BHAGAVAD GITA teacher Dhruv Chhatralia received the Medal of the Order of the British Empire (BME) during the Navaratri festival after being included in The Queen’s 2020 New Year honours list for voluntary service to Hinduism and developing young people.
It was presented by Martin Russell, the Queen’s Representative Deputy Lieutenant for Barnet in the presence of Major Kevin Tuhey.
An international mergers and acquisitions lawyer in London, Chhatralia has written 21 books on Hinduism and has given over 340 public talks of over 350 hours on spirituality, Yoga and meditation that were watched in over 161 countries around the world.
He wrote the longest ever English commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, the Hanuman Chalisa and the Shree Suktam in history, between them comprising over 3,467 pages. All the proceeds from these books went to charity.
Besides, he created a programme of over 180 classes in English to educate youngsters about the Indian scriptures.
"This achievement would not have been possible without the contributions of countless teachers, volunteers and supporters of our spiritual organisation and I would like to recognise their dedicated service in the fields of spirituality, education and social outreach. My dream has been to make these enriching Dharmic teachings available to everyone in English without any costs, travel, commitments or other obstacles," said Chhatralia.
"I hope this recognition inspires many young Indians to take up volunteering service to the community in order to preserve, protect and promote this beautiful wisdom."
On 7 August 2014, he made history after successfully completing 154 weeks and 225 hours of continuous 140 weekly talks on the Bhagavad Gita at a city law firm in three years.
Between 2015 to 2019, Chhatralia became the first person in history to give talks at both houses of the UK parliament on the Bhagavad Gita, Hanuman Chalisa, Ramayan, Shrimad Bhagavat, Shree Suktam and Devi Mahatmaya.
He has spoken on Hinduism at the British army, British Parliament, the Metropolitan Police, many other government institutions, corporate entities, various TV channels and at community halls around the UK.
A live Yoga session by Chhatralia was televised nationally on BBC nationwide television.
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