It is wonderful to see many people gather here to pay their respects to their gurus on this

auspicious day of guru purnima. In eastern religions, particularly in sanatana dharma or

vedic dharma also known as Hindu religion, a guru is given a high position, even higher than
God sometimes. A guru is given such a high position because his primary job is to help us
accomplish the highest purpose of existence, not just the life.
Guru is typically translated as a teacher, a mentor, or a spiritual preceptor. His/her primary
function is to impart Knowledge to his/her students or disciples. What knowledge is the
Question. Or what is knowledge?
The Sanskrit word for knowledge is jnana. It comes from the root word jna. Jna is perhaps a
common root word for both jnana and the English word know. Jna and know sound similar,
dont they? Jnana has been limited by Vedas only to the knowledge pertaining to individual
soul (atma) and the supreme being (paramatma) atma-paramatma sambandham.
Knowledge about everything else is called ajnana. Ajnana doesnt mean ignorance. It is the
negative knowledge that takes you away from what needs to be known. There is also another
word vijnana. Vijnana indirectly takes one towards the final goal. The distinction is very
important. I will give an example. Carpentry has lot of knowledge in it. You can make
living out of it, but nothing related to the supreme being or individual soul. So if it is
used only for livelihood and enjoyment it is ajnana. However while providing
livelihood it can also provide you the time and comfort needed to pursue the ultimate
purpose. In this case the same knowledge is providing indirect support for achieving
jnana. That is vijnana. Arts are good example of vijnana. Indians believe the primary goal of
arts is to attain the Supreme Being. But it is indirect, so vijnana.
One who teaches vijnana like science teacher, music teacher, or dance teacher is also called
a guru. For distinction, let us call the guru who imparts vijnana as a vijnana guru, the other
one that gives us true knowledge, a jnana guru. A jnana guru is also called a satguru. Sat
means the Supreme being.
Om tat sat iti nirdEsaH brahmaNaH trividhaH smritaH
Bhagavad Gita
It means, om, tat, and sat are three (3) names of the Supreme being. Sat guru is one whose
teachings are directed towards the sat, the Supreme Being. On the other hand, vijnana guru
is also very important, because he provides indirect tools to accomplish the highest purpose.
Both are essential to life. So when it comes to respecting or valuing a guru there is not much
distinction between a vijnana guru and a jnana guru.
The only difference is, you find a vijnana guru by yourself and jnana guru finds you. When an
opportune moment arrives, when you are destined to meet your sat guru, he or she will come
to you.
Imparting knowledge is not the only function of a guru. Everyone is familiar with the term

karma. It is a grossly misunderstood word in the western world and mostly misunderstood in
the Eastern world. Karma simply means the sum total of the results of all actions performed
by an individual. Karma is like a mountain that was accumulated over countless births. Out
of this accumulated karma a chunk is removed and set aside and that causes the present
birth. This chunk of immanent karma, the karma within which we operate is responsible for
this birth, it must be completely exhausted within this birth and nothing to be saved for future.
This immanent karma is called prarabdha karma. The one left behind, the accumulated
karma is called sanchita karma. There is another third type of karma called agaami karma or
prospective karma. Prospective karma comes from our new actions that arise either from a
reaction to the experience of immanent karma and/or driven by the mountain of sanchita
karma. Of these three karmas, immanent karma or prarabdha karma must be exhausted
within this birth, no exception what so ever. However, the only way to mitigate it or exhaust
without really experiencing it is possible only through a satgurus grace. This long intro of
karma is to give you an idea of this important function of guru. I am pretty sure many people
here have experienced such grace of guru. In fact, the primary reason most people among
us seek a guru is this purpose of rescue from prarabdha.
So far, I told two (2) major functions of guru, namely, to remove ignorance and give
knowledge and to remove karma.
Ajnana dhwAnta rOdhAt, aGha pariharaNaat
Like these, there are eight (8) primary functions for a guru. Since a guru performs these 8
functions, Vedanta Desika, a preeminent Vaishnavite guru declares,
AchAryaH sadbhiH pratyupakaraNa dhiyA dEvavat syAdupAsyaH
---- Nyasa Vimshati
Meaning a guru should always be worshipped as if God. Where should we worship not like
we worship a deity in a temple, but in our minds dhiyA.
Here I brought another word Acharya. Acharya and guru are similar meaning words. Guru is
much broader definition. There are many definitions one very meaningful is,
gukaraH aMdhakArasyAt rukarastannirOdhakrit |
aMdhakAranirOdhanAt gururiti abhidhEyatE ||
Gu means the darkness of ajnana. Ru means the one who dispels it by giving jnana. Guru
means remover of negative knowledge. Acharya just describes another role of guru. It means
Acharati iti AchAryaH. One who practices and then teaches is an Acharya. Acharya is one
who walks his teachings.
To such a guru, the student owes an obligation. First, student must have faith in the guru that

