Guru is that personality who stands tall like a light house in each and every circumstance to guide the disciple under the most unfavorable circumstances. Guru Poornima is one divine day where a disciple offers his gratitude into the holy feet of such a divine Guru.
Word “Guru” in itself has been termed as the greatest word in our holy texts. A person who is referred to as Guru has been compared way above the God Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesha and is termed as the human incarnation of almighty. He is the only person who can help a person get rid of this cycle of birth and death. As per Hindu philosophy, a being has to travel through a journey of eighty four lakh cycles of birth and death in the form of eighty four lakh creatures and then only the person is blessed with this human form. Thus without any doubt, this human form is invaluable. However, a person who dies before attaining nirvana in life, has to again suffer through this cycle of eighty four lakh births and deaths. The greatness of Guru can be evaluated with this very fact that if a person just gets initiated by a true Guru, he doesn’t have to go through this complete cycle. He can attain this human form again just after four cycles of birth and death. This is definitely a great achievement in life and due to this reason only it has been mentioned in our texts that the prime goal of a human is to find a true Guru in his life and surrender himself in His holy feet.
A Guru is a true guide who helps and guides His disciple in every aspect of life, may it be worldly issues or spiritual issues. Every disciple must ensure that he never hides anything from his Guru and must ensure that he must take all the necessary decisions of his life only after consulting his Guru. Ideally, a disciple only do what his Guru asks him to do. It may appear to be a daunting task when the Guru first orders His disciple to do something, however with due time, it becomes apparent why the Guru ordered in this way and how the disciple got benefitted by following His orders. Presented below is an instance from Mahabharata which teaches us how a disciple may take a dangerous decision in his life and how the Guru still manages to safeguard His beloved disciple.
Jayadratha was the husband of Duryodhana’s only sister, Dushala and thus was also a brother-in-law of the Pandavas. One day when the Pandavas were in exile, the Pandavas needed to gather grass and flowers for some rituals. They left Draupadi alone at the hermitage and requested Sage Trunabindu to watch over her. On that day Jayadratha saw Panchali filling water from a pond and was left mesmerized by her beauty and in spite of learning her identity, went to Draupadi and proposed to marry her.
Draupadi refused the proposal and thus Jayadratha abducted Draupadi. The Pandavas returned to their hermitage to find Draupadi missing. They learnt about the events that took place in their absence. Yudhishthira ordered Arjun and Bhima to bring her back safely. They defeated Jayadratha in a battle and brought him before Yudhishthira. Draupadi told Pandavas to pardon Jayadratha, in order to prevent Dushala from becoming a widow. Bhima shaved Jayadratha’s head leaving him with just five spots of hair on his head, before setting him free. Left humiliated, Jayadratha performed a rigorous penance of Mahadev to avenge himself. When Mahadev appeared before him, Jayadratha asked for the ability to defeat the Pandavas in war. Lord Shiva replied that such a boon was impossible. However, he gave Jayadratha the boon to check the advance of the Pandavas and their forces for one whole day. But Lord Shiva also warned Jayadratha that Arjun was an exception to this boon.
When Mahabharata war started, Jayadratha fought beside Duryodhana in the Kurukshetra war. On the 13th day of the Mahabharata war, when the Chakravyuha was employed by Dronacharya, Jayadratha made use of Lord Shiva’s boon. Arjun and Krishna were busy battling elsewhere on the battlefield. Arjun’s teenage son Abhimanyu managed to enter the formation. Jayadratha moved in to close the gap as soon as Abhimanyu entered, and was able to hold all the Pandava brothers and their forces with the help of Lord Shiva’s boon. Abhimanyu, did not know how to exit from the ChakraVyuha and was trapped and brutally killed by the Kauravas. Pandavs were startled after finding that Jayadratha was able to hold the world’s most powerful warriors at bay. In particular, Draupadi, Yudhishthira, and Bhima felt very guilty for not killing Jayadratha when they had the chance.
Arjun blamed Jayadratha to be the cause for Abhimanyu’s death and vowed to kill him the very next day before sunset, failing which Arjun would kill himself by jumping in fire. This vow sent everyone in the Pandavas camp to a shock. At the end of the day, what the vow meant was – If Arjun killed Jayadratha, then the boon given by Jayadaratha’s father would turn Arjun to ashes and if Arjun did not kill Jayadratha then he would have to kill himself by the end of the day. Lord Krishna knew that His disciple has taken a wrong decision and is in a very deep trouble.
