Power of the language

Without dairy, what is the taste of food?
Without land, what is the importance of a king?
Without senses, what is the meaning of beautiful damsels?
Without sweet words, what is the essence of wisdom?

vinA go-rasam ko raso bhojanAnAM
vinA go-rasam ko raso bhUpatinAm |
vinA go-rasam ko raso kAminInAm
vinA go-rasam ko raso paNDitAnAm ||

विना गो-रसं को रसो भोजनानां
विना गो-रसं को रसो भूपतिनाम् |
विना गो-रसं को रसो कामिनीनां
विना गो-रसं को रसो पण्डितानाम् ||
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At first glance, this looks like a simple śhloka in meaning, even a useless putting together of some catchy one-liners! No, no, it is okay to assume that not everything written in Sanskrit is of transcendental value :) After all, everything written in English today is neither technical nor of high value.

But this simple śhloka is important when read in its original, rather than translated form. And it unravels an important point while studying Sanskrit works, especially those of antiquity.

The key word here is go, which has many meanings—cow, land, senses, speech among a few.

Rasam means juice, essence, interest, mood, etc. Sanskrit words often take implied meanings, not just literal ones. For example, juice is the essence of a fruit, interest shows liking—whether in a performance, a thing, or even in the juice itself :) Mood is critical to drama and theater, and is the essence of performing arts. Can the performer sway the mood of the spectators based on his or her performance? Even when we know it is all fake, we get emotional watching a particularly well-enacted movie or story.

An actor is called abhinetā. Nīyati = takes, leads. Netā = leader. Abhinetā = one who takes (not in real). An actor takes us along with him or her on an emotional trip—be it joy, sorrow, anger, greed, disgust, or love.

So, what is the important thing to learn from this?

Go has four meanings in the four occurrences in this śhloka, each time meaning something different.

Cow

go = cow.

go-rasam = milk.

rasam = taste.

Where is the taste in food without milk products? Think about it! Those who know ghee and have tasted it swear by it! No Indian sweet is authentic unless made in pure ghee, a form of clarified butter that can last a very, very long time—just like Swiss cheese when properly processed. And those who don’t know ghee also swear by milk chocolates, cheese, yogurt, or many other such products.

Land

go = land.

go-rasam = kingdom.

rasam = importance, essence.

What is the importance of a king without his kingdom? A king’s purpose is served on this earth only if he has a [large] kingdom and serves his subjects well.

Sense of perception

go = senses of perception.

go-rasam = essence of senses, well-functioning senses, "well-oiled."

rasam = interest.

Without well-functioning senses, what is the interest in beautiful women? Here, of course, it means that one cannot enjoy beauty without properly functioning senses, and it applies to both men and women—they too need well-functioning senses to enjoy life.

Here, some may argue that all enjoyment of the senses happens in the brain, and once that input is there, no more senses are needed—the brain can enjoy its own archived sensations. True, but even for the first experience, the full essence of physical beauty (epitomized in the healthy and attractive opposite gender) is only obtained through healthy senses. :)

Speech

go = speech.

go-rasam = sweet speech, meaningful words.

rasam = interest.

And without sweet, wise words of content, what is the big deal about being a wise person? That is, if one claims to be wise, his or her speech should be meaningful, sweet, useful, wise, and kind. Otherwise, anyone can speak harsh, useless, foolish, or rude words—you don’t need wisdom for that!

So, what do we learn from this śhloka, which is so critical to interpreting Sanskrit? And more so for older works?

Don’t jump to the conclusion that it is stupid to say that without milk, there is no use for food, a king, women, or wisdom. If it doesn’t make sense, we should not discard it outright, but say, "To me, it doesn’t make sense now. Maybe later it will."

And why should we give Sanskrit works so much benefit of the doubt? There is something special about the wise people whose works were preserved for generations. They did not have the distractions of TV ratings, magazines, New York bestseller lists, mega-million-dollar projects, corporate foundations, or a nonstop barrage of information through Twitter, Facebook statuses, or RSS news feeds from all over the world.

They had no hidden motives or agendas—especially the truly larger-than-life figures like Vyāsa, Vidura, Vālmīki, or the Vedic seers.

That is the only reason we should always give the benefit of the doubt to anything we do not understand—especially in the absence of background knowledge or context. Many sacred Vedic sūtras have been massacred due to arrogant and ignorant translations by early Indologists who had not lived the tradition.

Here is an excerpt from http://www.vedah.com:

Ṛigveda - Verse (1.7.3)

gobhiḥ adrim airayat

go = cow, water (as per Sāyaṇa), ray of knowledge.

adri = mountain, cloud, force of ignorance.

airayat = destroy.

Translation 1: (Indra) destroys the forces of ignorance with knowledge.

Translation 2: (Indra) charged the clouds with water [as per Sāyaṇa].

Translation 3: (Indra) smashed the hill to retrieve the cows [as per Griffith].

Translation 1 is the esoteric interpretation. Translation 3 is difficult to understand. Supposedly, the cows were hidden in the caves by robbers. By smashing the hill, even the cows would be destroyed along with it. Translation 2 is acceptable, but where is the wisdom in it?

So, always be humble when interpreting ancient wisdom. For,

श्रद्धया सत्यमाप्यते (Yajurveda 19.30)

Śhraddhayā satyam āpyate

"Reverence brings out the truth."

Not blind faith, not blind following—but a reverent pursuit.

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And now the language aspects of the shloka -

vinA = without
go = cow, land, senses, speech
rasam = essence, juice, interest, mood
ko = kaH = what
raso = rasaH = interest, importance, value
bhojanAnAM = of food (bhojanam)

bhUpatinAm = of kings (bhupati)
bhU = earth, land
pati = owner, master, husband etc
patinAm = of pati
kAminInAm = of beautiful women (kAminI)
paNDitAnAm = of wise (pANDita)




(c) Shashikant Joshi । शशिकांत जोशी । ॐ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः ।

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