Transcript of the talk Significance of Guru Purnima by Swami Paramarthananda Saraswati Ji. Grammatical and typos are mine & shall not be attributed to Swamiji. Into the talk, Guru purnima is a significant and important day especially for the sanyasis & therefore, it is a well- known function among sanyasis and also among those people who are associated with sanyasis, for other people, this day is not well-known, any function in our tradition can be known only when we know the vedic lifestyle prescribed, once upon a time, we were vaidhikas, we were closely following the lifestyle prescribed by the vedas, that is why our lifestyle is called vaidhika dharmaha or sanatana dharmaha. The lifestyle prescribed by the vedas is known as varnashrama dharmaha, varna means the four fold division of society which is now notoriously known as the caste system is varna dharmaha, and the other is ashrama dharmaha, the lifestyle based upon the four stages of life, student life, house holders life, a hermits life & a monks life. Of this varnashrama dharma, varna dharma is primarly meant for social harmony, it is primarily keeping the soceity in view; an individuals duty in society, and there the individual plays only a secondary role, but the society is given prominence in varna dharmaha, whereas, it comes to ashrama dharmaha, that is our way of life with regard to various stages, their the individual growth is given prominence and the soceity comes to a secondary position, in varna dharma soceity is prominent; individual is subservient. In ashrama dharma individual is prominent; society is kept as secondary, if both varna dharma & ashrama dharma is followed, then social growth will also be taken care of, as well, the individual growth will also be taken care of, this is the scheme prescribed by vedas and later secondary scriptures called smruthis, ithihaasa, purana etc. Therefore, only if we keep this scheme in mind, the varnashrama dharma scheme in mind, we can understand the significance. Of many of the things that we do. But unfortunately, the present situation is the varnashrama scheme has almost collapsed, it has almost collapsed whether you take varna dharma or caste sytem, or whether you take ashrama dharma both have almost collapsed, therefore, we find, we are not able to see the significance of many of our functions or rituals or pooja, they appear to be insignificant, they appear to be irrelevant, or sometime, it even appear to be a mockery. So like, during upanayana, they have an arrangement which the uncle has to carry the boy before the upanayana & this ritual or this part was enjoyable those days, because, upanayanam was done at the 7th year, but now, upanayanam is done just before wedding or in some communities during the morning of the wedding, therefore at the age of 25 or 30, imagine the uncle trying to carry the boy who is 75 kgs. Similarly, they have kanyakaadhaanam which the daughter has to sit in the lap of the father, now is she sits at the age of 35, father will collapse, and thus you find many of things that we do now, appear to be insignificant & irrelevant and gradually it becomes more mechanical and after 1 or 2 generations they fade away.And if they fade away and different lifestyle is taken you cannot say it is right or wrong, now nothing is normal, nothing is abnormal, because normal and abnormal how to decide, normal means that which is been keeping with a norm, that which violates the norm is abnormal, now what is the norm to decide any action to be right or wrong, varnashrama scheme was the norm in those days and keeping the varnashrama dharma we can say certain actions are right, certain actions are wrong, certain actions are normal or abnormal, when the varnashrama scheme itself is collapsing now you do not have any norm to decide something whether wrong or right. It is like, when somebody singing, you want to know whether it is abashruthi or in keeping the shruthi, how do you know ? So, you can judge the singing whether it is keeping with shruthi or abashruthi only when you have got a shruthi behind a tampura is there then that tampura becomes a norm and based on that you can say about their singing whether it is shruthi or apashruthi or mahaapashruthi. For example, one thing that is prevalently happening is the so-called inter-caste marriage, inter-community marriage, inter-religion marriage, which is disturbing many parents, and now, the parents want to convince the children regarding its normality or rightness, but the problem is, if they have to convince the youngsters that this is an abnormal thing, then they have to talk about normality. What is the norm ? varnashrama dharma, now when varnashrama dharma is not at all functioning, you find that, when the parents try to talk to their children, they are not able to convince at all. Because, they dont know what is the norm and to convince their children, they have to talk about varnashrama dharma, they have to put the tampura first to know the abashruthi,the moment you put the tampura to point out that the other person has got apashruthi, i discover one terrible thing, i find my singing is more apashruthi than the so-called sishya singing. Therefore, once