URL: http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/mirrors/vv/werlings.html

<h>            A DISABLED FRENCHMAN'S INTEREST IN THE IITM SOFTWARE

<h>                                  by

<h>                            Guy Werlings

<h>                         (gi verli°gs)

<h>                       France

<h>          nma¢m BgvÏpad SÄðr| laEkSÄðr| ¡

<p>       [Preliminary remarks: I sincerely apologise for the fact that due
   to the prevailing circumstances, and the conditions under which this
   text has been composed, I have been unable:
   - to avoid some repetitions in its various parts,
   - to display a fully consistent transliteration, some words or
   expressions appearing in the ITRANS 5.1 encoding scheme, while some
   others appear with the usual diacritics (but placed after the letter
   instead of above it, as impossible in a standard wordprocessor), and
   long vowels are shown with a circumflex (often used when gallicising
   or diplaying in French texts Sanskrit words in fonts with no macron
   available; (Hence what should be in strict ITRANS shrii may appear
   here as Srî.)  I do hope these stylistic and typographic defects will
   no make the reading too tedious.

<p>       I have been kindly requested to write an article about my
   experience and interest in the IITM Software. Upon receiving this
   suggestion I must confess I met with two contradictory feelings. On
   the one hand, I was pleased and even also somewhat proud; I felt glad
   indeed if I could in any way bring a contribution to young Indian
   students, as being myself a Westerner with a very great moral and
   spiritual debt towards Mother India, at least and at last I could
   perhaps do something useful towards Her and her children.

<p>       On the other end, I felt somewhat reluctant because writing such
   an article meant inevitably speaking at length about myself, which I
   do hate and find utterly repellent. Even in French we use to say: « le
   moi est haïssable », i.e. « The I is detestable ». And I was deeply
   aware of that long before I read the famous words from the
   Bhagavatpaada:
   manobuddhyaha.nkaarachittaani naahaM.
   But after pondering carefully over the subject the first feeling
   overcame the second, and here follows my small article (at least I
   shall try to make it short in spite of an inborn tendency to be often
   quite talkative and prone to unending comments). I shall make it in
   three parts:
<l>   I. My condition as a heavily disabled person
<l>   II. My interest in the Sanaatana Dharma
<l>   III. My interest in the IITM software

<h>    I. My condition as a heavily disabled person

<p>       I was fortunate enough not to be born disabled nor did it happen
   during my childhood, which thanks to the Gods was very healthy and
   happy, apart from the fact that my father died when I was very young,
   only just more than 10 year old, which had very crucial and long
   lasting consequences for the rest of my life.

<p>       Now aged 55, my handicap came totally unexpectedly a few days
   before my 49th birthday in the end of 1994, when all of a sudden as a
   result of overwork, strain and stress (I was the Managing Director of
   a medium-sized company and did not hesitate during several years in
   very difficult business circumstances to work for 14 and to 16 hour a
   day) I had a brain infarct, which resulted in a stroke of hemiplegia
   and I remained paralysed on the left side of my body. In one way, I
   was rather fortunate and blessed by the Gods that, first I did not die
   on the spot, or during the first three following days, which is often
   the case, and second that the accident took place in the right side of
   my brain, thus affecting the left side of my body; should had it been
   the reverse, I should have lost speech and my hand-writing capability,
   a full disaster for me who happen to be a right-handed person. After
   six months of highly dedicated rehabilitation in a physiotherapy
   clinic, with a lot of will, endurance and determination I could
   recover pretty well but not enough to be able to take up my old job
   again. I was dismissed by my company in 1995 and was declared an
   invalid by the French Social Security. Since then I am so to say a
   kind of person in early retirement.

<p>       Unfortunately in 1995 and 1997 I experienced some more health
   problems in my brain that more or less ruined the good recovery I had
   reached before those complications. In any case, I can walk just a
   little inside my home with the help of a walking stick and am not
   compelled to spend the whole day sitting on my wheelchair. The biggest
   problem for me comes from my left hand that is now virtually dead.
   Prior to my accident I was very excellent indeed at typing on a
   keyboard, having learnt at school during my commercial studies, and
   using professionally and rapidly all my ten fingers from both hands.
   Now I can type with only three fingers of my right hand.

