Sanskrit scholars from 60 countries began a five-day conference on Sunday with an inaugural speech by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj who suggested that Sanskrit should be propagated so that “it purifies the minds of the people and thus sanctifies the whole world.”
Speaking entirely in Sanskrit to over 600 Sanskrit experts, Ms Swaraj called it a “modern and universal” language and said its tradition is comparable to the river Ganga.
“The Ganga remains sacred from Gomukh, its source, to Ganga sagar where it enters the ocean. It sanctifies the tributaries, which attain the very nature of Ganga. Similar is Sanskrit; sacred by itself, it sanctifies all that come into its contact.
“Therefore, Sanskrit should be propagated so that it purifies the minds of the people and thus sanctifies the whole world. You Sanskritists do bathe in the sacred Sanskrit Ganga and are blessed,” she told the gathering.
Addressing the inaugural session of 16th World Sanskrit Conference here as the chief guest, Ms Swaraj also announced that a post of joint secretary for Sanskrit has been created in the ministry of external affairs.
“In the present days you are aware that scientists hold the view that Sanskrit can play an important role in developing software for language recognition, translations, cyber security and other fields of artificial intelligence,” Ms Swaraj said.
“Knowledge in Sanskrit will go a long way in finding solutions to the contemporary problems like global warming, unsustainable consumption, civilisational clash, poverty, terrorism etc,” she said, adding a new direction and vision is needed in the field of research in Sanskrit to accomplish this task.
Citing a Sanskrit shloka, she said that narrow minded people discriminate among people considering some as theirs and some as alien, while the broad minded consider the whole universe as theirs.
