THE SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE AND DEEP SEATED MEANING OF GURU PURNIMA

Guru Purnima is the day when Lord Buddha preached first sermon to his disciples after attaining enlightenment.  It is also the day when Maharishi Ved Vyasa was born who wrote Vedas (Vedas are the compendium of Wisdom for the world to evolve to the next stage).  This blog will explain the science behind this extremely important annual celestial event.

*** Please do remember before starting that Astrology and weather are intricately connected hence I may use some Astrological terms (though I shall try to use them as little as possible). In fact different weather conditions give rise to different conditions in our body too (called as Doshas in Ayurveda and planets/zodiacs in Astrology) . Lets begin….

For those who are not aware, “Purnima” means full moon. Guru Purnima comes on the full moon of Ashadha month when Sun falls in Gemini or cancer zodiac (going by today’s calendar, Asadha month or Gemini Zodiac falls in between mid June till mid July) and full moon happens when Moon is posted in Ashadha nakshatra (which is why it is called as Ashadh month).  By this time, the northern hemisphere of the earth becomes very hot after witnessing severe summers of April, May and June. Especially May and June are extremely hot which literally heat up our blood and body and expand it outwards. Excess and continued heat due to three hot months of summers burns our blood and other tissues and also causes hollowness. This is why during summers we tend to become relatively more excited, less focused and tend to move into different directions like a deer (unless we are living in a highly air conditioned atmosphere all the time).  Expansion of mind and body along with hollowness makes the blood move in a snaky manner at a fast speed in our body and mind. While heat creates Mars (expansion), hollowness and snaky movement creates the planet Rahu in us (which is why Rahu is denoted by snake head in Astrology).

Overall, together these two planets invoke excess of passion, desires, excitement, exploration of the world in one way or the other thereby also collecting pieces of information scattered all around us, consciously or sub consciously.  Now since moon pulls water on earth, it also pulls blood and lymph (called as Rasa in Ayurveda) in our body and brain. That is why on a full moon day, the Rasa and blood spread in our complete body.  So two things happen on the full moon day of Asadha month in our body. Not only the body begins to accumulate more Rasa/fluids/blood in our body due to onset of rains (which was burnt and lost due to heat) but this Rasa also spreads out in our entire body thereby filling up the gaps/hollowness.  Once this hollowness gets filled up, it helps to connect all the dots/pieces of information which were lying scattered in our body/mind. Or say the rasa in the body works literally like a bridge in between different pieces of information thereby creating knowledge and thus invoking Guru (teacher) or the planet Jupiter in us.

Thus on this day, the Buddhi (i.e. intellect inside us) attains another level of knowledge which is nothing but enlightenment to another level, thereby invoking the energies of Lord Buddha and Rishi Ved Vyasa inside us and others. Also, the mildly excited mind pushes one to disseminate the knowledge stored so far. This is the reason that we must become more receptive to the preaching of our Gurus (our teachers) as not only they gain higher knowledge due to this celestial phenomenon but we also become better prepared to gain the higher knowledge due to expansion of our knowledge. This is also the reason that on this day, we bow down to our Gurus, though this is also true that we all learn from each other in this game of life and hence we all our Guru to each other too in some way or the other.

*** Please understand that just like the Universe even knowledge is infinite. Hence enlightenment doesnt mean attaining nothingness. It simply means attaining another level of understanding part of the limitless knowledge of this Universe.

Some Astrological understanding related to this event are…

• The world witnesses full moon every month but in Ashadha month, the moon becomes full (i.e. Sunrise and Moonrise happen in morning and evening respectively) when it falls in Ashadha Nakshatra (Asadha is one of the constellations out of 27 constellations in the sky).
• Sanskrit nomenclature of all zodiacs and Nakshatras is based on the nature they create due to earth’s annual movement around the Sun. For example, when extreme heat burns up and confuses our mind in June , the Sun enters Mrigshira Nakshatra. Mrigshira means when one’s psychology/head moves like head (Shira) of Mriga (deer) who is always on the move in all directions.
• Jupiter is space/sky which is filled up with stars (pieces of information as all matter is information only). Thus when Moon moves in the sky of our mind/body, it connects all the pieces of information thereby invoking Buddhi/intellect to another level. This is the reason that Budh is considered as illegitimate child of Jupiter’s wife (Tara i.e. Star) and Moon.