<h>   II. My interest in the Sanaatana Dharma

<p>       Born in France, (in a family native of Alsace near the German
   border, why my name does not sound typically French, like Dupont or
   Durand), just after Worl War II, in late November 1945, I had always
   been a very religious boy, but when I reached 14, I could no longer
   remain satisfied with the creeds, beliefs and practices of the Roman
   Catholic Church, in which I had been being born and educated. These
   did not appear to me « catholic » enough, as this word should
   originally mean « universal ». One day, about November 1960 (i.e. aged
   more or less exactly 15), while looking at random at books in a
   bookshop that I used to visit quite often (in Paris where I was born
   and living at that time), I started to turn over, just by a stroke of
   luck, the pages of the French translation of « Jñâna Yoga » of Svâmî
   Vivekânanda, and was seized with wonder seeing that the book included
   two chapters on a universal religion. I felt this was exactly what I
   was longing for, and I bought the book immediately and read it eagerly
   from cover to cover: I was overwhelmed with joy and wanted to know
   more. After reading « Jñâna Yoga  » several times, I wanted to know
   also about S'rî Râmakrishna. I started to look for further literature
   on the Paramahamsa, and in a rather small booklet learnt at last that
   there existed one Râmakrishna Vedânta Centre in France. I got the
   address from the Indian Embassy in Paris. All these investigations had
   of course taken some time, and it was only in early May 1961 (it was
   thus exactly 40 years on the 4th of May 2001), aged 15 year and a
   half, that I first visited the French Râmakrishna Vedânta Centre in
   Gretz.There, I came fortunately very rapidly into a tight and friendly
   relationship with a brahmâcâri, disciple of the late Svâmî
   Siddhes'varânanda, who had founded the Centre in 1937 in Paris, and
   had then established it in Gretz in 1947. Unfortunately he had passed
   away 4 years earlier, in beginning April 1957 and I could not meet him
   personally. Svâmî Siddhes'varânanda was himself a disciple of Svâmî
   Brahmânanda, a direct disciple of S'rî Râmakrishna, appearing often in
   the so-called « Gospel » (I do not like the use of this Christian name
   and prefer to stick to the original tittle « Kathâmrita »: Svâmî
   Brahmânanda was Râkhâl, in the inner circle of young disciples, and
   later he became the President of the Math and Mission). I became
   fortunately very rapidly an enthusiastic student of the
   above-mentioned brahmâcâri.
   My main subject of study with my Vedânta teacher (apart from the
   teachings of Paramahamsa S'rî Râmakrishna) was avasthâtraya vicâra as
   taught to Svâmî Siddhes'varânanda by his own teacher in philosophy
   S'rî V. Subrahmania Iyer, a prominent philosopher of the XXth century
   (reader in Philosophy of the Mahârâja of Mysore) and himself (S'rî
   Iyer) a disciple of His Holiness S'rî Saccidânanda S'ivâbhinava
   Narasimha Bharatî Mahasvâmî, Jagadguru of S'ringeri from 1878 to 1912.

<p>       Svâmî Siddhes'varânanda always insisted on the fact that exactly
   as one needs two legs for walking or two hands for working (I
   experience myself this point every day more painfully than anybody
   else), we need, in this age, for our spiritual life to harmonise the
   teachings of S'rî Râmakrishna and the pure Vedânta of S'ankara as
   taught by the above-mentioned Jagadguru of S'ringeri to S'rî
   Subrahmania Iyer, and mainly emphasizing avasthâtraya vicâra, the
   major and unique contribution of the Indian philosophy to the
   universal philosophy, most of the other aspects of the Indian
   philosophy or theology having already more or less their equivalent or
   counterpart in the Western thought. That is what I dedicated my life
   to.

<p>       Apart from a repeated study of the Bhagavad Gîtâ and of course all
   major Upanishads I had a special interest for the mANDUkyakArikA of
   GauDaPAda, which deals only with the avastha-s.

<p>       Also, I read again and again and studied very carefully, and even
   translated in parts « VEDÂNTA, OR THE SCIENCE OF REALITY » of S'rî
   K.A. Krishnasvami Iyer.

<p>       Having also studied all four volumes of THE CULTURAL HERITAGE OF
   INDIA, published by the RAMAKRISHNA INSTITUTE OF CULTURE, I translated
   into French the two articles from volume III:
   THE ESSENTIALS OF VEDANTA by S'rî V. Subrahmania Iyer and
   PHILOSOPHY OF ADVAITA by S'rî K.A. Krishnasvami Iyer

<p>       I also translated into French
   MAN'S INTEREST IN PHILOSOPHY by S'rî V. Subrahmania Iyer first
   published in 1936 by Messrs Allen and Unwin in « CONTEMPORARY INDIAN
   PHILOSOPHY » edited by S. Radhakrishnan and J.H. Muirhead in the
   Muirhead Library of Philosophy and also later included in « THE
   PHILOSOPHY OF TRUTH OR TATTVAGNANA » a collection of speeches and
   writings by Sri V. Subrahmania Iyer edited by Dr T.M.P. MAHADEVAN,
   Department of Philosophy, University of Madras, 1955, upon request of
   S'rî Iyer's family.

