Guru Purnima is considered as an auspicious day for the Hindus, Jains and Buddhists. It is also known as Vyasa Purnima. This day is dedicated to gurus and is celebrated in the remembrance of sage Maharishi Veda Vyasa – a symbol of guru shishya tradition. This was also the day when Lord Shiva became the first guru. The day is celebrated by Buddhists as on this day Lord Buddha gave his first sermon to the seven sages of Buddhism.
The day is celebrated on the full Moon day of the Hindu month of Ashadha. It usually falls in the month of June or July and this year it is on 27th July 2018.
Many of us have a question in mind ‘Why do we need a guru?’
Life sometimes seems very complicated. There is pleasure, pain, happiness, suffering, generosity, greed, passion and dispassion.
When our life is full of such opposing values, our mind sometimes becomes unable to handle these complications and just breaks down. It is then that you need wisdom to guide you through troubled times.
As the word Guru suggests – Gu means darkness, ru means Eliminator – eliminating darkness. Darkness is not an independent existing entity, it is an absence of light. You cannot chase away darkness just like that, you need to bring in light to kills the darkness.
When you are in the dark and you are not able to see anything, you feel alone and lost but the moment the lights are switched on, you feel the world is with you again. Everything is the still the same but just because you can see clearly your perception of the world changes completely.
This is exactly what a Guru does, makes us see everything the way it is. “A lack of clarity can put brakes to our journey of success- be it our personal, professional or social life.”
A Guru gives us the clarity about how to achieve our life the way we want it to be. This does not mean building a particular kind of home, building a particular kind of career, dressing this or that way but it is beyond all this. Making our life the way we want it means that this life will function at its best if it is kept the way the Creator intended Us to be. If we go back to our original nature, conscious of the seed nature within Us, we can become whatever we want, but it will not entangle us. It means we will feel free even while staying in the material world.
This quickening impulse cannot be derived from books. The soul can only receive impulses from another soul, and from nothing else. We may study books all our lives, we may become very intellectual, but in the end, we find that we have not developed at all spiritually.
The 3 layers of right knowledge as stated by Sage Patanjali’s Yogsutras are- ‘Direct experience, Perception and the Scriptures’. A right Guru is the one helps us with the impulses to have the right perceptions in understanding the scriptures better and understanding our direct experiences better.
The guru, the teacher, can see where the student is in the journey and help them adjust their course. A good teacher is always a good student also. They can preach because they practice. A sincere student can progress further and faster with a teacher than without one: it’s true for sports, music, academics, career and spiritual life as well.
For me A Guru is not someone who just gives you peace, but is the one who teaches you to handle all agitations peacefully- be it the inner ones or the outer ones.
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