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जैसा अंतःकरण, वैसा व्याकरण || आचार्य प्रशांत, युवाओं के संग (2012)
आचार्य प्रशांत
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8 years ago
Language Development
Mental Faculty
Vocabulary
Awareness
Differentiation
Sublimation
Reality
Experience
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that the development of language and the development of the mind are parallel processes. He asserts that no liberated individual has ever possessed a coarse or primal language because as the mind becomes sharp and subtle, it gains the ability to differentiate. Using the analogy of a blue screen, he describes how distance makes everything look like a single shade of blue, but coming closer allows one to identify specific shades and shapes, necessitating a larger vocabulary. Similarly, from a distance, a group of people is just a 'crowd,' but proximity requires specific names for individuals. A person who is not alert may use a single blanket term like 'bad,' whereas a conscious person recognizes various nuances of badness, such as 'heinous,' 'obnoxious,' or 'condemnable,' and thus their vocabulary expands naturally. He further discusses the futility of memorizing word lists without experiential understanding. Since every word is a symbol pointing toward a reality, using a word without knowing the underlying experience leads to misuse. For instance, an unrefined mind might label any interaction between two people as 'love,' but a more developed mind can distinguish between 'affection,' 'infatuation,' 'possession,' or 'acquaintance.' If one memorizes a word like 'sublimation' without having anything sublime in their life, they will not know how to use it correctly and may become an object of ridicule. He concludes that one cannot truly use or understand a word like 'love' simply by reading its dictionary definition if the actual experience is missing from their life.