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Learning Sanskrit will not make you any more of a Yogi.
Traditionally you would learn to chant the yoga sutras etc. or mantras composed in Sanskrit before learning what they meant.
Sanskrit is a dead language, no people speak it anymore everybody learns it in translation to some extent, there is no living in a Sanskrit speaking country to become ever more away of nuance.
To understand it such that you could explore the deeper meanings of a text, the varied possible meaning of a single word (Sanskrit words are rife with multiple meanings that a poet and/or philosopher might have in mind) would take a lifetime of scholarship.
That said learning a language can be a rewarding, at University I remember being told that Sanskrit was the most philosophical of languages, even more so than German. I've been attracted to it ever since.
And it's old, Classical Sanskrit is around 2000 years old, Vedic Sanskrit, 2000 years further still, a thousand years older than Aramaic.
It's THIS old.
Zoë Slatoff-Ponté's Yogavataranam then is Time-Travel.
Traditionally you would learn to chant the yoga sutras etc. or mantras composed in Sanskrit before learning what they meant.
Sanskrit is a dead language, no people speak it anymore everybody learns it in translation to some extent, there is no living in a Sanskrit speaking country to become ever more away of nuance.
To understand it such that you could explore the deeper meanings of a text, the varied possible meaning of a single word (Sanskrit words are rife with multiple meanings that a poet and/or philosopher might have in mind) would take a lifetime of scholarship.
That said learning a language can be a rewarding, at University I remember being told that Sanskrit was the most philosophical of languages, even more so than German. I've been attracted to it ever since.
And it's old, Classical Sanskrit is around 2000 years old, Vedic Sanskrit, 2000 years further still, a thousand years older than Aramaic.
It's THIS old.
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| The Pashupati Seal 2350-2000 BC discovered at the Mohenjo-daro archaeological site of the Indus Valley Civilization. Link |
Zoë Slatoff-Ponté's Yogavataranam then is Time-Travel.
I LOVE this beautiful, fascinating book, my current 'If I had to take one book to a desert Island...' choice, if only for the translations at the back of all the glorious passages from myriad of ancient texts. And what vocabulary, we're not learning 'How to order a taxi' Sanskrit here of course but how to talk about truth and beauty, the sacred and churning and doubt and devotion and the collyrium pencil of knowledge. Whether you intend to actually learn Sanskrit or just to just be able to write the characters or have it on your coffee table to get lost in for hours what a joy this book is - but don't leave it in the shala you'll never get around to practice. Thank you Zoë Slatoff-Ponté for this labour of love.
Lets take a look inside.
This is what I'm talking about, whether you intend to study the language deeply what a wonderful selection of Yoga related quotes.
A nice section on how to use the text.
The book includes painting's by Zoë 's husband Ben Ponté
Sanskrit charts obviously
And how to write the characters
Notes throughout relating to the quotes, useful if you wish to go no further than enjoying the selections or reading/chanting them.
A clear layout
Interludes : )
More beautiful paintings
Answers/translations
Again it's the selections I love and will keep bringing me back to the text to have another crack at it.
Even Yogayajnavalkya,.
This is a book for learning Sanskrit that will be welcome for anyone who has been reading around Yoga, it's the exercises, the passages we would want to be working on, spending time with.
And of course a glossery
Back Cover.
Is it good for actually learning Sanskrit, ask me again in a few years. You're thrown in the deep end pretty early on, the sooner you learn the script the better but once you overcome the script and can pronounce the letters ( and there are so many Sanskrit words we know already from out asana practice and chants) it slows down again and begins to build more slowly.
Best of all Zoë has put up sound files for many if not by now all the quotes/passages on their website
Zoë Slatoff-Ponté discovered yoga at the age of 15 and has been devoted to a daily practice ever since. Since 2000, she has traveled to Mysore almost every year to study at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, R. Sharath Jois and Saraswathi. She is honored to have received Guruji's blessing to teach in 2002. In 2009 she received Authorization level 2.
Zoë has a Master's Degree in Asian Languages and Culture from Columbia University. Her master's thesis was a translation and exploration of a Sanskrit text on Yoga and Ayurveda. Zoë’s recent project Yogavataranam is a Sanskrit textbook for yoga students that integrates traditional and academic methods of learning, teaching grammar and reading through classical yoga texts.
Ben Ponté discovered yoga at the age of 19 and has had a daily practice ever since. Ben made his first trip to India in 1999 to study the work of J. Krishnamurti. He made his first trip to Mysore in 2005 and was authorized to teach by R. Sharath Jois in 2011. Ben apprenticed with Eileen Hall and has practiced with some of Australia's most respected teachers.
Ben has a Masters in Fine Arts from the College of Fine Arts Sydney. Ben has contributed artworks to Yogavataranam that draw on his time in India and explore the perceptual process as a moment of translation. His current work focuses on the effects of mobile media practices on the mind/body relationship in public space.
Zoë and Ben met in Mysore in 2010. Ben visited New York from Australia a year later and soon after married Zoë!
Together Zoë and Ben have over 30 years teaching experience. They now teach together everyday (except moondays and Saturdays) at AYUWS.
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