The Gīta was Swami Chinmayananda’s life breath. He wanted the Lord’s Song to echo among people of all ages and across all continents. For that reason, Srimad Bhagavad Geeta is the heart of Chinmaya Mission.

The Gīta Chanting program began as a Bala Vihar activity, but has now expanded to include the participation of all age groups. Gurudev envisioned the chanting competitions as a doorway to life-long friendship with the Gita, a progressive journey of chanting ➤studying➤learning➤living the Gita.

With this underlying goal of spiritual evolution, children, parents, and grandparents have been encouraging each other to participate in the annual Gīta Chanting competitions offered in Chinmaya Mission Centers worldwide.

Swami Pujya Guruji Tejomananda gives a beautiful answer in the video below.

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This year, we continue our study of Sankhya Yoga (Yoga of Knowledge)
Chapter 2: Verses 39-72

Gīta chanting is taught during Sunday Assembly.

The required verses by class for EOY evaluation:

ClassVerses
Shishu Vihar39-54 (16 verses)
Bharadwaj Class39-54 (16 verses)
Dhruva Class39-60 (21 verses)
Sandeepany Class39-66 (27 verses)
Vyasa Class39-72 (43 verses)
Shankara Class39-72 (43 verses)
Chinmayam Class39-72 (43 verses)
Adults39-72 (43 verses)

Mid-Year Gīta Chanting Evaluation
This serves as a preview for the final competition at the end of the year. Participants chant individually, over Zoom, in front of a moderating panel. The mid-year evaluation is generally scheduled in January. The exact date for the 21-22 academic year is TBD.

End of Year Gita Chanting Competition
This will be conducted in May, during the Sunday Bala Vihar session. The exact date and format is TBD, depending on the COVID status at that time.

Evaluation Criteria
The Rules and Judges’ Scoring Rubric may been downloaded here.

Other Resources
Audio files and pdf documents are available  here

Notes:

  • Participants are required to chant from memory.
  • Verbal prompting may be given  by JUDGES ONLY
  • As per the Chinmaya Mission west rules, there will strictly be NO SECOND PROMPTING. In order to encourage participants to chant all verses that they have learned, judges will  give a second prompt when asked. However, the verses chanted after second prompt will NOT be considered towards the  final score.
  • Marks will be deducted for mistakes – Refer to “Pronunciations” section of Evaluation criteria manual.
  • It has been observed that most participants are chanting all the assigned verses for their grade, In those scenarios, the pronunciation/confidence/diction play the major role in the final scores and determining the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place recipients.
  • To avoid conflict of interest:
    • Judges/GITA teacher(s) are excluded from competition.
    • They can participate in the chanting session, but won’t be scored.
    • Judges do NOT evaluate members of their own family.

Lyrics

English and Sanskrit side-by-side

English

Sanskrit

View/download

View/download

View/download

Recordings

Reference Audio File Chanted by Swami Shantananda-Ji

Additional resources from Chinmaya Mission West