I hope everybody could enjoy this wonderful Guru Purnima Celebration. Indeed it is a very very special day.
All these beautiful dances, which you have seen here in Omkarananda-Kamakshi-Devi Mandir, performed by Kumari Somashekhari, are a pure dedication towards Gurudev Paramahamsa Swami Omkarananda.

Every year, on this particular Full-Moon day, most of the devotees are celebrating Guru Purnima. That is undoubtedly wonderful. But should we not think of our Guru every day?

Now let us actually know what the word 'Guru' means: 'Gu' means 'darkness', 'Ru' means 'Remover', so Guru is the Remover of darkness. Wonderful isn't it?

Now, you see, in common life we have so many Gurus. For instance our teachers are often called Guru, big politicians sometimes are also referred to as Guru, even any important personality is often called Guru or Guruji. So you see we have in the common world so many Gurus.

But when we think of the spiritual Guru, we worship a Guru, who is really capable of removing the darkness, the impurity, which is settled in our heart. It is definitely wonderful, that we have our teachers, our great personalities with us. From them we can learn a lot. But how we can make real progress? Until and unless the ignorance in our life is not removed, we cannot achieve, what makes us truly happy, what makes us truly saintly, what brings us closer to that for which we have come to this planet.

So, let us always be aware in our heart of the importance of Gurudev. Without the Sadguru you are absolutely lost in nowhere. With Guru you can do anything, you are everything. If you have the Guru in your heart you can conquer the worlds. If you don't have the Guru in your heart, even if you have the whole world, you are simply nowhere. In fact, nobody can exactly imagine the importance of a spiritual Guru. We are thankful to our parents, we are thankful to our teachers and we are thankful to everybody, but it just melts away in front of that, what Gurudev has given us here.

Without Guru we are wandering in the ocean of ignorance, in an ocean of darkness, but finally we have to come out. Now, our daily life keeps us normally away from the feeling of the constant presence of our Guru. So on one hand let us do our daily work but with the other hand be always on the side of Gurudev, always think of your spiritual Guru.

He is the person who can take you out of the jungle of this ignorance, of the jungle of unreality which we think is real. What we see and think is in fact the unreality. He, the Guru, takes you out of this which we feel is the reality. Guru is the link between us and the Absolute, Supreme Divinity. He has come in the form of a human body to guide us. Otherwise, how God can appear in front of us?

Though God is everywhere, in everything, but how we can speak with Him? So to realise God and to make it possible to speak with the Almighty, we need a link in between and that link is our Gurudev. According to the Hindu philosophy the Guru is greater than God. Maybe many people may not understand this, but the fact is that it is the spiritual Guru, who can take you out of this world, which is full of sorrow, pain and suffering and who can make you an embodiment of the Supreme Reality.

For these wonderful dance performances, Soma has taken a lot of pain. She thinks from morning till evening only of Gurudev Swami Omkarananda. She wants to realize Gurudev and Gurudev told her: 'You go on, realize the Truth through selfless divine work, through prayers and spiritual practices and make the divine Indian Classical Dance a way to God-experience.'

May Paramahamsa Shri Swami Omkarananda's Blessings be with all of you, may you experience good health, happiness and great spiritual progress!

Adorations!

Shri Swami Omkaranandaji Maharaj ki Jay ho!

Hari Om.