gaá¹…gÄdÄsa paṇá¸ita-sthÄne paá¸ena vyÄkaraṇa
Å›ravaṇa-mÄtre kaṇá¹he kaila sÅ«tra-vá¹›tti-gaṇa
gaá¹…gÄdÄsa - Gaá¹…gÄdÄsa; paṇá¸ita-sthÄne - at the place of the teacher; paá¸ena - studies; vyÄkaraṇa - grammar; Å›ravaṇa-mÄtre - simply by hearing; kaṇá¹he - between the neck and the heart; kaila - did; sÅ«tra-vá¹›tti-gaṇa - the aphorisms and their definitions.
When the Lord was studying grammar at the place of Gaá¹…gÄdÄsa Paṇá¸ita, He would immediately learn grammatical rules and definitions by heart simply by hearing them once.
ÅšrÄ«la Bhaktivinoda ṬhÄkura says that the Lord was given lessons by a teacher named Viṣṇu and another teacher named SudarÅ›ana. Later on, when He was a little grown up, He was under the care of Gaá¹…gÄdÄsa Paṇá¸ita, who taught Him grammar of a higher standard. Anyone serious about studying the Sanskrit language should first learn grammar. It is said that simply to finish studying Sanskrit grammar takes at least twelve years, but once one learns the grammatical rules and regulations very nicely, all other scriptures or subject matters in Sanskrit are extremely easy to understand, for Sanskrit grammar is the gateway to education.