the parents try to bring-in the varnashrama dharma norm, the parents discover or the intelligent children asks parents, what about your life and activities now, and they find that the present day parents are not living normal life in keeping with varnashrama dharma, their very profession is not according with varna dharma, their very daily activities is not keeping with grehusta dharma, therefore, when they are not keeping the norm, you find that, whether they are talking normality or abnormality. The significance of maintaining the caste, the significance of maintaining the religion, the significance of maintaining a religion, you can discover only when you see varna ashrama vyvastha. This is true with regard to anything and this is true with regard to guru purnima also. Because, here also, you find often or if you really go into the detail, it has become some kind-off a ritual only, in the four ashramas. The most important ashramas are 2 only, one is grehusta ashrama & the other is sanyaasa ashrama. Brahmmacharya ashrama is only a preparatory step for grehusta ashrama, therefore, brahmmacharya ashrama can be included in grehusta ashrama, similarly, vanaprastha ashrama is only a preparatory step for sanyaasa ashrama, therefore, vaanaprastha ashrama can be included in sanyaasa. Now, there are only 2 ashramas, one is grehusta and the other is sanyaasa. One is pravurthi dharmaha, another is nivruthi dharmaha. For following the pravurthi dharma, that is grehusta ashramas lifestyle, they follow the poorva bhaga of the vedas, the first portion of the vedas namely the karma kaanda i.e. the ritualistic section. So thus the poorva bhaaga otherwise known as dharma shastra becomes the norm for the grehusta, and for the sanyaasis, the norm is the uttara bhaaga or the final portion of the vedas is the primary norm. Now, the scriptures describe the lifestyle and duties for both the grehustas and the sanyaasis. And in this way, the sanyaasis has also got their own aacharas, their own anushtaana, their own duties are there. Sanyaasa ashrama is not totally giving up of the aachara anushtaana. Sanyaasa ashrama is changing the aachara anushtaana from one particular method to another particular method & to symbolise this in the tradition, they had a thanda in the case of a sanyaasi, for a grehusta, they had the yagyaopaveetham, shikha, which symbolise the grehusta ashrama dharma or way of life. It is a symbolic representation of the norms he has to follow & in the case of a sanyaasi he gives up yagyopaveetham, shikha or tuft & therefore in his case, the duties has to be symbolised by somthing else & therefore he kept the dhanda. And dhanda means what ? Initially they had 3 thandas, it is called thrudhanda sanyaasaha after which they come to yekha dhanda sanyaasaha. In thrudhanda sanyaasaha, they have to follow 3 disciplines, kaaya dhanda, vaak dhanda, mano dhanda. Physically, he must be disciplined, in eating, in speaking, in activities, in rest, in sleep, in waking. In vaak dhanda, at the level of speech. Most important is mano dhandaha and having gained them he has to come to yekha dhanda, yekha dhanda indicating on primary discipline namely gnana dhanda, so gyana, the pursuit of shravana, manana & the nidhityaasana. Along with that, they kept certain rituals and other disciplines also like paarayanam, jepam, tharpanam, omkara jepam, upanishad paarayanam, the shankara bashya paarayanam. Once upon a time, i was also wondering, why sanyaasis also has lot of disciplines, then only i understood it is required for 2 reasons. 1) a person must have followed (again in the olden days) certain aachara and anushtaana like sandhyavandhana, pooja, jepa etc during grehusta ashrama, he has followed as this discipline in grehusta ashrama and if he suddenly takes sanyaasa and having followed certain aachaarams and anushtaanams, suddenly if he drops all of them, there will be big vacuum like a man retiring very difficult to handle him, because he may not know how to handle the sudden vacccum and therefore, they kept some more jepa, gayathri mantra was replaced by omkara, stothra paarayana was replaced by upanishad paarayana, and the disciplines in other household duties was replaced by the disciplines by the ashrama like guru shrushurusha, ashrama seva etc. The only difference is all the aacharas were in keeping in with the vedanta shravana, manana, nidhithyaasana. Instead of raamayana naama, it was omkara mantra or soham mantra. Therefore, one reason was to remove the vaccum and the second reason is even after taking sanyaasa, one need not necesarrily have all the saadhaana chathustaya sampathihi, I use this terminology thinking that all of them are students, all the necessary qualification for spirituality one may have, one may not have, after taking sanyaasa, and if he is lacking the purity of mind and outwardly he has got a sanyaasi dress, it can prove to be dangerous as krishna said in the 3rd chapter he can become a hypocritic sanyaasi & if a sanyaasi has to purify his mind, he cannot do daily rituals, because he has renounced, and therefore, he is given certain sanyaasa ashrama ritual, sanyaasa ashrama paarayanam, sanyaasa ashrama jepam etc for the sake