As for whether written language represents a growth in human evolution, I don't believe
it to be entirely so.  My happiest times have come from transcendental experiences - in
meditation or in absorption in an outdoor experience, even from storytelling, singing around
a fire, or at the beach.  These direct experiences of transcendence I could sing or talk about.
Then they could be written down... but then they are no longer in that moment.
  Oral tradition is always in the present - always responsive to what is occurring in the now.
If my 87 year old grandmother asked me what yoga is, I would have an answer for her.
If my 6 year old neighbor asked, I would have a different answer for her.  If I were to write
down what yoga is, it would be a composite, not as accurate for either of them at their
respective stages in life.
  Certainly my early education and western cultural heritage implied that written cultures
are smarter than oral cultures, that we are smarter than humans were long ago.  But it has
been the non-linear intelligence of the indigenous people I have met that seems to be more
powerful, and their appreciation of death as part of the natural cycle - not fear of it.
This is not to glorify indigenous cultures of which I have very little experience.  Rather, to say
that in place of material accumulation and the ability to have power over others, I have chosen
to value spiritual attainment and the ability to live harmoniously with the natural world.
  In yogic literature, as elsewhere, humans are desribed as both material and spiritual.
Humans exist as a part of the natural world, subject to the natural cycles of birth-maturation
-decay-seed.  Yet we are also spirit - we can glimpse something beyond this dimension,
beyond this life-death cycle.  The more we can glimpse our spiritual connection, the eternal
aspect of our being, the more we are "enlightened".  This seems to me to be what Jesus knew.
  In yogic literature, similar to theoretical physics' description of Time, human consciousness
is described as passing through huge epochs of time in a cyclical process.   As we rise in
consciousness, we are less caught up in power over others, trying to subjugate nature, and
fighting for resources.  As we evolve, we live in harmony with that which we cannot change -
the huge power of the natural cycles, and instead of trying to make nature fit our ideas, we
live in harmony with its cycles.  Our lives are less about struggling for survival and the fear
of death, and more about enjoying life - using each living day to transcend old limiting
fear patterns. 
  Just like other cycles (sunrise-noon-sunset-midnight-sunrise, or spring-summer-fall-winter),
human mass-consciousness passes through great cycles, according to the texts of yoga.
In the dark ages, it is all struggle and fear of death.  Gradually there is understanding of
energy and subtler planes.  Eventually, we all live with the cycles and without fear of death.
There will always be a few who can glimpse past the struggles of the material plane and
overcome the fear of death.  But we do not live in an age where most people are there.
 My point is to introduce the possibility that sanskrit may be a relic of something much older.  
The written characters are more recent, and do not represent a growth for the language - 
as much as they seem to represent a way for a group of wizards to share knowledge with common folk.
  We cannot know for certain how far back the knowledge goes, limited primarily by
the ways in which we look, and by the dominant belief systems operating in our culture.  
  Infinity (GOD = Divine) is a challenging concept because it extends forever in all
directions.  We would much rather think in small terms - using written words or a linear
description.  But remember that the infinite can only be hinted at by linear expression.
God is not just a white man, but for white people it may be useful to imagine it so at a
certain level of awareness, in order that they remember their own Divinity.

  Similarly, the concepts now written in devanagari, the font of sanskrit, are more than
the written characters that represent them.  The literature of sanskrit, yogic techniques,
may be much older than we have any idea.  We have relics of what once was.
  There has been a lot of power for me in thinking that the yogic techniques described in
sanskrit, represent a gateway to the Infinite.  And it is in the direct experience offered by
these techniques that evolution occurs.
  The magic is first - the connection to the Divine is a subtle experience: sung about, then
written about.  It is not the writing that is the evolution.  It is important to use the relic
(writing) that we have to get a glimpse behind the linear world of writing.

  Learn to write - but REMEMBER TO SING AND MEDITATE  !  Yoga (and the sanskrit
describing it) is process not a result - it is a practice and an experience!