The final round of the 2003 Geeta Elocution and Essay Competition was held on January 2, 2004 at the Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta Pathshala in Mumbai, India. The competition topic was "Geeta - a challenge on the battlefield; Let our Actions be our offering".

 

337,124 participants took part in the Kendra and zonal level competitions, from which 34 Finalists made it to the Finals on January 2. The number of participants was double that of the previous year. As the Geeta is the universal song of humanity, so there was a diversity in the languages of participants. The participants spoke in English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Telugu, and even Sign language! The finalists came from all over India and the world. All participants had one common goal - to make Dadaji happy through his beloved Geeta and its message.

Many years ago, Dadaji had started this competition with the topic "I Like the Geeta", and now it has become a huge competition. This year, 750 youths from Roha (Dadaji's native place) spoke, compared to 100 last year. Few of them had the skills and experience of public speaking, but they still participated; not only did they participate, but a Swadhyayee girl from a nearby village advanced to the Final and received a prize. Many women from some villages saw a "School" for the first time in their lives when they went to attend an elocution competition. There were many otherwise quiet or subdued women who normally would not utter a single word in front of their elders; these same women spoke passionately on the Geeta in front of their elders! When such women speak in this competition, that is itself a revolution - Pandurangi Kranti.

Representatives from the following places came to the Pathshala to take part in the Final round - Ahmedabad, Andhra Pradesh, Aurangabad, Baroda, Hariyana, Madhyapradesh, Mumbai-Thane, Nashik, Pune, Raigad, Rajasthan-Delhi, Rajkot, Tamilnadu-Karnatak, UK, USA, Canada, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand.

The program started at 4:00 PM. All halls in the Pathshala were overflowing. Swadhyayees had come from distant places to witness this monumental event and support their representative speakers. There were banners and slogans adorning the entire Pathshala. The actual competition was kept in the main Geeta hall.

The actual competition was a sight to behold! To explain this thrilling experience in Didiji's words, "It's an 'AK-47' rifle. firing continuously for 5 minutes.... Lord Krishna sang the Geeta in two-and-a-half hours, so Arjun had some time to digest it. But you all are explaining the Geeta in just 5 minutes. Here you are, narrating verses from different chapters of the Geeta. and we listeners are trying to find the reference of one verse when suddenly you bombard us with another one."

After the completion of all 34 speeches, some of our DBT coordinators shared different viewpoints of the Geeta Elocution Competition.

After this was Didiji's speech. She said, "I wouldn't call the top three participants 'winners'; rather, I would say that is the 'Result of the Competition'. All those who have participated in this competition just to see Dadaji happy are the true winners. Didiji gave an example of a participant who spoke well in all previous rounds but couldn't utter even a single word in the semifinal.. When a Swadhyayee asked him the reason, he said, "I saw my father sitting in the audience. He came to listen to me. He is not usually supportive of my involvement in Swadhyaya; but when we looked each other, I felt so much joy, that I felt right then and there as though I had won the competition. i was overwhelmed by emotion, and I couldn't speak a word". Didiji explained that all such participants - those who cross their own barriers/challenges - are the true "winners". She gave another example of the deaf and mute boy who participated in the competition using sign language; he knew that he would not win, yet he still participated because he thought his participation would make Dadaji happy.  Didiji stated that he is a true winner.

Didiji also announced that since the Essay competition had over 50,000 participants, the first three zonal participants would receive a prize.