My journey with the Sanskrit language, so far

I went to a Sanskrit presentation at a yoga studio sometime in the late 1990s. That was my first exposure to any structured Sanskrit class. The studio arranged a second follow-up class, but no one showed up, except me. I will take that as an omen. In 2003 I took two Sanskrit workshops that emphasized learning the Sanskrit alphabet and some noun declensions and verb conjunctions. In 2005 I was able to find a Sanskrit mentor to teach me Sanskrit until about mid-2006. From mid-2006 to mid-2007 I continued my Sanskrit studies and Sanskrit to English translations. You can see my translation work during this time period at my academia.edu profile: https://independent.academia.edu/MichaelNeely In mid-2007 I was burnt out from studying Sanskrit and stopped studying it. In 2014 my interest in Sanskrit was rekindled. I felt a calling to come back to it and started reviewing various Sanskrit primers and textbooks.

Now I feel confident enough to translate the Bhagavad Gita in order continue increasing my proficiency in the Sanskrit language while feeling the excitement of actually reading and comprehending the Sanskrit of the Bhagavad Gita and then translating the Sanskrit into English. To assist in regaining a firm grasp of the Sanskrit language, I decided to start this blog to share my experience and passion in translating the Bhagavad Gita.

Constructive criticisms of my translations or misunderstandings about the Sanskrit language are welcome. Comments and suggestions are also welcome. In my translations I will be as literal as possible and try not to add anything to the translation that is not in the original Sanskrit text. For each verse translated, I will show the Sanskrit text, the transliteration of the Sanskrit in English (IAST format), and the English translation I created. After that, I will break down each word of the Sanskrit text into its pre-sandhi form and explain the meaning of the word and its grammar. I will talk about why my translation is different from other translations and provide other background information essential to understanding the verses.