Saturday, July 12, 2014

Guru Gyaan on Guru Poornima

Guru-tattva or the essence of a Guru in an individual's life is very beautifully explained in our culture. To understand the essence and importance of a Guru, we organized a program on the auspicious day of Guru Poornima. The programs were organized in Mumbai as well as in Pune.

Mumbai Program

The program in Mumbai was hosted by Abhishek Parab, while Chirag Rege introduced the speakers. Our first speaker of the day was Mumbai spokesperson of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, Dr. Uday Dhuri.

Dr. Dhuri spoke on the importance of Guru and the need of Hindu nation. He explained that a Guru, or a teacher is there to selflessly lead his disciples. Prosperity of his disciples and overall progress of mankind, is his sole goal. Guru Poornima is the day when we express our gratitude to such a Guru. Further, he provided us with examples of great leaders and how their Gurus helped them. He concluded with the following quote:
संहता हि महाबलाः । म्हणजे संघटित रहाणारे लोक अत्यंत बलाढ्य होतात, असे महाभारतात सांगितले आहे. सङ्घे शक्तिः कलौयुगे । म्हणजे कलियुगात संघटितपणात शक्ती असते असेही शास्त्र सांगते.

Next session of the program was led by Prasanna Baokar and Mrs Asha Nadkarni. They read out Guru stotra and explained each verse in the stotra. Guru Stotra is a verse in praise of the Guru and explains how important a Guru is and why should a Guru be respected .

Together, we then recited Guru Mahima stuti:
स्वामीराया कृपा करा, आम्हा सकला उद्धारा || धृ ||
मीयाची मज जाणिव हो, दुर्वसनांचे निर्मुल हो ||||
राबतसे या संसारा, गुरुराया मज द्द्या थारा ||||
कृपासिंधु तुज नाम गुरु, भवसागरी या कल्पतरू ||||
पावन करी या दीनाला, जीव घाबरा अती झाला ||||
या नरदेही सांभाळा, भिणार नाही कालीकाळा ||||
कालीकाळाला धाक तुझा, कैवारी गुरु हो माझा ||||
रामकृष्ण पुजी गुरु घोर, दास चरणी मज ना थोर ||||

Our program concluded with 'Thank you' note by Namrata Wagle, followed by aarti of Shree Shantadurga.
Mumbai Guru Poornima at Sitladevi temple, Mahim

 Pune Progam

Pune program was organized by Nivedita Page-Mulki, Nehal Mulki, Anushree and Vaibhav Nadkarni.
ज्ञानमूलं गुरुमूर्ती, पूजामूलं गुरुपादं
मंत्रमूलं गुरुव्याख्या, मोक्षमूलं गुरुकृपा |
This was the beginning of our meet on the 13th july in Pune. About 20 of friends met in person and 3 more joined virtually over Skype, with the common intent of knowing and understanding the importance of Guru and getting to know the age old Guru-shishya parampara which has formed the basis of our wealthy culture.

The guest speaker on this occasion was Miss Reshma Kulkarni, who is a volunteer of Dhyan Foundation and has an in depth knowledge of the said topic. She practices meditation regularly for the past 12 years and conducts various workshops, seminars and lectures on the practice of Yog as a way of life. She conducted an excellent session which included mythological stories stating the importance of a guru, the guru shishya parampara which is also the basis of yog, yog as a way of life, the spiritual aspect, followed by a short meditation session. It was in simple language with appropriate real life situations so that all of us could relate to this relatively heavy topic. Everyone was very enthusiastic about the event and the response was overwhelming.

The take home message that everyone received was that Guru is someone who will guide you and take you through safely in your journey. Also, in order to be on this path which may seem spiritual or philosophical, it is not necessary to let go of all your worldly desires and household duties. It is possible to be on this glorious path the way you are, with whatever background you have, wherever you are. A special focus was laid down on charity in whatever form possible.

The talk lasted for 1 hour 15 minutes, followed by a short session of meditation just to provide the audience a glimpse of this beautiful technique. After this, we had a short interactive session wherein our audience quizzed Reshma about the various doubts they had. Also a few of them shared their experiences and opinions.

Thus it was a wholesome event, both knowledgeable and enjoyable. Each of us went home with a new perspective about the guru, yog and life as a whole. 
Pune team after Guru Poornima function
This event would be published in Saraswat Mitra very soon.

Saraswat Mitra

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