Guru Purnima is a spiritual tradition dedicated to spiritual and academic teachers of every field. It is celebrated as a festival in India, Nepal and Bhutan. This festival is traditionally observed by Hindus, Buddhists and Jains to revere their chosen spiritual teachers and leaders and express their gratitude.
The festival is celebrated by Buddhists in honour of Lord Buddha, who gave his first sermon on this day at Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh. Mythology says, on Guru Purnima, Lord Shiva, the Agi Guru or the original teacher, started the transmission of yoga to the Saptarishis.
The full moon day of the Hindu month of ‘Ashad’ is a day that is very sacred and especially so, as it is a day to worship the Great Indian sage Vyasa. He was an Indian saint who is credited with editing all the four Indian Vedas and writing the 18 Hindu Puranas as well as authoring the Holy Shrimad Bhagavata and the story of Mahabharata.This day is also celebrated as Vyasa Purnima in the honour the great sage Veda Vyasa, who is known to be one of the greatest gurus of India and the author of Mahabharata.
According to the Hindu calendar of India, the festival is celebrated on the full moon day (Purnima) in the Hindu month of Ashadha. The festival was revived by Mahatma Gandhi to pay tribute to his spiritual guru Shrimad Rajchandra.
On this day, devotees worship their spiritual gurus and visit temples to seek blessings. Most people observe fast on this day and do pujas at home in appreciation of their gurus.