Guru Pournima (July 1976)

On the llth of this month, Guru pournima will be celebrated all over India As usual there will be a festival for three days Shirdi. Those who are lucky will be able to participate in festival at Shirdi; but others also could pay their homage to the great guru, Shri Sai Baba at their own houses.

Guru Pournima is celebrated every year on the full me day in the month of Ashadha. This Pournima is also known Vyas Pournima, because this is -the day on which we have remember the obligations done by Bhagwan Vyas on the mankind and thank him for these obligations.

Bhagwan Vyas was a great thinker, organizer and a voluminous writer. The Mahabharat, Bhagwat and 18 Puranas are main contributions that have come to us through all these are but apart from this, his very important work relates to Veda which has helped to retain them in their original form. Vedas were composed long before the birth of Vyas. The Vedic hymns were scattered all over. They were committed to memory by different people and were being passed on to their disciples but there was no regular arrangement by which the Vedas co be perpetuated. Bhagwan Vyas therefore selected his four illustrious disciples, and rearranging the Vedas into four parts, assigned them to those disciples as follows. He assigned Rigweda to his disciple Pail ( q?5 i. His illustrious disciple Vaishampayan.got the Yajurveda from Bhagwan Vyas. third Veda viz. Sama Veda was acquired from Vyas by his favourite disciple Jaimini. Sumantu was also a disciple on whom the favours of Shri Vyas was showered. He was pleased to assign to him the fourth of Sacred Vedas viz. Atharva-Veda. Because of this arrangement, the load on every individual was reduced. The establishment of a separate order for each Veda resulted in course f time in obtaining staunch followers of that particular tradition, though after ages the followers of the different Vedas had a little friction with each other due to their bubbling enthusiasm ,in their own Veda, which only they considered to be more important than other Vedas, still the tradition of the guru and disciple continued without interruption and hence today we get .the Vedas in the same form as they were some four thousand years ago. This work of Vyas is commemorated thus Apart from perpetuating e work done by Bhagwan Vyas in respect of the Vedas, this gives us a clue about his name viz. (Vyas)

The story of the birth of this great sage is very queer. Once Parashar Rishi was on his way to the Himalayas. He had ready acquired much merit by performing penance, but he was being dragged to them, for further penance, by the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas. On his way, while crossing the river in •country craft, he saw a comely girl of the fisherman caste, who was rowing the boat and he immediately got enamoured of her. The son of that fisherwoman, Satyawati by name, was Bagwan Vyas. In those days the caste-system does not seem to be become very rigid and anybody would be allowed to acquire knowledge and to study the Vedas and other scriptures. The birth of Vyas took place on an island (Dweepa) in the stream of the Jamuna river and hence he was also known as Krishnadvaipayan.

Apart from his lineage from a great sage like Parashar, there story about how Vyas got his enlightenment. It is said that he had a holy bath in the river Saraswati near Brahmakund and "became enlightened immediately after that This enlightement Sired him for composing the Puranas and he started composing them one after another. Even after composing seventeen Purans; in this fashion, he could not get peace of mind. Hence Narada advised him to compose a Purana on the life of Lord Krishn Bhagwaa Vyas therefore composed Bhagwat Purana and taught to his disciple Soota This composition ultimately helped him to achieve lasting peace of mind. I

One incident that is related from the life of Vyas brings out the importance of god Ganapati. After preparing the four Branches of Veda and demarketing them, Bhagwan Vyas got little elated because of his unique work and while undertaking the, work of composing the Puranas, he forgot to bow down Ganapati in the usual fashion. This lapse on his part disturb his balance of mind and he could not think or write coherent Shri Vyas therefore approached god Brahma for advice, who gave him a Mantra and the Ganesh Puran, which describes the greatness of god Ganapati. He also advised him to perform penance. After doing this the work of composing the Puranas took momentum and it concluded quickly.

! Once Shri Vyas thought of matrimony. He was therein married to the daughter of the sage Jabali. Vatika, the wife Vyas got a son, who was named as Shuka. When son went to heaven, Vyas with all his learning could not contain himself. When he started lamenting, Rudra himself came to and pacified him. The system of "Niyog" was in vogue in the days of Mahabharata and hence according to the order ol mother, Shri Vyas was responsible for the birth of Dhritarasl Pandu and Vidoor.

Looking to the many works recorded in the name of Vyas, a number of research scholars have thought that the persons who composed all these works must not be a single individual It must be the work of many persons going under the same name which might be degree or a post or a designation. This be true because of the belief that in every "Dwapar" yug a Vyas is born. According to this belief, there have elapsed twentyeight "Dwapar" yugas in the Vaiwaswata Manvantar and so far there have accordingly been twentyeight Vyasas. Their names have been listed out in the Vishnu Purana.

Whether the above belief is true or not, we know that Mahabharata was composed by Vyas in order to explain and bring out in brief all the philosophy that has been strewn over in the Vedas. Because of this nature of Mahabharat, it occupies a very important position in the philosophical and religious books of the Hindus. Its importance can be very well judged because of the fact that it is called the fifth Veda.

In our society the guru or the preceptor occupies an envy-able position. The student was always being told “Acharya Devo Bhava” (Be one to whom the guru is like a god) after he was told “Pitru devo Bhava”, and “Matru Devo Bhava.” The Rishis of ancient days also behaved in such a manner that they commanded much respect in the .society. They preserved all the knowledge that they acquired from their preceptor or guru and they gave it liberally to their disciples. The urge of the ancient gurus to give their knowledge to their disciples was so much and they imparted their knowledge so whole-heartedly that their expection was. (The preceptor should expect a defeat from his disciple). The gurus of old days imparted their knowledge to their disciples without any reservation and expected their disciples to be so proficient, that their real test of the .student was this ihat he would be able to defeat even the guru in argument and ' a advancement of knowledge. Under such circumstances, it was just natural that all the disciples had unlimited reverence for their Guru and they paid unreserved homage to him. The guru-purnima s the day on which this homage is being publicly paid to the Guru by the disciples. Since the time of the Ex-President of India, Radhakrishnan a day which is known as teachers' day, is being elebrated at Government level all over India. The State Governments are also felecitating every year the best teachers of the year.

Shri Sai Baba is the guru of all gurus as fas as the Sai Devotees are concerned. Though He never delivered long sermons. He showed by His actions and His symbolic talk the best way to behave in this life and to obtain “Moksha”. Since 1909, the devotees going to Shirdi could get an opportunity to worship Baba in person in the Dwarkamai. Really those people. Who got that opportunity were extra lucky; but this should not discourage others. S per the words of Shri Sai Baba himself though he has cast away his human body, still he would be at the beck and call of his devotees in their nick of time and hence it is our duty to always remember Him and pray to him. Shri Baba had also crossed all the limitations of place. Though He was supposed to be only at Shirdi, by the common people. He moved out of Shirdi and appeared at several places far away from Shirdi in many forms. He is therefore present everywhere and the Sai Devotees may worship Him at their own houses on the Guru Pournima day according to their own wish. Let us then pay our homage to Shri Sai Baba, the guru of gurus on the Guru Pournima day along with Bhagwan Vyas and other revered gurus.