[Advaita-l] knowing sanskrit

[Onkar Joshi]

Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by
the means of language.
- Wittgenstein.

Language obfuscates the unity between jnAna, jnAtA and jneya.

So, to put it without offending anyone, Sanskrit is the least
obstructive language in the inquiry into the brahman, and labouring
through verses, breaking sandhis and expanding samAses with a
dictionary is sometimes worth the effort for that thunderbolt of
knowledge that strikes you, towards which end, sometimes, a
translation, no matter how well intentioned, falls woefully short.

And though I myself have been guilty of this, many a times you run
into someone who, by virtue of possession of a sanskrit dictionary and
the ability to deconstruct sandhis, takes on the garb of a wise man.

Knowledge without devotion is like power without strength, says
Jnaneshvara, and there have been those who, on the basis of their
bhakti, have begotten the jnAna that ends all other sources of jnAna.