About Cynthia M. Churchill, M.D.
President and Multimedia Producer
Mindflow Learning Systems, Inc.

Cynthia is a psychiatrist in Columbus, Ohio. Before Medical School, she studied historical linguistics and Sanskrit at University of Michigan. She is now privileged to study with Sree Aswath, a gifted teacher and Vedanta scholar.

. . ."People often ask me how I got interested in Sanskrit. There is no obvious reason. I remember seeing the Sanskrit word 'dharma' as a teen-ager and thinking, "The only way to really understand all the meanings of this word is to study Sanskrit." So I formed the intention to learn Sanskrit upon seeing a Sanskrit word for the first time. Years later when I saw Sanskrit listed under the Linguistics course offerings at University of Michigan, I signed up.

. . .The first classes were all in transliteration, to make it 'easier' for us. And the classes were more 'about' the language (phonetics, grammar, syntax etc.) than actually learning the language. When I audited more advanced Sanskrit classes, suddenly they were translating manuscripts in Devanagari script and I was lost.

. . .I guess that is why I felt so strongly motivated to create the "Gateway to Sanskrit" DVD set -- so that people can learn Sanskrit directly with Devanagari, without the need for using a transliteration system which just leads to poor pronunciation!

. . .In the time since then, I have been using a number of approaches for learning Sanskrit. Self-study books. Cassettes. But the most helpful thing really has been Veda Recitation classes, listening to Sree Aswath using Sanskrit in such a natural way."

Some current projects include:

"Sanskrit Grammar Through Pictures", like a comic book, to learn without having to memorize rules.

Verse-by-verse flash cards for Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita (in progress). The first verses are already available as a free download on the home page.

"Sanskrit Sandhi: The Secret Code," a book with audio CD. Sandhi is the way sounds at the beginning and end of words affect each other in Sanskrit.

Send e-mail to contact at learn-sanskrit.com