Dr Vaishnavi Nishankar
While the world of vested interests is still debating on the done to death topics of whether Sanskrit is a living or a dead language, whether Sanskrit should be compulsory in the scheme of Indian education or not, whether the ‘orthodox’ Vedic shaastras have any contemporary relevance or not, what is to be done to ‘resurrect’ shaastras and Sanskrit, is Sanskrit ‘secular’ or ‘pro-Hindutva’……. and so on, here is an institution that has been silently, modestly, avidly and tenaciously working for the welfare of the contemporary society in helping it reach out to the fountainhead of an advanced system of knowledge based in the Vedic tradition, coded in Sanskrit, that can very effectively detoxify, empower and enrich any society and ecosystem, including the contemporary one.
The claim seems very lofty! Is it not? But, having worked in Maharshi Vedavyas School of Vedic Sciences at the MIT ADT University since its inception gives me the confidence to make this claim, as I have witnessed the radical makeover of Sanskrit higher education that was brought about here, churning out ambassadors of Vedic knowledge to the contemporary world. I have seen conviction in the efficacy of the Vedic knowledge systems built through enlightenment in the minds of those who came in as ‘learners’ to this institution and work as the torch-bearers of this knowledge tradition that they understand can benefit the world in multifarious ways.
I am an academic product of a regular traditional Sanskrit University system where I ‘completed’ my higher ‘degrees’ and earlier, till graduation, I went through the ‘modern education’ trail. When I joined, completely unaware of and unprepared for the upcoming avalanche of Vedic Sciences, little did I know that I have landed in an ‘employment’ that will both educate me and pay me as well, in the process!! Without any hesitation, I can proclaim that my learning in Vedic Sciences far exceeds my contributions to the department in the capacity of an adjunct faculty. I gladly ended up being a learner among learners, in the process of ‘imparting’ them with learning from the Vedic shaastras!
It was a dream come true to work in a department that gave the much-deserved status to Vedic shaastras academically, an MSc degree in Vedic Sciences. Everything from the curriculum, the admission process, the teaching-learning methodology, the assessment mechanism and the participants of the programs of MIT SVS are very different. How MIT SVS works with Sanskrit and shaastras is unlike one will get to see in any Sanskrit University or department, traditional or modern, private or otherwise.
The programs here do not promise career openings or advancements. The learners’ commitment and readiness to be in the program needs to be demonstrated through a statement of purpose and a personal interview before admissions are offered to them. Still in the last three years, the department has seen an influx of more than 140 students in the regular University programs and more than double of the number have found the courses packaged to the convenience of the learners, and the workshops conducted on some significant topics in Vedic Sciences as very valuable.
The team of experts on the founding and academic panels of SVS are highly committed to the purpose of bringing Vedic knowledge to actual application, the coveted objective for which they are devised. While it is a great privilege to have visionaries like Dr Vijay Bhatkar, Dr Vishwanath Karad, Dr Kanchi Gopinath and Dr Vinod Vidwans on the advisory panel, the lead and strategy added to such vision by Prof Nagaraj Paturi, Prof Shrinivasa Varakhedi, Shrimati Sujata Potay and Dr Sai Susarla is something that has set the field of Vedic Sciences to a speedy motion, while yet on safe trails. They have utilized SVS as a fertile field to germinate the seeds of Vedic shaastras to a rich harvest that would holistically nourish the society at large, while carefully weeding out and bringing to light what has caused the stunting of its growth so far, so that there is proper perspective in place to undo the misinterpretations and misunderstandings that Vedic sciences have suffered so far and hence isolated from common life applications.
The learner is in the centre of the entire design of the curriculum and program structures. We have been having very serious and interested people who have shown their commitment to Vedic knowledge amidst their mid-life crises that professional and personal lives pose. Our participants come from varied backgrounds – accountants, entrepreneurs, engineers, home makers, retired professionals, defence personnel, graduated students, authors, those based in social sciences, humanities, law, medical sciences, those from traditional occupations, performers, artists and so on. But the common interest of looking at Vedic sciences as valuable and rare in application is what brings them all to SVS.
Taking into consideration the focus and requirements of the participants from different backgrounds, our programs are structured to be taken as regular university programs complying with UGC regulations as also as certification courses at PG level. They are also offered as individual courses that learners can take at their own pace. And all this at a place that is convenient to them and in a manner that they can always connect with, in the online mode. This has opened the gates of Vedic knowledge studies to the learners from all over the globe.
