For over 30 years, Dr. Róbert Gáfrik, a scholar at the Institute of World Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, has been quietly working to bring one of India’s most profound philosophical traditions closer to Slovak readers.
In an email interview with Firstpost, Dr. Gáfrik spoke about his decades-long engagement with the Upanishads, the challenges of translating Sanskrit, and what drew him to ancient Indian thought in the first place.
The result of his efforts — the first-ever translation of the Upanishads into the Slovak language — has caught the attention of PM Modi.
“I have been interested in these texts since the first time I came across them more than 30 years ago,” Dr. Gáfrik told Firstpost. “My initial motivation was to engage with them through translation to deepen my own understanding.”