As a youngster, I had always terribly at a disadvanatge when I was chanting Hindu Prayers in Sanskrit without knowing its meaning. My father tiold me that the prayers are as potent as a piece of burnungcharcoal coated with ash. If you take the charcoal, in your hand, even , if you do not know that is burning, it will hurt your hands. Prayers, he told me are like that.Even if you do not understand them, it will give the desired effect. Though , this answer did convince me, there was a longing to know the meaning of prayers that I chant.
When I became old , I realised that , we have now a new generation of youngsters, who cannot read any prayer either in Sanskrit or their mother toungue. The explantion of my father, which somewhat convinced me , was not convincing to them at all. So After retirement, I decided to devote a major part of my time in transliterating and translating the various great prayers that I knew. I did this translation , not in prose but in verse, so that whoever wants to chant it in English can do it in english. Six years of my work has now resulted in a web site
www.geocities.com/ramya475/ I have taken care to use simple words, indicating the meanings.