4 October 2013 - QA 5

Gurudev, I don’t understand Sanskrit since I am from outside India. Could we have some session to understand Sanskrit better?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: You don’t need to understand much. In fact English language has got a lot of Sanskrit in it. Even the names of months are in Sanskrit only. November, December, January, all these months, the names are in Sanskrit (November – Nav Ambar (ninth sky), December – Dash Ambar (tenth sky))
So there is no need to understand much! All that we need to do here is just enjoy the vibes of the sound (mantras) and relax, and then meditation happens.

Of course, if you want to learn, then there are many opportunities to learn. There are so many ways to learn. But basically even people who speak different Indian languages, they don’t understand these Vedic hymns. Nobody understands them. What is important is just its vibrations, the intonations, and how it is chanted. That is what is most important.

But if you want to go scholarly into it, you are most welcome. You can go into Google and get the meanings. But the meaning that you may find on Google are very incomplete. That much you should bear in mind and then read it. It is not totally correct but not totally wrong also.