New Delhi: Manu Bhaker revealed that reading the Bhagavad Gita has helped to keep her calm in pressure situations as the 22-year-old became the first Indian female shooter to win an Olympic medal. Bhaker, who is currently pursuing graduation from Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi, won India’s first medal at the Paris Olympics 2024 – a bronze in the women’s 10m air pistol final on Sunday.
She thus joins Rajyavardhan Singh Rathod (silver, 2004), Abhinav Bindra (gold, 2008), Gagan Narang (bronze, 2012) and Vijay Kumar (silver, 2012) in the elite list of shooters to win an Olympic medal for India. “During the match, I was just thinking about ‘Bhagavad Gita’ and Arjuna because I read Bhagavad Gita before the match,” Manu Bhaker said after winning the bronze.
Speaking about the anxious moments, Bhaker revealed that she fought with full energy till the last shot. “For me the feeling is really surreal. I feel I did a good job, I had put in a lot of effort and even till the last shot, I was fighting with all my energy. I am really grateful that I could win a bronze for India, maybe a better next time,” she said.
Speaking about what was going on in her mind at the last moment, Bhaker said, “I read a lot of Gita. What was going through my mind is ‘just do what you do, you. The destiny, you can’t control the outcome of it. In Gita, Krishna says to Arjun to focus on your karma and not the outcome of your karma. Only that was running on my head’.
Bhaker was competing in her second Olympics after drawing a blank in the previous edition. “After Tokyo I was very disappointed and it took me a very long time to overcome that. Frankly speaking, I really can’t explain how good I am feeling today,” Bhaker, whose Tokyo campaign had ended in tears after her pistol malfunctioned during the qualification of the same event, said with a wide smile.
