Guru Poornima

30 Jun
                                                              Om Gurubyo Namaha

Guru Poornima (गुरु पूर्णिमा) is celebrated as Homage to the teacher or guru. This festival falls on the Full Moon day in the month of Ashada. Guru Poornima day is dedicated to teachers, parents, mentors or anyone who has guided us at different stages.
 
The Guru Poornima day is also known as “Vyasa Poornima”.Vyasa, (also called Krishna Dvaipayana or Vedavyasa) is traditionally credited with composing  the Mahabharata. According to legend, Vyasa was the son of the ascetic Parashara and the princess Satyavati and grew up in forests, living with hermits who taught him the Vedas. Thereafter he lived in the forests near the banks of the river Sarasvati, becoming a teacher and a priest, fathering a son and disciple, Shuka, and gathering a large group of disciples. Late in life, living in caves in the Himalayas, he is said to have divided the Vedas into the four traditional collections, composed Puranas, and, in a period of two and a half years, composed his great epic, the Mahabharata,  dictating it to his scribe, Ganesha, the elephant god.
 
Hindus celebrate it in the honour of the great sage Vyasa, who is seen one of the greatest gurus in ancient Hindu traditions, and a symbol of Guru-Shishya Parampara, the Guru – disciple tradition. The festival is common to all spiritual traditions in Hinduism, where it is dedicated to the expression of gratitude towards the teacher by his/her disciple.
 
Also traditionally the festival is celebrated by Buddhists in honour of lord Buddha who gave His first sermon on this day at Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, India.
 
This year Guru Poornima is celebrated on Saturday, 12th July 2014.
 
 

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