Guru Purnima

Today is Gurupurnima, a festival and a day of tremendous spiritual importance to Hindus and Buddhists across the world.   We, Indians, have always revered the relationship of knowledge sharing between Guru and the Disciple.   It is also known as Vyas Poornima. The significance of Guru Poornima is that spiritual seekers, disciples and students offer worship and show their gratitude and respect to their Guru on this day.



Swami Vivekananda and His relationship with Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa are full of examples of how a perfect Guru-Shishya bond can illumine the heart and intellect of even a hard core atheist.



Vivekananda was born Narendranath Datta on 12 January 1863 in Calcutta in a wealthy family...Swami’s parents influenced his thinking—the father by his rational mind and the mother by her religious temperament.   In his early youth Narendra joined Brahmo Samaj and his initial beliefs were shaped by Brahmo concepts, which included belief in a formless God and the deprecation of idolatry.

Surendra Nath Mitra was a noted householder devotee of Ramakrishna, who used to visit Mitra's house in Calcutta to deliver spiritual lectures. It was in Mitra's house where Ramakrishna met Narendranath for the first time in a spiritual festival. In this festival as the appointed singer could not attend for some reason, young Narendranath, who was a talented singer, was requested to sing songs. Narendra sang few devotional songs and Ramakrishna was impressed by his singing talent. He invited Narendra to come to Dakshineswar and meet him.

Narendra's father, Vishwanath Datta, wanted to get his son to get married. Narendra was reluctant to marry and was attempting to quench his religious and spiritual thirst.   Narendra went to Dakshineswar to meet Ramakrishna. [

Ramakrishna warmly welcomed Narendra and asked him to sit on a mat spread on the floor. Then Ramakrishna asked him to sing a song. Narendra gave his assent and started singing a devotional song...