World Sanskrit Day 2024 Celebration at Ananda Ashram *
Thursday evening - Monday afternoon
Special Programs offered in person (in Blue Sky Center) and streamed online.
This four-day celebration is scheduled around World Sanskrit Day, celebrated on the full moon of the Indian month of Shrāvaṇa, the auspicious occasion of Rakṣhā Bandhana, which falls on August 19 this year. The event is organized in honor of the ancient language of Sanskrit by Shanta Bulkin, co-founder of the East-West Sanskrit Institute based in California, and is hosted by the School of Sanskrit at Ananda Ashram (part of ISEWU / International Schools of East-West Unity).
It is also to honor the extraordinary teaching legacy of Ashram Founder Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati (Shri Ramamurti) as well as of Professor Ram Karan Sharma, world-renowned Sanskrit scholar and poet.
You may register for any part of the program.
Streamed via Ananda Ashram Live on Facebook and Ananda Ashram NY on YouTube.
Suggested Tuition (Please note: meals not included)
In-Person Attendance: For the full 4 days $200. For single days: Fri, Sat or Sun $55; Mon $30
Online Attendance only: For the full 4 days $130. For single days: Fri, Sat or Sun $40; Mon $20
Traditional Ashram Daily Programs:
In addition to the special events listed below, these programs are offered daily to all, by open donation:
9:00 AM Meditation Program with Fire Ceremony and Scriptural Studies
7:00 PM Meditation Program with Fire Ceremony and Selected Readings
World Sanskrit Day Celebration SPECIAL PROGRAMS:
Thu, Aug 22, 7:00 PM
Meditation & Fire Ceremony for Healing and World Peace; Welcoming of Guests
Thu, Aug 22, 8:00 PM
Divine Music – Laraaji Nadananda & Arji OceAnanda
Celestial music, vocal and multi-instrumental.
Fri, Aug 23, 9:45 - 10:10 AM
Selected Sanskrit Verses – Karuna Devi
Fri, Aug 23, 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Tour of Ashram Campus & Forest Walk – Karmananda
Led by Ashram elder in charge of Buildings & Grounds, starting at the Blue Sky Center and ending at the Lake House in time for lunch.
Fri, Aug 23, 2:15 - 3:30 PM
Selected Verses from the Devī-Māhātmyam – Shivani Su Lee & Shanta Bulkin
Chanting from the book of Goddess worship.
Devī-Māhātmyam pdf 1
Devī-Māhātmyam pdf 2
Fri, Aug 23, 3:45 - 5:00 PM
Female Voices from the Vedas – Anne Vial
Inspiration for life from female sages in Vedic literature.
Female Voices from the Vedas pdf
Female Voices from the Vedas (PowerPoint)
Fri, Aug 23, 8:00 PM
Kirtan with Gypsy Flavor – Krishna Devi
Krishna Devi - voice & harmonium, Anandi - violin, Gandharva - bass guitar, & Dinesha – drum.
Sat, Aug 24, 9:45 -10:05 AM
Mantras from Katha Upanishad – Bharati Devi
Chanting & translation
Sat, Aug 24, 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Manifestations of Love in Sanskrit – Deven Patel
Love exists or manifests in many ways. This presentation will highlight a few of the ways love's healing powers are expressed in the Sanskrit language.
Sat, Aug 24, 2:15 - 3:30 PM
Aspiring to a Romance with the Celestial – Naren Budhakar
The Sanskrit language is beautiful and austere; its poetry has fluid syntax woven into the very fabric. This presentation will discuss some grammatical nuances that illustrate how this fascinating language borders on mathematical precision.
Sat, Aug 24, 3:45 - 5:00 PM
A Framework for the Study of Sanskrit Immersion – Ken Pugh & Sarah Mulukutla
The importance of the Sanskrit language as it relates to tracking brain data.
Sat, Aug 24, 8:00 PM
Performance by East-West School of Dance – Satya Narayana Charka
Sun, Aug 25, 10:15 - 11:00 AM (not streamed)
Video: Understanding Sanskrit Verses – Dr. M.A. Jayashree & Prof. M.A. Narasimhan
To understand any language, some knowledge of grammar is needed. Sanskrit is no exception. The knowledge of vibhakti (case endings) for nouns, verbal forms and some infinitives is necessary. Verses have a metrical form, and the poetry gets transformed into prose. Only then can the verse be understood properly.
Understanding Sanskrit pdf
Understanding Sanskrit (PowerPoint)
YouTube Video of Presentation
Sun, Aug 25, 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Sanskrit: A Tool for Meditation – Shanta Bulkin
How does studying Sanskrit grammar, chanting various mantras, shlokas, verses, etc., make a connection to the anāhata nādam, the "unstruck sound"? How does meditation take the practitioner beyond the body and mind? Guruji often said, "Sanskrit has the power to rewire the brain." Simple but powerful exercises will be introduced to facilitate these neurological connections.
