Hinduism and Sanskrit
Hinduism and Sanskrit are
inseparably related. The roots of Hinduism can be traced to the dawn of Vedic
civilization. From its inception, Vedic thought has been expressed through the
medium of the Sanskrit language. Sanskrit, therefore, forms the basis of Hindu
civilization.
As language changes, so religion changes. In the case of Hinduism, Sanskrit
stood for three millennia as the carrier of Vedic thought before its dominance
gradually gave way to the vernacular dialects that eventually evolved into the
modern day languages of Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and so
on. Although the foundations of Hinduism are built on the vocabulary and syntax
of Sanskrit, these modern languages are now the primary carriers of Hindu
thought within India. While the shift from Sanskrit to these regional languages
forced a change in the meaning of words, and therefore a change in how
subsequent generations interpreted the religion, the shift was at least within
the context of languages that were closely related to Sanskrit.
In the last century, however, a new phenomenon has been occurring. Hinduism has
begun to emerge in the West in two significant forms. One is from Westerners who
have come to embrace some variety of Hinduism through contact with a Hindu
religious teacher. The other is through the immigration of Hindus who were born
in India and who have now moved to the West. One of the first and most striking
examples of the former scenario was Swami Vivekananda��s appearance in Chicago at
the Parliament of World Religions in 1896. At the time, Vivekananda received
wide coverage in the American press and later in Europe as he traveled to
England and other parts of Europe. Along the way he created many followers.
Swami Vivekananda was the trailblazer for a whole series of Hindu teachers that
have come to the West and who still continue to arrive today. The incursion of
so many Hindu holy men has brought a new set of Hindu vocabulary and thought to
the mind of popular Western culture.
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