Festival Vyasa, Dakshinamurthy, Guru
Guru Purnima · Vyasa Purnima
The full moon of Ashadha, kept for the teacher and for Vyasa, who arranged the Vedas and is held to have been born on it.
Guru Purnima · Vyasa Purnima 2027 falls on Sunday, 18 July, computed for Chennai.
Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
- Sunday, 18 July 2027
- Thursday, 6 July 2028
- Wednesday, 25 July 2029
Where Guru Purnima · Vyasa Purnima falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 18 Jul
- 2028: 6 Jul, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 25 Jul, 18 days later
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The full moon of Ashadha, kept for the teacher and for Vyasa, who arranged the Vedas and is held to have been born on it. Disciples go to their guru with flowers, cloth and a gift; musicians and dancers touch their teacher's feet; monasteries begin the Chaturmas retreat. Buddhists keep the same day as the first sermon at Sarnath.
- Deity
- Vyasa, Dakshinamurthy, Guru
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Yogic tradition holds that on this full moon Shiva, as the first guru, began to teach the seven rishis, which is why Dakshinamurthy, the silent teacher facing south, belongs to the day as much as Vyasa does. Vyasa is remembered as the one who divided the single Veda into four and set down the Mahabharata and the Puranas, so every teacher who hands on a text is held to sit in his seat, the vyasa peetha. North Indian families keep the day for the kul guru or the diksha guru first and then for every teacher who shaped them, and Kabir's couplet that places the guru even before God is on everyone's lips. At Govardhan it is Mudiya Purnima, remembering the disciples of Sanatan Goswami who shaved their heads in mourning for him, and the parikrama of the hill draws lakhs.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Guru Purnima · Vyasa Purnima: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a picture of the guru, or of Vyasa or Dakshinamurthy
- the guru's paduka, if you have them
- a white or yellow cloth
- chandan, akshat and flowers
- a garland
- a ghee lamp
- fruit, sweets and a cloth for the guru
- dakshina
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
Kheer, halwa and seasonal fruit are the bhog, and the ashrams feed all comers with a bhandara of puri, sabzi and halwa; many keep the day without grain on phalahar. At Govardhan the parikrama is walked on the food of Braj, kachori, rabri and Mathura's pedas. Maharashtra's Datta temples and Shirdi give out their own prasad, and the southern mathas a simple bhiksha meal.
The hour
Clock times for Sunday, 18 July 2027 at Chennai
Ashadha Purnima at sunrise; the guru puja is in the morning.
The main rite. Ashadha Purnima holding the sunrise; the guru puja, or the Vyasa puja, is done in the morning after the bath, and the evening is kept for satsang.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:51 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 05:51, sunset 18:39, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Pournami from previous day 18:49 until 21:15 | then Krishna Prathamai until next day 23:48 |
| Nakshatra | Purva Ashadha until 11:18 | then Uttara Ashadha until next day 14:24 |
| Rahu kaal | 17:03 to 18:39 (1 h 36 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 12:15 to 13:51 (1 h 36 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 15:27 to 17:03 (1 h 36 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:49 to 12:41 (0 h 51 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 18:34 | moonset next day 06:12 |
For Sunday, 18 July 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast is required, though many keep the day without grain out of respect. The offering is to the teacher, not to a fire.
What is avoided
Speaking ill of one's teacher, or sitting higher than the guru, is avoided on this day of all days, and no one goes to the guru empty-handed. Meat and alcohol are left alone in homes that keep the day.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Kept by every Indian tradition that has a lineage: Hindu, Buddhist and Jain alike. The south keeps it quietly at the mathas and it is not a public holiday there.
In other regions
- Kannada
- The Shankara and Madhva mathas, Sringeri among them, begin the Chaturmasya with the Vyasa puja on this day, and the pontiffs stay in one place for the season.
- North India
- The north keeps it at the ashrams of Haridwar, Rishikesh and Vrindavan, at Govardhan's Mudiya Purnima parikrama, and in every house that has a kul guru; the music gharanas hold a baithak for the ustad.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra keeps Gurupaurnima as the Vyasa puja in the Datta temples and at Shirdi, where Sai Baba's devotees come in lakhs, and schools hold a guru vandana.
- Sri Lanka
- Sri Lanka keeps the same full moon as Esala Poya, for the first sermon at the deer park at Sarnath, in the season of the Kandy Esala Perahera.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps Guru Purnima in its schools, where students bring their teachers flowers and tika, and Damauli in Tanahun, held by local tradition to be Vyasa's birthplace, keeps a Vyasa festival.
- Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh
- In Jharkhand the same full moon opens the Shravani Mela at Deoghar, so the month in which the state is on the road with the kanwar is counted from this morning.
The dates above are the Tamil Nadu reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
गुरु पूर्णिमा की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएंGuru Purnima ki hardik shubhkamnayein
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Ahmednagar, Maharashtra
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Thursday is Baba’s day, and Ram Navami, Guru Purnima and Vijayadashami are its three festivals.
- Giriraj Govardhan (Danghati Temple) 1,630 kmMathura, Uttar Pradesh
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Guru Purnima and Annakut are its days.
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.