Vyasam Vasishta Naptaram Sakteh Poutrta Makalmasham
Parasaratmajam Vande Suka Tatam Taponidhim

This Sunday it is going to be a special day for the spiritually initiated disciples all over India. It is the day for honoring all the gurus in the name of the great sage Veda Vyasa Maharshi. It is Gurupurnima or Vyasapurnima as we call it. The holy Gurupurnima has an ancient traditional association with the worship of the Brahmavidya Gurus, the teachers of the Science of God. Let’s turn a few pages of his life that is both exemplary and unique.

One of the greatest Gurus India has known and adores even now, is the great sage Krishna Dvaipayana known as Veda Vyasa. He was born 5000 years ago as the son of Sage Parashara and Satyavati in Kalpi near Kanpur in Uttarpradesh He goes to perform penance since the moment he was born on the earth. Such was his devotion in performing the penance; he became Guru for all sages on earth for ages. Veda Vyasa recompiled the sacred texts of the Vedas so that they might become more easily understandable to men.  It was thus that there came to be four Vedas He came to be known as Veda Vyasa because he divided the Vedas. These sacred texts came to be known as Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda.
Paila was taught the Rig Veda, Vaishamapayana the Yajur Veda, Jaimini the Sama Veda and Sumanta  the Atharva Veda. Vedavyasa composed the Bhagavata Purana and initially taught it to his son Sukadeva. Vedavyasa later taught the Puranas to his disciple Romaharshana who was the father of Suta, the narrator of the Bhagavata Purana. In addition to his works on the Vedas, he also composed the Mahabharata, the longest epic ever seen by mankind.

Sri Vyasa felt great unrest after the Mahabharata and went to perform penance according to the advice of Sage Narada. He had a vision of Lord Sri Krishna who advised him to write hymns singing in praise of his godly actions.  Accordingly Veda Vyasa composed the Bhagavata Purana and initially taught it to his son Sri Sukadeva. His hermitage (ashrama) was on the banks of the river Saraswati.

Sri Vyasa is reputed as the most exemplary sage of the greatest perfection one could imagine. He was a God-man, or you may say a man-God, whose powers and knowledge were unsurpassed. He could see the past, the present and the future at one stroke. He was a person endowed with cosmic consciousness. Nothing was unknown to him, at any time, in all the realms of existence. There are many incidents about his greatness and power recounted in the Puranas, especially in the Mahabharata. He gave cosmic vision to Vidura (his son) to describe the war scene to the blind king and his elder brother Dhritarashtra. He appeared whenever his kith and kin needed his advice in Mahabharata.

His disciples continued to worship him as god. Since then it became a tradition for all the disciples to worship their gurus on this day. They perform puja treating them on par with sage Vyasa. People prefer to take initiation from a preferred guru to begin study of Brahmavidya or the science of God on this day.

Usually, this is the day on which people who have entered into the order of Sannyasa, take a vow, of remaining in one place, for four months during the rainy season, and study the Brahma Sutras or any other scripture like the Upanishads. This is done as a sacred austerity and homage to sage Vyasa.

Vedic civilization established moral standards and values. Great sages like Vedavyasa are responsible for the survival of this great civilization in spite of foreign aggressions and cultural and religious revolutions.