MEDITATION centres, yoga institutions, ashrams and homes around the world celebrated Guru Purnima on Tuesday. Purnima is the full moon and Guru is the person who dispels darkness. It is also called Vyasa Purnima by some, in celebration of the compiler of the Vedas in the Indian tradition
Guru can be split into two root words - Gu and Ru. Gu means darkness and Ru is light. The darkness here refers to the lack of clarity in the mind owing to muddled thinking patterns that have formed grooves in the psyche. These thought grooves do not allow a person to progress in life. They are highly limiting in nature and this does not allow an individual to know his true nature, which is a limitless consciousness. A guru is a person who functions like a master sculptor, chiselling a big piece of rock, which is the disciple. He sees the idol in the rock and chips out all the unwanted bits and pieces. What remains is a fine ideal of a personality that was hidden within the maze of confusing thoughts.
Guru Puja was performed at many places, on the occasion of the Guru Purnima. The Dattatreya Siva Baba Centre in Anna Nagar observed the day by screening videos of Siva Baba speaking on the importance of Guru in one's life. He says that devotion or Bhakti is the way to achieve what one wants in life. If Christianity is such a popular religion around the world today, it is because of the power of devotion to the name of Christ, he said.
While we talk of a guru as a person - one who ideally teaches a spiritual way of life to the disciples, anyone who is a master in any area of expertise is called a guru. We have therefore a music guru, a dance guru, an art guru or even a guru for financial and materials management and corporate gurus. In its essence, guru is not a person, but a quality. Anything that helps to dispel the confusions in our mind and give clarity - there the guru expresses through them.
Guru is present everywhere and in everything. It works this way. For instance you are looking out to get out on a tour and you want to know how to get there and what to do. You open the newspaper and there is a big article with photographs, illustrations and contact numbers just about what you want. It almost seems like a miracle. The process is, when you deeply wish for something you get to the core of your consciousness. That is the guru within you. It dispels your doubts and answers your questions, not necessarily through you alone, but through the guru in everything and everyone. An answer can come from a bird, a loving dog, a beggar, a flower, a tree, a flowing river, a tall and imposing mountain or even a speck of dust on your desk.
The gurus that we come across outside of us as masters, teachers and swamis are a total manifestation of this dimension of the universe called the guru. Just as you go to the Niagara falls and you see just water everywhere or you go to the Himalayas and you are surrounded by mountains, these teachers are filled to the brim with this aspect called the guru consciousness on whom you can rely on to light your path in life and show you the direction.
Just have we have an international day for about anything, women, children, father, mother, valentine, earth, water, environment, pollution - the ancients devised a way in which we remember many a person or ideal that is needed to help us understand the purpose of our life and hence the full moon of this month happens to be celebrated as Guru Purnima.
The Infinite Dimensions Charitable Trust, the Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore and the Art of Living Centre in Anna Nagar were among others who celebrated Guru Purnima which bhajans, prayers and meditation.
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