Baba
Shamitananda missed the boat
Namaskar,
Dogma is pervasive across the religions, capitalism, materialism, and throughout society. Only Ananda Marga ideology is 100% dogma-free.
http://anandamargauniversal.blogspot.com/
Sadguru Baba says, "Ananda Marga alone is dharma and all the rest are sectisms." (1)
We usually think that no Ananda Margii believes in any dogma - at least theoretically and philosophically. But if you look around there are a few dogmas in vogue. See if you know anyone who falls in this category or not: Some think that Prabhat Samgiita is exclusively Bengali.
However, after a basic philological analysis, we can easily reach the conclusion that Prabhat Samgiita is primarily based on the Saḿskrta language. In addition there are many compositions from Prabhat Samgiita collection which have been written in various local languages other than Bengali such as Bhojpuri, Urdu, Hindi, and English among others. By and large, Prabhat Samgiita is dominated by Saḿskrta vocabulary and some compositions are purely Saḿskrta. So those who think that Prabhat Samgiita is only Bengali suffer from one dogma.
Confusion - 1
Here are more key facts how Prabhat Samgiita etc., such as His books on philology, are also based on Saḿskrta, not Bengali exclusively.
#1: Mostly the words of Prabhat Samgiita are in Saḿskrta, while many case endings and verb endings are Bengali. That is why those only aware about Bengali do not understand certain words or terms used in Prabhat Samgiita. Although the Bengali language has a high degree of Saḿskrta vocabulary, it must be remembered that many of the Indian languages also contain a high percentage of Saḿskrta words. So Bengali is not unique in this regard.
Understanding Prabhat Samgiita is easy for those well-versed in Saḿskrta words, with some knowledge of Bengali. Whereas those only familiar with the Bengali language do not know certain terms of Saḿskrta. So they do not understand Prabhat Samgiita fully. As we know, in PS various terms related with many other languages also used. That is why some Bengali-knowing people can get confused when trying to understand Prabhat Samgiita. See the example presented down below in this email.
#2: The same is the case with the book Varna Vijiana. Here Baba is demonstrating how the grammar and history of most of the languages are linked with each other. So we cannot label Varna Vijiana as being only about the Bengali language. Baba's Saḿskrta grammar books (Varna Vijian'na) are not just a review of Bengali grammar, exclusively. Anyone who has studied this series will easily understand that this is about Saḿskrta grammar, along with so many other languages.
Confusion - 2
#3: Here are some further points about Varna Vijiana:
(a) This examines the grammar of all the languages in a general, broad-based way.
(b) It is Saḿskrta because it is linked with languages of the entire globe.
(d) So this book Varna Vijia'na is not exclusively Bengali grammar.
#4: If anybody very carefully reads the Shabda Cayanika series (which has been partially translated into English and Hindi), it is quite evident that Shabda Cayanika is not a series exclusively on Bengali grammar. Baba offered a way how to use Saḿskrta words in Indo-Aryan languages, and He discussed the relationship between Old Latin, Latin, and English, as well as hundreds of other languages etc. In addition, in this series Baba created a pathway for making new words. Because Saḿskrta does not have its own script so Baba used the Bengali script and the medium of the Bengali language to talk about Saḿskrta, and related topics. No one could have understood it if it was all in Saḿskrta.
These are some of the existing dogmas, surrounding the Bengali language in our present Ananda Marga Pracaraka samgha.
One Dada’s amusing blunder error
Some Bengali language knowing people get confused about Prabhat Samgiita: For example, one Dada - whose mother tongue is Bengali - created a Prabhat Samgiita dictionary that contains numerous misunderstandings and wrong definitions of terms used in Prabhat Samgiita. And not only that, in his confusion, this Dada invented one completely bogus term. Here is how it happened.
Dada S was reviewing Prabhat Samgiita #2029, when he came across a term: gulba'giica'y. This is not a Bengali word but this Dada gave it a ridiculous definition and tried to add this term to the Bengali language. Here is how this happened.
