How about in New Delhi?
My place in the world!
But you were born here.
I crawled on the floor of my parents’ bar in Gràcia, the Juventud bar, among cigarette butts.
What was left of the bar?
I really like jovial drunks.
What did you ask of life?
Read and write. She lived in my intellect. But when I was 18 I went to a commune, in a farmhouse in Arbúcies.
He became a hippy, I understand.
There I met a girl, Mercè Escrich: today we are still together. She thanked her for wanting to go to India. I was making fun…
But he went with her, of course.
We left, we were working along the way, hitchhiking: that’s how we arrived in India.
And what happened?
Everything was so vibrant, vital, overflowing, I felt that omnipresence of the sacred. And once there I read the Bhagavad Gita (in English)… and one verse moved me.
What verse?
He says that doing what is right without expecting results is the supreme good.
Did it upset you that much?
It sacralizes the action itself. Not the results. I decided to read the original in Sanskrit. Mercè gave me a Sanskrit manual. And I learned it. I read the entire Mahabharata.
What is the Mahabharata?
Great Indian epic, like our Iliad and Odyssey, or like the Indian Bible: the Bhagavad Gita is the best part, like the Gospel.
What relationship does Sanskrit have with other languages?
From Sanskrit they will derive Persian, Greek, classical Latin… and Vulgar Latin, mother of Castilian and Catalan: Sanskrit, then, is their great-aunt.
Is it still spoken today?
It was spoken in northern India from the year 1500 BC. to the year 900 BC.
And it became extinct?
The Vedas, in Sanskrit, are still read today: they are studied by Brahmins, the upper caste. Today, young Indian engineers are recovering Sanskrit.
What does Sanskrit mean in Sanskrit?
“Refined language.”
What is particular about it, what is refined?
Its concision, capacity for synthesis and abstraction. It is like software for the human brain, the hardware: that is why there are so many good mathematicians and computer scientists in India!
Did they invent zero?
Shunya, yes. The Arabs brought it here, like the decimal system: it is in The Indian Calculation (Hisab al Hind), a book that, in Toledo, the translator Al Juarismi translated into Latin: hence the word “guarismo”.
Give examples of Sanskrit words.
Bhratri, brother, hence the Latin frater. Sarpa, snake. Sharkara gives the Greek sákaron, the Arabic súkar, sucre, and the Andalusian as súkar: sugar. From xyfer, cipher. From shati, shawl. From nose to, nose. From nau, ship.
And what does Bhagavad Gita mean?
“Divine (bhagavad) song (gita)”: there are 700 verses by an anonymous author.
What do those verses say?
The drama of Prince Arjuna: he does not want to go to war, but he does. Because he has to act and he acts! Arjuna does what is right, and that is being a warrior.
And kills?
He does not wish to kill, but he acts appropriately. The wise man acts with detachment: he is equanimous, because he does not think about the fruit but about acting according to his duty.
And the prince’s duty is…
The common good.
Hopefully.
The wise man acts without rancor toward the world: the wise man is a karmayogi, someone with an attitude similar to that of the Western Stoic.
And the opposite of the wise man is…
The ignorant: attached to his act, he also expects the world to obey him, ha ha!
Is there any other message there?
Yes, human action is essential: our acts of sacrifice to the gods make the wheel of life turn.
Western thought is different, right?
The Western mind aspires to subjugate reality, improve the world… Alas! And if not, we feel guilty. India accepts the real.
But the real thing, sometimes…
The world is a wonder. The real is not bad. Do not criticize. Don’t gossip. Do not complain. I learned. It’s not anyone’s fault for what happens to you, not even if they attack you!
How difficult…
Be responsible, you are free to act according to your essence. I came to India wanting to improve the world… and I understood that my path was another: study Sanskrit!
Maybe that will also improve the world…
Look, a “perfect” ideal world, singular, unique… is monstrous! Wealth is that there is everything, plurality.
