Guru Purnima is the day of offering our gratitude and reverence to our Guru.
And no amount of our gratitude or dakshina will be equal to or be able to repay the selfless love, care and guidance that our Guru gives us. Despite that, to offer in our own little ways, we celebrated Guru Purnima on Sunday, 17th July at Atmiya Prarthana Mandir, the school prayer hall with a lot of enthusiasm. What made it special was that we had the inspiring presence of saints, Pujya Prem Swamiji, Pujya Suhrad Swamiji, Pujya Mahatmay Swamiji and Pujya Swamiswaroop Swamiji.
We had the poojan of Thakorji at the starting of the event. Why should we do poojan? We should do poojan to invite Thakorji. So, to invite Thakorji in the ceremony, all the saints accompanied by Vijay Sir and Arjun Mama, did the poojan of Thakorji on behalf of us.
After that, Mukesh Sir discussed about the importance of Guru and shared an incident with us. In that he talked about a king named Shah Ibrahim Adham, who ruled Balakh Bukhara. He wanted to meet a Guru but never went out in search of one. One day he saw two men on the terrace of his palace. He went there and asked them what they were doing there. They told that they were looking for their camel. The king shouted “How can a camel get on the terrace of the palace?” They politely replied back “If you can get a Guru in this palace without searching for Him, we can also get our camel here on the terrace.” The king instantly realised his mistake and went out in search of a Guru. After roaming for months and months he met Kabirji and pleaded for diksha.
But Kabirji told him to do seva. He did the seva for 10 years and then got diksha. He then went to stay near a river. His chief minister found him and urged him to come back to his kingdom. The king threw a small needle in the river. Suddenly a small fish came out of the river and gave the needle back to him. He then told his minister that he can control whole world sitting near that river, whereas he would be the king only of Balakh Bukhara if he went there. The minister left the king there and went back to his kingdom.
After that, the students sang a very nice bhajan “Guru ki mahima”.
Pujya Prem Swamiji then enlightened us more about the seva which we should do to please our Guru by sharing a prasang of Swamiji. One day, Yogiji Maharaj just mentioned in a gathering, in which Prabhudasbhai was also present, about having Jal Jhilani celebration and sabha in two days at Narayan Ghat. Listening to His Guru’s words, Prabhudasbhai decided to clean Narayan Ghat. When He reached there, it was already night. He saw that the place was covered with leaves, algae, insects and it was foul smelling. He did the seva of cleaning the place for two days. Due to His other seva, He arranged for a team of youths with whom He not only cleaned up the place but also made arrangements for the celebration. When His Guru, Yogi Bapa came to know about this, He was so pleased by the seva done by Prabhudasbhai that He showered amazing blessings on Him.
He explained that at first, when Yogi Bapa mentioned about having a sabha at Narayan Ghat, everybody thought that it was impossible but Prabhudasbhai had a different perspective, that of pleasing His Guru. In the same way, we should follow teachers’ instructions whether anyone else thinks that to be possible or not. Because we can do it perfectly, if we do it to please our Guru. He also told us that we should not watch movies. Many of the students firmly decided not to watch any movie.
Pujya Suhrad Swamiji conveyed to us that we should work very hard to achieve our goals and for this, he shared an incident of a Civil Servant of the Government of India. When the officer was a young boy, his financial condition was not good. He somehow completed his college with a lot of struggle. He studied under street light, worked very hard and obtained very good grades. He then gave the Civil Services Exam and got selected! After sharing this, he explained to us that we were lucky to have conveniences in our life and that the only work we had to do is to study well. So, we should ask questions to our teachers if we are not able to understand any topic and we should always try to improve.
Vijay Sir then discussed with us about how to do seva of our Guru. He gave us an example of Pujya Prabodh Swamiji. During a vicharan in which He was with Swamishree, once, somebody asked Prabodh Swamiji, “Why do you sleep with your legs up?” Prabodh Swamiji replied with a small grin on His face, “If Swamishree has some problem and needs my help then He would not have to bend to wake me up.”
So, we should also try to do our seva to please our Guru instead of merely doing it.
Guru is defined as a person who helps us and guides us in each and every moment of life. He works harder than us and that too for our improvement. So, to offer our Guru a dakshina we celebrate ‘Guru Purnima’. But it is very difficult to give a real Guru Dakshina. What do we meant by real Guru Dakshina? Real Guru Dakshina means devotion of our mind and soul. To be eligible to give this Guru Dakshina to our Guru, saints did the poojan of all students.
Also, Satyam House was fortunate to celebrate Guru Purnima on 19th July. They talked about the devotion of mind and soul to our Guru and presented an inspiring dance on the bhajan “Samarpan ki yeh belaa mein”. They also shared an incident depicting staunch GuruBhakti of Shivaji Maharaj that showed his dedication of his mind and soul to his Guru.
At the end of the ceremony, some students did poojan of the teachers on behalf of all the students.
We all learned many things from this celebration and furthermore, we will also try to give a real Guru Dakshina to our Guru.
Reported by: Madhuraj Modi [9A] & Niramay V. Patel [9A]
Celebration in presence of saints, 17th July:
Satyam House Celebration, 19th July:
