To students of my Sanskrit course

Just imagine if you were brought up speaking Sanskrit. Do you think that you would have a different sort of brain?

I have spent a lot of time thinking about the psychology of language and identity. Identity is central to raganuga bhakti, both on the level of the sadhaka deha and the siddha deha.

I was thinking about this earlier (since in class I had mentioned that you more or less have to be crazy to want to learn Sanskrit). We were discussing this verse as an illustration of different classes of athematic verbs being used in the same sentence, all in the third person singular.

The following verse has six verbs, each from a different class:

ददाति प्रतिगृह्णाति गुह्यमाख्याति पृच्छति ।

भुङ्क्ते भोजायते चैव षड्विधं प्रीतिलक्षणम् ॥

One gives and accepts [one another’s gifts], one tells and inquires about one another’s private matters, one eats what the other offers and one invites the other to eat. These are the six kinds of signs of love. (Upadeśāmṛta 4)

Here √दा, ददाति (3P), √ग्रह्, गृह्णाति (9P), √ख्या, ख्याति (2P), √प्रछ्, पृच्छति (6P), √भुज्, भुङ्क्ते (7A) are all from different verb classes, mostly athematic. भोजायते is a causative from √भुज्. .

The thing is that this verse illustrates nicely the poetic rhythms and sounds of the language, much of which is made possible by the multiplicity of conjugations and declensions and their varieties, which at the same time are sharing third person singular endings creating internal rhymes. Then there is a variation in the third line where you switch from parasmaipada to ātmanepada. भोजायते is not even a normal causative form, which would be भोजयति. So it is some kind of other formation, a nominal verb from a noun भोज or something as insane as that. But in terms of meaning it is just "makes enjoy [food] or experience."

There are hundreds of possible synonyms and ways of expressing the same thing. He could have gone the verbal noun route:

श्रवणं कीर्तनं विष्णोः स्मरणं पादसेवनम् । अर्चनं वन्दनं दास्यं सख्यमात्मनिवेदनम् ॥

Hearing and chanting of Vishnu, remembering Him, serving His feet, worshiping His deity form, offering prayers, serving, friendship and self-surrender... (SB 7.5.23)

In either case, poetry is the marriage of sound and meaning.

I was also thinking about the jigsaw puzzle analogy I used, from the point of view slowly building up a composite picture, piece by piece. I personally was never an afficionado of any puzzle pastimes, but perhaps one needs a puzzle-solving type of brain to love Sanskrit. Crossword puzzles, chess, jigsaw puzzles, sudoku -- each is somewhat comparable in terms of brain exercise -- the need to be able to dissect each word from various angles, form and context, order them properly, well aware also that there are deliberate traps being set by clever poets and esoteric philosophers. And you have to be able to do all this quickly!

It is not that there are not other effective methods for learning Sanskrit and my method is the definitely the product of my slightly demented brain. In the last homework exercise, I was only doing what my Latin teachers used to try do to us in high school: Stump you.

Trick you so that you eventually quickly recognize that you have pronouns ending in ए in the neuter and feminine dual as well as the third person masculine plural endings -- ते, एते, इमे.. They all look the same. What clues will you look for to know which is which and when?

So my approach is analytical, maybe not as much as Pāṇini or Harināmāmr̥ta, but nevertheless [unavoidably] analytical in order to speed up the process of learning, through structuring the accumulation of information in as thorough and effective way possible. And it has ever been thus since the days of the first European Sanskritists who were applying their knowledge of Latin and Greek, etc., to the study of Sanskrit. We may look for easier methods, but they will only take you so far.

Making effective use of one's analytical capacity is the adult learning process. It is not the child's absorptive way of learning. Nevertheless I am still trying to activate the "spongy" elements of my students' brains through chanting and learning verses and hearing quotations from the literature. The smart students are using the recordings because sound vibration is a great activator of the "spongy" brain, it creeps down below the intellect. It is the application of tried and true methods of sādhanā.

Combining that side of your brain with the other, analytical part, is yoga. It is the union of ida and pingala, chandra and surya, left and right brains:

इडापिङ्गलयोः चन्द्रसूर्ययोः चित्तस्य वामदक्षिणभागयोः समीकरणं योगः।

This is really one reason why I think it is necessary to follow the whole course from beginning to end in order to let it all sink in, so there a deep samskara is created, which is the most fundamental endeavor of all yoga practice. The most important things will be repeated again and again. The patterns will start to emerge and feel more and more natural and intuitive. Vocabulary and its subtleties are the longest to really master, but long before you get there you will start to feel the bliss of the language just from its sound.

This is what Jiva Goswamipāda says at the very beginning of the Hari-nāmāmrita.

कृष्णमुपासितुमस्य स्रजमिव नामावलिं तनवै ।

त्वरितं वितरेदेषा तत्साहित्यादिजामोदम् ॥१॥

"In order to worship Krishna, I must string 
this garland of names, like a garland to adorn the deity.
May it quickly bestow upon you all
the joys of relishing Krishna literature."

"Must string" (तनवै) is the imperative. He must do it. [So must I.]

This is really the basic philosophy of this course. A bit narrowly sectarian maybe. But if you can get to the point of reading Vaishnava sāhitya, you should pretty much be able to do it all.

Anyway, take pleasure in the journey. Enjoy chanting the verses and even the declensions and conjugations. Just keep at it. 99% of success is just showing up. A Western sūtra.

Jai Sri Radhe!