A festival to awaken your divinity

(Guru Purnima festival: 15th July)

(From Pujya Bapuji’s divine discourses)

Vyasa Purnima is another name of the Guru Purnima. The festival of Guru Purnima is celebrated every year to commemorate Krishna Dwaipayana, Known as Veda Vyasa,who edited the Vedas. Bhagwan Veda Vyasa has served the mankind with many works. If there is anything great in all great works, scriptures, religions, sects, it is a gift from Vyasa.

‘The whole world is Prasad from Vyasaji.’ The great sege composed the great epic, Mahabharata, containing 100,000 verses and declared, ‘All the other spiritual books contain only that which is written in the Mahabharata; what is not written in Mahabharata can not be found in other scriptures.’ This was a challenge from Maharshi Veda Vyasa, which no learned man has accepted to date. Maharshi Veda Vyasawas equipped with such a divine vision (foresightedness) that we would caution and advice from time to time Pandavas as to the further course of events and would advice the Kauravas about what they should not do. He divine knowledge and radiance was held in so great esteem by Lord Ganesha that he so accepted the task of writing down the verses which he conceived in a state of deep trance. What a great visionary he was!

All the Rishis and gods prayed to such Veda Vayasa to fix a day of the year when people would worship and show reverence to him as there are days fixed for worshipping other deities – Monday and Shivaratri for shaivites, Tuseday, Saturday and Hanuman Jayanti for the devotees of Hanumanji, Janmashtami for devotees of Lord Krishna, Ram Navami for devotees of Lord Rama respectively. “O living God, Sadguru, we went to repay the deep debt of gratitude we owe to you by worshipping you because the gift of knowledge does little good to the ungrateful.”

“The Guru is Brahma, the ,Guru is Vishnu, Guru is Shiva, Guru is Supreme Brahma Itself.Prostration to that Guru.”

The Guru is the Creature of samskaras of Dharma, Upasana and Brahmajnana in our hearts. As Lord Vishnu nurtures the creation, the Guru nurtures thease divine virtues. Like Lord shiva, the Guru destroys our petty impure desires and belifs, our self-limiting notions and inferiority complexes. The Guru is Suprime Brahman Itself. Singing thus the Guru’s praises, the gods and Rishis prayed that a day be fixed for worship of the Guru. Thursday was fixed for worshipping the Guru and the purnima of the montrh Aashaadh, on which day Vyasaji commenced the composition of ‘Brahma Sutra’, the first philosophical work of the world, came to be known as Guru Purnima or Vyasa-Purinma.

Every year, on this day, we remember Maharshi Veda Vyasa as the first Guru and Worship our Guru as the embodiment of Existence-Consciousness-Bliss Absolute. On the Guru –Purnima day,I used to do mental worship of my Guru. I bathed my Gurudev, dressed him in cloths, applied tilak, garlanded him with a male of white, fragrant jasmine flowers and performed Aarati. Then I would visualize Gurudev sitting before me and feel blessed and elated remembering his physical movements. Thus I celebrated on Vysas in the form of my ingly meditation on Vyasa in the form of my Guru… Then I would feel as if I were listening to my Guruji; as if Guruji were showering love on me through his gracious glance and I feel exhilarated, overjoyed, causing bristling of the hairs of my body. I used to have mental conversation with Gurudev which I do even now. Gurudev’s physical form is not existent but his real Being is all pervading immortal and eternal.

The festival of Vyasa Purnima comes to awaken our dormant powers, spiritual Shakti. We have been undergoing metempsychosis since time immemorial. We have been gaining and losing, and in the process becoming indigent. The festival of Guru-Purnima eradicates our poverty, takes away our disease and grief, and dispels the darkness of our ignorance thereby filling our heart with divine love, divine joy, divine powers. Guru Purnima is the festival which eradicates our poverty and downtroddenness, and makes us rich with the divine opulence, divine love and divine joy. Vyasa-Purnima teaches us to go for attaining freedom of joy, knowledge and life so that we do not depand upon others for our joy, knowledge and life; it reminds us of our own greatness.