Salutation to Guru

Guru is Bramha, Guru is Vishnu and Guru alone is Maheshwara. Guru is none other than Supreme Bramhan himself. Thus one should prostrate to the Guru.

The above lines from Guru Gita aptly capture the essence and nature of the Guru. Today is Guru Poornima, an opportunity for all of us to spare some time from our busy schedules and thank our respective Gurus and teachers.

In today's world very few people really appreciate and acknowledge the debt towards their Guru and teachers. World is becoming more and more commercial. People feel that they "purchase" teachings from their teachers in the exchange of some money. If you want to understand what your Gurus and teachers did for you do the following simple exercise.

Spare some quiet time from your so called busy schedule (preferably before going to bed). Take a piece of paper and pencil with you. Now think deeply and note down at least five things in your entire life span that you mastered on your own. Remember that when I say "on your own" I mean that things that you mastered 100% with your own mind-body equipment without a slightest help or guidance from others. You will be surprised to know that your list will not go beyond few items. I am saying "few items" just to leave some space for extremely rare possibility. For most of us the paper will be totally blank!

To clarify my point let me give you couple of examples. All of you must be going to lunch along with your friends. You enjoy that delicious food while you chitchat with your friends. Eating food has become such a natural habit for you that eating, drinking and talking can happen simultaneously without any inconvenience. You might be feeling that "you" know how to eat. Right? But recollect those days when you were a small kid. In those days you didn't even knew what exactly is food. Your mother or father then taught you to eat chapati. They taught you how to make pieces of it of proper shape, how to dip it in the gravy and how to put it in your mouth without spilling a single drop. Based on their teaching you mastered the act slowly. So did "you" know this act yourself? No.

Let's take another example. In the field of software development people often need to learn new technologies. Developers refer several books in an attempt to master a technology and proudly claim that they learnt it on their own. But think is it really true? Without those books (or web sites, or any other means) could they have learnt the knowledge? Again the answer is a sounding no. The same can be observed with almost anything in life that you learnt, achieved and mastered. So to summarize - We are not born with any inbuilt skills or abilities. It is our Gurus and teachers that crafted us from nothing. 

In today's "speed age" people often forget to remember, acknowledge and thank their Gurus and teachers for their precious teachings. Guru Poornima is an opportunity for all such people to thank their Gurus. The Guru can be in the form of parents, teachers, friends or even books. Spare some time to thank them all for whatever they gave you. Always remember that whatever you achieved in your life is build on the solid foundation of their knowledge, help and support.

Bipin Joshi is an independent software consultant and trainer by profession specializing in Microsoft web development technologies. Having embraced the Yoga way of life he is also a yoga mentor, meditation teacher, and spiritual guide to his students. He is a prolific author and writes regularly about software development and yoga on his websites. He is programming, meditating, writing, and teaching for over 27 years. To read more about him go here. More details about his Kriya and Meditation online course are available here.