Author: Pankaj Jaiswal, Lucknow (jaiswal@hindustantimes.com)
Publication: Hindustan Times
Dated: May 24, 2007
Pandit Syed Hussain Shastri is a Sanskrit
scholar who has lived Sanskrit all his life. Pandit and Shastri are not secular
badges to his name. They are now an integral part of his name - earned after
years of dedicated scholarship.
In Mirzaganj village in Malihabad people know
him as 'Pandit Syed Hussain Shastri' and address him as Shastriji. He had
decided to learn Sanskrit because his father wished it. He said: "Once
I started learning it in childhood, I just fell in love with it. The romance
continues."
Seventy-nine-year-old Shastri said: "I
find French beautiful, but Sanskrit is the most beautiful." In last 56
years people came from far and wide - Varanasi, Alla habad and Europe - to
learn Sanskrit from him. One of them, Henry Shock, a scholar in oriental studies
from Illionis University visited him two decades ago. Shock said to Shastri:
"It is highly doubtful Sanskrit is a living language, but it is never
doubtful that it is living in your body."
Shastri said: "I was barely four when
I took admission in Dharm Sangh Sanskrit Vidyalaya and began my journey in
Sanskrit. I continued with Sanskrit studies at Government Jubilee Inter-College
and then Lucknow University. In 1952, I graduated in Sanskrit." He has
a post-graduate degree in the language. He survived a heart attack two months
ago. "I am waiting for death to tip toe." In the same breath he
recites: "...And not a stone to tell where I lie...Just let me live and
let me die." Now most of the time he spends in reading Bhagwad Gita in
Sanskrit. Pandit Syed Hussain Shastri said that he believes in Brahminism.
He said: "Take away Brahminism from Sanskrit, and it loses its soul."
Shastri said: "I faced resistance from
both the communities. In those days people were less secular in matter of
religion. But my love for language finally triumphed. Now, I have taught the
language to my niece."
Shastri said he was once interviewed by Henry
Shock. "Shock has been the only person who interviewed me in Sanskrit.
Many times during the interview I attempted to drift to English, as I knew
he was from the US. But he continued in Sanskrit. When I asked him where he
learnt Sanskrit, Shocks said: Germany."
For some people languages know no barrier
of caste, creed, religion or nationality.
