Nearly 30,000 school children from all over India’s capital, Delhi, are expected to take part in a contest based on the Bhagavad-gita this holiday season.

Between November 20th and January 10th, they’ll also visit the Delhi ISKCON temple and receive copies of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, as part of the 2012 Gita Jayanti celebrations.

Gita Jayanti commemorates the day, 5,000 years ago, when Lord Krishna instructed the warrior Arjuna on the Battlefield of Kuruksetra, thus creating the sacred book Bhagavad-gita. It is observed on December 23rd this year.

ISKCON Youth Forum—which also conducts outreach to colleges and universities—created the innovative program six years ago, calling it Sanskriti Darshan (“a close experience of ancient Vedic culture”).

Sanskriti Darshan program poster

“The first year, 2,000 students participated,” says Atmatripta Das, a congregation devotee who oversees the project. “Last year, there were 20,000, and twelve lucky prize-winners went on a sponsored South African holiday.”

This year, 25,000 to 30,000 children, aged five to seventeen, are expected to participate from 200 schools around the Delhi area.

A delighted student after receiving a copy of Bhagavad-gita As It Is

Every day for two months, several hundred students will spend two-and-a-half hours at ISKCON Delhi’s “Glory of India” temple.

First, they’ll enter the temple room, pay their respects to Sri Sri Radha-Partha-Sarathi, and join in a ten-minute Hare Krishna mantra kirtan.

Next, they’ll visit ISKCON Delhi’s famous Vedic Expo, a multimedia museum. This includes the Mahabharata Experience, a synchronized light and sound display with narration of the ancient epic that ends in the Kurukshetra war, where the Bhagavad-gita was spoken.

School children participate in a kirtan at ISKCON Delhi

Students will also be immersed in the Bhagavad-gita Experience, which uses dioramas, high-tech gadgets, interactive exhibits and sound and light shows to depict essential philosophical points of the Gita.

They will then be served a delicious sanctified vegetarian feast with traditional dishes such as rice, dahl, puri, matar paneer subji, and sweet rice.

Finally, each student will be given a copy of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, as well as a syllabus containing a choice twenty verses with translations and purports by Srila Prabhupada from all eighteen chapters of the Gita.

Fascinated students view the Vedic Expo’s Mahabharata Experience

“We will then send each school question papers with one hundred questions based on the verses,” says Atmatripta. “The students will answer the questions, and we’ll get the answer sheets back and check the answers. On January 15th we will announce the winners.”

First, second, and third place winners will be chosen from each school, and will receive trophies created from Srila Prabhupada’s books, as well as a large laminate poster of ISKCON Delhi’s presiding Deities Sri Sri Radha Partha-Sarathi.

Students pack into the Mahabharata Experience museum

Meanwhile the top three overall students will be awarded cash prizes of 1 Lakh (100,000) rupees, 75,000 rupees, and 50,000 rupees respectively. Fifty per cent of the winnings will go to the student themselves, while the other fifty per cent will go to their school.

No student will walk away empty-handed—all participants in the contest will receive participation certificates from ISKCON Delhi.

“From reading all these verses from the Bhagavad-gita with Prabhupada’s purports, and answering the one hundred questions, the students will get so much sukriti[rewards for pious activities],” says Atmatripta.

Students are served a five-course prasadam meal

“When they’re older,” he continues, “They may not listen to this philosophy. But if you cultivate the younger generation, they will accept it very easily. Over time, they will develop so much Bhakti. And one day, they will realize that the Bhagavad-gita is the ultimate book. In this way, they will become devotees.”

It’s an extremely effective program, he says, and one that he encourages other temples around the world—especially those with their own museums—to participate in.

The top three students in a school receive trophies in the form of Srila Prabhupada’s books

Tag: bhagavad-gita