Learning Sanskrit has been one of the best things to happen to me. It may be that it was the right thing at the right time for me. It has been very fulfilling personally, as I have had the opportunity to learn some of the greatest works such as the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit.

The language attracted me from the first time I watched a video teaching Spoken Sanskrit. I haven’t looked back since then. It came very easily to me. as there is so much more to learn. I have been blessed with so many like-minded friends as well.

Sanskrit grammar is vast, and the literature and works are even more vast. Sanskrit is the mother of all Indo-European language families, so it is obvious that it is far more difficult to learn than other members of the Indo-European family. I learned Sanskrit in school from class 6th to class 10th according to the CBSE board. The board has simplified the learning process a lot. In class, we were introduced to the Sanskrit alphabet “varnamala” which is in the Devanagari script. Then we were introduced to simple noun forms and were introduced to the concept of conjugation. Although conjugations are also in English they are not taught as such. So it was new and difficult and posed a challenge. Further, the fact that there are three types of plural forms was difficult to digest. However, our teacher taught these concepts in a way that I won’t forget throughout my life.

Sanskrit is perhaps the world’s oldest language that still boasts of a spoken tradition. It is the tradition of our country, it is what made the name of our country being heard everywhere in the past. Even Thailand king takes “Sanskrit titles”. Indonesia, despite having a Muslim majority, has “garuda” in its flag. (Morons are only in the place of origin) Less than 10000 of 1.25 billion Indian population speak the language now, and already rumors are going on that our language is “dead”. So, if you learn and converse in Sanskrit, you are doing your part in protecting the tradition of our country. Of course, you have lots of languages other than Sanskrit in the world, but still, only Sanskrit can be Sanskrit.

Let me bring the analogy of conserving “tigers” – why do we conserve tigers? If it is to balance the food chain, can’t we make robot tigers that are programmable and act as real tigers? Or is it because we feel for the uniqueness of the living being tiger, and that we feel it is our responsibility to conserve it for future generations? Think. That answers why learning and speaking Sanskrit is important in an analogous way.

If you are a Hindu, you would be hearing opinions of lots of “learned scholars” everyday, many people dealing carelessly with scriptures, and you are nothing but a helpless sheep who has to follow anyone of them, who can’t know your own scriptures because you didn’t learn Sanskrit.

(Of course, learning simple Sanskrit is not going to be of much help, still, you can relate to the words, and aspire to study more)

Now, Sanskrit is one of the oldest in the surviving Indo European languages. Learning Sanskrit makes it easy for you to relate and learn other Indo European languages, most important Indo Iranian languages and Farsi.

In India, there has been only one lingua franca for the whole. And that is Sanskrit. It still is Sanskrit. Your Hindustani water won’t boil in the South, esp in Kerala. For example, if you talk Sanskrit with certain gestures, you can survive in Kerala. But if you talk Hindustani or Urdu, even God can’t help you. Sorry. (Assuming you are that man who has least knowledge of English, or won’t deliberately speak it)

Check out the vocabulary of all languages of India. Anything common is clearly Sanskrit vocabulary. So, to thrive in India, you at least need to know basic Sanskrit vocabulary if not for the whole Sanskrit language. Lexical Sanskrit is the still the unattested lingua franca of India.

Learning Sanskrit also is a philosophical and spiritual exercise, once you get into Vedas. You can correlate the etymology of words with ideas from Vedic poems, and fall into the mesmerizing philosophy of Vedas.

Sanskrit is a much required language for those who work on Proto Indo European history, or Aryan history. It is also the main language required for those who work on PIE linguistics. For this reason, it is a main subject of study in many international universities. Sanskrit also boasts of the whole technical literature of ancient India. Sanskrit was the formal lingua franca between various places in India and was the technical language of India. Still, all the technical vocabulary for Indian languages save Urdu and Tamil, are created from Sanskrit. It’s important to understand ancient Indian technology and science too.

Moreover, it has been the spiritual and philosophical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. To understand the philosophy of these religions, again, Sanskrit could be a nice help, provided you, master Sanskrit.

The formal vocabulary of all Indian languages (save Urdu and Tamil) is simply Sanskrit tatsama.

Thus, it is not something regarding some material benefits. It’s something as a part of keeping our culture, to know more and to be exposed to a vast set of ideas and culture that shaped India and ancient Indo-European escape. At least, you could try learning spoken Sanskrit so that you can save our language from being a “dead” one.