Guru Purnima 2028: Date, Rituals & Significance

Purnima runs 5 Jul, 23:04 → 6 Jul, 23:41.

1. Morning bath and seat. Bathe early and set a clean seat with an image of Veda Vyasa and of your own guru, or the guru's padukas.
2. Sankalpa. Take the sankalpa for Vyasa puja, honouring the whole line of teachers through whom your learning came.
3. Offerings. Offer sandal paste, flowers, akshat, a lamp, incense, fruits and sweets, and new cloth or dakshina.
4. Guru stotra. Recite “Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu Gurur Devo Maheshwarah” and the Guru Stotram, or read from the Guru Gita.
5. Visit your teacher. Where possible, go to your guru or teacher in person, touch their feet and receive their blessing; otherwise remember them with gratitude.
6. Study. Spend part of the day in study or reading of scripture; sannyasis begin the Chaturmas retreat from today.

• Image of Veda Vyasa and of your guru, or padukas
• A clean seat and cloth
• Sandal paste and akshat
• Flowers and a garland
• Ghee lamp and incense
• Fruits and sweets
• New cloth or dakshina for the guru

The word guru is read as gu, darkness, and ru, its remover: the one who leads from the unknown to the known. The day is for gratitude to whoever has taught, and, where there is an initiated guru, for pada-puja and the receiving of a blessing or a mantra.

It is Vyasa Purnima. Vyasa is honoured as the adi-guru of the tradition: the arranger of the one Veda into Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva, the author of the Brahma Sutras and, by dictation to Ganesha, of the Mahabharata. Every teacher's seat is called a Vyasa-pitha.

Buddhists keep the same full moon as the day the Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath, the Dhammacakkappavattana (Asalha Puja); Jains keep it as the day Mahavira took his first disciple, Indrabhuti Gautama.

It opens Chaturmas (the four monsoon months in which sannyasis and monks stay in one place and lay observance intensifies), so it is also a threshold day for beginning a vrata or a course of study.

Vyasa, son of the rishi Parashara and Satyavati, was born on an island in the Yamuna: hence Krishna Dvaipayana. He divided the single Veda into four and taught them to four disciples, composed the eighteen Puranas and the Mahabharata, and is counted among the chiranjivis, the immortals.

The Guru Gita, a portion of the Skanda Purana recited on the day, is a dialogue of Shiva and Parvati on the greatness of the guru: that the guru is Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and the visible form of the supreme.

In the Shaiva telling the first guru was Shiva as Dakshinamurti, seated in silence under a banyan facing south, teaching four aged rishis without a word: the model of instruction that passes beyond speech.

Source: Mahabharata and the Puranas (Vyasa); Skanda Purana (the Guru Gita); the Buddhist and Jain canon for the Asalha and Mahavira observances

Reverence for the guru and the Vyasa-pitha is old in the tradition; Guru Purnima as a fixed festival with guru-puja is described in the Puranas and the medieval nibandha literature.

It is the principal internal festival of the monastic orders (the Shankaracharya mathas, the Nath and Dashanami sannyasis, the Warkari and Ramananda sampradayas) and of the music and dance gharanas, which honour the parampara on the day.

Modern gurus' ashrams (Sivananda, Ramakrishna, the Art of Living, ISKCON's Vyasa-puja for the founder-acharya, and many others) keep it as their central day; in Nepal the school system observes it as a day for students to honour their teachers.

• Skanda Purana: the Guru Gita
• Nibandha literature on the Vyasa-puja and the Chaturmas vrata
• Buddhist canon: the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (first sermon at Sarnath)

1. The disciple bathes and worships the guru, or the guru's paduka (sandals) or photograph, with flowers, fruit, cloth and dakshina; the Guru Gita and a guru-stotra are recited.
2. Where the guru is present, pada-puja is offered and a blessing or a mantra received.
3. Ashrams and mathas hold satsang and annadana, a free meal for all, and sannyasis and monks begin Chaturmas, remaining in one place until Kartik Purnima.
4. Students honour their school and college teachers, and many take this day to begin a new study, learn a raga, or take up a practice.

• Pan-Indian (the monastic and gharana tradition). The Shankaracharya mathas, the Nath and Dashanami orders, and the music and dance gharanas keep it as their principal day of the parampara.
• Maharashtra. Ashadha is dense here: the Pandharpur wari and Ashadhi Ekadashi come within two days, and Guru Purnima is kept at the Warkari and Datta centres with kirtan.
• Buddhist regions (Ladakh, Sikkim, and the Theravada countries). Asalha Puja (the Buddha's first sermon at Sarnath) and the start of the monks' Vassa (rains retreat).
• Nepal. Kept in schools as a day for students to garland and honour their teachers, alongside the ashram observance.

• Simple sattvic prasad and annadana — Ashrams serve a plain meal to all who come; there is no special festive dish.
• Kheer or a sweet for the guru — Offered with the fruit and cloth at the guru-puja.

Guru Purnima is kept on the day when Purnima of Ashadha Shukla paksha prevails at sunrise. That day is Thursday, 6 July 2028. Purnima holds at sunrise only on this day.

at sunrise

Guru Purnima is the Ashadha Purnima: the full moon, the Moon opposite the Sun in ecliptic longitude (elongation ~180°, sidereal Lahiri), near the Purva and Uttara Ashadha nakshatras that name the month. It falls at the onset of the monsoon and opens Chaturmas, the four months to Kartik Purnima. The Sun stands in sidereal Mithuna or Karka. The Gregorian date drifts about 11 days earlier each year and jumps back ~19 days in an adhika-month year.

A lunar date: Purnima of the bright half of Ashadha drifts about 11 days earlier each solar year, then jumps back ~19 days when a leap (Adhika) month is inserted.