Sanskrit Alphabet pdf
Sanskrit Nouns Ending in Vowels pdf
Sanskrit Thematic Verbs pdf
Sun, Aug 25, 2:15 - 3:30 PM
The Mighty Upasarga – Patty O’Brien
Sanskrit utterances center around a verbal action. Meaning is brought about when a verbal action, along with the participants in that action, is expressed in accordance with grammatical requirements. What then of the upasarga, or preverb, that is used in conjunction with a verbal root? Using simple verses, an exploration of some of the syntactic and semantic considerations that relate to the use of upasargas, and how they aid in bringing about sentential meaning, will be presented.
Sun, Aug 25, 3:45 – 5:00 PM
Metaphor and Imagery in Stotra Literature – Indira Bulkin
Stotras or devotional hymns can be very varied in meaning. We will chant and look at the meaning of a few verses illustrating a range of beautiful and evocative poetical imagery.
Stotra Literature Metaphors pdf
Sun, Aug 25, 8:00 PM
Performance by East-West School of Music – Indrajit Roy-Chowdhury (sitar) & Naren Budhakar (tabla)
Mon Aug 26, 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM
Panel Discussion on the Theme "For the Love of Sanskrit" – Participants:
Shanta Bulkin (Moderator), Shanta Bulkin (Moderator), Naren Budhakar, Anne Vial, Patty O’Brien, and Girija (Andrea) Baker
How to support and encourage the continuation of the Sanskrit language into the future.
About the Presenters – in order of appearance:
Laraaji is recognized internationally as a new-age visionary sound artist. He performs new music with modified electric zither/harp, voice, kalimba and electronics. The uplifting music tends toward a celestial, trance inducing experience. He is accompanied by longtime collaborator, healing sound musician Arji OceAnanda.
Arji 'OceAnanda' Cakouros is a Sound Healer, musician, Usui Reiki Master and Dreamwork teacher based in Niskayuna, NY. Her Hellenic background and deep interest in the ancient Asclepian and Pythagorean healing traditions have a strong presence in her work and life. She joins longtime collaborator Laraaji in sharing her heart space through a variety of gentle percussion and electronic instruments.
Karuna Devi met her Guru Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati in 1972 and has been a lover of Sanskrit and the practice and art of meditation since that time. She has also been deeply influenced by her study of Indian classical music with Acharya Roop Verma, and Zen Buddhist practice under the guidance of Eido Shimano Roshi. Karuna has served as a staff member and teacher at Ananda Ashram for many years. She specializes in Bhagavad Gita studies.
Karmananda studied Yoga and meditation with Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati from 1971 until 1992 and taught Yoga for many years. A long-time Ashram staff member, he is past President of the Board of Trustees of the Yoga Society of New York. Karmananda is also an experienced hiker who has been hiking local trails for 25 years.
Shivani Su Lee is an educator holding a B.F.A. Degree in Fine Arts Education and an M.S. Degree in T.E.S.O.L. Su had devoted 21 years teaching Fine Arts and Language Acquisition in the inner cities of NYC. For the last three years, she has resided at Ananda Ashram, devoting herself to the practice of chanting mantras, studying scripture, immersing herself in the power of the Sanskrit language and, more recently, performing kirtan and Homa fire ceremony. Fluent in conversational Spanish and Korean, she hopes to one day be able to hold conversations in Sanskrit as well!
Shanta Bulkin met Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati at Ananda Ashram in the summer of 1972. Some 50 years later, it has become his passion to help promote the Sanskrit language as a Tool for Meditation, to support the concept of paramparā, and to help continue this "Science of Vibration" for the next generation. He co-founded the East-West Sanskrit Institute in 2010, based in California, with his wife, Indira Bulkin.
Anne Vial, from Nuremberg, Germany, works as a Literary Scout in Barcelona, Spain. She graduated from University College London (BA in Modern European Studies) and King's College, University of Cambridge (MPhil in Social and Economic History). She is blessed with wonderful Sanskrit teachers at Ananda Ashram and at the East-West Sanskrit Institute. She also studies with Dr. M.A. Jayashree (Mysore, India), and with Dr. Elena Sierra (University of Barcelona). She loves chanting, and the science of metrics.
