Watch: 12-Year-Old Spelling Bee Champ Recites Shloka From Bhagavad Gita

Bruhat Soma, a 12-year-old Indian American, was crowned the Spelling Bee champion. The class 7 student spelt 29 words in a rapid-fire tiebreaker round in just 90 seconds to win the competition. He was up against Faizan Zaki from Texas, who managed to spell 20 words. But did you know Soma has memorised 80 per cent of the Bhagavad Gita? Speaking to news agency ANI, the young sensation revealed that the holy script has inspired him in a number of ways. He also recited a Shloka from the Bhagavad Gita.

He told ANI, “I slowly started memorising the Bhagavad Gita, then I started doing spelling a bit more seriously but now I am going to continue finishing the Bhagavad Gita. I do believe in divine power because God makes several things happen.” On being asked to recite his favourite shloka, Soma recited Hayagriva Stotra, which he described as a hymn that people chant before taking part in competitions.

The video of Soma reciting the Shloka has created a lot of buzz online.

A user wrote, “The American accent changes when Sanskrit shloka started. WOW.”

Another commented, “Hats off to him for being so rooted in the culture of Sanatana Dharma. The shloka he recited is of Hayagreeva (Vishnu’s Avatar of knowledge).”

“You got great parents, kid. Maybe they can give some of my American Indian friends lessons on how to instil good Indian tradition in their kids,” wrote a person.

Speaking about this Spelling Bee win, the seventh grader told ANI, “When I won, I was excited. I was really happy because, for the past year, I’ve been working hard. So when I just won, it was like a dream come true. A lot of my relatives are in India, and most of them are in India. They’ve sent congratulations. A lot of them watch the video. So, yeah, that’s pretty exciting to know that all of my relatives back in India were rooting for me. I’ll probably go back in the summer, like for vacation.”