The Bhagvad Gita is a 700-verse Hindu scripture, which is part of the epic Mahabharata. The original text of the Bhagavad Gita is written in Sanskrit as it was the language spoken by priests and kings. It is now translated to 82 languages all around the world and yet it was missing an essence in Devnagiri Konkani.
“The scriptures of the Bhagavad Gita have a lot of hidden meaning in its 700 verses. I have decoded 540 verses which is the dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjun, where Arjun poses a lot of personal queries that are relevant even today and every one can relate to them. ‘Gitarth’ is a philosophical self-help book and this is the first essence of the Bhagvad Gita in Konkani,” says Sampada Kunkolienkar, the author of ‘Gitarth’, which was recently released in Goa.
Sampada had to go through numerous texts, writings of prominent spiritual authors in English, Marathi, Hindi and Konkani to understand the different viewpoints on each verse. From the common man to scholars and PhD holders, she gave equal weightage to each piece of writing. “There are nearly 20-25 essence in different languages. I can now write essays on every concept of the Bhagavad Gita. The scriptures are more philosophical on how to lead a good life as a devotee that is clean, inside and out and how to treat everyone equal. I had to read a lot of books which gave multiple meaning. One biggest take away is that material things don’t make you happy. You will desire certain things, but once you achieve it, nothing changes, you are still the same person,” she explains.
Speaking about the translations of the Bhagavad Gita in Konkani, Sampada informs that there are 12 translations including four in poetry and eight in prose. “Bhagavad Gita is a complicated scripture and everyone knows the Gita and can get different perspectives and noted Konkani writers like Shenoi Goembab, Ravindra Kelekar and Bakibab Borkar have worked on it. The text is very easy to understand and any person can relate to it,” says Sampada.
The book, ‘Gitarth’ is published by Official Language Department in Goa under the Scheme for Publication in Official Language. The scheme encourages research oriented publications on different subjects like Goan Social Ethos, philosophy, history, etc. Under this scheme, only unpublished manuscripts from Goan writers in the form of 150 A4 size pages have to be submitted. It has to be a full completed project. I submitted the first project, which is now finally approved by the committee and published. The copyrights of the book belong to the Official Language Department and the officials will be printing and distributing the books,” says Sampada.
Sampada has been writing since 2009 in Konkani, Marathi and English and has published 14 books which includes three books in English, 'Mysterious Power', 'Mystical Power' and 'Power Your Life'. Sampada was awarded the Sahitya Akademi's Yuva Puraskar 2020 for the travelogue ‘Chaar Paanvla Ashiyet’. She has also been awarded the state award, Yuva Srujan Puraskar 2019, Goa Hindu Association's AN Mhambro Award and the Central Art and Culture's Junior Fellowship 2014-16.
Sampada was a part of the online FOSWAL Literature Festival, organised by Sahitya Akademi and Foundation of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Writers and Literature (FOSWAL) with the participation of BIMSTEC countries which include Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand on November 6 to 9 in 2022.
Sampada will also be presenting a paper at Festival of Letters today, the world's largest literature festival organised by Sahitya Akademi from March 11 to 16. She will be a part of the session, ‘Passion and Skill: The Twin Pillars of Writing’ today, March 15 at Mirabai Sabhagar, Delhi. The session will be chaired by Sitesh Alok with speakers Aditya Srivastava, Akanksha Pare Kashiv, Mohd. Asaduddin, Madhukar Upadhyay, Molishree, Moumita and Sampada.
“Sahitya Akademi, the National Academy of Letters, India, is completing 70 years this year and to commemorate this occasion, the 'Sahityotsav' celebrated every year by the Akademi is being celebrated this time as the world's largest literary festival. More than 1100 renowned writers and scholars are participating in more than 190 sessions in six days, and more than 175 languages of the country will also be represented in it. I am proud to be a part of this festival,” says Sampada.
Other prominent writers from Goa who are part of the festival include Damodar Mauzo, Xavier Cota, Aravind Bhatikar, Kiran Budkuley, Paresh Kamat, Shashikant Punaji, Vasant Sawant, Jayanti Naik, Dilip Borkar and Dr Prakash Parienkar, who bagged this year’s Sahitya Akademi Award for his story collection ‘Varsal’ in Konkani.