AHMEDABAD: Long before Bhagavad Gita was included in the syllabus for Classes 6-12 in Gujarat, a Muslim school teacher has been imparting its lessons to his students in Surat’s Mangrol taluka.
Shah Mohammad Saeed, a teacher on duty at Zakharda Primary School, is engaged with the school for the last 12 years. From the beginning, he succeeded in educating the children about culture without any religious barriers.
“We have been teaching Gita to all school children since 2012, Children every day read one page of Gita at their home and explain it to their classmates the next day,” he says. ‘‘‘On Sunday, we reach a house in the village where children and I recite the Gita outside the house. People come to listen to the shlokas. This is how the Gita is recited in the whole village today.’’
Saeed says that there was not a single Gita in the village when he first arrived. ‘‘I brought the copies of Gita for so many people,’’ he recollects As for the school, children are introduced to the chapters, right from Class 1 to Class 5. There are about 72 children from both Hindu and Muslim communities and all are taught chapters from the Gita.
Regarding the benefits of reading the Gita, Saeed says it helps in inculcating good manners — a fact concurred by the village sarpanch Jagdish Vasava who said the children are now helping the needy in their own way.