Why a Sanskrit Shloka?

श्रूयतां धर्मसर्वस्वं श्रुत्वा चाप्यवधार्यताम् ।

आत्मनः प्रतिकूलानि परेषां न समाचरेत् ।।

If the entire Dharma can be said in a few words, then it is — that which is unfavorable to us, do not do that to others.

— Padmapuraana, shrushti 19/357–358

So when you landed on this blog, the first thing you might have noticed is that the home page of this blog has a Sanskrit shloka. Many people ask me, why did I choose to display a Sanskrit shloka on my blog.

There is no one answer to this question. There have been several incidents in my undergraduate life, which have given me a lot of good and evil memories. This shloka summarizes all those experiences that I earned in NIT Calicut during my undergraduate course. It reminds me, how I should treat others to receive similar treatment.

It was my first time away from home and family when I got admission in NIT Calicut. I was very naive about judging people. I got to know many new people in NITC. That is when I learned that not everyone is helping you. People are here to exploit you, and they will do anything to achieve their goals and to get success, whether it comes at the price of someone else’s loss. It is the harsh truth of life, and the sooner one understands this, the better. I realized this in my second year, and that is when my life changed. Thankfully, I did not find other such people after my first year. However, life is very long, and I am bound to find such people at some point in my life again. I hope the experience that I earned in NITC will help me face that time.

Now, to the second part of the question, why Sanskrit? A quick Google search reveals that this shloka represents the concept of Golden Rule, which is common to most world religions, and Hinduism is no exception here. There is even a question about the relation of this shloka with Hinduism. I studied Sanskrit for six years till my 10th standard and feel a connection to it. Besides, Hindi is my mother tongue, so Sanskrit was the obvious choice given that there is not much Hinduism related literature available in Hindi.

Edit(23/03/2018): I have removed the shloka from the front page now. I am keeping this post for historical purpose.