Guru Pūrṇimā

by Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati-ji 

Guru’s day is like Mother’s Day, or Father’s Day, in our tradition. This is the Vyasa Pūrṇimā. Vyasa’s birthday. Vyasa is our link to Bhagavan. The last link. Somewhere we have to start. Beyond that of course there was Parashara, his own father, who we do not have anything concrete to say about. Then we trace the link to Bhagavan, to the source. 

That we have something concrete to talk about Narayana, and Shakti, and Parashara, is thanks to Vyasa. Vyasa connects us to all of them. You need, for a flow of energy, uninterrupted connection. There should be no interruption. Knowledge also flows through a conduit. The conduit is a mind-to-mind connection. But if the knowledge is a topic in this jagat, whatever the topic, whether it is physics, astrophysics, quantum physics, chemistry or electro chemistry, etc., that knowledge always undergoes change. 

Sometimes the paradigms change. Any discipline of knowledge is explored and gained knowledge. The exploration does not stop and sometimes what is already thought of to be true is given up. Like Newtonian laws were considered absolute once upon a time, until the advent of Einstein. Therefore, there is always a reshuffling and reorganizing of the paradigms of research. It goes on and on. In medical science, especially nutrition, it is the worst discipline. Today they will say, “this is good” and, tomorrow you will hear it is not good. 

Therefore these disciplines of knowledge cannot be really handed over. Whatever you know you hand over. It is not knowledge that is handed over, but what you know is handed over. There is a lot of difference. What you know is precious little and that is handed over. Sometimes ignorance is handed over also, sometimes confusion is handed over. What can be handed over is only jñānam, knowledge, the jñānam that is not fraught with ignorance. And that is possible only if you are talking of the whole. Because the whole has no parts and therefore you cannot say I know one part and the other part is not known. I see the front, I do not see the back. We are not talking of front and back, left and right, we are talking of the whole, pūrṇam. That is why we have a teaching tradition. Nowhere in the world, in humanity, do you have a tradition like this. Even to hear that there is pūrṇam and that pūrṇam cannot be independent of you, because pūrṇamminus you is apūrṇam. Pūrṇam also does not make you a surplus. Pūrṇam is pūrṇam. It has to reveal itself. 

Therefore, this kind of a tradition, a tradition that implies total communication, 100% communication, is a tradition of teaching. Not a belief system. It is kept alive because of its content. This content is not an enticing content. It is a fulfilling content. It is a sought-after content. Knowingly, or unknowingly, everyone is seeking after “that,” therefore “that” is a content. 

This human being always has a fear of being judged. The fear is always there. That means that I am not acceptable to myself. I require to be accepted by people. That is the human being. Not self- dissatisfaction, but self-loathing. But the human being is set up. The human seems to have a body, which is designed to strive for pūrṇatvam, because no human being will rest content without gaining that pūrṇatvam. There is no way. You are self-conscious and you are small and insignificant. You have to be the whole and then only you can relax. 

What Bharat has to give to the humanity, is what the human being wants. Every day we should celebrate Vyasa, every day. And to even come to know. Just because you are in India it does not mean you will come to know. Just because you are in Europe it does not mean that you will not come to know. To come to know and get this connection between the pūrṇatvamand my own aspiration to be pūrṇam it has to come from outside. And Vyasa is our link in the Vedavyasa. Not that he was the author of it, he edited and collected the four Vedas which included Upaniṣads. They contained a message. He highlighted this vision in his own words and works, like in the Bhagavad Gītā and other purāṇas that are from him. He analyzed this whole methodology of handing over through his Brahma Sutras. And others who came after him, like Gaudapada and Adi Shankara, and others later, all of them contributed to create a foolproof methodology of communication. Then only there is no blockage. The flow is complete. 

The teaching is “you are the whole, whole is Bhagavan, parameśvara”. The guru who is teaching this is not looked upon as different from what s/he is teaching. S/he is teaching “you are the whole” therefore s/he is the whole. Guru is the whole, he or she. The whole is Brahman. The whole is parameśvara. He is teaching that oneness, wholeness. It is the content of the teaching that makes the link as a guru. Just a link for this knowledge to flow. That is the only knowledge available. Tad eva jñānam.