Guru Purnima

On this day of the full moon in July, Hindu devotees offer puja (worship) to their Gurus. On this last day of my six day Ayurvedic seminar there will be a special offering of Bhajan and Kirtan. A celebration of the life divine, with chanting for inner joy and world peace, in honor of the Guru - the inner guiding light.


One of the most wonderful descriptions of a person meeting their guru is in Autobiography of a Yogi, in which Paramahansa Yogananda catches sight, for the first time, of Sri Yukteswar standing in a narrow alley.

A Christlike man in the ocher robes of a swami stood motionless at the end of the lane. Instantly and anciently familiar he seemed, for a trice my gaze fed hungrily. Then doubt assailed me.
"You are confusing this wandering monk with someone known to you," I thought, "Dreamer, walk on."

Paramahansa Yogananda attempts to walk on, but his feet grow increasingly numb and heavy and finally become like stone until he turns around again. Running back to the alley he throws himself at the man's feet and in a moment of mutual recognition Sri Yukteswar says,

"O my own, you have come to me!" My guru uttered the words again and again in Bengali, his voice tremulous with joy. "How many years I have waited for you!"

Perhaps I will never meet someone who, outside of myself and my own guiding light, becomes my formal guru — especially in such a dramatic fashion. If I do meet this person, I hope I'll have the clarity of mind to recognize them. What I do have, however, are lots of people in my life who have, knowingly or unknowingly, helped me along the way. Thinking of them, and thankful for my own intuition, I'll celebrate Guru Purnima tonight.

Before I left for this week of learning and meditating I made a poster to hang in my tent that includes many of these guides and teachers. How fortunate that in 8 brief months I've had the experience of meeting so many of them in person,

A disciple is like a new moon,
in reality no different than the full moon:
its apparent imperfection is a sign of gradual increase.
Night by night the new moon gives a lesson in gradualness:
with deliberation it says, “O hasty one,
only step by step can one ascend to the roof.”
A skillful cook lets the pot boil slowly
the stew boiled in a mad hurry is of no use.
— Rumi: Jewels of Remembrance, Threshold Books, 1996

"The true guru can show you that the whole universe is your guru. All gurus of the past, present and future are the vibration of one guru, that is, the I-Am"
— Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati

"Only by becoming a fish can one know how a fish lives. To understand a great being, one first has to become one with him. That is true knowledge." — Swami Muktananda

"What is the missing link between you, the universe, the unknown force and the inner guiding light? The missing link is the outer guiding light, the outer Guru, who tells you how to realize your inner Guru, because without understanding the inner Guru, nobody can overcome the sorrow, suffering, misery and the various ups and downs of life… Although everybody has the inner Guru, everybody is not able to interpret and translate his speech, because he is speaking silently. To understand this inner Guru we need the outer Guru. When you can understand the speech of the inner Guru, then you do not need the outer Guru." — Shri Brahmananda Sarasvati

"If you find a man who is constant, awake to the inner light, learned, long-suffering, endowed with devotion, a noble man - follow this good and great man even as the moon follows the path of the stars." — Dhammapada