Guru Purnima 2025

It was the night before the Full moon of the Guru. How beautiful it was to sit at dusk in the “quiet room” of Swami Venkatesananda in a gathering of friends-in-yoga, doing japa, repeating the mantra back and forth; tuning in; invoking the light of truth; preparing ourselves for the day that would come, and the Full Moon’s powerful energy.

Swami Venkatesananda said: “When everything is moving fast, the clouds of spiritual ignorance move in very quickly, obliterating the light of truth that forever shines in our hearts. Guru Purnima is a day of re-dedication and renewal.”

Our day of rededication and renewal began at 5am. In the light of a brilliant full moon we came to the Ashram. At the end of the wide hallway, the doorway on the right hand side opened into the ashram’s esoteric heart -- the crisp, cool, awareness of the Master’s candlelit room.

Three strikes of the gong fading into the silence, call us (as it has for time immemorial) to meditation. Silence. Then the gentle sense of others joining, slipping in at walking meditation, settling in for the second hour, the energy intensifying.

The word ‘gu’ stands for the darkness of ignorance and ‘ru’ stands for the remover, the dispeller. All over the world people are gathering this day, remembering, honouring, expressing gratitude for the teachers in our lives -- spiritual and secular -- the one, the many, who have significantly impacted us.

“Whether the light shines in the form of a human being or an animal or an object or an event in nature or in the outer world or as an inner experience – the Light that dispels the darkness of avidya (ignorance) is guru. Truth is the guru.”

These words of Venkatesananda’s are the keynote of our Festival.

Sitting comfortably on cushions against the wall in the satsang room in the spaciousness and ease of our morning workshop and good company. With paper and pen, we are writing and pausing – for long or short -- gazing out, looking in, as our teacher/teachers rise, hearts open, no matter what?no matter who? For truth often surprises, and always opens, the heart. And we share it.

The words of Swami Sivananda : “Do not worry” and “Never be in a hurry” seem so simple and yet what they signify will come up again and again in the next week with residents at or Ashram. We speak of them so often, what they mean -- how lightly they sit on the surface and yet take hold, draw us in, expands us out. “Do not worry. Never be in a hurry”. Try them!

The evening program opens at the fire ceremony, the havan, On the west verandah of our Ashram which sits (some 50 years after Venkatesanda founded it) on the second highest hill in Fremantle (Catholic church is the highest) the healing sound of the ancient Sanskrit fills every heart that sits around the fire,  and its pervading  atmosphere, far, far expanding out, uncovering the power peace, love for the benefit of all beings  -- lokah samastha sukhino bhavanto, lokah samastha sukhino bhavanto, lokah samastha sukhino bhavanto

Then dinner on the East Verandah for all. The table is alive with interaction, laughter, seriousness, gratitude for this Ashram that shelters us -- takes us all, in in one way or the other,  gives to us all in – and we give back --  our gratitude expressing in our sincerity, our donations: monetary and seva; attention and kindness. Jai Venkatesananda! Jai Sivananda!

Our program ends with satsanga – Sivananda-style – where prayer and readings are followed by chants (“so the wisdom can reach the heart” said Swami Sivananada) and aarathi and silence  all intersperse. On this Guru Purnima night, each reading of scripture and yoga philosophy is followed, call and response by the mahamantra: Hare Krisha Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. The sincerity and depth of reading, followed by the sincerity,  beauty and depth of each kirtanist -- holds us all in the profound embrace of wisdom; the spirit of yoga which is “the relentless pursuit of truth” Venkatesananda tells us

9pm, we close the program, go out – hearts full, echoing, resounding the spirit of this festival of love of disciple for teacher encompassed in the “Gita in one verse” :

XIII/78 Wherever there is Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, wherever there is Arjuna, the archer, there are prosperity, victory, happiness and firm policy: such is my conviction.

What else would you be doing?

Sobha Day patron