Guru Poornima – A tradition to honor Spiritual Masters.
During the month dedicated to Guru, (the day allocated is full moon day – Poornima tithi of Ashada Maasa), our team conducted extensive research from diverse sources with the aim of benefiting all devotees. The findings have been summarized in this concise document for easy reference.
This compilation does not claim completeness or authority but serves as a valuable starting point for understanding this significant event.
Guru Overview:
The human soul, despite being initiated on a spiritual path, cannot comprehend an abstract power and thus requires guidance from those who lead them to God. Scriptures advise us to venerate these guides while also loving their physical presence as the divine manifesting itself in human form. The Guru’s body is merely a vessel containing immense divinity and deserves utmost devotion and reverence.
God, being an abstract creator beyond imagination, becomes more tangible when manifested through human beings. Thus, God assumes human form and takes on the role of a Guru. This definition emphasizes that the Guru represents both the divine principle (Saguna) and its quality or absence (Nirguna), making him approachable and accessible to man’s needs.
The Guru as Manifested God:
Once the Guru embodies this dual nature, he becomes a source of light, inspiration, and an exemplary role model. The life of an average seeker on a material level is often barren and unproductive until they find their focus in the Master. It requires divine grace, protection, and motivation from the Guru to unlock the potential held within each individual.
The Relationship between Guru and God:
Ultimately, the Guru and God are one because the Almighty cannot manifest differently through His medium of manifestation. The Guru embodies not only the Saguna (characteristics) but also the Nirguna (quality) of the Supreme Being, making him approachable and accessible to human understanding.
Relationship between a Guru and a Disciple:
Once a contact between the Guru and the bhakta(disciple) is established, the relationship between master and disciple becomes a thing of beauty. This leads us to consider the principle of reciprocity which operates in this relationship. In return for the innumerable demands which a bhakta makes on the Master, it is but natural that the Guru too should impose a few conditions on the bhakta. The Guru expects total surrender, absolute obedience ,and, the last and most important, supreme effort.
Guru’s mission:</H2
The Guru’s mission appears to be two-fold. The first and most important concern of the Guru is to awaken, elevate and transform the seeker. The second and final purpose of the Guru is paradoxically to help the disciple seeker to transcend this state of complete dependence on the Master, which dependence the Guru himself had taken such pains to foster. The final spurt of realizing his true identity with God is exclusively the Seeker’s job.
Saint of Shirdi – Shri Sai Baba – Saguna Brahma – Guru:
The saint of Shirdi recognized and emphasized the beauty of a Guru-guided life. Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi is the Guru incarnate to live on this earth in the late part of last century and early part of this century. Shri Sai Baba gave tremendous importance to the adoption of the Guru in one’s spiritual “Sadhana”(pursuit). With an innate compassion Shri Sai Baba often declared -“I am your savior, not only from the weight of sin, but from the weight of care and misery”. “Guru is all the Gods”, said the Saint of Shirdi. Moreover, the Baba declared reassuringly though as the all pervading Guru he would naturally expect complete surrender, obedience and loyalty, he promised that through his supreme powers he would extend complete protection to those who put their implicit faith in him.
Surrender to the Guru the only Sadhana Prayer?:
This question was hotly debated even in the presence of Baba. The answer to this complex question as given by Shri Sai Baba comes straight out of Sri Sai Satcharita.
Kakasaheb Dixit(an ardent Devotee of Shri Sai Baba) has published his notes regarding this matter. Next day after Hemadpant’s meeting with Sai Baba, Kakasaheb went to Baba and asked whether he should leave Shirdi.
Baba Said, “Yes”.
Then someone asked – “Baba, where to go?”
Baba said, “High up.”
Then the man said, “How is the way?”
Baba said, “There are many ways leading there; there is one way also from here (Shirdi). The way is difficult. There are tigers and wolves in the jungles on the way.”
I (Kakasaheb) asked – “But Baba, what if we take a guide with us?”
Baba answered, – “Then there is no difficulty. The guide will take you straight to your destination, avoiding
wolves, tigers and ditches etc. on the way. If there be no guide, there is the danger of your being lost in the jungles or falling into ditches.”
Mr. Dabholkar was present on this occasion and he thought that this was the answer Baba gave to the question whether Guru was a necessity (Vide Sai Leela Vol. I, No.5, Page 47); and he thereupon took the hint that no discussion of the problem, whether man is free or bound, is of any use in spiritual matters, but that on the contrary real paramartha(absolute meaning) is possible only as the result of the teachings of the Guru, as is illustrated in this chapter of the original work in the instances of great Avatars like Rama and Krishna, who had to submit themselves to their Gurus, Vasishtha and Sandipani respectively, for getting self-realization and that the only virtues necessary for such progress are faith and patience. (Vide Sai Satcharita, Ch. II, 191-92).
Has Shri Sai Baba qualified to be a Guru?
Not only did the Saint of Shirdi perform his duties of Guruship during his life, but was able to establish a lasting legacy through his vision and foresight.
Shri Sai Baba was not content to transfer his messiahship to his descendants. In the last years of his life, he said to his devotees with a mother’s solicitude, “Do not grieve when my body passes away. My tomb will live and move and speak with all those who make me their sole refuge.” Happily, though we have celebrated over 108 years of his mahasamadhi, Sai Baba’s promise is abundantly fulfilled even to-day. Millions of devotees flock to his Samadhi regularly to seek his blessings. Through decades of void there comes echoing down the years the gracious message- “Lo, I am beside you always”.
Significance of Guru Poornima Day.
The Poornima(Full Moon) Day in the month of Ashadha(July-August) is known as Guru Poornima. This is a very sacred day on which special worship is performed to the Acharyas(Gurus), who, through their Infinite Compassion and Supreme Grace, have imparted the Knowledge of the Absolute(Brahma Vidya) through a long and continuous line of Acharyas(Guru Parampara) to all the Seekers of the Self.
Celebration of Guru Poornima Day in Shirdi
The celebration of Guru Poornima began in Shirdi around 1908. One day Shri Baba told his disciple Shri Dada Kelkar, “Do you know this day is the day to approach Gurus? Bring your worship articles”. Then Shri Kelkar and his friends looked up the calendar and found that the day was Guru Poornima day. They started worshipping Shri Sai Baba as their Guru, and that practice has continued till today not only in Shirdi but all over the world where prayers are offered to Shri Sai.
How does one celebrate Guru Poornima?
Guru Poornima is celebrated by devotees by performing Guru Pooja(offering prayers to the Guru) to our Lord Shri Sai Baba. Each Sai Devotee can either perform the Sai Guru Pooja(prayer) at home or attend a Sai Guru Pooja or sponsor a Sai Guru Pooja being performed at a Sai temple by offering donation or other articles used in Pooja(Pooja samagri).
One can attend a bhajan or visit a Sai Mandir where ever possible. For those of us who do not have the fortune of visiting a Sai temple or attending a Bhajan, devotees may participate in Sai Guru Pooja by sponsoring Guru Pooja. Please visit Online Forms Link to offer your sponsorhip. For those who are unable to do so, humming songs about Sai or repeating Sai slokams or SaiNama would be a good way to spend Guru Poornima day.