<p>       But none of these translations have been published so far. I shall
   hand them to my sons who shall make a good use of it, I feel sure.
   (more in § III.)

<p>       As my father had passed away when I was only a little more than 10
   year old, and that we were not rich people, I could not afford long
   academic studies (quite attracted by languages, I should have felt
   inclined to study Sanskrit at the University, along with Bengali, to
   be able to read the S'rî Râmakrishna Kathâmrita in the original
   language, and possibly translate it into French), but instead I had to
   start earning my living just after finishing my military training.

<p>       Thus, slightly over 20 equipped only with basic occupational
   commercial studies acquired before my military training (from 15 to
   19), I started a nearly 30-year long career with the Swedish Paper
   Industry, first as a local salesman, then as the Managing Director of
   3 different Sales Companies. Instead of Sanskrit and Bengali, I learnt
   Swedish, which I talk and write just about as fluently as French.

<p>       Although not properly a translator, I had to do a lot of
   translations from Swedish and English into French, and hence also
   devoted much of my vacant time to « translation studies » to become as
   proficient as ever possible on the subject, which also helped me to a
   large extent for my subsequent Vedantic translations.

<p>       From 1970 to 1981, then still living in Paris, I delivered 104
   lectures, mostly on Indian philosophy and other aspects of the
   Sanâtana Dharma. I am extremely afflicted not to have been blessed by
   the DIVINE MOTHER to reach the sacred number of 108, but with HER help
   and blessings I shall try again to make it in my next life!

<p>       My professional life was very successful but in 1994, there were a
   many problems in my Mother Company in Sweden, because of mergers. I
   was chosen as the Manager for the new French Sales Company resulting
   from the merger, but this meant a lot of overwork and additional
   strain, which resulted in the stroke of hemiplegia mentioned in the §
   I, which left me paralysed on my left side (in the beginning of
   November 1994, 3 weeks exactly before my 49th birthday). In my medical
   ignorance, I felt pretty sure that problems with brain arteries were
   always more or less related to cholesterol and arteriosclerosis, and
   as I had never had any of these, and although a businessman had tried
   to have a very hygienic way of life, I felt myself somewhat well
   protected or immune against such problems and I did not hesitate to
   work more than I should have done. I really had even become what is
   termed in the U.S., I have heard, a « workaholic ». It was only in the
   hospital that the doctors explained to me that overwork, overtax and
   stress may as well provoke a « brain infarct » as the most commonly
   known « heart infarct », all the more as in my case, the « infarct »
   was not a thrombosis (but I do not want to indulge into too many
   medical details, out of the subject, and for which I do not know all
   the necessary technical vocabulary in English). Besides, I may have
   been suffering, without knowing it, of a kind of hereditary weakness
   of the brain arteries' walls.

<p>       As already said, prior to my stroke, I had quite an excellent
   typing, very rapid too and highly qualified. But it's now all gone, my
   left hand being almost dead, and I type with only one or two fingers
   of my right hand. This is why my e-mail postings take (or at least
   used to take?) such a long time and are (were?) often full of typing
   errors.

<p>       Normally, I try to read and read again chasing for these typos
   prior to sending e-mails. But first, there are always some typos that
   escape and second, it always gives me the occasion for a further
   digression, as new ideas are coming while reading and my messages,
   letters or texts use to become longer and longer with every attempt to
   get rid of typing errors.

<p>       But in March 2001 I bought a new computer and at the same time I
   invested in a speech recognition software, which works in French as
   well as in English and with the help of which I can now dictate my
   correspondence in both languages, as well as do my captivating
   translation work. The system runs very well and it is indeed one of
   the very good achievements of the information technology. And as a
   consequence, I do hope that a part of the above problems with typos
   will be eradicated in the future.

<p>       Moreover, instead of typing I can now dictate my translations or
   the articles I intend to write, which is quite comfortable. Now if the
   voice recognition software normally does not make typos, it only
   recognises the sounds that reach the microphone and not the words nor
   their meaning; the machine does not understand you but only transfers
   on the screen the sounds it has received, including noises from the
   environment, which sometimes results in other types of errors very
   often quite unexpected and sometimes jocular. But this is quite
   another story. Anyway this digression leads me smoothly to the third
   part of my article.

