Winner Of Inaugural Gita Champions League (Sa) Scoops Air Tickets To India.
By : Krsangi Radhe dasi
As a special offering to Srila Prabhupada during the year of ISKCON50, ISKCON Kwa-Zulu Natal organised the first Gita Champions League in South Africa. The competition which followed the guidance of the international Gita Competitions took off in January this year, with registrations closing off at the end of March. Over 400 participants registered and began their study of the first six chapters of the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is.
Although the competition was a distance learning program, three contact sessions were set-up. These tutorial lessons were presented by devotees who are currently teaching Bhagavad-Gita courses at the Bhaktivedanta College of Education and Culture. Tutorial lessons were also recorded and uploaded to the GCL SA official website for easy access and further revision.
Examinations were held in the later part of the year with students being facilitated at various exams centres closest to their geographical location around South Africa. This made for easy access to the exams. The assessment was set under strict conditions where examiners and moderators carefully set questions for different levels and abilities. The question paper consisted of 80% Multiple Choice Questions, whist the rest of the paper were longer questions prompting detailed answers.
Students were rallying to win the top prize of two air-tickets to India, second prize a laptop and third prize being a tablet. The big announcement was made at a special Sunday Love Feast programme held at the Sri Sri Radha Radhanath Temple in Durban. All students who wrote the exam were presented a certificate of participation and the winners were announced with much pomp and excitement. Swarup Damodar Das, ISKCON KZN Regional Secretary offered a talk on the importance of studying the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is and made the presentation of the elusive prizes.
The competition scores were tight with Niroshan Govender (3rd runner up scoring 97.5%), Mohini Ramkasan (2nd runner up scoring 98%) and winner Natasha Nel scoring 99%. After the announcement Nel mentioned that reading the Bhagavad-Gita and participating in the competition with her husband was a fulfilling experience. Nel comes from an Afrikaans background and recently moved to Durban from the Gauteng province. The competition has brought her closer to understanding and appreciating the Vedic philosophy and she has expressed sincere appreciation to Srila Prabhupada for translating the holy book.