Amazing affinity of Russian and Sanskrit August 18, 2013

The linguistically proven facts show the amazing affinity of Russian and Sanskrit languages, obviously pointing out that these two languages must have lived closed together in some periods of antiquity.

Dr. Weer Rajendra Rishi (1917 – 2002) was a well known Indian linguist. He was fluent in Russian and worked in the Indian Embassy in Moscow between 1950—1952. Dr. Rishi was the author of (1) Russian-Hindi Dictionary (foreword by the late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru), (2) Russian Grammar in Hindi, (3) Russian Folklore in Hindi (4) Hindi translation of Pushkin’s poem ‘Gypsy‘, (5) Marriages of the Orient, (6) Roma—The Punjabi Emigrants in Europe, the USSR, the Americas etc. (7) Romani-Punjabi-English Conversation Book, (8) Romani-Punjabi-English Dictionary and (9) Multi-Lingual Romani Dictionary (Romani Hindi English French Russian).

One of his last works was a book India & Russia – Linguistic & Cultural Affinity. This book is now very rare and it is undeservingly forgotten so I would like to bring it back as a tribute to Dr. Weer Rajendra Rishi.

The book has XIII chapters but it is Chapter II Affinity in Language which is, in my view, the most interesting part of the book. These are some excerpts from this chapter:

“As mentioned in the preceding chapter both Russian and Sanskrit belong to the satem group of the Indo-European family of languages. This, however, creates one mis-understanding in one’s mind that the relation between Sanskrit and Russian is as distant one as that between Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages. As will be explained in this chapter, the relation between these two languages is very close and correspondence between these two languages is so minute that, to use Dr. Sidheshwar Varma’s words, it cannot be a mere chance*.

“In the sphere of vocabulary, there is such a large number of words which are common to these two languages that it has not been possible to mention all of them in this chapter. Only a list of basic words common to both these two languages has been given. Moreover, as explained in the succeeding paragraphs of this chapter many of the grammatical rules are common to both these languages and the number of words common to these two languages formed after the application of such common grammar rules could be further multiplied. This is not so when we compare Sanskrit with any other language belonging to the Indo-European group, leaving aside Iranian and Persian.“(p.14)

“That the melodiousness of the rhythm of the Russian folklore and the Sanskrit verse synchronises with each other is confirmed by a news item published in the Soviet Land (No. 2 of January 1968) published by the Information Services of the Embassy of the USSR in India, New Delhi. It is stated that the style of the verse of Russian folk legends and Puskin’s tales is closer to the rhythm of Sanskrit verse. Professor Smirnov (1892— 1967), the reputed Sanskritologist of the Soviet Union has translated Mahābhārata into Russian in this type of verse. Professor Smirnov had with him a recording of an extract from the Mahābhārata read in Sanskrit original by Professor Nirmal Chandra Maitra of India to the accompaniment of Indian instruments. When after playing the recording of the Sanskrit version, Professor Smirnov read his Russian translation, the enchanting melody of the rhythm was found to be very much like that of the Sanskrit original as read by Professor Nirmal Chandra Maitra and sounded in unison.“(p.16)

On the following pages Dr. Rishi gave some interesting comparisons of Russian and Sanskrit noun declension, verbs, prefixes and suffixes, prepositions concluding the chapter by an impressive list of Russian- Sanskrit common words. The full text of this chapter can be found here. 

The list of nouns here.

This interesting information I reposted from borissof blog.

The list of cognate verbs:

Once a communist is forever a communist May 26, 2013

image by axinia

I was born and grew up in the Soviet Union. When I moved to Europe in my 20-ties, my first shock was to see a sign in the forest: “private ground”.  I just could not comprehend how a forest can be private! Later on I realized how deep the concept of private belongings was rooted in the West when I saw how they teach small children in kindergartens to play with toys: the most popular phrase of kindergarten teachers is ” this belongs to that boy/girl, you cannot take it, you should ask first”. I guess a person who grew up in the West will not find anything strange in it, but it was a total shock for me. I was astonished to see how much the owning of private things was being emphasized, and that from the tender age of 2! Even now I strongly disagree with that way of up-bringing.

Another thing which I will never understand is the copy-right. I was posting about it before. I believe that any product of creativity, especially when beautiful and useful cannot really “belong” to anyone but to everyone.  As many of my readers know I never claim any copyright for my texts or photos. Also I can easily give away or share my personal belongings, it seems so natural for me.

Recently I was thinking about all that and how deep this feeling of collective possession and sharing is rooted in my heart and mind. Although I am living since 15 years in Europe I still cannot get used to the Western mindset in respect of this matter.

Once a communist is always a communist?

