Vyasa Purnima....

Guru Purnima..

 Guru Purnima - which is also known as ‘Vyasa Purnima’, the festival of Guru Purnima celebrates and commemorates Ved Vyas – 

·         the Spiritual Guru, the author and the compiler of the great Hindu religious texts – the ‘Puranas’.

      ·         the ancient Indian Sanskrit epic – the ‘Mahabharata’.

·         the 700-verse Hindu scripture – the ‘Bhagavad Gita.

Ved Vyas is central to Hindu religion and traditions because of his literary contribution to Hinduism which laid the foundation and defined the Hindu religion. Guru Purnima is dedicated to Ved Vyas as it celebrates his birthday.

Guru Purnima is celebrated on the ‘Purnima’ the full-moon day of the ‘Ashadh’ month of the Hindu Calendar’, which falls in the month of July.

Guru Purnima is celebrated by spiritual organizations all over India. The organization’s spiritual head’s teachings are preached and cultural programs are held along with ‘bhajan samarohs’ in the respective organizations. Disciples offer flowers and sweets to their ‘Gurus’ on this day in a ceremonious manner which in itself is an interesting event. The spiritually-inclined also begin their spiritual-lessons and ‘sadhana’ rather rigorously on this day.

The ideal places to visit on Guru Purnima which give you insights into this ancient tradition are:

·         The Ashrams of Rishikesh

 The Ashrams of Haridwar

 The Ashrams of Mathura

  

These three being the main places where Guru Purnima is celebrated elaborately and on a grand scale, other places to visit are:

  

 Belur Math - the worldwide headquarters of Ramakrishna Mission near Kolkata – capital of West Bengal State in India.

 

 

 

Pix courtesy: wikipedia; blog.hoparoundinida; antaryamin.wordpress.