Indian history and scriptures are full of various accounts wherein unflinching faith, intrinsic belief and devotion towards the Divine Guru and His ideas and virtues had elevated the human mind and imbued it with the understanding of devotion and consecration. Amongst all auspicious days and festivals of Hindu culture, Guru Purnima is considered as the most hallowed tradition which celebrates Guru’s presence in our lives. Guru Purnima falls on the first full moon after the summer solstice. Its timings indicate as if the entire cosmos is preparing to pay obeisance to the divine presence of our Spiritual Master on this planet.
After a long time of pandemic laden lock down and unprecedented curbs on social gathering, this year received an unobstructed school reopening, hence the academic calendar events of Atmiya Vidya Mandir buzzed in with the routine of celebrations and creative assemblies. The first celebration of the year was the auspicious day of Guru Purnima, as the rest of the festivals lined up in the sequence after it.
On the morning of this auspicious day of Guru Purnima, 13th July 2022, all members of Atmiya Vidya Mandir family gathered in the prayer hall to celebrate and mark the significance of this day. Shivam House students presented a skit and a cultural programme to convey the significance of this day as well as elucidated the role of a Guru in our lives.
The small skits of two different plotlines and setups were presented. The first skit presented a real story of a student at Atmiya Vidya Mandir, who struggles to cope with academic challenges and despite all efforts cannot perform well in exams. Finally, he resorts to prayers and seeks his Guru HDH P.P. Hariprasad Swamiji’s blessings and eventually scores well.
The second part of the skit was about an artifact (a violin) laid for an auction. Both, the auctioneers as well as the bidders, found it unsightly and worthless and the bidders refused to buy it. Then, in this auction, a violinist, a music maestro arrived. He picked the violin, dusted it off and moved its strings. In the hands of this expert, after being touched, taped and tuned by this maestro, the violin’s strings sent forth its melody and it became precious.
Similarly, when we are smeared by worldly vices, the transforming touch of a spiritual master makes our lives worthwhile and meaningful. Thus, students of AVM – the spectators, understood the message of this creative assembly that like the violin in the skit, we too lose the charm in our lives and remain out of tune; but with the caring touch of the Master’s hand – the God realised saint in our lives, we become worthy of living a blissful life.
The day was made equally eventful in every classroom as there emerged an array of displays made up of tiny prayers and vows written by each student of the class. The essence of these tiny sticky notes is to offer students’ inner urge to our Spiritual Master by taking His blessings to overcome their personal barriers like sluggishness, laziness, distraction and inefficiency in achieving their goals.
Through this celebration, the AVM students realized the significance of this day and the age-old tradition of singing Guru’s glory who dispels the darkness of life and guides us to live our lives with eternal ideologies and culture of righteousness. Thus, the real “veneration of one’s Guru” or the true ‘Guru Poojan’ lies in following Guru’s injunctions and living a worthwhile life.
Seema Ma’am
