Pledging respect

HYDERABAD: Guru Purnima is celebrated to pay tributes to the spiritual gurus, their teachings and their lives. Embellished with flowers and lights, special rituals were performed in various Shirdi Sai Baba temples that reverberated with religious hymns and chants.It is a day to express respect and gratitude. Celebrated in the memory of sage Vyasa, who is said to have compiled the four vedas, the 18 puranas , the Mahabharata, and the Bhagvat Gita, Guri Poornima is also known as ‘Vyasa Purnima’. Derived from the Sanskrit word ‘gu’ meaning ‘darkness’ and ‘ru’ meaning ‘remover’, ‘guru’ means the remover of darkness, ignorance and evil. According to the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, one must consider no difference between God and one’s guru.Sri Shirdi Sai Baba Temple A day-long ‘Guru Poornima’ celebrations will be held at the Sri Shirdi Sai Baba Templ e a t Sa i Nagar in Picket, near the Secunderabad Club on July 15.The celebrations would start with the ‘ratham’ in the morning and end with Sai Pooja in the evening.The Guru Poornima day also happens to be the death anniversary of Sri Govind Baba, founder of the 50-year-old temple, a press release said.Amma’s Ashram Guru poornima celebrat ions at Amma’ s Ashram, Mahendra hills, Secunderabad on Friday with Guru paduka pooja, Samskriti Pooja & Maha Sarvaiswarya Yagnam from 5:30 am to 7:00 am- Maha Ganapathy Homam; 8:00am to 9:00am- Guru Paduka pooja; 9:00am to 10:30am- Samskriti pooja; 10:30am to 1:00pm- Maha Sarvaiswarya Yagnam and 1:00pm- Maha Arathi followed by Maha Prasadam(Lunch) Ramakrishna Math The math has made arrangements for the celebrations of Guru Poornima in its premises on July 15.The programmes at the math will begin with meditation at 4:45 am, followed by mangala aaratis and bhajans at 5:30 am and temple pradakshina at 6:30 am which will soon be followed by chanting of Vishnu Sahasranama stotrams at 7:15 am. A homa will be perfomed at about 11 am and DVDs of “Sri Ramakrishna Leela Geetam” and “A pilgrimage to Kamarpakur and Jayarambati” will be released. After the DVD release there will be two talks, one in English and the other in Telugu by Swami Jnanadananda and Swami Parijneyananda respectively.A special aarati will be performed at 1 pm and prasadam is offered to the devotees. An evening aarati at 6:45 pm will also be performed which will follow with special bhajans from 7:15 pm onwards.