by Anagha Mahesh
This Children’s Day, we bring you a special feature on an 8-year-old boy, who can recite all the 700 shlokas of Bhagavad Gita with perfect pronunciation and spell out over 125 botanical names of various medicinal plants by just looking at their pictures.
Meet the wonder kid Abhigya Anand, a resident of city. Born to Anand Ramasubramanian and Annu Anand couple, residing at Emerald Enclave, behind Infosys, Mysore, Abhigya is just eight years. When he was just two-and-a-half years old, he could identify 40 flags of different countries and also about 50 car models. The virtue continued, with him learning to speak German in just a month when he was five years old and was residing at Stuttgart, Germany.
Abhigya’s father, an MBA graduate, has travelled extensively throughout the world along with family. Hence, Abhigya found it exciting to learn new languages. When he was seven years old, the family was based in Melbourne, Australia.
It is here that Abhigya drew inspiration to memorise and understand the Bhagavad Gita. He succeeded in learning 12 chapters out of 18. He chanted a few chapters at various temples in Melbourne, Mysore and Bangalore. Whatever he learnt was through You Tube videos as he didn’t have access to a teacher at Melbourne.
He was too keen on learning all the 18 chapters.
Once, Abhigya’s parents came to know that Sringeri Mutt would felicitate and honour anybody who can chant all the 18 chapters of Bhagavad Gita.
When they tried contacting them, the boy’s parents were told that all the 18 chapters should be recited at once. The parents were a little disheartened since Abhigya was confident of reciting only 12 chapters. This motivated the boy so much that he learnt the remaining six chapters and was thorough with all the 18 chapters within nine months with perfect intonation.
Abhigya will recite Bhagavad Gita at Sringeri during the end of this month.
His love for languages helped him learn how to speak and write Kannada within a month’s time. He is also fluent in Tamil and Sanskrit and has learnt and understood the meanings of over 200 Sanskrit shlokas.
The 8-year-old genius has also read over 500 Amar Chitra Kathas and can recollect most of the stories he has read. Apart from this, his other hobbies include playing cricket and football with his father and friends. He also plays mridanga.
Unlike most of the children, since there was a lot of globe-trotting involved, Abhigya has never been into a formal school. He is home-schooled by his mother Annu, a home-maker. He does attend a few classes here and there at MCS Govt. School, Belagola, for the sole purpose of socialisation with other children.
He has a four-year-old sister Abhidheya, whom he cured of dengue by suggesting a few ayurvedic medicines which he had learnt about by reading a book on Ayurveda.
Those who want to see it to believe it can watch Abhigya’s video on YouTube titled ‘7 year old Abhigya chanting Bhagavad Gita.’
Mother’s Message
Children should be encouraged to develop inclination towards spirituality as such an inclination at a tender age will help them maintain the same throughout their life. Thus, making them worthy citizens for the Nation, which claims to be a nation where spirituality occupies a vital place.
And it is also advised that children be given home food always and kept away from junk food with their future health in view.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / November 14th, 2013