Los Angeles (Sathyananda Nagar) Convention, July 10-13: First of all, a big "Thank You" to so many of you who have gone online and registered for the convention - It always gives all of us KHNA volunteers renewed enthusiasm to see that so many of you are excited about the convention. If you registered and received immediate but impersonal emails from the Paypal site, please ignore those; we will be getting in touch with you with more details to help you prepare for the trip to Southern California during the Jul 10-13 weekend. We will be back with an update and names of all the friends who have registered so far, next week. We invite all of you who have not registered yet to click here to reach the convention website and register using your credit card, or to find registration forms to fill up and mail us. Just as at our past conventions, we expect over 1000 people to come to the convention to renew their friendship and acquientance and enjoy a great weekend with spiritual upliftment, cultural activities and social networking. You can download an 8-page information PDF with flyers and other information here - Los Angeles Convention Info Pack .

We are glad to announce several competitions for youth and children in connection with the convention - 1) Geetha Chanting competition, 2) "Ananya" Miss KHNA competition, 3) Classical Music, 4) Classical Dance, 5) Team Quiz on Culture and General Knowledge, 6) Ravi Varma Memorial Arts Competiton and 7) Kavitha Paarayanam have already been announced. You can find the individual competition flyers at the Convention program page or you can download a single PDF of all competition here.

Media Alert: It is always difficult to say when the Indian TV channels will telecast any program in the North America. We were told last week that the Amrita TV interview with KHNA President Dr. Ramadas Pillai was to be telecast last weekend, but it was postponed in the last minute to THIS weekend. Apologies if any of you got up early to see it. It is now scheduled to be telecast in the US tomorrow (Saturday 4th) at 6.30 am Central time. Hopefully it will be on this time, as they promised!

Spiritual Corner:

Well, this may not exactly look spiritual in nature, but what is more spiritual for Hindus than the language that nurtured our spiritual wisdom; the language that originated from our ancient Hindus' spiritual minds? Please read this article by Sri Balakrishnan Nair about Samkrita Bharati, the organization that is making tremendous strides in popularizing Samskrtam as a spoken language. At the last KHNA convention in New York, some may remember being stunned at a fluetnt and awe-inspriring 10 minute samskritam talk by one of the Samkrita Bharati speakers. We hope to bring you some more on samkrita bharati at the next convention! - Editors

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SAMSKRITA BHARATI

Balakrishnan Nair, New York, NY.

"TARHI BHAVAN SAMSKRITENA HI VADATU" - These words were spoken at a four day residential Sanskrit camp called Jaahnavii in New Jersey in September 2007. A huge gathering of students had come. Cha Mu Krishna Shastri from Samskrita Bharati was addressing the students. After his emotional, thought provoking, powerful and energizing speech it was time for Q&A.

Samskrita Bharati lays emphasis on learning Samskritam through speaking. I asked him that I wanted to learn Sanskrit but then how could I speak So his reply was “ tarhi bhavan Samskritena hi vadatu “( you have to speak in Sankrit precisely because you do not know the language!)

The reason he gave was very simple. How does a child learn a language? He hears the early words ‘Amma’ or ‘Acha’ from his parents . The processing of the information goes in to his brain and the he starts saying the same words back, Is he worried about grammar at that stage? Of course it would be ridiculous to think so.

This process of hearing (sravanam) and speaking (vadanam) are the basic steps of learning any language. Of course we need reading(patanam) and writing(lekhanam) to reinforce the learning. For this grammar is important. But we learn it after acquiring speaking skills.

Sanskrit, the language spoken by Gods (Devavaani) as it is called, is in everyone's blood if he is born in Bharata. It is the root of our heritage. It is the language of poets, it is the language of Vedas, Upanishads, Shastras, Epics, Itihasas, Puranas, Vedangas and myriad other sacred works. Numerous scientific works of ancient and medieval India were also in Sanskrit. Though we neglected Sanskrit, even today it remains as the core of our heritage. Knowing the meaning of the Sanskrit verses of Bhagavad Gita gives us unparalleled happiness and pride in our language.

Sanskrit took immense abuse over the centuries from various foreign invaders and rulers. The education system with Sanskrit and other vernaculars as the base got uprooted by the policies of Macaulay implemented by the British colonial rulers in the 19th century. Even after independence, the policies were followed which has led us to accept the popular misconception that Sanskrit is a very complex language not suitable for the masses and has lost its relevance. Some even call it a dead language (mruta bhasha) . But let us tell the world that Sanskrit is indeed a living language that is as easy as other languages that we speak. In fact, it is much easier to learn that English.

Now it is our moral responsibility to give a new life to our language. Let us disprove the myth that it is a language for priests and the elite class. Let us show the world that it is a simple language and can be spoken even by a child. Let us embrace Sanskrit with open arms. Let us give Samskritam a new life. Let 2009 KHNA convention be the ground for it.

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Balakrishnan Nair attended the four day residential Sanskrit camp organized by Samskrita Bharati in New Jersey in 2007 and 2008.

Samskrita Bharati (www.samskritabharati.org) is a voluntary, non-profit organization committed to bring Samskritam back to daily life.