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In the 7th edition of As We Leave 2026, Saagar K V, a Y22 student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, looks back on their unexpected journey of inner growth at IIT Kanpur, from a skeptical freshman who believed college was solely defined by grades and placements, to a grounded senior anchored by the teachings of the Bhaktivedanta Club. It is an inspiring story of discovering the Bhagavad Gita not as mere scripture, but as a living, transformative science, and learning that true academic excellence and inner peace naturally follow when one balances rigorous inquiry with spiritual clarity and community care.
Disclaimer:- The views presented below are the author’s own and are not in any manner representative of the views of Vox Populi as a body or IIT Kanpur in general. This is an informal account of the author’s experiences at IIT-K.
When I first entered IIT, I thought my journey would be defined by grades, internships, and placements. But today, when I look back, what shines brightest is something I never expected: my journey of learning and inner transformation.Â
It started, as most life-changing things do, with a free lecture. In January 2023, the Bhaktivedanta Club (BVC) organized a series of talks called ‘Discover Yourself’ by Prof. Suvendu Samanta and Prof. Gururaj Vishwanath. I walked in half-curious, half-skeptical – the kind of skeptical that only a freshly minted IITian can summon. I walked out with a copy of the Bhagavad Gita and more questions than answers. Their daily reading sessions quietly became my evening anchor unwinding the tension of long, packed days while rewiring how I thought about, well, everything. Soon I found myself attending the weekly discussions on the Bhagavad Gita in House no. 664. One visit, and I understood why everyone called it a true temple.Â
Then came July 2023 with our first retreat, and it was to Vrindavan. If you have never stood in Vrindavan at dawn, surrounded by kirtan and the scent of fresh flowers, let me tell you no IIT course teaches what that does to a person. We visited sacred places and understood their significance, feasted on prasadam that made hostel mess food feel like a distant memory, completed the Govardhan parikrama, and had the most carefree, joyful time in Raman Reti. The kind of trip that quietly resets you from the inside. Â
Janmashtami 2023 brought its own kind of adventure. I signed up for shloka recitation and poster presentation. Standing before hundreds of attendees including professors, students, visitors, the full spectrum of IIT’s ‘elite scientific-minded’ population and explaining the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita was not something I had quite prepared myself for. Each conversation opened a new lens. How differently people think. How varied their questions. How wide the gap between knowing something and being able to explain it to a stranger. Those discussions did more for my intellectual growth than many a semester ever did. And the warmth of the BVC community I discovered along the way? Quietly, completely transformative.Â
The BVC seniors helped me wake up early every single day — a feat that, for an IITian, honestly deserves a separate line on the resume. The association also came with its share of memorable moments: birthday celebrations, Ganga baths, farm visits and even cakes and gifts J! But the real gift was the association itself. I started reading the Bhagavad Gita cover to cover, all the translations, memorizing a few chapters along the way. Something unusual started happening: every morning I read it, I was calmer, sharper, more focused. Classes made more sense. Studies felt less like a battle. By good association and a regulated schedule, I was able to balance academics with everything else, remarkably well.Â
Under the guidance of Suvendu Sir, I took up the task of preparing questions for Gitanushilanam 2023, the annual Gita Jayanti celebration and a grand event where various competitions (quiz, essay writing, shloka recitation, and more) were conducted for school students across 25+ schools in Kanpur. Along with two batchmates, we prepared a question bank spanning multiple levels of difficulty. Sir was pleased; the questions, he said, reflected genuine understanding and preserved the essence of the philosophy.Â
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Preparing for it, however, did something unexpected to me. I remember one particular evening with no deadline looming, no assignment due, sitting quietly with Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita, slowly working through the verses on the eternal nature of the soul. And something just clicked. I sat back and thought: this is not a scripture being recited at a ceremony. This is a science. It is precise, systematic, profoundly applicable. A living framework for understanding the self, right action, and the nature of the cosmos. For those of us trained in analytical thinking, this is the invitation the Gita extends: not blind faith, but rigorous inquiry. That realization became the lens through which I read everything thereafter.Â
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My second year brought retreats to Prayagraj, Ayodhya, and Kurukshetra — each one a chapter of its own. Standing at the Sangam in Prayag, visiting the new temple of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya, setting foot on Jyotisar (the very ground where the Bhagavad Gita was first spoken), playing phool-holi and taking river baths in Kurukshetra: every moment was vivid, every experience irreplaceable. Some lessons simply are not available in any classroom.Â
In the summer after my second year, a retreat to Dehradun-Haridwar brought an encounter I had not anticipated. I met Prof. Laxmidhar Behera, the then Director of IIT Mandi and the very person who had started BVC in IIT Kanpur. Sir has also built the ‘Learn Gita Live Gita’ (LGLG) platform, where students can engage with the Bhagavad Gita in a scientific and wholistic way. The retreat had drawn people from across the country – many connected through LGLG, all carrying a piece of what Sir had seeded. Watching the scale of that impact, I could only call it a miracle. Sir is truly an embodiment of the teachings of Bhagavad Gita. His pioneering work on Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) and the science of consciousness is a profound inspiration. It is proof that our ancient wisdom is not mere tradition, but a living, transformative science with answers to the deepest questions of human existence. I am truly fortunate to have come in contact with Sir.Â
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There were also the harder days – the ones where demotivation showed up uninvited and settled in like an unwanted roommate. In those moments, the seniors I had met through BVC were remarkably grounding. They would sit with the problem, not just offer a quick fix. In a campus often running on ambition and anxiety, here were people who actually paused, listened, and helped you think. That kind of support, I found, is rarer than a 10 CPI.Â
By Janmashtami 2024, the tables had quietly turned. Now I was the one leading juniors in shloka recitation and poster presentation. The experience was illuminating in a different way: managing people, coordinating at scale, holding things together when the unexpected inevitably happened. I also got to closely observe how people orchestrated an event of this magnitude with dedication and grace. Leadership, I learnt firsthand, is not about control, it is about care.Â
The Bhagavad Gita teaches us to engage everything we have in the service of the Lord — so when AI tools were rapidly taking over every conversation in 2025, it seemed only right to put them to devotional use. We also witnessed around this time the record-breaking success of the Mahavatar Narasimha movie. Under the guidance of Sir, I took up the task of creating a video on Raghunath Das Goswami using AI tools. None of us quite knew what we were doing at the start. But by the mercy of Krishna (and a fair bit of trial and error), it came together beautifully. We presented it to Laxmidhar Behera Sir, who was very pleased. Suvendu Sir’s trust in assigning me this task is something I remain deeply grateful for.Â
Video on Raghunath Das Goswami: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdCK_2h7dZsÂ
And that, in ways I never quite planned, is how my IIT journey unfolded. The Bhagavad Gita reminds us: perform your duty well, give your best, and release attachment to outcomes. I tried to do exactly that and by regulating my schedule and anchoring myself in good association, I was able to maintain a CPI of 10. Though I will admit, that was a happy consequence, not the original goal. My real takeaway is the community, the clarity, and the quiet conviction that the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita is as alive and relevant today as it ever was. I hope my journey inspires at least one more person to pick up the Gita, explore its depths and make their life all glorious!Â
Written By: Saagar K V
Edited By: Gauri Singh, Anandan Iyer
