What about introduction of Sanskrit in our schools?

 Letters

The Ministry of Education and the government have accepted that Creole and Bhojpuri will form part of the school curriculum in primary schools and as from next year these two languages will be taught in our schools. There have been active lobbies in favour of these two languages and this is quite understandable. Manifestly, very few people can say that they have any objection to the introduction of these languages. However, it appears that there is one language that has up to now not been given its rightful place in our curriculum. We have consulted the curriculum of secondary schools up to Form III and we have found that this language does not form part of it.

There are numerous teachers and even other people who believe that Sanskrit as a language needs a better treatment in our curriculum. The Ministry has recently informed that Creole or Bhojpuri will not be taught at the same time as the Asian Languages, which clearly means that if Sanskrit is introduced, pupils who want to learn it can do so.

It may also be worth mentioning that in other countries apart from India like the UK, there are certain schools that are already involved in the teaching of Sanskrit. Thus it would be appreciated if the Ministry of Education and HR could give due consideration to our proposal.

A Member of PSEU
Port Louis

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“Why fear when I am here” 

The light is surely gone out of our lives and clouds of darkness may be hovering over our heads but the light of our faith in our beloved Swami is beckoning us, from behind the clouds, to believe and be happy. Shri Satya Sai Baba had always been and will always be here to light our path, for we are his children, and no father abandons his brood.

The light which shone in India, precisely at Puttaparthi, is beaming today from the casement in which the lifeless body of Baba has been put in the middle of Sai Kulwant Hall. It is giving silent darshan to so many devotees pouring in endlessly round the clock… It reminds me of the eternal ‘dhuni’ of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba in Nasik, which still lights hope and love in the hearts of the fortunate devotees who are able to go there on pilgrimage. The ‘Akhand Jyoti’ lit by Shirdi Baba is today resplendent in Puttaparthi and will be there for ever serving as a beacon light to Sai devotees and to humanity at large.

We the fortunate devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba and Satya Sai Baba have lived through a glorious age, an age similar to that of the Gopis dancing around Lord Krishna in Brindavan. Our trivial lives got sparkled by the divine rays. Our bodies and our hearts were touched by the halo of nobility and divinity. Today at the dusk of this age, let’s cling feverishly to this sense of divinity and be worthy disciples of Bhagavan Shri Satya Sai Baba, who always blindly believed that we would change but, was alas, disappointed so many times by our not so guileless behaviour.

To the Mauritian devotees, in particular, I would dare say that the coming days should be dedicated to prayers and fasting. Let the future witness a proper fasting from all the evils of this polluted world, a proper fasting in the way taught by the grand master who is no more with a body but whose soul’s light will always shine upon us. Devotees of Bhagawan should not be swept away by gust of emotions and passions. Baba will not be happy. He taught us to sweep our ignoble actions by gusts of divinity. Let him be proud of us. The greatest prayer will be a pledge to dedicate ourselves to his teachings and to remember what he said: “Why fear when I am here.”

Anitah Aujayeb
Quatre Bornes


* Published in print edition on 29 April 2011

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