[Advaita-l] Sal Mubarak 2067

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Mon, 8 Nov 2010, Dilip Mehta wrote:

> Please don't use words like 'Sal Mubarak' Those words don't belong to 
> our language. It is the language of our tormenters.

Do you see the irony of telling me this in English?  Or that your own 
surname is in "the language of the tormentors"?

> Instead you can say "Nuatan Varshabhinanadan"

Yes I could but we Gujaratis say Sal Mubarak.  It is a fact that the 
Gujarati language has been influenced by Persian.  (Linguistic sidenote: 
contact with Persia and Persian occured even before Muslim invasions. See 
the Parsis for instance.)  Unfortunately in Indian society we have a 
malady of dealing with unpleasant or inconvenient facts by trying to 
pretend that they don't exist.

The question we should ask about any concept is it rshiprokta or not?  If 
it is, it can be expressed in any language.  If it isn't, I don't see why 
throwing a coat of Sanskrit paint on it is any kind of improvement.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>