Bangla term ‘Gul’ vs Persian term ‘Gul’
First however, let us look at the real meaning of the term: gulba'giica'y. It is comprised of two words: (a) gul and (b) ba'giica'y. Gul is a Persian term meaning rose. And ba'giica' is a Persian term meaning garden. So the real meaning of the term gulba'giica'y in Prabhat Samgiita #2029 is a beautiful, aromatic rose garden.
But see how this Dada got confused. And it all happened because he thought Prabhat Samgiita is exclusively Bengali. As we saw above, the term gulba'giica'y is composed of two words. And the second term, ba'giica', meaning garden, migrated into the Bengali language along with a new case ending -ya, meaning in.
So Dada S was aware about the term ba'giica'y but he could not figure out the term gul which has been used in Prabhat Samgiita. In his mind he thought that PS is 100% Bangla so he explained gul in the following manner. And that is quite hilarious.
Hilarious
In Bengali areas, the term gul is widely used in most every household. And gul refers to one very messy black compound. Throughout Bengal, the female running the house mixes mud with the dust of coal dust to make a round piece that burns in their open stove. When burned this gul creates a lot of smoke initially and then becomes fire for cooking food, morning and evening. So that round little coal dust ball which is black, dirty, and very dusty and messy, and which is prepared by hand is called ’gul'. Because gul is too dirty and messy to prepare inside the house, it is prepared in a separate area just outside the house, on the porch or under tree.
So in his ignorance, Dada S used the Bengali meaning of the word gul and added it to ba'giica'y and he created one completely fake term that makes no sense in Prabhat Samgiita. Dada S defined this term as being one coal dust garden, i.e. a messy, toxic place where all the dirty, black soot is burned. The Prabhat Samgiita composition is about one delightful rose garden whereas Dada S’s definition is about one dirty, disgusting, coal repository, i.e. coal dust garden.
Again, if you stick the two terms together, (i.e. gul and ba'giica'y) it means absolutely nothing in Bengali. Because gulba'giica'y is not a word in Bengali. But Dada S made it into a word and gave it an absurd definition in his Bengali dictionary.
Dictionary has countless flops
Those with a broader view realise that the gul is the Persian term meaning rose. So it is a rose garden, not a black, sooty, filthy, coal and ash bin. Can you imagine how in the song this is described as one beautiful place, i.e. a rose garden, and this Dada bound by his myopic perspective thought it was that nasty, dirty, smelly, pit used for burnt coal etc. In this way Dada’s whole book / dictionary has countless flops, all due to the misconception that Prabhat Samgiita is Bengali exclusively when in fact this is not the case.
It is not bad that Dada had the idea to create a Bangla-English dictionary for Prabhat Samgiita terms. But what he made is not proper as he failed to realise that Prabhat Samgiita is not exclusively Bengali, but also based in other languages, especially Saḿskrta. Since Shamitananda Dada suffers from the dogma that Prabhat Samgiita is Bengali exclusively, therefore he did not go in deeper aspect. And in his dogmatic way Dada Shamitananda concluded that Gul-ba'giica'y means that dusty, dirty pit full of burnt coal that is prevalent in the villages.
Conclusion
Prabhat Samgiita is not based exclusively on the Bengali language, but incorporates many of the world’s languages, especially Saḿskrta / Sanskrit. So if anyone takes a myopic view of Prabhat Samgiita, or the other literature of Ananda Marga ideology, thinking it to be exclusively based on the Bengali language, they are bound to walk away with a dogmatic, faulty understanding. And that is exactly what happened with one Dada who tried to created a dictionary for terms used in Prabhat Samgiita. More about this is below.
In Him,
Divyacaksu Basu
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~ In-depth study ~
More about Shabda Cayanika, Varna Vicitra, & Varna Vijiana
To learn more about this topic and how the books Shabda Cayanika, Varna Vicitra, and Varna Vijiana are not exclusively about Bengali but have a far greater scope, kindly read this letter:
References
1. Subhasita Samgraha - 1, The Call of the Supreme
Shamitananda, Shomitananda, Samitananda
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