Gita contest of ISKCON goes global this year

Mumbai, May 29: Gita Champions League (GCL), a popular national contest on Bhagwad Gita, has for the first time become global this year by opening the competition to school children from all over the world.

GCL, an educational initiative of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), will now be open to children from schools all over the world to test their knowledge and understanding of Gita, an ISKCON press release said here today.

In the current year, GCL contests are taking place in Australia, Mauritius, Kenya, South Africa and United States of America apart from Indian cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Nashik, Belgaum, Ujjain. This year, around 8000 students from around 134 schools have participated in the contest in Mumbai.

Taking inspiration from the competition in Mumbai, GCL contest is also happening in many other cities in India, the release added. Recently, the GCL contest was held in Mauritius and Malaysia. It is slated to start in South Africa and USA also this year, it said.

The spiritual leader of ISKCON, Radhanath Swami said, "GCL helps the school children to absorb the teachings of Bhagwad Gita. We have attempted to enrich the lives of children in a right manner so that it becomes a helping hand for them to learn self-discipline and imbibe within them a strong value system."

The GCL contest in Mumbai started in 2010 and since then, every year the contest has touched the lives of thousands of students.

Till date, more than 138,000 students from around 1484 schools in various cities of the country have participated in this contest.

A unique feature Gita Championship League is that it attracts participation of students belonging to different religions, including Muslims, Christians and Hindus. More interestingly, many winners of this competition are drawn from various sections of the society and different religions.

PTI