I found an interesting quote regarding this point, a quote by one of the greatest spiritual masters:

“The only nation which I have found very good, is Russia. Because of Communism they are collective and desireless, because all their desires were fulfilled by Communistic ideas, they didn’t have any choices left, and also they were collective. In a way Communism has suited the public not the government. While the other way round – democracy has suited the government to make money but the public has suffered”(1981) Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

May be this quote will not be clear from the materialistic point of view, but from the spiritual one it makes perfect sense!

LOVE

axinia

I’ve got the answer on Willpower! May 21, 2012

The question about the nature and meaning of Willpower kept me busy for some time. I even posted about it already twice, but still I could not understand what is the mystery behind. The other day I talked to an old friend about some private issues and suddenly he dropped a sentence that “The willpower is there to overcome the negativity/circumstances/destiny and thus to make another step in the personal evolution”. That’s it, I thought!

For instanse people who had problematic parents and difficult childhood – now they are comfortable in the victim position and say  “you know I have so many problems because of my childhood”. But why not overcome it? The Will Power will serve greatly if one takes to it.

Indeed, what is the fine border between a destiny and willpower? All great spiritual Masters talked about both, that a lot is already predestined and Divine Plan does exist. At the same time a human being has the Free Will, which makes us different from animals. If we use this Free Will we evolve further. Thus, at some point the Free will becomes the Will Power, the force that makes many great things happen.

Obviously today the question of Willpower is not popular. I remember in the Soviet Union we were brought up on the ideals of heroic people – not like Superman, but real heroes, existing people,  people who showed wonders of Will Power in their personal achievements or their work for others… Either in the industrialisation period, or during the Second World War or even after. I find it’s pity that today’s children miss that kind of upbringing. Today they only learn the ego-boosting.

I made my personal experiences with Willpower – not many but still some. I know what it feels like and I know how much courage it demands. And finally it’s a great mixture of thrill and discipline. A strange mixture that makes every personal journey worth tryting.

LOVE

axinia

My military childhood December 7, 2008

I found this old picture of my class and suddenly felt like writing a very personal post, which may somewhat a different perspective on me…

Due to my fathers profession – he was a Soviet Army officer – I grew up in a rather unusual conditions compared to the rest: in a kind of a military ghetto.

We used to live in small “military” towns in Soviet Union and abroad  -surrounded by a wall. The only men I saw around were officers and soldiers. By now I hold my breath when I see a man in a uniform 🙂

It was a blissful time because we have been so incredibly protected, that we never ever heard of crimes, violence, any danger – we felt perfectly safe and secure. At the same time our fathers went to the war in Afghanistan – but we were too small to realise the horror of it.

We were all friends, the international military citizens from all over the Soviet Union (dozens of nations), we lived like a big family. What was really special is the feeling of unity, trust, honor and respect. And we were proud of our fathers.

How to save the word…with non-action. July 30, 2008

Many people dream of saving the world. Combatting terrorism, global warming, mafia, corruption, etc… And there is another possibility of doing it – to be exact, NOT to do a certain thing. Not to commit the fatal mistake. There are some stories from the time of the Cold War when the world has been saved through the non-action of military people.

This is an amazing true story about the man, who held the future of the world in his hands for 10 min. In 1983. 

A Russian pensioner in a village north of Moscow claims he saved the world. Most people would walk straight on if accosted in the street with that tale. But the truth is that Stanislav Petrov, interviewed on Monday for a Radio 4 programme and about whom a film is being made, did exactly that.

 image by James Gordon

On September 26 1983, Petrov, a 44-year-old lieutenant colonel, was monitoring the Soviet Union’s early warning satellites from a command bunker. Three weeks earlier a Korean jetliner, with 269 passengers on board, had been shot down over Soviet airspace. The Americans were about to deploy the Pershing II missile that could hit Moscow from West Germany in 12 minutes. Ronald Reagan had called the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and launched his “star wars” programme. The Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, critically ill with renal failure, thought Reagan already had a missile defence system and was convinced that the US was about to shoot first.

What is really wrong with capitalism? Or Why I believe in communism. February 23, 2008

 photo by axinia

 Capitalism, Neo-Liberalism, Corporatism – call it whatever, I personally have a big difficulty with the kind of a system I live in. One of the reasons for that difficulty can be that I spent my childhood and youth in a society that was not driven by money and consumption (at least not to that extend like in the West). It seemed to me that people  – because they were not that stressed to make money and to spend them – lived happier, enjoyed more and appreciated the human values like friendship, family, creativity.

When I came to live in the West 10 years ago I was most of all shocked by the concept of profit, which seemed to be very natural for people here. Profit, copy-right, interest… It took me years to comprehend the ways and methods of this system. And now, while working as a Sales Manager in the Marketing and PR business (!)  – imagine what I think about all that machine. Day by day, the more I can penetrate into the depth of the capitalism, the more I understand that my personal belief lays somewhere else. May be I am a communist?