Gujarat: 22-year-old learns 8 languages to read spiritual texts

  • | Thursday | 21st February, 2019

"Someone told me that Persian was very difficult and if I had a grasp of Urdu, learning Persian would become easy. As a result, Shodhan is now fluent in Persian, Urdu, Punjabi, and Arabic. What would you do if you wanted to read a book that is in a language you are not familiar with? “I want to read the books around Zen philosophy and a lot of the original work is in Chinese,” said Shodhan. That is how I ended up learning Urdu and Persian," said Shodhan.

What would you do if you wanted to read a book that is in a language you are not familiar with? Opt for a translated version? Ask someone to read it for you, perhaps? However, 22-year-old Aradhana Shodhan, a BA graduate in Sanskrit, decided that translations would not be able to catch the essence of the spiritual books she wanted to read and hence learned every language that those books were written in! As a result, Shodhan is now fluent in Persian, Urdu, Punjabi, and Arabic. Shodhan, who is on a break from studies, was already fluent in Hindi, Gujarati, English and Sanskrit before taking on four new languages. She learned the first three languages from the Bhasha Bhavan Sanskruti Sansthan of Gujarat Vidyapith. "I ended up learning Sanskrit while doing my graduation," said Shodhan. In fact, the HK Arts graduate had gone to get admission in BA Philosophy but was encouraged by a faculty there to learn the language of the books she wanted to read. "The professor asked me why I wanted to take up philosophy and I said that I wanted to know about the theological and philosophical writings in India. He told me a lot of it was written in Sanskrit and the best way to understand it was to learn the language. That is how I ended up doing my graduation in Sanskrit and picking up my fourth language," said Shodhan. She then began to learn Persian because she wanted to read the works of Rumi. "Someone told me that Persian was very difficult and if I had a grasp of Urdu, learning Persian would become easy. I wanted to read Rumi in the language he wrote in. That is how I ended up learning Urdu and Persian," said Shodhan. She then began learning Arabic through a correspondence course to read up on the spiritual writings of Islam. "Unfortunately, I am realising that despite my grasp of Urdu and Persian, Arabic is difficult to master. But I will not give up," said Shodhan. She picked up Punjabi to delve deeply into the religious book of the Sikhs. "I used to listen to devotional songs of the community and it used to transport me into another era. I then went to Amritsar to collect books on Sikhism and most of it was written in Punjabi. That is how I ended up learning Punjabi," said Shodhan. She said that the language was smooth sailing for her, thanks to her knowledge of Hindi and Urdu. She is also on the lookout for a teacher who can teach her Mandarin. Why is that? "I want to read the books around Zen philosophy and a lot of the original work is in Chinese," said Shodhan laughingly. She admits that her passion for language leaves her friends bemused. Shodhan, however, finds encouragement for her passion from her parents. PASSION FOR ZEN Aradhana Shodhan is on the lookout for a teacher who can teach her Mandarin. “I want to read the books around Zen philosophy and a lot of the original work is in Chinese,” said Shodhan. She admits that her passion for language leaves her friends bemused

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