The festival Guru Purnima is celebrated with great enthusiasm in all over India. Worshiping guru on this auspicious day is considered very fruitful. In the fourth month of the Hindu calendar - Ashadh, the appearance of full moon is known as Guru Purnima. As per legends, Maharishi Ved Vyas was born on the same very day. He is also considered as the first Guru because it was Guru Vyas who first gave the knowledge of the four Vedas to mankind. The holy festival of Guru Purnima is celebrated for this reason and hence it is also known as Vyas Purnima. Here in this blog, you will know about the method of worship and the story behind Guru Purnima.
How one should follow the worship method
On this auspicious day, take a vow of worship after cleaning the house early in the morning and dealing with bathing. Now, you should make a peeth named Vyas by laying out a white cloth on the surface. After establishing the idol of your Guru, offer sandalwood, roli, flowers, fruits and prasad to him/her. After this, by meditate and remember your Guru. Gurus should be invoked.
Story behind Guru Purnima
In yogasanskriti, Shiva is not only recognised as a god but he is also known as the first yogi, The Adiyogi who appeared and used to live in the upper Himalayan region. No one knew where he had come from, and what his past life was like. Shiva never introduced himself - so people didn't even know his name at that time. And thus, Shiva is known as Adiyogi. They just came and sat and did nothing. At that moment the only sign of life was tears flowing from his eyes. Other than that, it didn't even look like he was breathing. People saw that they were experiencing something they were unable to understand. People came, waited and left because those yogis were unaware of the presence of other people. Only seven people stayed there. These seven had decided to learn from those yogis. Adiyogi ignored them. He requested, "What you know, we also want to know." He dismissed them, "You guys are fools, the way you are, you won't know in a million years. You need to get prepared for it. It requires tremendous preparation, never consider it entertainment. He was insisting a lot to learn, so Adiyogi gave him some preliminary spiritual practice. Then the seven of them started preparing - days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years - they continued to prepare. Adiyogi just kept ignoring him. It is said that he meditated for 84 years. Then, on a full moon day, after 84 years, on a day when the sun was moving from north to south—known in this tradition as Dakshinayana—Adiyogi saw these seven men. He had become a shining object of knowledge. They were absolutely ready to receive. He could no longer ignore them. Adiyogi kept watching him closely and on the next full moon day, he decided to become a guru. This pious day was named as Guru Purnima. On this pious full moon, the very first Yogi transformed himself into Adiguru. He turned towards the south - which is why he is also known as Dakshinamurti - and began to teach the science of yoga to the seven disciples. The first Guru appeared on this day.