Sanskrit is only worthwhile if you plan to spend the rest of your life with it. It is not a “hobby”, it is a discipline! So, be prepared to invest some considerable time in it – every day.
Three tips for the (very) serious: (1) Master the grammar of your native language. If you’re already quite comfortable with it, be sure that you’re an expert in the grammatical terminology – know how to identify different types of syntactic clauses and know all of the Indo-European case names and descriptions, inter alia. (2) Learn classical Latin. Become sensitized to semantic ambiguities on an advanced level. (3) Learn ancient Greek. Its verbal morphology and few vocalic contractions are only a hint of what’s to come.
Now you’re ideally prepared for Sanskrit! And in the wise words of my own Sanskrit teacher, “Have faith that life is long.” (You’ll need very many moments of it for this endeavor!)
