TODAY'S PAPER » FEATURES » METRO PLUS, October 25, 2012
Of enduring value….
SOMA BASU
A child reciting the
Gita and (right) Swami Sivayogananda of Chinmaya Mission Photos: S. JAMES and G.
Moorthy
EVENT- In its 15th year, the
Chinmaya Madurai’s Gita chanting competition has created a record with
10,000-plus registrations in and around the city, writes SOMA BASU
For the past five
years I have been attending the Chinmaya Mission’s Gita chantingcompetition for
school students in Madurai. I can’t recite the shlokas but what attracts me is
the mass chanting each year inside the auditorium of Setupati High School just
before the district-level contest is thrown open.
The 500-plus children
from five to 14 years sing with a devotion that comes to them naturally. What
is both pleasing and surprising is the vocal technique they uniformly apply
even after learning and practising separately and coming from different schools
and backgrounds.
Every word is intoned.
The recurring wave of pitch and rhythm is a musical landscape of sound. Parents
and teachers also join in and after a point the aspect of competition fades.
The fact that 85 per cent of the children are eliminated at the preliminary
level and only 25 per cent of the finalists make it to the super-finals loses
significance. What matters is that so many children show their willingness to
learn and participate, and their intense reverence. They put their hearts into
the recitation. The effort put in by each and every child, irrespective of
religion, is evident.
This year’s round
opens this Sunday on a high note. More than 10,000 students enrolled at the
preliminary school round. The Acharya of Chinmaya Mission Madurai, Swami
Sivayogananda, is obviously elated. He likens the reach to newspaper
circulation and readership. “In every house or classroom where a child is
learning, another individual is teaching and many more are listening. And,” he
asserts, “all are subconsciously learning.”
After he started the
Gita chanting competition in Madurai in 1998, for the first three years he
single-handedly ran the show, visiting schools, selecting children and judging
the finalists. In the first year, he approached 36 schools in and around the
city, personally explaining to the institution heads how the “song of God” is
germane to people of all temperaments and ages. It evoked 1500 responses.
The event gradually
became one of the most popular annual events of Chimnaya Mission. More schools
participated from within the city and neighbouring Rajapalayam, Melur, and
Sivaganga districts. In subsequent years, the number of students participating
from each school also increased. Such was the response this year that Swamiji
was forced to restrict the number of schools to 22 as the total registrations
crossed a whopping 10,000.
“We have penetrated
into grassroots. We give opportunity to new schools and some old ones too who
have a good performance record,” he says. He hopes to reach 100,000 students in
the coming years. “Though I am continuing with the competition format to keep
the interest alive,” says Swamiji, “the dearth of Sanskrit teachers in the city
makes the task difficult.”
From 2001 he has been
coaching housewives interested in learning the shlokas and has built a team of
56 volunteers who now judge the contest. But their number is woefully
inadequate for the number of contestants. Yet the exercise has been conducted
without interruption for 14 years. The cost of the event is taken care of by
regular sponsors who chip in for the various prizes and certificates.
A highlight of the
finals is the feast for the entire gathering -- students who qualify for the
district round, their parents and teachers. Everybody is fed before the results
are announced. Says Swami Sivayogananda, “We can as well announce the results and
feed only the winners and their families. But I feel so many students put in
their sincere efforts. Learning to chant the Gita is more important than to win
prizes. The day has its own beauty.”
Sanskrit is a divine
language. It produces beneficial sound waves that can calm the mind and also
increase memory power, says Swamiji. Many participants of previous years have
told him how by chanting the Gita, their thinking has become refined. That is
the best compliment he gets. He also points out that winners over the years
have been from different communities and religions and that by learning to
chant and understand the Gita, every individual can make a difference to his or
her life.
This year he received
a surprise letter from the Head Master of Setupati School, who wrote that,
because of the mass chanting by pure and innocent minds, he feels there is a
good vibration within his school compound and believes that it is helping
improve results.
“I am answerable to my
conscience,” says Swamiji, “and am happy people are genuinely taking interest
and feel the benefit of chanting. Our children should not lose the opportunity
to learn the dynamic text.”
