Charm of this 'Chardham Yatra'

It was in the month of February 2021 that my elder brother Purushotham Joshi who lives in Mumbai, posted a message in our family WhatsApp group, that he was preparing for a small speech during the 'Anandotsava' of his Geeta learning online class. In fact, he even shared the draft of his speech written in Kannada, and some of us in the group, I for sure, did read it and complimented him for that accomplishment. What was 'touching' in his speech (well, the draft) was that he had recollected how our late father used to encourage us in our childhood to take up learning Bhagavadgita and by-heart it if possible. Not that we were disrespectful to our father, but, for some reason or the other we did not really show much interest in it. My brother had also recollected how his Yoga teacher in Mumbai had encouraged him to master Bhagavadgita by learning one shloka a day, and how even that also did not progress much. In the later part of his speech my brother had written little bit about learngeeta.com and requested all of us in our family group to check it out. More so because he felt he found it not just excellent, amazing, but simply a perfect way for learning Bhagavadgita.

That was the trigger for my entry into learngeeta.com! I did not waste any time and immediately registered for L1 classes commencing 1st March 2021. The opening ceremony itself impressed me and so did my first ever class where Dr.Suresh Kumbar was the trainer. Honestly, till then during the pandemic I had used Zoom sessions for a variety of purposes, but certainly not one so divine like Geeta learning class over Zoom! "Arjuna uvaacha... Evam Satatayuktaa ye..." the very first shloka of 12th Adhyaya, that we were

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told along with 15th one would be taught to us in L1. Timings of my class were 7am IST which means 8:30 pm (previous day!) Eastern time here in the USA. Four weeks flew like anything. Making and submitting videos of 12th and 15th Adhyaya itself was a thrill and receiving GeetaGunjan certificate was like receiving a big doctorate degree! And by then Suvarna Kakiji's melodious voice creating a divine atmosphere in our home. The learning journey continued to L2, L3, and now I am in L4. Indeed a 'Chardham Yatra' of special unique charm! Now, the other side of my story. Probably this is even more exciting and enthralling! Soon after completing my L1, I had written an article about GeetaPariwar in my weekly column in 'Vishwavani' a leading Kannada newspaper published from Bengaluru. That was on 4th April 2021. It did some magic! Till then there used to be daily 5 batches in Kannada, and the numbers jumped to 16 and then to 39 in the subsequent batches! While it was exciting to notice the surge, there weren't enough trainers and techno stars available to handle those Kannada batches. As a 'prayashchitta' (in good sense) of writing that article, I too had to volunteer to become a trainer for the L1 batch that started on 24 May 2021. If I look back now, I think that was an even greater turning point personally for me. I had no experience whatsoever of teaching, but this one transformed me into a teacher / trainer / coach / mentor whatever you want to call. Yes, I started enjoying it, more so for the fact that I am offering this Seva to Krishna Paramatma, in the form of helping others learn the 'Song Celestial'. By end June 2021 since I had completed my L2 learning, I was persuaded to be trainer for next L2 batch also. While my 'learning' was in the evening time here (morning time in India), my 'teaching' had to be in the early morning time here (late afternoon in India). So, I would get up at 4 am to get ready for handling class at 5am. What an excellent way to start my day! This has been continuing as I am taking L3 and now L4 classes too in the morning while keeping my learning (in L4) for the evening slot. The refinement it has done in me, is something I have no words to explain.

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It is my firm belief that every Indian, for that matter every person on this earth, has the capability to recite Bhagavadgita the song of God, because we all are creation of God after all! Only thing is that capability is latent and needs a trigger to get revealed. The way I have been observing in my classes, it's a great feeling to see that capability getting uncovered. That's precisely what I mention in every Anandotsava I participate, that- learngeeta.com helped each of us become a great discoverer. We discovered two things: One, that the book 'Bhagavadgita' which was lying in our bookshelves gathering dust, is a greatest treasure of unparallel value. And two, each one of us do have the capability to recite the 700 shlokas in it the way God himself recited them! Is it not a great accomplishment worthy of pride? It is my heartfelt wish that through learngeeta.com more and more people realize this accomplishment for themselves. Jai Shri Krishna!

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