– Ananthasireesh
“Parents are first teachers and teachers are second parents” is the quote that I heard from my English teacher when I was in primary school. This is the best quote I have heard in my whole life about teachers. On eve of the Gurupoornima I want to share my views with you all regarding significance of this day and how the actual reason of celebrating this has overshadowed in the recent past.
I have seen lots of posts on social media from morning posting many pics of Sri Sai Baba and wishing Gurupoornima. Even though I am very happy to see at least people remember Gurupoornima on somebody’s name rather than completely ignoring the facts about the day. In same way, I am also concerned about where our Hindu society is going to? It is very tough to explain to people who are very close to you that Gurupoornima is not related only to one Guru or Baba.
“ANDHAKARA NIRODATYAT GURURITYABHIDIYTE” says sastras about Guru, meaning the one who ever helps you to come out of darkness and enlightens you is a Guru. There is nothing wrong in worshiping or referring to any of the guru who enlightened you, along with that we also need to give the credits to the main head who was the reason to celebrate this eve, the whole point am making here is you can remember Laila-Majnu on a Valentines day as it is intended to remember great lovers but you can’t overshadow the Valentine who sacrificed his life for love. The same thing is happening in today’s Hindu society. Many don’t even know as to why Gurupoornima is actually observed and they think it’s related Sri Sai Baba whereas in real the day has nothing to do with the life of any one Guru or Baba. Gurupoornima is celebrated on the birth day of Sri Vyaasa Maharshi (Sri Krishna Dwaypayana).
This day is intended to remember every guru who helps you to come out of darkness. It does not matter who you worship but you cannot forget the main reason as to why it is celebrated. The reason I am concerned is because it seems that no one remembers Adi Guru of whole universe Sri Parama Shiva who derived the cosmic sense. Most do not even care about Sri Dakshinamurthy who with a silent smile passed on the knowledge for his Shishya Parampara. People do not even remember Sri Vyaasa Maharshi who churned the entire infinite ocean of Vedas and divided it into 4 different parts as Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharvana vedas, so that everyone can easily understand them. Apart from these he has also written Ashtadashapuranas and Ithihasa of Mahabaratha which is called Panchamaveda that gives whole summary of dharma mentioned all other vedas. Not many remember the great Sri Shankaracharya who traversed the whole of Bharathavarsha in just 32 years and advocated Advaitha. It is indeed sad to notice the neglect of our Adi Gurus.
On this day, we are to remember the highest knowledge produced by our hoary Rishi Parampara. It is not just the rituals we are following inside some modern temples. If Sai Baba would have been really there today he would have thrown away all the people who are performing unwanted rituals inside his temples in his name. After witnessing many of these questionable rituals and practices, one would really loose the conviction on Hindu society. Hence it is good to be aware of yourself before performing any ritual or any practice. One should be a rationalist by birth and become a believer by death knowing the inner meaning of our dharma.
Love all. Humanism is the best thing to follow along with dharma. Finally happy Vyasa Poornima to all.
(The author is a Software Professional)
