Guru Purnima is a special day celebrated in India, in the honour of the great sage, Ved Vyas, who classified the Vedas and wrote the 18 Puranas and the Mahabharata. This day is celebrated to honour our Guru, teacher or a spiritual Master, and to show our respect and gratitude towards them.
To gain worldly knowledge, we seek teachers who are adept in their subject and can help us learn it. Similarly, if we wish to grow spiritually we have to reach at the feet of a true spiritual Master. In every age, there are sages and Saints who can take us on the journey within.
Saints and mystics give us the gift of spirituality. Without such divine, enlightened beings, we would stay mired in a life of darkness and spiritual ignorance. They come to this earth to take seekers from darkness to light. Guru means “one who takes seekers from darkness into light.” We are living in a world of darkness since we are unaware of our spiritual heritage and God.
A Guru’s role is not only to enlighten seekers with knowledge and wisdom, but also to help us connect with God’s vibrant, radiant Light shining within us. They open our inner eye to help us see that inner Light and begin our spiritual journey back to the Source of Light, God.
If we were to examine various religious and spiritual traditions, we would find that at the core all religions say one and the same thing. They all believe in a Higher Power that created all of us. They educate us and show us a path to tap into the spiritual aspect through prayer, meditation, or inversion and achieve the purpose of self-knowledge and God-realisation.
When spiritual Masters come into this world, their main job is to take our souls back to God. Given that responsibility, the spiritual Masters do everything to take us towards God. To help us return to our true Home, the spiritual Masters shower us with love and bliss. The spiritual Masters want us to experience the union of our soul with God. They want to free our soul so that there is nothing that interferes with it be-coming one with God.
Guru Purnima is a special day celebrated in India, in honour of the great sage, Ved Vyas, and to pay our respect and gratitude to the Spiritual Master who has led us on the enlightened path within.
– Sant Rajinder Singhji Maharaj
