Learning leads to happiness

Beautiful Subhashitam as explained by Professor Shridhar Bhattar:

Sloka:

Vidya dadaati vinayam vinayaad yati patrataam
paatratvad dhanamaapnoti dhanaad dharmam tatau sukam

Meaning:

Learning leads to humility.
Through humility, a person becomes worthy;
Through worthiness and ability, one obtains wealth.
Through wealth, one can do charitable acts, which are virtuous.
Virtuous acts give happiness.

(Thus learning ultimately leads to happiness!)

Kalidasa's poetic touch

Here is an interesting sloka/story from our recent Samskritham class as narrated by Professor Bhattar:

Long long ago under the rule of the King Bhoja Raja, the language of Samskritham thrived with his love and support. Poet Kalidasa was well-liked and respected by the King and Kalidasa was very close to him.

One day, four local poets assembled in a temple Prahara to write a beautiful sloka to impress the King and reap some rich rewards. These poets thought they were great experts in Samskritham and were weighed down by falsely inflated egos.

They discussed and finalized an arrangement where each one will compose one line of a sloka. They would then combine the four lines into a nice sloka and present it to the King to reap some nice rewards.

So, they started composing. Hours passed and nothing transpired. Their minds were blank as a slate! They also became hungry and with that hunger in their minds, they composed a line finally:

Bhojanam Dehi Rajendra
Ghruta soopa samanvitam

A raw appeal to the King to provide them with food (Ghee + Dal)!!!

Then they got stuck and could not think of any other lines. Kalidasa happened to pass by this sorry bunch of poets in the temple and took pity on them. He immediately added the following line to their upcoming sloka and asked them to present this to the King:

Mahishamca Sharacchandra chandrika dhavalam dadhi

They were delighted. They ran to the court and presented it to the King. The king listened to the sloka with delight. He showered them with gold coins. He then commented on why he liked the sloka so much.

He said the first two lines were really ordinary and nothing to praise. He said the last line was the real gem and that is why they got the gold coins.

The last line was the one from Kalidasa! Kalidasa chuckled and kept quiet. The four poets downed their heads in shame and thanked Kalidasa and praised his erudition.

Here is the full sloka:

Bhojanam Dehi Rajendra
Ghruta soopa samanvitam
Mahishamca Sharacchandra chandrika dhavalam dadhi

Here is the meaning of the sloka:

O Great King, give us food consisting of Ghee and Dal.
And curd that is churned from Mahisham's (Buffalo's) milk which is
as white as moonlight during Sharat Ruthu.

One more jewel to Kalidasa's crown...

Pure Grame Gruhe Kutyam

Professor Shridhar Bhattar taught us this beautiful samskritham sloka He also shared with us an interesting story behind this sloka:

Here's the sloka:

Pure Grame Gruhe Katyam
Balo Vrudhao Yuvapicha |
Karothum Samskrithayabyasam
Propnotu Sukha Samapadam ||

Meaning of the sloka:

May the people of Cities, Villages, Houses, Huts whether they are kids, youth or elders, learn and practice Samskritham. They will achieve Enjoyment by their learning of Samskritham.

Background story:

Bhoja Raja, a popular King in ancient India, was a great proponent of Samskritham (Sanskrit). He promoted Samskritham across his country and wanted all his people to learn and appreciate the language of the Devas.

One day, he decided to test the knowledge of his subjects on Samskritham. He donned himself as an ordinary passerby and went to a nondescript house on his way. He saw a little child reciting a beautiful Samskritham sloka. He asked the child what she was learning to which she replied that she was learning this sloka and explained its meaning to the King.

The King was impressed with the knowledge of the child and thus was happy that his subjects loved and learned the one of the greatest languages of all times.

Kalidasa's presence of mind

We enjoyed hearing this story from our esteemed Samskritham Professor Sridhar Bhattar recently at the Livermore ShivaVishnu Temple, California:

Long Long ago in the country ruled by Bhoja Raja, there lived a poor scholar who wanted to cash in on Bhoja Raja's love of Samskritham. He learnt the names of 27 stars in Samskritham and went to Poet Kalidasa and claimed that he knew Samskritham and wanted to impress Bhoja Raja.

Kalidasa recognized that the scholar was in need of monetary gifts from King and advised him to come to King's court in his best attire.

The next day, the scholar came all dressed up to the court. Kalidasa introduced him to the King as a great Samskritham scholar. The king welcomed him ceremoniously and invited him to sit in his throne as an honor. Then he requested that the scholar recite a few samskritham slokas for the benefit of the court.

The scholar started to recite the names of stars but forgot many of them since he was extremely tense in the presence of the King! He only was able to stutter out the following:

Ashwini
Punarvasu
Revati
Krittika


He then kept quiet. The king became angry at the apparent lack of scholarliness in the scholar. Kalidasa took pity on the poor scholar and explained away the brief recital with the following sloka:

Ashwini bhavatu bhoopa mantura
Mandiram bhavatu te punarvasu
Revatipati kanishta sevaya
Krittika tanaya parakramo bhava

The sloka means the following:

Kalidasa told the king that the scholar actually wished him with a lot of good things as follows:

Let your stable be full of horses (Ashwa)!
Let your treasure chest be blessed with repeated wealth!
If you pray to the younger brother of the husband of Revati (Krishna is the younger brother of Balaram who is the husband of Revati), you will be blessed with the valor like that of Kartikeya (Son of Krittikas).

The king was satisfied with Kalidasa's explanation and rewarded the scholar plentifully.