Vedanta and Sanskrit

Sometimes people have the wrong impression that in order to learn Vedanta well, you need to learn Sanskrit. In fact, you only need to learn a handful of terms. As a writer for western audiences, I try to use Sanskrit sparingly. Nevertheless, certain Sanskrit words are necessary to describe concepts not easily translated into English. Using Sanskrit terminology also helps to put cumbersome definitions into shorthand.

Tattva Bodha—by the 8th century expounder of Vedanta, Shankaracharya— introduces many of the key terms to beginning students of Vedanta. There are many commentaries on the text available. Having a Sanskrit dictionary is also useful. For that, I recommend "A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy" by John Grimes. I have also organized a glossary of key Sanskrit terms that provides not only a quick definition, but a larger explanation of the term, along with its traditional role, Vedantic analysis, common misunderstandings, and the way the teaching resolves them.

Most westerners do a poor job at pronouncing Sanskrit words, partly because many writers of Vedanta don't bother to include any of the diacritics used in Romanized Sanskrit, and partly because readers have no idea how to use them! It doesn't take much effort to learn the basic pronunciation rules. However, good instruction on pronunciation can be difficult to find.

If, like me, you just want to know how to pronounce Romanized Sanskrit, I recommend an online course taught by Nityananda Dasa. For a small price, you can learn to pronounce Sanskrit perfectly. For some time, I've been learning Sanskrit pronunciation, grabbing insights from here and there, but this course answered any and all questions that still remained.

Lastly, if you want to know what it sounds like to have an angel chant verses of the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit, check out "Gaiea Sanskrit" on YouTube. She is a westerner based in London, but I think even the Indians have grown to love her.