Proficiency in Samskrit of a rare barber

A barber by profession stunned a social worker Sri Sriram who came to the saloon for hair-cut after completing his vow to memorize Bhagavad Gita, by reciting Soundarya Lahari, Trisadi (A collection of 300 names of Goddess Ambal), Raja Rajeswari Ashtakam, Gayatri Mantram, Mrutyunjaya Mantram, Navagraha Stotram, etc. in Samskrit apart from Thevaram, Tiruvachakam in Tamil.  His name is Thangavel and is aged 35 years and is working as a barber in Maruti Hair Dressing saloon in Erode.

He says, "I have studied upto 8th standard and about 10 years ago, I had a capacity to easily memorise whatever I read.  I made the best use of this capacity to learn Samskrit.  I nave memorised Soundarya Lahari, Trisadi, Raja Rajeswari Ashtakam, Gayatri Mantram, Mrutyunjaya Mantram, Navagraha Stotram, etc. Mypreceptor is Sri Bhaskara Das of Devadanapatty."

He takes the cue and recites from wherever we point out.  His future ambition is to write a song on God and sing.

Samskrit is our Bharatiya cultural language.  It is unfortunate that those who profess themselves as 'Tamil Kalaignar',  'Tamil Professor' etc. decry the Samskrit language as a dead language, whereas one who has studied only upto 8th standard shows proficiency in Samskrit.

[CMD/0016/030603]
 

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