Sanskrit speech at closing ceremony of spoken Sanskrit workshop
10 days Spoken Sanskrit workshops (Sanskrit Sambhaasan Shibir) held from July14 2025 to July 23 2025 at BEML Balaji Temple and at Skylark Arcadia Bangalore, by Samskrita Bharati Marathahalli bhaga, Bangalore, India.
Spoken Sanskrit workshops - closing ceremony on 26th July 2025.
Sanskrit speech by chief guest Shri Manish Panchmatia
Greetings!
A warm welcome to everyone present—teachers, volunteers from Samskrita Bharati, students, and all those passionate about Sanskrit. After bowing down to each of you, I am honored to begin my speech.
First, let me ask: “How was the Spoken Sanskrit Workshop?” Was it “Good”? “Very good”? I’m certain it was a positive experience. Whenever Samskrita Bharati organizes a workshop, the teachers impart their knowledge with dedication, don’t they? Over the past ten days, each one of you demonstrated incredible determination to learn Sanskrit. No matter what, you attended all the classes and gave your best effort. Kudos to you all for your commitment and enthusiasm. You sang songs in Sanskrit, offered prayers, performed dramas, and narrated stories—all in Sanskrit. I am truly impressed by your efforts and progress.
As you may know, NASA called Sanskrit the most suitable language for computers. I won’t repeat those facts, but I do want to share a story about Sanskrit’s vast vocabulary. Just now, we sang about great poets—Vyasa, Bhasa, Kalidasa, Banabhatta—yet there is another renowned poet: Dandi, who composed “Dasakumaracharitam,” the story of ten princes. One prince, wounded in the lower lip, could not pronounce certain sounds: "pa," "fa," "ba," "bha," and "ma." Dandi skillfully chose synonymous words without those sounds for all of that prince’s dialogue. This was possible only because Sanskrit’s vocabulary is so rich.
Sanskrit grammar is exceptionally precise; in fact, the very meaning of the word “Sanskrit” is “well-formed” or “perfect.” Sanskrit has maintained its grammar rules since Vedic times—pronunciation, grammar, language rules—all unchanged. Even though new inventions like mobile phones have appeared, in Sanskrit, we create new words effortlessly. “Mobile phones” in Sanskrit is “Jangam Door-Vani”—a moving telephone. Artificial intelligence becomes “Krutrim Buddhi.” Thanks to Sanskrit’s structure, new words can always be formed. This habit of following rules brings discipline to our lives.
We all are Indians. Sanskrit is deeply imprinted in our consciousness. Just as our childhood photos make us happy, speaking Sanskrit awakens ancient impressions within us—it fills the soul with joy. Throughout these ten days, you learned Sanskrit joyfully, supported by equally joyful teachers.
How do we gain these benefits? By giving your 100% effort to learning Sanskrit. What does 100% effort mean? Here is another story from the Mahabharata. Karna is renowned as the greatest giver. Once, Arjuna asked Krishna, "Why is Karna more famous for charity than my brother Yudhishthira?" Krishna replied, “Let’s see for ourselves.” Disguised as BRAHMINs, Arjuna and Krishna visited Yudhishthira and requested sandalwood for a yagna. Yudhishthir responded, "OK". Then, what did Yudhishthir do? He searched. Remember the story of the crow. The crow was searching for water. Here Yudhishthir is searching for sandalwood. He looked here . He looked there. Right side. Left side. Front side. Back side. He looked for Sandalwood everywhere. The sandalwood is nowhere. Then he went outside. Looked at the garden. He searched everywhere. The sandalwood is nowhere. He returned back and told BRAHMIN: "Sorry sir. The sandalwood is nowhere. I will surely make a little more effort to arrange for sandalwood. Please come tomorrow. I will give." BHRAMIN said, "OK". Then, they visited Karna with the same request. Karna eagerly searched, and when he could not find sandalwood, he noticed his door was made of sandalwood. Without hesitation, he dismantled it and gave it to them. True charity is giving with 100% effort. It is the same with learning Sanskrit—when you give your wholehearted effort, you will gain both knowledge and discipline.
Further, speaking Sanskrit even helps with breathing exercises—“ma” and “ha” are frequently used, which naturally leads to “pranayama.”
This spoken Sanskrit workshop is just the beginning. Explore further—enroll in correspondence Sanskrit learning courses, Gita Sopanam etc. There are many Sanskrit books here, for sale. Buy them, read them and then, become Sanskrit teachers yourselves! Spread and promote Sanskrit to others just as your teachers did for you. You all know Swami Vivekananda. Right? "Yes". On 4th July, it was his death anniversary. On the last day of life, he taught Sanskrit to the students. You all know that? It is in his biography. Let us honor this legacy by teaching and learning Sanskrit.
Having spoken much about Sanskrit, let me turn briefly to our IT professionals. When we hear the word “language,” we often think of C, C++, Java, Python, NodeJS, ReactJS, and so on. Recently, I attended a "PyKrit" (Python + Sanskrit) workshop at Aksharam, Samskrita Bharati’s center. This workshop was not for IT people. It was for Sanskrit scholars. I saw Sanskrit scholars name Python functions in Sanskrit, such as “YANA SANDHI” (a grammar topic). We truly can create software for Sanskrit grammar, using modern programming languages like Python, and even coding in Sanskrit.
Lastly, my wish: While we use AI/GenAI tools like ChatGPT, we mostly interact in English. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a large language model (LLM) in Sanskrit? Imagine asking questions in Sanskrit and receiving answers, back in Sanskrit, from AI tools, such as ChatGPT. That is my hope for the future.
Best wishes to everyone, and thank you all.