of filling up the missing qualification. And among the many types of duties, one of the duty is given is the vyaasa purnima or guru purnima pooja anushtaana, this is a primary duty given to sanyaasi. And there also, they say, sanyaasa are of different types, thridhanda sanyasis should do physical pooja, but once a person comes to yekha dhanda sanyaasa then it is said, he need not and should not do the physical pooja on Guru purnima day and he has to do maanasa vyaasa pooja, because, he is supposed to be advanced by that time & therefore either maanasa or kaayika, a pooja is to be done, and the pooja is dedicated to the vyaasacharya, and along with this pooja, the chathurmaasya vratham also begins, and significance of this pooja & vratham will be clear only when varnashrama dharma norm is kept. Because, according to the vedas, once a person has become an yekha dhanda sanyaasi, he is not supposed to stay in one place, therefore, he has to move about one place to another, he has to be parivraajaka. So now, again if you see the present day, most of the sanyaasis are attached to some institution or some ashrama, therefore parivraajakam dharma itself, like any other ashrama dharma, even in sanyaasa ashrama dharma there are lot of compromised changes. And therefore, there is no question of moving about, when they were moving about regularly, now they have to stop their moving, because, the rainy reason has started everywhere except in Madras, rainy season all-over, therefore, so many insects will be there on the road, and he may step over them, and therefore he has to stop moving & not only that, wherever, he stops at that time, whichever village is there, in that village he has to follow the guru purnima function with the help of the local village people, that means, the venue of guru purnima can never be pre-planned, because, a moving sanyaasi doesnt know, where he is going to stop during rainy season. But now, first of all, sanyaasis dont move, staying in flat, and therefore, there is no much relevance for that, and again venue is also fixed well in advance, therefore, which is normal and which is abnormal, we find that we cannot talk about any normality or abnormality, but what we do is according to the modern soceity, we shift the significance and continue that. The original significance is gone, because, sanyaasis are not moving, and again its pre-planned, and again, yekha dhandha sanyaasis also do physical pooja, all are abnormal. We are still more abnormal, we dont have dhanda, so there is another group, in paramahamsa sanyaasis, there are 2 groups, 1) Amukhya paramahamsa called vividhisha sanyaasi 2) Mukhya paramahamsa called vidhvak sanyaaasi. Amukhya sanyaasis should follow the specified disciplines with the dhanda because he is doing shravana, manana & after finishing shravana, manana, nidithyaasana, he can become a mukhya paramahamsa, and when he becomes mukhya paramahamsa, it is said, he need not have a dhanda. But at the same time, we cannot claim ourselves to be mukhya paramahamsa, because, when we leave the dhanda, we have to leave the vastra, the one who gives up dhanda should give up vastra and become an avadhuta, but we are partially following, whether you take grehusta ashrama dharma, whether you take sanyaasa dharma, there is no norm now prevalent, and therefore different things are happening. But what can we do is, we can attribute, one significance according to modern times, and that significance i would say is, that one day has to be allotted to thank Vyaasacharya. Vyaasacharya has done so much to us, therefore, we have to thank Vyasacharya one day, especially, since, we are studying the vedanta. How to study vedanta if you ask, Vyasacharya has alone has presented clearly in return for the method of studying vedanta in his original brahmmasutraani. And brahmmasutra is the most important one for a vedantic student because, the vedantic methodology has been beautifully presented by Vyasacharya, and therefore, one day we allot to remember Vyasacharya, i remember Vyasacharya because, im able to teach in a particular method because of Vyasacharyas brahmmsutra contribution and you are able to understand because of this methodology i use, and therefore, you are also indirectly indebted to Vyasacharya. Therefore, even if we are not undergoing chathurmasya vratham, not going for sanchaaaram, not having dhanda, this day is significant for one purpose, that is, we are indebted to the Vyasacharya, and therefore, we remember, Vyaasaya vishnu roopaya, vyaasa roopaaya vishnava, namovai brahmma nithayae, vashistaaya namo namaha & shankaram shankaracharyam kesavam bhaadaraayanam, shruthra baashya kruthou vandey bhagavandou punaf punaha. Thus, we worship Vyasacharya, and associated with that, we worship are all the aacharyas, shankaracharya is also included, our aacharyas are also included, and sadhasiva samarambhaam the dakshinamurthy is also included, so therefore, i would say, this is a day of expressing a gratitude to Vyasacharya, the guru who presented the vedantic methodology in a systematic form.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 13:11:41 +0000
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