Madonna's guru says Sanskrit still sells globally

Varanasi, Feb 10 (UNI) Eminent Sanskrit scholar and pop diva Madonna's guru Vagish Shastri today observed Sanskrit is the mother of all Indo-European languages and still sells across the globe.

Talking to newspersons, he reacted sharply to Uttar Pradesh Governor T V Rajeswar's remarks on Sanskrit at the 27th convocation of Sampoornand Sanskrit University (SSU) here yesterday.

In his address, Mr Rajeswar had stated that exclusive Sanskrit learning could only make students priests or teachers and cannot fetch them high paying jobs.

''My shishya (pupil) Madonna's album Ray of Light was a sell-out, which prominently contained a Sanskrit hymn from Shankaracharya's Yogatravali. This shows that Sanskrit sells across the world and is not the language of bullock-cart age as noted by Mr Rajeswar.'' Interestingly, Dr Shastri, also a master of 'Kundalani Yoga', after hearing the album by the 'material girl' in 1998 had reportedly spotted mistakes in her Sanskrit pronunciation, following which the pop diva took telephonic lessons in Sanskrit from him.

Dr Shastri, who served as director of Research Institute in SSU for 33 yrs, also offered to teach Sanskrit to Mr Rajeswar.

He now teaches Vedas and Sanskrit to foreigners, inclined towards Vedic and Yogic studies. The Sanskrit scholar had also been close to former UP Governor Late Dr Vishnukant Shastri.

''It seems Mr Rajeswar is ignorant that the basics of Ayurveda, Yoga and Vastu Shastra, which now sell as hot cakes across the world were scripted by seers in Sanskrit,'' he reasoned.

The scholar said paucity of qualified Sanskrit teachers has resulted in several posts of 'Acharyas' lying vacant in foreign universities offering courses in Indology, ''Besides, the thriving expatriate Indian community has often told me about the growing need for 'purohits and pandits'.

About the governor's suggestion that English be introduced in SSU as a compulsory subject, Dr Shastri said ''it is hard to understand how the chancellor (Mr Rajeswar) of the same varsity is ignorant that English, French, German, Russian, Chinese are taught in the institution established for comparitive study and research of Sanskrit and other cultures.'' UNI ARS VS PA RK1908