Washington University Cooperative

According to tradition, it takes 18 years to learn Sanskrit, and even then you don't know it. You have to come back for another 18, and then another, and then another life, and on and on... Somebody has been posting a flyer, "Learn Sanskrit: It's Fun and Easy." My own flyer read "Learn Sanskrit: It's Fun But Not Easy." Pali, a canonical language of the Buddhists, is easier, but still difficult and challenging, especially when we read Buddhist religious texts. Ardhamagadhi Prakrit is much more difficult, because the grammars, readers, and dictionaries, if available at all, are not in English. Indian epigraphy, or writing on rocks and pillars, requires a good eye and some imagination, to fill in the gaps. Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyamika Karika is written in deceptively simple Sanskrit, but it has all the scholars and mystics baffled and humbled. Nothing worth doing is easy. Why not give it a try anyway?

Dr. Jerome Bauer, PhD 1998 "with distinction" from the University of Pennsylvania in Sanskrit and Indo-Aryan Philology, will teach Introductory and Intermediate Sanskrit, Pali, or Ardhamagadhi Prakrit, on Saturday or Sunday afternoon, time TBA, at the Cervantes House, 6036 Pershing Avenue, St Louis, Missouri.

Dr. Bauer studied Sanskrit with Nandini Iyer and Gerald James Larson at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and with Ludo Rocher, Wilhelm Halbfass, George Cardona, and Ernest Bender at the University of Pennsylvania. He spent two years in Gujarat, working with Nagin Shah at the L. D. Institute of Indology, and with Muni Jambuvijayaji in Carup, North Gujarat. He has taught Religious Studies, Social Thought and Analysis, and environmental humanities in the Freshman program at Washington University in St Louis for eight years. He has also taught Religious Studies at Fontbonne and South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked as South Asia Center Outreach Associate, Newsletter Co-Editor. For three years he was Assistant South Asia Bibliographer at the University of Pennsylvania's Van Pelt Library. Dr. Bauer was a free-lance tutor of Sanskrit and Pali in Philadelphia for three years, and in St Louis since 2005. He has taught courses for senior citizens through the Oasis Foundation. He has taught Religious Studies and South Asian Studies at Columbia College in St. Louis, Ethics at Southwestern Illinois College, and Theology (American Christianity) at St Louis University. He teaches environmental humanities at Webster University, including "Cooperation, Sustainability, and Spirituality" in the Webster University Freshmen Seminar Program, a course also available to the general public from Cervantes Free University and Learning Cooperative, a nascent local non-profit. "Real College Courses for Yoga Center Rates."

Dr, Bauer received a National Defense Education Title IV Fellowship to study Hindi and Sanskrit. Although his training was paid for by the U.S. taxpayers, from the Defense budget, he has never been asked to do intelligence work, and his work has absolutely no military value. Even so, he feels obligated to give something back to the taxpayers, by performing voluntary alternative service: free or nearly free Sanskrit lessons for anyone who wishes to learn but cannot afford the high cost of tuition at the kind of elite institutions that teach these subjects. The Pali and Sanskrit classes were initially offered at no cost in Summer and Autumn 2005. Now, at least a nominal fee, or labor exchange, is required, to cover materials and as a guarantee of the students' sincerity, though even this may be waived for the unemployed.

Donation: $5-$75 per one hour session, depending upon one's ability to pay. Inquiries: 314-725-1470; www.cfu-lc.com, www.washucoop.com/cfu-lc. A Cervantes Free University and Learning Cooperative course. Class will begin whenever convenient for student and teacher. Dropins are welcome. We are starting a new Introduction to Sanskrit class, Sundays 6-7:30pm, 6036 Pershing Avenue, St Louis, Missouri, 63112-1310. Second section TBA.

AS SEEN ON TV: KSDK Channel 5 News, "Students rally to save professor's co-op house," http://origin.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=194877&catid=3