Valuable and difficult-to-repeat content are packaged in self-paced learning mode with pre-recorded sessions by erudite scholars, who have absorbed their respective shaastras profoundly and have provided the digested essence of it for quick absorption for those who are inclined to grasp it. This bridges the gap between the modern learners who cannot now afford to spend as much time and effort as it takes to learn the shaastras thoroughly as a traditional learner would take to master a shaastra, but are nevertheless provided access to the thought models and structures of the shaastras that they can comprehend and apply for their own purposes. We are proud that erudite and dedicated scholars like Prof Ramanujacharya, Prof VN Jha, Prof Nagaraj Paturi, Prof Shrinivasa Varakhedi, Prof Korada Subrahmanyam, Prof MA Alwar, Prof Penna Madhusudan and such others have delighted our learners with the experience of ‘knowledge is bliss’.
At SVS, we understand that knowledge of Sanskrit is indispensable to wade in the ocean of Vedic shaastras for comprehending them in the right perspective. Hence, our learners are empowered through dedicated courses to think in Sanskrit. Our courses are also uniquely structured in a way that the learners could become independent in accessing content of the shaastras of their interest using the Sanskrit commentaries rather than depending on the translations of the source books, whose accuracy is quite questionable. Our masters’ program in Sanskrit is conducted in Sanskrit medium and facilitation for learning of Sanskrit and shaastras is customized to the level of each learner, for we respect the fact that each of our learners lands into our programs passing the litmus test of their dedication and commitment, apart from meeting the entry level criteria.
The line-up of path-breaking programs that a three-year-old baby (!) institution offers, includes:
- BSc Integral Psychology
- MSc Vedic Sciences (non-textual application-based approach to Vedic shaastras)
- Master’s Certificate Program in Vedic Sciences
- MA Sanskrit (also Masters’ Certification in Sanskrit in association with Hindu University of America)
- PhD in Vedic Sciences
- PhD in Vedic Psychology
Other programs in the offing are:
- MSc Integral Psychology
- BSc Vedic Sciences
- BA Sanskrit
- Bridge courses for Vedic vocations including
- Paurohitya
- Jyotisha
- Ayurveda
SVS has also organized some very unique workshops for participants from diverse academic and professional backgrounds that explore the facets of Vedic shaastras like never before in topics such as:
- Vedic Aesthetics (for design students at MIT ADTU)
- Introduction to Indic Shaastras (for students and faculty of IIT Roorkee)
- Introduction to Indic Reasoning and Debating (for students and faculty of IIT Roorkee)
- Indic Leadership
- Shaastric Research Methodology (in association with Kavikulaguru Kalidas Samskrit University, Ramtek and Indic Academy, Hyderabad)
- Vedic Social Sciences
- Tantrayukti
- Ayurveda for Mental Wellness
- Vaastu Shaastra in Design Application (in association with Ritambhara)
The focus on research in shaastras in the way that they may be utilized in contemporary scenarios while using technology to represent and interpret shaastras apart from making them more accessible to the modern readers in the form of concept maps, mind maps, etc. and thereby converting shaastric texts to comprehensive, relatable and searchable databases is also in place in SVS. The PhD scholars are also encouraged to undertake research in socially relevant topics and as a part of their course output, they are required to approach the beneficiaries of their research and elucidate their applications to them.
What is also unique about SVS is that it has also erased the boundaries of those who wish to work for the cause of Sanskrit and Vedic shaastras with its well-equipped online systems of operations. The barriers of space between the teachers and learners is completely erased and so is the case with placement of faculty who can pursue their passion to work for the cause of Sanskrit and shaastras in various capacities from remote locations off the campus. I am one of the beneficiaries of this work culture, working from Navi Mumbai, while the campus is Loni Kalbhor, Pune. It has opened up opportunities for several eligible scholars to contribute to the cause close to their heart by facilitating courses, reviewing course sessions, undertaking research projects, coordination of courses, evaluation, course/program conceptualization, curriculum development, workshop coordination and material/course/program curating etc. In short, everything required for knowledge generation and its dissemination is structured at SVS with no space barriers hurdling the learners and the teachers. SVS is fully geared to be a complete online educational institution.
SVS is committed to provide learning of Vedic shaastras to suit the requirements and needs of every individual who is interested in connecting with this holistic fountainhead of knowledge. This is reflected in the regular discussions in our department where my team that is imbued with a common fervour for Vedic Sciences churns out ways and means to reach out and facilitate the earnest learners of Vedic shaastras through unique courses, ably steered by our Dean, Dr Sai Susarla.
The continuous encouragement and support from the management and guidance from Dr Asawari Bhave, Dr Sunil Rai, Shrimati Swati Chate and Dr Mangesh Karad has been our foundation for progress.
I am very hopeful that MIT SVS will continue to pioneer study, research and application of Vedic shaastras and be the go-to institution for all those who wish to enrich themselves at personal, professional and institutional levels and be instrumental in creating the upcoming generations empowered with the knowledge of advanced Vedic foundations.
(The author works as Adjunct Faculty @ School of Vedic Sciences, Pune. She can be contacted at vaishnavi.nishankar@mituniversity.edu.in )
