Guru Purnima — Tribute to our Beloved Teacher

Guru Purnima — Tribute to our Beloved Teacher

Gururvā pārameshvari anugrahikā shaktihi

The Guru is the grace-bestowing power of God.

— Shiva Sutra Vimarshini

On this auspicious and sacred day of Guru Purnima, we give thanks and bow in love and deep reverence to our beloved Teacher Igor Vamadeva, who embodies the eternal Guru principle and bestows the power of Grace upon his disciples, thus initiating them into this Path of the Heart to embodying and beholding the full glory of the Self… 

You are safely guiding all the ones, who seek refuge in your presence of light, with utter patience, infinite compassion, deep wisdom and Samurai-like skills to illumining and transcending the limitations of the mind — to open and surrender to the unfathomable purity and beauty of the Heart, in which we all are One.

On this day, dedicated to the Teacher of the Teachers,
we honor your Being,
we honor the tradition of the awakened Heart,
we honor the universal Teaching of the Self,
we honor each other as Sisters and Brothers on this Path,

and offer our hearts into the vastness of yours.

Your presence and teaching are streams of nectar, and beams of light,
helping us to remove the dust on our hearts and perceive the Real,
teaching us what we need to forget,
and opening us to the uninterrupted song in our hearts —
passed on from Guru to his shishyas…

Guru Purnima — what can be said about it? Why do we even talk about it?

by Igor Kufayev

“It is very simple. It is just paying respect to the tradition which safeguarded and presented that which could be spoken of as the “Science of our Consciousness” — “Brahmavidya” in Sanskrit — The Science of the Absolute, the Science of Consciousness. It is that. It is just as simple as that.

Guru Purnima is paying respect to the tradition which not only safeguarded, by passing this timeless knowledge from heart-to-heart, but also enriched it for every generation. It is not dry knowledge, it is certainly not academic knowledge which was stored in some libraries or some manuscripts for scholars and their custodians to keep — but it is alive, and streams through our blood and veins, through our nervous systems, through our cells, through our DNA, through every fiber of our being —  as that which is worthy of contemplating. It is the knowledge which is worthy of hearing, worthy of contemplating, worthy of realizing — as the Bhagavad Gita speaks of.

Guru Purnima is the full moon which usually falls sometime in July — very rarely in June or rarely August — a specific moon, which is considered to be very auspicious. It is also considered to be the fullest moon of the year, perhaps because it is the closest to the earth, and somehow appears as the largest.

It is known as that time, when one of the great, great rishis was born. One of the great seers of Ultimate Reality was born. His name is Veda Vyasa, and he was born on the full moon of July, and ever since, that day was celebrated — not only on the Indian subcontinent, but actually in the entire Orient. What is nice about it, is that if people think Guru Purnima is only sacred, and only reserved for those who have given themselves entirely to the path of Self-realization — that you have to be a real serious spiritual seeker in order to observe it — not at all. In India, it’s like a national holiday, if you will — a national celebration. All teachers of every profession are offered flowers, sweets and thanks. It is a thanksgiving if you will, to those who kept that knowledge alive, and passed it to another. It is as simple as that. So, let’s not complicate it.

Whatever is additionally for each and every one of you, is another matter. Whatever dimension that relationship opens up, it is another matter. I did say the word “relationship,” because when we say “Guru Purnima,” we are not just talking about the teacher. We’re not just talking about the guide, the spiritual preceptor, we’re talking about that relationship — the Guru-Shishya Parampara. It is that, because there is no such thing as the teacher — it simply does not make any sense. There is no such thing as the Guru, unless that is being made by someone to whom something is being passed on. That is what makes both, the shishya and the Guru, and that is what is being celebrated. We might as well call it “Guru-Shishya Purnima,” and it will not be out of place. It is just that the tradition prefered that short, “Guru Purnima.”

Purnima here means “fullness.” It is that fullness of the moon, and the moon here additionally stands for the reflective power of our own Awareness, represented by the mind — the faculty of the mind to contemplate. The faculty of the mind to contemplate that which is the reflective rays of our Awareness. So, it is like the fullness of the mind — the mind that is filled to its essential capacity, as that which reflects Consciousness. That is what the full moon stands for, and in this case it stands for that fullness of Realization.

Taken outside of the context of the exclusively spiritual domain, it is just healthy to remember it is the day when we offer our gratitude and thanks to all those who ever assisted us on any journey, and in any endeavors; anything that we have given ourselves to in the way which required some form of assistance, some form of guidance — whether we studied art, music, science — anything. It doesn’t matter what field — gardening, cooking, childbearing, caring — any profession, any domain; someone who was that guide to us at any moment in time could be celebrated and remembered — because that is what Guru Purnima stands for.

So, what can one do on Guru Purnima? You can do a remembrance, a thanksgiving, a little celebration — how to do it?  Just casually place a flower on the altar, a candle, some incense, some prayer murmured — just a simple, “Thank you, I love you so much, you are in my heart because you contributed to the fullness of that heart; you contributed to the fullness of my being” — that is what Guru Purnima is. Whatever else you additionally feel goes without saying, and is not for me to speak about it. It is for you to discover in your own heart, and nowhere else — it cannot be found anywhere else…”

— Igor Kufayev, Guru Purnima, Online Darshan, July 2016

With deepest gratitude, much Love, reverence and pranams to you…

Jai Guru Vamadeva Om!
Jai Adi Shakti Ma!

Your dedicated Students and Team Members of Flowing Wakefulness Fellowship
Guru Purnima, July 27, 2018

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IMAGES:

Portrait of Igor, Oxford, July 2018 – by Amrita Ma Devi

The Gallery of Sages, left to right:

1)  Abhinavagupta, 10th century Kashmir Shaiva Master & Mystic
2)  Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, Shankaracharya of Joytir Math of Himalayas
3)  His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
4)  Swami Muktananda
5)  Sri Aurobindo 

Gallery, left to right:

1)  Mother Inna, Igor Vamadeva’s mother, London, 2001
2)  Igor in Little Venice, London, 2004 – by Eva Riegler
3)  Igor in padmasana, South of France, 2004

Puja to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Los Angeles, US, Oct 2017 – by Daryananda