Happy Guru-Poornima

Guru Purnima is an Indian & Nepali spiritual tradition dedicated to spiritual and academic teachers, who are evolved or enlightened humans, ready to share their wisdom, with very little or no monetary expectation.
It is believed that a person is blind without a teacher to guide him. A mother and father are the first teachers of a child, but after that, the guru becomes his or her second mother or father. 
The shastras proclaim that a human being is born twice or Dvija - first by the union of the father and mother, and second when he is accepted by a bona-fide guru, whereby he acts as a father and delivers him the knowledge - with the help of mother Gayatri; a personified symbol of the holy scriptures (the personification of knowledge). In other words, Guru is considered father and the Holy Scriptures and literature as mother. Guru teaches with the help of, or according to the Scriptures. 
The festival of Guru Poornima is celebrated on the full moon day (Purnima) in the month of Ashadh (June–July) - as it is known in the Hindu calendar of India and Nepal. 
The symbol of full moon represents perfection. Guru-Poornima is a symbolic reminder of the belief that Guru is Poorna; perfect. 
We cannot learn much from someone if we have doubts about their knowledge in the subject we want to learn. In order to learn, we need to have faith in the Guru or teacher. Therefore, we always try to find a Guru who might have perfect knowledge in the required subject. Once our curiosity about Guru’s knowledge is satisfied, we must have faith in his teachings. 
Guru-Poornima is not only a symbol of gratitude of the students towards the Gurus, it is also a reaffirmation of the belief that the Guru is Poorna. 
This is the most popular belief about the meaning of Guru-Poornima. 
However, another thought came to my mind this morning.
A teacher asked his young student: 
“Johnny. How old is your father”?
“Six years” Johnny said.
“How is that possible?”  The teacher asked.
“Duh…. Because he became father when I was born.”

Similarly, doesn’t a Guru become a perfect Guru when his disciples achieve perfection? 
Therefore, the real gratitude towards the Guru is not just singing Guru’s praise and offering thanks and gifts.
The real gratitude would be when we start working seriously towards achieving the perfection in our-self. 
Just like the parents become happy and feel proud of their children’s achievements, Gurus also become happy and feel proud when they see their disciples achieving heights and perfection. 
Seeing the children prospering, parents feel a sense of achievement in themselves – that their love and sacrifice has paid - that they have fulfilled their role as parents. 
Similarly, seeing the disciples becoming perfect and achieving the same heights, the Guru may also feel that he has fulfilled his role as the Guru. 
Perhaps that would be the real Guru-Poornima for the Guru and the Shishya – the Teacher and the disciple. 
May the Lord bless us all to achieve that Poornima.
                            Happy Guru-Poornima. 
                                                         'Rajan Sachdeva'