CHICAGO: Close to 300 devotees gathered at Grayslake Hindu Mandir to celebrate the festival of Guru Purnima last week.
The function started with Lord Ganesh and Devi Durga Pujan by the sponsors of Mata ki Chowki. The Pujan and Jyoti Prakash were performed with all the rituals by Pundit Anil Joshi. Later the pujan of four mukhya Hindu Acharyas namely Adi Shankaracharya, Ramanujachrya, Madhvacharya and Mahaprabhu Vallabhachrya was performed by both priests of the temple.
More than 70 seniors including ladies and gents of Lake County were honored as our real Gurus in the family and society.
According to our age old beliefs, our grandparents and elders in the community are the real Brihaspatis. The guru is beyond name and form, beyond what we could imagine with the limited vision of the thinking mind, irrespective of their religions. So, they were honored by washing their feet with utmost devotion and offering them tilak, pushpa, phal, uttariya. And Arati.
A beautiful poem about ‘the significance of Gurus in our life’ written by Geetha Patil was given to every devotee. Four most senior Brahmins from different communities were honored as Maharishi Vyas namely Onkar Sharma, Prabhakar Joshi, Ganesh Ji and Monohar Jogalekar. The Vyas pujan was performed by Pt Anil Joshi by offering tilak, turbans and shawls to them.
A brief message on the importance of Gurus was given by Joshi Ji to devotees. He said that in Hindu philosophy Moksha will be attained only by Guru Krupa but not by following other margas namely Bhakti Marga or Gyan Marga. Only Guru is called Para Brahma Parameshwar the ultimate power as Brahma. Ancient tradition is that we follow our Guru’s teachings in life and acquire spiritual enlightenment and over all progress.
On this occasion, Devi bhajans were sung by Anu Gupta, Nikhil Sharma and Naveen Mishra. Kanya Pujan was performed before Maha Mangalarati. Mouthwatering Maha Prasad prepared by temple kitchen volunteers was served to all devotes. At the end, Pundit Joshi offered vote of thanks to all the devotes for gracing this event and volunteers for helping to make this event a grand success.
India Post News Service