Krishna Devi is a Kirtan musician and Bhakti Yogini. She was initiated into the spiritual practice of Sanskrit chanting by her Guru Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati, who taught the Sanskrit language as the "science of vibration." Krishna Devi regards chanting as a gateway into meditation and believes that chanting the sacred sounds allows an opening of one’s heart. She is also a published author of the book Kirtan Angels and has recorded and produced several albums. In addition, Krishna Devi teaches a weekly Beginners' Sanskrit class.
Bharati Devi (Bharati E. Balmes) began her studies with Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati / Ramamurti S. Mishra, M.D., in 1968. She studied the Sanskrit language, Yoga-Vedanta philosophy, meditation and related subjects with him both in Europe and at his Ashrams in the U.S. Under his direction she began teaching in 1971. Bharati was named head of the School of Sanskrit at Ananda Ashram by Founder Shri Brahmananda. She also studied with renowned Sanskrit scholar and poet Dr. Ram Karan Sharma from 1997 to 2015.
Deven M. Patel is a professor of Sanskrit and Indian culture in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. He teaches courses in literature, philosophy, mythology, literary theory, and translation studies. He writes on the history and interpretation of literature and translates from Sanskrit to English.
Naren Budhakar was born in Pune city, a celebrated epicenter of Sanskrit in India, into a Brahmin family who valued knowledge above all endeavors. Naren’s grandfather was his very first Sanskrit teacher. Life has taken Naren in many directions, but clearly the sanskāras prevail: a science graduate by education and a musician by profession, he remains a student of Sanskrit with passion. Naren is co-director of the East-West School of Music at Ananda Ashram.
Dr. Ken (Paras) Pugh has been the Director of Research at Haskins Laboratories since 2009. He holds faculty appointments at the University of Connecticut and at Yale University. Over the last two decades, his research program has employed integrated genetic, neuroimaging and cognitive methods to explicate brain-based attention, memory and cognition. He has a special focus on typical and atypical language and reading development in children. At the age of sixteen, Ken Pugh began seven years of training as a Jain monk (living in the U.S. and India). This early immersion in meditation practices and the formal study of Jain philosophy, with its emphasis on nonviolence, ethics, logic and epistemology, has shaped his approach to the study of the brain and mind.
Pandit Satya Narayana Charka is a distinguished Kathak dance performer, choreographer and teacher of international acclaim. His gurus include Pandit R.K. Shukla, Pandit Shambhu Maharaj, Shrimati Maya Rao and Pandit Birju Maharaj. Pandit S.N. Charka has won many prestigious awards, including first place in the All-India Dance Competition. Since the early 1970s, he has presented numerous traditional dance recitals as well as dance dramas, bringing myth to life for today's audiences. Since 1981, he has been the director of the East-West School of Dance, New York, based at Ananda Ashram. He has been teaching in the wider New York metropolitan area and has been performing internationally.
Dr. M.A. Jayashree holds a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Bangalore University (India) and has published books on Sanskrit, Ancient Sciences, Indian history, culture, and music. She produced several CDs on Veda, Yoga Sutra and Bhagavad Gita as learning aids in Shrutiparamparā, the traditional method of oral chanting. She is a co-founder of the Anantha Research Foundation, Mysore (India), whose purpose is to bring the wisdom of traditional Indian teachings to students worldwide.
Prof. M.A. Narasimhan is a research scholar specializing in the fields of ancient Indian culture, sciences, and philosophical systems. He is a yoga practitioner and teacher of Transcendental Meditation and is co-founder of the Anantha Research Foundation along with his sister, Dr M.A. Jayashree. Together they conduct workshops on chanting and lecture on Yoga Philosophy and Sanskrit throughout Asia, America and Europe.
Patty O’Brien is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Indology at Universität Hamburg. She holds a Master of Science in Yoga from VaYU (Vivekananda Yoga University) and has been studying Sanskrit for more than ten years.
Indira Bulkin met Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati in 1971 at Ananda Ashram in Monroe, NY. She immediately started studying and then teaching the Sanskrit language. In the early 1980s, Guruji named her head of the Sanskrit Department at the Yoga Society of San Francisco, a position she held until 2010. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 1993 with a BA in the Sanskrit Language, before earning her Master’s Degree in Physical Therapy. She co-founded the East-West Sanskrit Institute in 2010 with her husband Shanta Bulkin.
Andrea (Girija) Baker is a newcomer to Sanskrit study. Her love took root three years ago at Ananda Ashram's first World Sanskrit Day Celebration during Deven Patel's talk on Sanskrit poetics. Her background in yoga, the arts and contemporary American poetry coalesced, providing a glimpse of the way forward. Since then she has been studying with Shanta Bulkin and other Ashram teachers. The author of two volumes of poetry, one non-fiction book and a coloring book, Andrea spends her days valuing art and antiques for an auction house in New York City.