what the guru teaches is truth and correct. Then student should practice what guru asks him
or her to practice. Without doing this there is no meaning for the learning process. Everyone
agrees with that, right? This is the meaning of worshipping the guru in the mind. Unshakable
faith in the teacher and practice what he or she says to the word.
Does guru also have an obligation then? Of course, he or she must impart knowledge,
remove or help to remove any obstacles in front of the student and thirdly, tma
sAmyAvasatvAt, one meaning of which is, to make the student at least as good as himself or
herself. This is the third of the eight functions I mentioned before. Thus, there are mutual
obligations that form the basis for a teacher-student relationship. This is called guru-sishya
sambandham. In olden days knowledge is transmitted orally from teacher to student. And
guru as an Acharya would provide a live illustration both to clarify and to inspire the students.
Thus students will learn from the examples and teachings. More likely than not, the students
would become as good as the teacher.
Now the student must fulfill another obligation, that is to transfer this knowledge to the next
generation. In sanatana dharma every individual must perform five (5) duties or five yagnas.
Compulsory. One of them is called Rishi yagna. It means we owe a duty to the learned
people of the past who gave knowledge to us. The duty is to learn it well and pass it on to the
future generations. So the student should pay it forward by himself or herself teaching the
same knowledge to the next generation. Of course, only a few people do that. But at least an
ideal student must do that.
So now the student has become a teacher. Like that there is a succession of gurus. This is
called guru parampara. This chain cannot be broken. In all the Hindu traditional rituals, it is
customary to say the lineage of gurus or the guru parampara.
Whenever Hindus take a sankalpam where they state the decision and purpose of doing
something they always say Im performing such and such as an instrument in the hands of
my Guru by the order of my guru, Acharya PurataH. And then they read the guru parampara.
Asmad grubhyO namaH, Asmad parama gurubhyO NamH
The guru parampara varies from tradition to tradition. For example, in Vaishanava Tradition,
Narayana Rishi, one of the twin sages nara and narayana is believed as first guru or Adi
guru. In nath tradition Swamy dattatreya is believed to be the adiguru. Those are the starting
points of the guru lineage.
Most Hindus regard sage Veda Vyasa as jagadguru, meaning, universal guru. He performed
the highest task of compiling Veda and dividing the body into four (4) Vedas, Upanishads and
also authored 18 puranas that clarify the principles mentioned in Vedas. After doing this
extraordinary task he also wrote the epic Mahabharata and later authored 18 sub puranas or
upa puranas. He taught all these to his students and sent them to propagate and preserve
them well. Thats enormous service to humanity. Thats why we celebrate guru purnima on
his birth day. Veda Vyasa was born on Ashadha Purnima, full moon day in the lunar month of
Ashadha. It is also the day he completed brahms sutras, the aphorisms on Brahman. This is

extraordinary and one of the most important works in Vedanta.

Beginning from today a lot of gurus undertake a diksha or an observation for 4 months called
chaturmasyam. For these four months, they stay at one place without wandering anywhere,
studying, teaching and discoursing.
Students pay their respects to their gurus. We, Indian dont have Mothers day and Fathers
day, but we have a gurus day and also another Teachers day, which I believe a public
holiday in India. That is the respect the culture has placed on a Teacher because the
teacher-student relations is so vital to the learning process.
Its not just paying respect. Teachers and student get together to discuss the progress they
made the past year and chalk down what can be done in the next year.
Efforts of Sri Anagha Datta Society are really commendable in organizing this guru purnima
observation. Im certain that this will uphold the spirit of teacher-student relationship for
Calgarians. Calgary has a wonderful tradition of keeping the classical art forms vibrant and
alive. I hope the spirit of guru purnima will flow high among the teachers and students of
Calgary thereby enriching everyones life.

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