<h>   III. My interest in the IITM software :

<p>       As soon as it became obvious to me that my professional life was
   over and that in this respect I had become socially an invalid or an
   early retired person, I decided to devote all my time and efforts to
   the topics that had been in the centre of all my life (even if at
   times in the background because of my job) Sanskrit and Vedânta.

<p>       If I had started to learn some Sanskrit already when I was 15, as
   a fact I never went farther than some rudiments or basics and always
   remained a kind of eternal beginner. To be frank I had strictly no
   interest in learning such enlightening phrases like "Râma sees the two
   elephants". What I wanted was to be able to translate very accurately
   the few verses from the Bhagavad Gîtâ or the texts from S'rî
   S'ankarâcarya that I was quoting and commenting in my own lectures.

<p>       Thus I decided to start afresh my studies of the Sanskrit language
   in a very serious way this time; and with the development of the
   information technology and the Internet, there now exists very
   fascinating and facilitative possibilities that did not exist when I
   was only 15.

<p>       Moreover I have not the pretence, ambition nor conceitedness to
   write my Complete Works. But when preparing the already mentioned 104
   lectures that I delivered in Paris, I have accumulated such a huge
   documentation that I have a lot of material available for writing
   articles on several aspects of the Sanâtana Dharma and quite
   especially on Vedânta and my favourite subject viz avasthâtraya
   vicâra.

<p>       Married in 1974, my wife and I have two sons now aged 25 and 23
   who are studying and preparing themselves for the highest posts in the
   University. The eldest one is studying History and the youngest one
   Philosophy. When they have finished their studies, if my health is
   still permitting, and with the blessings of the DIVINE MOTHER, we
   intend to write all three of us a book on "some aspects of Vedânta in
   the XXth-century". In the meantime as they have of course quite a lot
   of other subjects to prioritise, I have started writing some articles
   based on the archives I have available here. And this is where the
   IITM software is proving extremely useful to me. Although I try not to
   overdo it with them, those articles (or a few other translations I am
   continuing to do on the subject and some of which might have their
   place in the main dissertation) often include quotations or footnotes
   with Sanskrit words or sloka-s. It is obvious that most Westerners
   cannot the Sanskrit language, but I prefer in any case to supply the
   Sanskrit text for some translated sloka-s so that the readers can at
   least recognise the words. This being the case, it is of utmost
   importance to cite the aforesaid quotations in diacriticised Roman
   transliteration. But I have decided as a personal discipline as a well
   as an introduction to the Sanskrit language for my sons to show the
   text also in devanâgarî. And in this respect the IITM software is
   really unparalleled. Of course in the beginning things were not very
   easy for me, all the more as -as far as computers are concerned- I am
   only an average user and not at all a specialist of the information
   technology. But Dr R. Kalyanakrishnan spared no effort to help me and
   to facilitate things for me (even at the expense of explaining very
   basic details that I should have known, or reminding me some other
   ones I had known (when starting the computerisation of my firm) but
   had later forgotten), and I really feel very indebted and grateful to
   him for all what he has done in this respect.

<p>       I came into contact with Dr Kalyanakrishnan upon suggestion of
   S'rî N. Krishnaswamy of Vidya Vrikshah whom I had got in touch with as
   to a translation of the maaNDuukyakarikaa, which is as the reader will
   have understood of the highest importance for me.

<p>       Thus the parts of the IITM software that are of special and main
   interest to me are the ones that refer to Sanskrit and I.P.A.
   transliteration. The transliteration into other Indian languages is
   less primary to me although useful at times for other purposes. As a
   fact I have some Hindu friends in what was until recently West Bengal,
   in Kerala and also in Karnataka, and when writing to them by now I
   always try to write their first names in their own languages, Bangla,
   Kannada or Malayâlam. This is only a small sign of friendship: they
   know I cannot their language and do not intend to learn it either. But
   I shall never speak Sanskrit with anybody either at least in this
   life! My purpose is not to be able to buy milk in Sanskrit (as the
   CD-ROMs released last year by Samskrita Bhârati would like me to be
   able to do). My very limited and egoistic aim is nothing but to try to
   read, understand correctly and if possible translate accurately into
   French just a few jewels of the Scriptures, of S'rî S'a.nkara's
   bhâshya-s and of the Kârikâ-s. Should I succeed in doing that, it
   should actually be quite enough for this life.·
   mailto:guy.werlings@wanadoo.fr

                           
