The Academy of Yoga and Oriental Studies (AYOS) organised a lecture on “Guru Tattva” at the Fakir Mohan Bhavan, Naya Palli here on Saturday last with Sanskrit scholar and former IPS officer Arun Kumar Upadhyaya delivering a speech on the subject.
The meeting, which was presided over by another Sanskrit scholar Rajkishor Mishra, which started after Mihir Kumar Mishra of AYOS welcomed the audience and the guests.
Upadhyaya in his lecture said, “Guru has a high place in Indian culture. He is compared with Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswar. Prakriti or nature is the highest guru. Prakriti, according to Sankhya, has 24 principles. Dattatreya had 24 gurus. It may be symbolic. Taittiriya Upanisad discusses about various aspects of teachings and the relation between a guru and a disciple. There is an internal guru in a man. It is his self.”
There was a question-answer session after the lecture in which many scholars participated and contributed their views.
Rajkishor Mishra said, “The person or thing from which we learn something is our guru. To respect the guru is our duty.”
The AYOS also celebrated the Sanskrit Divasa in its college building at Rameswar Patna here on Sunday. The meeting was presided over by AYOS director Dr Indulata Das.
Arun Kumar Upadhyaya, Prof Pratibha Manjari Ratha of the Department of Sanskrit, Utkal University, and senior journalist Sugyan Choudhury were the speakers of the occasion.
Prof Ratha said Vedas are the most precious treasure of Sanskrit. Therefore knowledge of Sanskrit without the knowledge of Vedas and Vedic literature is incomplete. In her long lecture, she highlighted many aspects of the Vedic learning and Vedic literature.
Choudhury said there was almost a cyclone in the Parliament when a former Prime Minister called Sanskrit a dead language in a foreign country. Sanskrit is a deathless language. This language has unique capability of holding an ocean of meaning in a few drops of words. Supercomputer is a contribution of the Vedic Mathematics, he added.
Upadhyaya said every Indian should learn Sanskrit and read the invaluable literature of Sanskrit. Astonishingly, there is a class in India which takes pride in declaring that it does not know Sanskrit and has not read books like the Mahabharata. Dr Indulata Das said, “Every Indian should have fundamental knowledge of Sanskrit irrespective of his or her profession. We cannot be real Indians without knowing Sanskrit.”
