source: http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/society/article621158.ece
KOCHI, INDIA, September 8, 2010: Gloria Arieira, a Brazilian and an authority in Sanskrit has translated the Bhagawad Gita and parts of the Vedas to Portuguese, enabling her students across Brazil and Portugal to access the depths of this great philosophy. If you are seeking spirituality in the holiday resort of Copacabana, Rio, then you will find it at Vidya Mandir, a school of Vedanta studies founded and run by Gloria.
Gloria, who is visiting Kalady, with a group of 28 students, has been to Kerala before. A disciple of Swami Chinmayananda and of Swami Dayananda, Gloria’s entry into the world of spirituality was after she heard Swami Chinmayananda’s talk on Vedanta in Rio. That was in 1973. Gloria felt that her search for the greater meaning to life was answered. With her curiosity aroused she wished to delve deeper into the philosophy of the Vedas and found her way to an ashram in Mumbai. Here she studied the Vedas and lived the ashram way of life. Gloria began teaching the Vedas when she went back to Rio in 1979. Five years later that she started Vidya Mandir.
Dissatisfied with her search in other philosophies she was drawn towards Vedic ways. Gloria learnt Sanskrit because it was the only way she could reach the depths of knowledge that she was seeking. The Bhagvad Gita and the Upanishads had to be read in the language they were written in. Once having mastered Sanskrit, Gloria translated the books into Portuguese so as to propagate the meaning of the text to her group of students. The number of her students increased as she could now reach out to them in Sanskrit, Portuguese and English.