggered the interest of young minds to study the language to decode the knowledge in those ancient scriptures.
Union Minister of Science & Technology, Health and Family Welfare and Earth Sciences Dr Harsh Vardhan said: “I am feeling very contented. I am witnessing a programme of this genre and stature for the first time. Samskrita Bharati has taken up this initiative of developing Samskrit dialogue amongst common people like a revolution. Today, over one lakh people are studying Samskrit across the world. In India, over three crore students are studying Samskrit as part of academics from 1st to 12th standard.”
Union Minister of State Shri Pratap Chandra Sarangi expressed his love for Samskrit and importance of the language by speaking in Samskrit. He said people who don’t know Samskrit, don’t know Bharat. Samskrit is the best language among all, he said. The concluding ceremony was graced by Union HRD Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’. He said, “It is essential to learn Samskrit if you want to understand India and its culture and tradition. By 2050, Samskrit will be the most prominent language in the world. Samskrita Bharati has been doing a wonderful job by reaching out to people in villages and making them familiar with Samskrit.” Vice Chancellors, principals and professors of various educational institutions were also present on the occasion.
The conference witnessed the coming together of scholars and visionaries who united for the cause of Samskrit promotion. Samskrit Bharati felicitated Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Shri Jairam Thakur for making Samskrit the second language in the State Board schools. “Samskrit is a language for the entire world and not just India. We look forward to open a Samskrit University in Himachal Pradesh, Shri Thakur said after the felicitation.
Reaching out to the people from across all walks of life with a motive of making Samskrit a part of daily life is an important task that Samskrita Bharati has undertaken. Samskrita Bharati’s national general secretary Shri Shreesh Deopujari presented report of the last three years. He informed that Samskrit Bharati is active in 17 countries today. About 76 representatives across 21 countries of the world have graced the World Conference. Participants have come all over 3,883 places spread across 542 districts in India. This conference is a success in true sense.
National president of Samskrit Bharati, Prof. Bhaktvatsal Sharma said Samskrit is not just a language, it is a lifestyle. We should make efforts to make this 21st century, a Samskrit century. Presence of the participants from across 22 countries was evidence enough that Samskrit is indeed on the path of becoming the language of world. n
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