Guru Purnima is a very sacred festival in India as Indian culture has always laid emphasis on paying due respect to your teacher. A very famous Indian saying goes like this “Guru Gobind duo khade kake lagu paye. Balihari guru aapne jin Gobind diyo bataye”. It means - both Guru and God are standing in front of me. To whom should I bow down to first? But whenever there is any doubt, first pay your regards to your teacher and show him gratitude because he is the one who told you about God. This shows how much teachers are revered in India.
The legend has it that Gautam Buddha gave his first sermon on this day at Sarnath, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. While this day is also important as Yogic system believes that it was on this day that Shiva-who is the supreme power, gave the knowledge of the universe to Saptarishis (seven sages). In many parts of the nation, this day is also celebrated as the birth anniversary of the great sage Vyasa.
Astrological significance behind celebrating Guru Purnima
If we break the word guru into two words, gu-ru then we will come to know that in Sanskrit ‘gu’ means darkness and ‘ru’ means the one who removes all darkness. So guru or the teacher is the one who removes all our doubts, misconceptions and ushers in a whole new world in front of us. This day is celebrated on poornima or on the full moon day. Full moon is an indication of the presence of light even at night which is the darkest moment of the day.
Celebrations in schools/colleges and institutes
Throughout the length and breadth of the nation, events will be organized to show respect to the teachers. The importance which is attached to the title of a teacher in India can be ascertained by the fact that on July 27th, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam passed away and government declared October 15th, Kalam’s birthday as World Students Day only because he didn’t miss a single opportunity to teach something valuable to students not just in India but across the globe.
Positive vibrations: the best gift to your teacher
Students move out and at times, are not able to meet their teachers on this day. Dr. Rupa Batra - renowned Vaastu and Feng Shui expert emphasizes that the best gift which students can give to their teachers in today’s world is positive vibrations. Nowadays, people are very smart and manipulative enough to curse you from inside but speak well about you from the outside. We should stay away from such things as vibrations have the tendency of coming back to us. So the best way of showing gratitude to your teacher is to give him or her lots of good vibrations. Vibrations of peace, health, prosperity and contentment!
Happy Guru Purnima to all...!