Guru Purima, is a widely spread Hindu festival in India and Nepal, on this festival the disciple worships his Guru or spiritual master, mentor, teacher. It is celebrated on the full moon in either June-July.
According to the believes of Hindu traditions, when a child is born his first teachers are his parents, thereafter a Guru, who will take over the role as father and spiritual teacher to the disciple. In Vedic philosophy, Adi Guru is the primordial master or founder of philosophy. The scriptures discuss the absolute necessity to accept a spiritual master and take guidance from them to know about the realities of this material world, transcend them and become eternally situated in happiness.
The Vedic system of education or the Gurukula had a provision of daily worshipping of the Guru. By worshipping the Guru and offering respects de sincere disciple would progress in his active education.
In yogic philosophy, Lord Shiva is recognized as the Adi Yogi (first yoga practitioner) and the Adi Guru. Read “Yogic School of Hinduism” - Wikipedia”
What does a Guru mean to me?
Having grown up in a culture with no such thing as a “Guru” but being baptised as a Christian in a religion I never quite understood, I had no choice than to take life as my master. At the age of 12, I was forced to participate in the spiritual event of the Holy Sacrament of Confirmation. A celebration of Coming-Of-Age (transformation from child to young adolescence) within Christianity.
The year leaning before I was initiated to the Holy Sacrament, we were introduced to the deeper meaning of the Bible of Holy Sacrament by, I suppose, what we would call in Hindu terminology “a guru” or in Christian terminology a catechist.
Me as a stubborn student and tiny wise girl could never quite get these holy scripts as I never felt the joy of life in them. I thought the stories where extremely boring and depressing, not the way I saw life nor experienced life.
I completed my initiation out of respect for my religious grandfather, whom I now see as a spiritual guru in those times. Unfortunately, I only came to realise this after his passing and was never able to praise him for his life wisdom he had passed on.
My grandfather had a great spirit and disciplined practice of waking up early, daily exercises, non-drinking, non-violence ... He was a poet, literate and philosopher. He used to tell us great stories even for each item in his house he had some tale. I used to love listening to his talks, as he told them with great theatrical expressions and full of vivid energy. My grandfather was for sure my first Guru, after my father.
My father taught me all I had to know about nature, the animal world and how to survive in the wild. He still does today, he loves watching animal, nature science documentaries. He taught me how to read roadmaps, how to read animal signs in the dirt, how to look at the trees to find the North, to observe the moon, the stars and the clouds … He told me how to set camp, make fire without fuel, to catch fish, to make animal cages and traps … oh and how to dismantle a bicycle and rebuild it after cleaning.
But my greatest life Guru is so far hosting inside me, the great observer of life, she who watches life passing by and pays attentions to detail of the behaviours of a different animal world, called human movements. You can learn so much from watching people, watching how they walk, move themselves through a crowed, how they handle things, money, how they talk, sleep and eat … and of course academic conversations and passing knowledge. In fact, passing knowledge cannot be overseen proper human intellectual interaction is of great importance to further develop your own perception.
It must have been after my grandfather’s passing when I started observing people, about 10 years ago in 2008. Even though I was living on the other side of the world, this event has for sure a spiritual impact on me, it was as if I had received his blessing to wake up. It had moved me in a way where I began to reflect on my life, my happiness and that endless joy I had as a child.
At that time, I actually had lost that joy, I felt miserable unhappy and completely in a wrong environment, situation. I didn’t feel the kind of live I was living, I was blocked on the inside not being able to express my truth nature and I didn’t know how too … but this event had to happen because this is where my truth inner Guru was put to the test.
Over the course of 10 years, I’ve been wildly tested. I slipped many times through the eyes of a needle and many times I managed to keep myself from drowning. At those times, I was saved by the bell, it wasn’t because of my intellectual deeds, on the contrary during those times it was my emotional plane that had taken lead out of compassion and love for others well-being. No my rescues came from a different source, a higher source, my inner being, my inner guru and the guidance of the universal resonation.
For those out there today, who haven’t got “a Guru” just like me.
I can only give as advice, have faith in yourself, your own being will lead you towards your direction, observe others and yourself, self-reflect on causes of your own actions and simply follow your intuition. If it doesn’t feel right it doesn’t … than leave.
With love,
Mata
Om Sri Guru Bhuyo Namah.
Hari Om Tat Sat.
Om Shantih, Shantih, Shantih
Other sources:
https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/8880/adi-guru
https://indianexpress.com/article/religion/guru-purnima-2018-why-is-it-celebrated-legend-history-and-all-you-need-to-know-5275205/