Guru Purnima 2019 in India

Image by Dean Moriarty from Pixabay

The festival of Guru Poornima is celebrated on the day of the full moon or  Poornima of Ashadh month. As per tradition, it is the day to express reverence towards your Guru, your teacher or mentors.

The word Guru is made up of two parts – Gu meaning darkness and Ru meaning remover or the antidote to the darkness. So essentially a Guru is someone who removes or dispels darkness from our lives and shows us the right way in the light of knowledge.

It is a day to pause and be grateful for all that we have received in life and celebrate everything that we have. Guru Purnima is the day of feeling grateful for this source of wisdom that keeps you balanced amidst the troubles of existence and allows you to walk with confidence and with a vision.

Amongst the Hindus the day is used to pay homage to Vyaas Muni hence the day is also known as Vyaas Poornima and Gnyaan Poornima as it also the birthday of Guru Ved Vyaas, who is supposed to have organized all the knowledge from the universe in the form of the Vedas.

The planet Jupiter is also significator for the Guru as per Vedic astrology and believed to be kind, optimistic and a giver of knowledge and wisdom. So on this day the planet Jupiter is also worshipped and revered as a benign planetary teacher. The festival is also celebrated in various schools, institutes and creative arts organizations. In the creative art form, especially classical dance and classical music the Guru-Shishya Parampara is especially revered with the students paying special respect to their teacher for imbibing in them the knowledge of the classical art forms.

Guru Poornima is a festival of spiritual ‘seekers’ though – the seekers of the divine wisdom, knowledge, spirituality, peace and greater prudence.