Guru Pūrṇimā — honouring the teacher
Āṣāḍha Pūrṇimā · June–July
Guru Pūrṇimā is the day of gratitude to the teacher — the one who removes darkness (gu) and brings light (ru), as a popular explanation puts it. It is also called Vyāsa Pūrṇimā, for tradition places the birth of Veda Vyāsa, who arranged the Vedas and composed the Mahābhārata and Purāṇas, on this full moon. It falls as the monsoon begins, at the start of Cāturmāsya, the four rainy months when wandering monks traditionally stay in one place and teach.
At home, the observance is simple and personal. Light a lamp before a picture of your guru, your family's spiritual lineage, or Vyāsa and Dakṣiṇāmūrti. Offer flowers, fruit and a few minutes of reading from a text your teacher loved — a Gītā chapter, a stotra, the Guru Gītā. Most of all, thank a living teacher: a parent, a music or school teacher, a mentor. A call, a visit, a small gift, or touching their feet is the real pūjā. Many begin a new course of study or practice on this day.
Āśramas and maṭhas hold guru-pūjā, satsaṅg and community meals; sannyāsīs of the Śaṅkara orders take their Cāturmāsya vows. Classical musicians and dancers honour their gurus in the guru-śiṣya tradition. Buddhists mark the same full moon as Āsāḷha Pūjā, the Buddha's first sermon at Sārnāth, and Jains honour Gautama Svāmī, Mahāvīra's first disciple.
Tradition says Vyāsa was born on an island in the Yamunā to the sage Parāśara and Satyavatī, and so was called Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana — “the dark one born on an island”. Seeing that people of a coming age would struggle to hold the vast Veda in memory, he divided it into four, gave each to a disciple, and then told the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas so that everyone could learn dharma through stories. In the yoga tradition, this full moon is also when Śiva as Ādiyogī first began teaching the seven sages — becoming the first guru.
Vyāsa · Dakṣiṇāmūrti · one's own guru · Guru-pūjā; start of Cāturmāsya · Shared with Buddhists and Jains · Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva (Vyāsa's birth)