Posted on: 03 Jul 2023
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,
Guru Purnima is the birth day of sage Veda Vyaasa. The Veda means spiritual knowledge that is useful to uplift human life and to achieve the ultimate goal, which is to please the ultimate God. Vyaasa means very large extent. Hence, Veda Vyaasa means the embodiment of infinite spiritual knowledge (Satyaṃ Jñānamanantaṃ Brahma— Veda). Infinite (Anantam) means very large that stands for the word Vyaasa.
In fact, Veda Vyaasa means the chair for such very large spiritual knowledge. It is a chain of Sadgurus continuously on that sacred chair through all the human generations. Sadguru means sat (God) or goal that becomes the guide or teacher (Guru) for the sake of the spiritual welfare of humanity. He preaches spiritual life (Nivrutti) as well as justice to be followed in worldly life (Pravrutti) so that sins (injustice) can be avoided by which miseries in the worldly life can be completely avoided because sin is the root of worldly misery. Therefore, all the contemporary human incarnations of God or Sadgurus can be called as Veda Vyaasas.
Puurnimaa means completeness and this indicates complete spiritual knowledge. The full Moon on this day indicates complete devotion to the Sadguru. Moon is linked to the mind (Candramā manso jātaḥ— Veda) and mind is linked to emotion that stands for devotion. The full Moon shows black spots warning about defects due to lack of true and complete spiritual knowledge. The day Sun indicates intelligence (Tat savituḥ…Dhiyo yo naḥ— Veda) that stands for spiritual knowledge. The day can be compared to spiritual life and the night can be compared to worldly life. There is no black spot in the Sun and hence, spiritual life is always based on complete true knowledge. Worldly life always contains spiritual knowledge mixed with defects continuously like the Moon with black spots existing throughout the night. In the night, the fire also burns brightly. It is said that the Sun keeps his light in the fire after he sets (Dinānte nihitaṃ tejaḥ, savitreva hutāśanaḥ— Raghuvamsha). Fire also indicates devotion and also defect transformed from the knowledge in the form of initial smoke that does not continue further. The case of fire is better than the case of Moon since continuity of the ignorance in the later stage is absent. The Moon represents the life of a human being with continuing defects and fire represents the life of a human being with initial defects that do not continue after realization.
The main point here is that spiritual knowledge (Jnaana Yoga) develops the attraction to God (Bhakti Yoga). Jnaana Yoga means knowing the details of God. Knowing the details of Delhi city develops attraction in your mind to go to Delhi and see all those details. When Narada described the details of Krishna, Rukmini developed attraction towards Krishna to reach Him forever through marriage. Hence, after Shankara, who stressed on knowledge, Ramanuja, who stressed on theoretical devotion came in sequence. After knowledge and devotion comes practice (Karma Yoga) called as practical devotion that is the proof for the true theoretical devotion or true love to God. This final step consists of two stages:- i) Service or Karma Samnyaasa, which is sacrifice of physical energy and this is limited to saints and ii) Sacrifice or Karmaphala Tyaaga, which is the sacrifice of your hard earned money and this is limited to house-holders for whom the above said service also applies. After theory, the details of Delhi (Jnaana Yoga), you develop attraction in the mind to see Delhi (Bhakti Yoga) and then enter finally the practical stage (Karma Yoga) to reach Delhi practically. This Karma Yoga can be done in the above said two steps. Walking up to the Railway station is service and purchasing the ticket to Delhi is the sacrifice. After the sacrifice, all your efforts end with a full stop (Tyāgāt śānti ranantaram—Gita).
This final step is very much stressed in the Gita and also in the Veda (Dhanena tyāgenaike– Veda) because this is the practical expression of the true color of the soul that is the true love to God and shall not be misunderstood as the earning by cheating from the side of the Sadguru. A greedy devotee wants to escape this step and certainly blames the Sadguru with the allegation that the Sadguru is greedy! A greedy parent also blames the school or college for collecting fees from him for his issue! On this Guru Puurnimaa, this point is also indicated by the full Moon looking yellow and white on the sky like a gold coin and silver coin respectively reminding the offer of Guru Dakshina to the Sadguru. You need not sacrifice the rupee coin that you earn for your livelihood and you need not also sacrifice the rupee coin that you save for your children and old age. It is sufficient if you offer a rupee coin that you waste in several places of worldly life to God to prove your true love to God as practical devotion. By such sacrifice of wasted money to the Sadguru, you are saving your health avoiding several diseases! This is not wealth from waste, but, this is salvation from waste!! One shall not do this step suddenly with pride and carelessness because the Veda says that you shall do this with utmost knowledge (Saṃvidā deyam) of deservingness of the receiver (since offering to undeserving Asat-guru gives you sin instead of merit), with fear and shyness (Bhiyā deyam, Hriyā deyam) that you are donating to the almighty and not to a beggar, who is in need of your charity (you must realize that all that is possessed by you is due to His kindness only).
The attitude of the devotee is very very important because any defect in the attitude will bring sin in offering the Guru Dakshina to the Sadguru. This Guru Dakshina must be in the form of money and not in the form of material because money can be used properly for the need and it cannot be wasted since Sadguru has perfect knowledge. You must always give material like food, cloth and medicine to a beggar so that he will not waste the money. The sacrifice shall be based on the capacity of the devotee because the magnitude of the offered amount is not important since the ratio of it in the possessed is important. One rupee offered by a beggar is 100% sacrifice and a big amount offered by a rich devotee makes the sacrifice as 0.00001 % only. Always, poor devotees like Sudaama only were successful in sacrifice and not rich devotees. Rich devotees are always greedy (with very few exceptions) and King Satraajit refused to sacrifice to Krishna even though Krishna asked him to do the sacrifice! Satraajit ended with terrible loss and Sudaama ended with unimaginable wealth! Therefore, sacrifice to God is a very complicated topic and a lot of attention must be paid towards this concept. Under any circumstances one shall not think at any time that God is in need.