CHICAGO: More than 130 children from across USA competed in the final round of the National Dharma Bee Competition held on Saturday, June 15 at Best Western Expo and Conference Center, Hillside, a west side Chicago suburb.
The Dharma Bee Competition included activities such as Speech Contest, Poster Presentation, Written Exam and Team Activity in four age groups between grades K-8. Distinguished panel of judges from Chicago area as well as from around USA evaluated the contestants.
Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh successfully organized this final round that was broadcast worldwide atwww.dharmabee.org. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and Swami Ishatmananadji of Vedanta Society Chicago were chief guests for the prize distribution ceremony held at Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago on June 16.
This novel Bee was held to commemorate the 150th Birth Anniversary year celebrations of Swami Vivekananda. Over 3000 contestants participated in the earlier rounds at 156 testing centers in the US.
Following were the winners in four categories:
Group 1 Winners (KG-1st grade): First Place – Dhruti Kulkarni (CA), Second Place – Abhiram Kapaganty (GA) Third Place – Haindavi Veldanda (CA)
Group 2 Winners (2nd-3rd): First Place – Nikitha Kota (TX), Second Place – Balan Selva (NJ), Third Place -Shashwat Srivatsan (NH)
Group 3 Winners (4th-5th): First Place – Anuj Kothari (CA), Second Place – Medha Boddu (CA), Third Place – Bhavna Ravichandran (NC)
Group 4 Winners (6th-8th): First Place – Natasha Patel (TX), Second Place – Harshavardhan Nalam (IL), Third Place – Anshul Kale (CA).
Congresswoman Gabbard, in her inspiring address during the prize distribution ceremony, lauded the hard work and enthusiasm of all the contestants.
She said that their involvement was not merely at the insistence of their parents but also was due to the fact that they appreciated and understood the philosophy and greatness of Swami Vivekananda. The Congresswoman also talked about the importance of Gita and Hindu Philosophy as it is being shared in the US.
In his speech, Pujya Swami Ishatmananda ji of Vivekananda Vedanta Society said that helping each other and understanding each other is Dharma, which is what Shri Krishna and Swami Vivekananda followed in their life. He further said that the second stage of Dharma is morality and third is spirituality. According to him, Dharma Bee goes to good things like honey bee goes to flower, so children participating in Dharma bee are these bees who choose the best and in the process, they themselves become Dharma.
“My daughter learned a lot by participating in Dharma Bee. She wanted to visit Parliament of World Religions at Chicago regardless of being selected in the final or not,” said Bhuvanesh ji, father of one of the participants.
Another father from Austin TX (Bhuvanesh T) whose six year old participated in the Bee said that not only his daughter, but both he and his wife learned a lot about Swamiji’s life and greatness during this process.
Shreya Venkatesh, a contestant (13) from Phoenix, AZ said that she enjoyed learning (Hindu) culture and about Swami Vivekananda. Another contestant, Suhas Subramaniam (13) from San Diego felt that this was an opportunity to learn about great personalities from our national and cultural past. Subramaniam said, “I knew about Shri Krishna, but because of Dharma Bee, I got to know a lot about Swami Vivekananda.”
“We wanted to provide an exciting avenue for children to learn about Swami Vivekananda and Shri Krishna. This enabled them to read stories and pursue a “Sewa” (service) activity in the local community.
We are extremely happy to report that more than 1000 Sewa (service) projects were executed by children all across the USA! Parents and children are already requesting similar future events,” said Sreevidya Radhakrishna.
Surendra Ullal
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