No one except the Sadguru can break the cycle of birth and death.

- SHRI SHIRDI SAI BABA

On this auspicious day of Guru Poornima,I pay my obeisance to Samarth SadguruShri Shirdi saibaba. 🙏

Guru Poornima is celebrated on Ashad Poornima
every year.💐

On this day, disciples offer pooja (worship) or pay respect to their Guru (spiritual guide).

In this write up, I intend to share with yousignificance of a Guru in our life.
Gur means darkness. Gure means someone who clears that darkness. Sadguru is someone who leads to light. For this reason a sadguru is considered supreme to all. Because without him there is no realisation of God. And without the actual realisation there is no point in believing in the existence of God, As if He never existed. This is the reason why Guru is so important.

Follwing sanskrit shloka elaborates it further-

गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णु र्गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरः
गुरु साक्षात परब्रह्मा तस्मै श्रीगुरवे नमः

English Transliteration :

GururBrahma GururVishnu GururDevo Maheshwaraha
Guru Saakshaat ParaBrahma Tasmai Sri Gurave Namaha
Meaning of the words:
Guru: Dispeller of Darkness; Gu=Darkness, Ru=Remover
Brahma: Creator; Personification of Creating Quality of God
Vishnu: Preserver; Personification of Preserving quality of God
Deva: God
Maheshwara: Destroyer; Personification of Destroying Quality of God
Saakshaat: Self/ Himself
ParaBrahma: He who is the highest Lord; Consciousness
Tasmai: To him/ To such
Sri: Holy, splendorous
Namaha: Salutations

ENGLISH TRANSLATION :

Guru is the Creator (Brahma), Guru is the Preserver(Vishnu), GuruDeva is Destroyer(Maheshwara).
Guru is the absolute (singular) Lord himself, Salutations to that Sri Guru !

What is the relation of Guru sishya (desciple) for ?

The Guru is the dispeller of darkness of the sishya.

And what is that darkness ?

Sishya fancies that he/she is a separate individual soul , practically physical body and nothing more.
It can't be easily conceived by anyone that he/she
is not the physical body but really the Parabrahman
the univeral soul in the individual aspect.

The Guru's work is to make sishya realise this.
This will be enabling him to reach goal of his/her
life.

Then the sishya's duty is to be perpetually
concentrating his mind and soul on the Guru all times. Concentration leads to laya,
that is , oneness with the Guru, who is viewed as the Universal Soul or Parabrahman.

In practice, however concentration at all times is not found practicable or easy by many a sishya,thus to have frequent remembrance of the Guru. Some find even frequent remembrance a difficulty in the midst of their multifarious engagements.

For such people, Guru Poornima is God - send.
On that day they are to summon up the fullest
earnestness and zeal and revive all their feeling of love and concentration on the Guru.To helpthem in process , the Guru Poornima ritual is ordained.

So far as to ritual, but for Sai bhaktas the ritual is not considered important. What is wanted is essence. Baba's whole system is unconventional and insists upon our goingin to the root of the matter.
Baba in fact said " We need no other sadhana: the Guru is our only sadhana." And his method was absolute surrender and implicit faith in every thing uttered by the Guru.

The Guru sishya relation is one of intense love, mutual
love between the Guru and the sishya,and Baba's
description of his own Guru- sishya relation
would be found in Baba's Charters & Sayings.
The Guru lives in his Gospel, called Baba's Charters& Sayings. By thoroughly soaking oneself inthe idea of the Guru which one gets by a study of the Gospel, one achieves one's object,namely getting identified with Sai Baba.The result of that identification is unity and bliss. After every study of the Gospel ,one ought to concentrate on the figure of Baba as in any potrait or image one has ,and allow to lose oneself in that contemplation.
That alone is real puja.

Infact we are nothing but our thoughts.The more we avoid loose and worthless thoughts and confine ourselves to noble thoughts
preferably on the noblest thought of Guru Deva, the more assuredly we shall achieve the goal of life, namely, our transformation in to the likeness of the Guru Deva.

This is the grandest achievement possible
for us ,and Guru Poornima is the day when we should not only recall that fact but make every possible effort to help on that consummation.
Sri Sai Baba is ever present and near us and wil
assuredly respond to our call.

॥ अनंत कोटी ब्रम्हांडनायक राजाधिराज योगीराज परं ब्रम्हं श्री सच्चिदानंद सदगुरु श्री साईनाथ महाराज की जय ।।

✍️ Omsairam.