Do you pay gratitude to your teacher? How do you value them in your life? Do they have influence in your success or failure? Today, I would tell you about a festival of India which is related to the teachers in this post.

गुरु पूर्णिमा (Guru Purnima), which is also know as Ashadh Sukla Purnima, is an Indian festival celebrated by Hindus and Buddhist. The word Guru is now an accepted word in English. The word is derived from the word गु (gu) which means darkness and रु (ru) which means remover. In Hindi, Guru means a teacher or an expert and पूर्णिमा (Purnima) means a full moon.

This festival usually comes in the month of July as per the Hindu calender. The festival is about showing gratitude to the teacher/guide. It is traditionally celebrated by the Buddhist to honor गौतम बुद्ध (Gautam Buddha or Lord Buddha) first sermon after he had attained enlightenment and by Hindus to honor the greatest ancient Indian sage named व्यास (Vyasa) who was supposedly to born on this day. Gautam Buddha Hindu and Buddhist monks could be seen offering prayer to their teacher/guide. This is also celebrated by those in many other traditional teaching such as Indian classical music.

India has a long tradition of teacher – student which is called गुरु -शिष्या परंपरा (Guru – Shishya Parampara). Long before the आधुनिक शिक्षा प्रणाली (Aadhunik Shiksha Pranali – Modern Education System), a teacher – student enjoyed a special relationship. The parent used to sent their child(ren) to a teacher for education under his supervision. The child(ren) used to live with the teacher in his आश्रम (Ashram – Hermitage). There were no multiple teachers for various subjects like nowadays but a single teacher used to impart education in variety of subjects to his disciple. As it could be expected, the disciple had a huge influence of their teacher. Their success or failure was up to the teaching of their teachers. In ancient times, the education was only mainly given to the nobles and was not easily accessible to common man. This ancient tradition is still followed by many traditional teaching fields like Indian classical music etc.