Vyas Poornima (Guru Poornima)

Vyas Poornima or Guru Poornima falls on the full moon day in the month of Ashadha, the fourth month of the lunar Indian calendar.  Men and women worship their spiritual Gurus or teachers on this day. 

As Gurus, in the earlier days, did not accept money from their students as fee, the students after having settled down in their life used to make annual offerings in accordance with their earnings.  The scholars also present their newly published books and take the blessings of their Guru on this day.  In a way, it used to be an old student’s day.

It is said that in each Dwapar yuga, some great scholar re-arranges the Vedas and the Puranas and is called Vyas.  The 28^th Veda Vyas (author of Mahabharata) born to Rishi Parashar and Matsyagandha, is known as Krishna Dwaipayana Veda Vyas.  He is called Krishna because he was dark in color, and Dwaipayan as he was born in a dweep or an island in a river. 

Veda Vyas spent a large part of his life in Haryana.  The  village Bilaspur (near Chhachhrauli-Jagadhri) is old Vyaspur, where on the bank of river Saraswati, It is believed that those who worship their Gurus are blessed by Saraswati, the goddess of learning.  They become sharp-minded and men of knowledge and are also ways held in high esteem.

Maharishi Veda Vyas was the greatest scholar of the Dwapar Yuga.  Besides scholars like Vidhura, he had a large number of disciples. To show their reverence to their Guru, these great scholarly students decided to meet their Guru every year on Ashadha Poornima day (the first day of Chaturmasya).  This being the rainy season in India, the Sanyasis or the Spritual Gurus settle down at a particular place and do not travel for four months and are said to  deliver scholarly discourses to their disciples and devotees. Another reason for selecting the Poornima day, is the belief that, like the moon which shines by reflecting the light of the sun and glorifies it, the disciples can shine like the moon by gaining knowledge from their guru.

Even though God is extremely simple, our minds being so complicated, we need a Guru -- not to teach us about our path, but to teach us about our mind, and to get us through the mind to that absolute simplicity, which is God.

On Vyas Poornima, people still observe this day as Guru Poornima day and recite Guru Gita (said to be a part of Skanda Purana) written by Veda Vyas. In this Lord Shiva explains to his consort Parvati the significance of worshipping the Guru.

Dhyaana moolam guror murtih;
Pooja moolam guror padam;
Mantra moolam guror vakyam;
Moksha moolam guror kripa

The form of the Guru is the object of meditation, the feet of the guru are the object of worship, the words of the Guru are the mantra and the grace of the Guru is                the means of liberation. (Guru Gita)

Acknowledgements:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyasa

http://archives.amritapuri.org/matruvani/vol-99/dec99/99mv12hints.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Gita

http://srigurugita.com/files/SriGuruGitaCompleteSanskrit.pdf

http://srigurugita.com/files/SriGuruGitaCompleteEnglish.pdf

http://indiatravelogue.com/pass/fest/guru-purnima.html

Om Tat Sat

Pearls of wisdom

  Guru Nanak Dev

  

As fragrance abides in the flower
As reflection is within the mirror,
So does your Lord abide within you,
Why search for him without?

 

 Kabir

 

 “All know that the drop merges into the ocean, but few know that the ocean merges into the drop.”

 Albert Einstein

  The intuituive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

 Yogananda Paramahansa

 Spiritual success lies in constantly attuning yourself with the Cosmic Mind, and in maintaining your peace and poise no matter what irremediable events occur in your life, such as the death of dear ones, or other sorrowful happenings.

  

Mahatma Gandhi

 

 You must be the change

you wish to see in the world.

 

Gnanananda Swami

"A true disciple has no sadhana to perform. 

He has only to surrender himself completely to his guru".

 

Mata Amritanandamayi

 "Death of the ego leads to deathlessness. 

When the ego dies, you live eternally in bliss."

 Sri Ramana Maharishi

 We loosely talk of Self-realization, for lack of a better term.  But how can one realize or make real that which alone is real? All we need to do is to give up our habit of regarding as real that which is unreal. All religious practices are meant solely to help us do this. When we stop regarding the unreal as real, then reality alone will remain, and we will be that.

 

Aurobindo

 “True knowledge is not attained by thinking. 

It is what you are; it is what you become.”

 

Sri Ravishankar Baba

  Meditation erases the impressions and improves the expression

 

Sri Sarada Devi

 As you smell the fragrance of a flower by handing it or the smell of sandalwood by rubbing it against a stone, so you obtain spiritual awakening by constantly thinking of God.

 Swami Vivekananda

 

 Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.

 Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

  You cannot transcend what you do not know.

To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself.

  The Upanishads

 

 The little space within the heart is as great as the vast universe. The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun and the moon and the stars. Fire and lightning and winds are there, and all that now is and all that is not.

Antonio Machado

 Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more;

wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking.

By walking one makes the road,

and upon glancing behind

one sees the path. . .

 

Marcus Aurelius

 

 It is not the body, nor the personality that is the true self.

The true self is eternal. Even on the point of death we can

say to ourselves, "my true self is free. I cannot be contained.

Buddha

  The no-mind not-thinks no-thoughts about no-things.

  Joseph Campbell

 

 The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe,

to match your nature with Nature.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

  Many are the names of God, and infinite the forms that lead us to know Him. In whatsoever name or form you desire to call Him, in that very form and name you will see Him.