Gurupurnima
(Talk of Acarya Swami Sadatmanandaji on 27th July 2018 at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam)
Today we are celebrating the day called Vyaasapurnima, also known as Gurupurnima. It is called Vyaasa-purnima because on this full moon day Vyaasa was born. Vyaasa was an important guru in our tradition. He is called Veda Vyaasa – ‘viv vyaasam vedam yasmat’ - one who compiled vedas. He did not author the vedas, but he compiled them. Therefore he is called Veda Vyaasa. His other name is Sri Krishna Dvaipayana because he was born in a particular Island and his name was Sri Krishna. He is considered to be an avatara of Lord Vishnu. There is a sloka which expresses this idea – ‘Vyaasaya Vishnu rupaaya’.
His contribution to our tradition is enormous. He compiled the vedas. He wrote brahma sutra which is a book of analysis on the Upanishad. He also wrote Mahabharata consisting of 100,000 slokas. He wrote ashtadasha (18) puranas and he has written a commentary on yoga sutra and there is also a Vyaasa smrti.
He has covered all the aspects of vedic teaching. Therefore, there is a saying – ‘vyaasochchhishtam jagat sarvam’- everything is touched upon by Veda Vyaasa. Idea is that all the aspects of life are dealt with by Veda Vyaasa. To express our gratitude to Veda Vyaasa, we celebrate Vyaasapurnima. Since Veda Vyaasa represents the lineage of teachers, this day is also called Gurupurnima – ‘guroh purnima’ – the full moon day dedicated to Guru. On this day we express our gratitude to our own teacher and also the teachers of the entire sampradaya (tradition). In fact, there is a specific way of doing this puja where you make a mandala and you invoke all the Acharyas.
What is the importance of having and showing gratitude? Especially in our Vedanta tradition, gratitude to our teachers is very important because if I have gratitude and reverence to my teacher from whom I am learning or have learnt, then only there will be an impact of the teaching given by him or her. If there is no reverence or gratitude for the teacher , even though I have learnt, his or her teaching will not have so much impact. The notes I have written during the class, I will not have the mind to see it and even if I see it, I won’t give much validity to it . So my reverence and gratitude to the teacher will create an impact on the teaching given by the teacher. It is for my own benefit that I have and express my gratitude.
Another thing is – gratitude makes me humble. Otherwise there can be jnana-ahankara. “I have understood well”,” I can express and talk fluently“ – this kind of arrogance. To counter-act that, having gratitude to your teacher is very important. Gratitude means I remember that what I have is because of the grace of my teacher and this attitude will keep me humble. Gratitude in general is very good for our mental health. Gratitude keeps us happy. Gratitude is the feeling born of the acknowledgement of the favours done to me. When I remember something good done to me, naturally there will be happiness. Therefore, gratitude in general is a very good attitude. I have seen it in Pujya Swamiji so much. A person would have done a small thing to him, but he will make it a big point to express his gratitude. In my own life, I have seen it has helped me very much. So gratitude keeps you happy.
Another thing is gratitude takes care of our self-esteem as well. When you express your gratitude often, then you are remembering - how blessed I am, how blessed I am. Means, I remember what all I have. How I have been helped by so many people. When I think of that, then the general feeling many people have ‘that life has let them down’, will not come to me because of my remembering that so much has been done
to me by so many people. Therefore, this gratitude helps us to even have a relatively good self-esteem. That is why we express our gratitude in general and especially to our teacher on this Gurupurnima day.
Also this gratitude should not be kept within yourself. It needs to be expressed in an appropriate way and at appropriate time. When expressed, it gets strengthened like love or any other good feelings. Therefore, gratitude needs to be expressed. Gurupurnima and days like these give us an opportunity to express our gratitude. This gratitude can be expressed in various ways - through speech, through chanting some stotram or expressing some feelings to the teacher, if they are there or through puja or worshipping the picture, paduka/feet of the teacher and also by serving the teacher in whatever manner possible – ‘kayena, vacha, manasa’.
All these three means we use to express our gratitude. When we express our gratitude verbally, we should make sure there is no exaggeration. So whatever feeling we have, we express appropriately without exaggeration. That will help us to strengthen our gratitude.
One more thing, this day is marking thebeginning of Caturmasya vratam of sanyasis. In earlier days and even now some sanyasis keep walking and don’t stay in one place for more than three days. That was the convention. But during monsoon they cannot travel, so they will be staying in one place and the villagers or citizens of that town/
city will request the sanyasi to stay there and bless them by his presence. There is a particular vidhi for that. The sanyasi will agree to stay in that place and everyday he will be teaching some sastra like puranas or if there are evolved students, then he may teach brahma sutra. This gurupurnima day is the beginning of Caturmasa vratam. Caturmasa is a group of four months starting from this gurupurnima day. But now a days this is too much as most of the sanyasis are busy! So there is an abridged version – ‘paksho vai masah’. Four months are reduced into two months. Some follow this and don’t travel for two months.
This day is also important for starting some vratam (vow or discipline). Generally, the vratam is ‘upavaasa pradhana vratam’. You reduce your intake during these four months. This is also good health-wise because it is said during the monsoon time our digestion power is reduced and therefore it is btter we eat less. One variety of vratam is – ‘shaaka haara’ – eating only vegetables for four months. The result of this vratam is one becomes healthy. Or one can fast on alternate days. Some vratams are positive like you chant purusha suktam every day. This will increase buddhi shakti or you do 108 pradakshina having fruit in your hand or do some vedic chanting every day. All these will bless you anytime time of the year but if done during Chaturmasa, it will bless you even more. Like shops announce special Diwali sale, this period is speacial! If you cannot do it for four months, then do it at least for Kartika masa - the last month. These four months is devashayana - Vishnu is taking rest. Therefore, mangal karyas (auspicious actions) such as marriage etc. are not generally done during this period.
There are some guiding principles as to what sort of vratam, one should do. One thing is the vratam you do should not disturb the household set-up or office set-up. Means your vratam should not be a source of disturbance to others. Suppose you are a receptionist and you take the vratam of maunam or you take vratam to chant purusha suktam loudly very early in the morning - not proper. Also the vratam should be in keeping with your physical stamina. If one has problem walking, one should not take a vratam of doing 108 pradakshina – ‘Samartho dharmam Acharet’. Also it should be in keeping with your mental condition. Like one should not undertake the vratam of maunam when one’s mind is depressed - talking is necessary to get over depression. Also the vratam needs to be in harmony with the type of sadhana one is predominantly following. Suppose a person is having a commitment to nididhyasanam, then doing 108 pradakshina or chanting may not be appropriate. Similarly the vratam should not distract one from his/her present sadhana. Like right now if I have commitment to Vedanta study and have to attend 6/7 classes in a day, then I should not take a vratam which will distract me from my study. Keeping all these factors in mind we do vratam.
“Why do vratam?” Vratam is meant for establishing my mastery over my own body-mind-sense complex. If you already have this mastery and you feel that your body, your mind and senses are very cooperative, under control and do not create any problem, then you need not do vratam because you have already got the result of vratam. But if this mastery is not there, then vratam can help. Further undertaking a vratam should not create any guilt. Suppose you are not able to keep up after a while guilt should not crop up. Perhaps, you can pray – “O Lord, give me the capacity to do this vratam next year.” So without any guilt we follow the vratam. It then surely gives a lot of discipline, lot of mastery over one’s body-mind-sense complex.
So we pray to lord Dakshinamurti and to Pujya Swamiji to bless us in our pursuit. If we are going to have some vratam we pray to Bhagavan - “Give us the strength to pursue a vratam next time”.