Lord Krishna also knew that years before leaving his throne, Jayadratha’s father, Vridhakshtra, heard from Sage VedVyas, that his son would be killed by being beheaded in a war. Scared for his lineage, Vridhakshtra left for the forest and became a sage. Through penance, he attempted to gain enough spiritual power to grant his son immortality or at least the equivalent of boon given to Bhishma Pitamah. However, he only managed enough to curse that who so ever would cause Jayadratha’s head to fall to the ground will turn into ash at that very moment.
Shakuni was very happy at the way the events had unfolded. Jayadratha was a brave warrior, but he feared Arjuna like everyone else. So Shakuni asked Acharaya Drona, the lead commander of the Kaurava’a army to ensure Jayadratha that he will be safe. So Drona ensured Jayadratha that he will employ a strategy which had never been beaten till that day. This strategy was taught to him as a reward by Lord Parshuram himself and could only be broken by Lord Vishnu. Drona had not taught this strategy to anyone of his disciples too. Jayadarath was relieved and agreed to fight the next day. Shakuni’s new master stroke was falling into place. The Kauravas would essentially win the war very easily if Arjun would not fight.
However, little did Shakuni know, that Lord Krishna, the true Guru of Arjun, was placing things into place as per His desires. On the next day under the guidance of Lord Krishna, Arjun was able to defeat all the warriors of Kaurav’s army. Bhima also kept Duryodhana away from Arjuna at all times. This was important because Krishna had realized that Shakuni had told Duryodhana to ask Arjuna the question “Would you really make your sister a widow?”. Such a question would weaken Arjuna’s desire to kill Jayadaratha and hence the he would fight halfheartedly and might not be able to complete his vow. At a climactic moment, the sun was nearly set and thousands of warriors were still standing between Arjun and Jayadratha.
The benevolent Guru, Lord Krishna, then played one last trick and sent His Sudarshana Chakra to mask the sun and created an illusion of sunset. The Kaurava warriors seeing the sunset, rejoiced over Arjun’s defeat and looked forward for his suicide. Jayadratha came before Arjun and taunted him. Krishna then revealed his trick and let the sun shine again. Krishna then ordered Arjuna to kill Jayadratha immediately. Without wasting any time to fulfill his Guru’s order, Arjun put on a show of archery and beheaded Jayadratha. Krishna told Arjun that he must not allow the head of Jayadratha to fall onto ground.
He guided Arjun to give this head the direction where Vridhakshtra, Jayadratha’s father was busy in his penance. Following Lord Krishna’s order, Arjun then fired a volley of arrows to move the head further and further away till the head fell into the lap of Vridhakshtra, Jayadratha’s father, who got up in a shock. The head of his son fell on to the ground, and Vridhakshtra himself turned into ashes. Thus the Guru was not only able to safe His disciple, He also ensured that the disciple emerges as a true winner.
If we look at our life closely, we can find how Gurudev have helped us under various disastrous conditions and how under His guidance we have been able to emerge as a winner under those unfavorable circumstances. We can find out our situation when we were not under His soothing shade and how this world was a hell for us. We must also evaluate how our life has changed when we got into His proximity and how much better our life has become due to His grace. Guru Poornima is the day where all the disciples must offer their gratitude towards their Guru. Being a disciple, we can’t give anything to Him as the Guru is complete in Himself. He is definitely capable to take care of all His tasks and is not dependant on us. It is His benevolent nature owing to which He allows the disciple to serve Him and to become a companion in His task so that He may even them out for these favors.
Guru Poornima is the day when a Guru happily grants any wish His disciple seeks for, it is the day when a disciple can easily get any diksha because it is Guru’s dream to make a disciple complete in all forms, it is a day to get success in any sadhana as Guru remains eager to give what all disciples wishes for in their life. It is a day to fulfill our dreams, it is a day to fully surrender into the Holy feet of the master, it is the day to attain completeness in life and all this is possible in the Holy feet of Revered SadGurudev only. Lets come and sit in His holy feet on this pious day!
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