Gratitude to all the Gurus in our lives-1.

Psalm in praise of enigmatic "Gurus" of our lives. 
On this auspicious day of Budh purinama. I am dedicating my post to all the gurus, we came across in our lives, whether educational, religious or spiritual. They all are the requisite force in our lives.

Beautiful mother

Mother is the first guru, we learn most of our first lessons from her. She is the one, who gave her womb, and the best years of her youth to rear us, she protect us from the enmity. She teaches us first lessons on ethics, morality,  and the do and don'ts. She introduces her children to religion, faith, goodness and kindness.She emits an aura of love and kindness, though sometimes she has to admonished them, for their own good. Here I must mention that I was lucky to had one of the best mother in the world (I know every child must be thinking of that). But I have more reasons to say this, as now looking back in retrospect, she never taught us cheating, back-lashing, snubbing, sneering and most importantly compromising on truth and ethical values. I had always seen her praying with folded hands for her children. She had tremendous faith, which was unflinching even in the extremely bad circumstances. God, really tested her, in so many different faces, and relations, but she remained rooted to her values. I am really thankful to her for not teaching me revenge, lust and jealousy. Maybe I am at the receiving end for not practicing it all, but still I am happy as I am.
Myself and fortunately my kids really appreciated her power of endurance for all the ills, which sometimes she had to take, for being simple and unpretentious.

Father showing us the way.

Father is the second guru, in our lives, who provide us food and shelter. He is our strength, and  pillar of support. He gives a sense of security and dependency to his family. Again I am thankful to God for giving me the best father, who had sown the seeds of religion and spirituality in me. He was a learned man, scholar in Sanskrit and had tremendous knowledge of Vedas and Upnishads. I always used to look up to him, when got stuck in unpleasant situation. He got unflinching faith in religion and spirituality. He was a kindhearted and gentle person. I learned my first lessons on charity, bhakti (prayer) and scripture knowledge from him. I can never, ever forget his line, when he said," Rita, whenever you are tired of taking obnoxious situations in life, always look at earth, just see how much the impertinent, she can withstood". I want to tell him, "see, Dad I am doing that, and had not compromised on values and morality you instigated in me." It is ok, that I have not gathered fame, wealth, and luxuries in my life, people can sneered at me if they want, but I am happy as I am. (A simple daughter of a simple father).
As a child, I have never seen him fighting or plotting against his elder sibling for money and land. He always had been very respectful to them, and helped them without a second thought. My parents, are the invaluable gifts and gurus of my life given by God. I feel privileged to had them then. and now in my memories. I know fully well, that nothing could have been better than them, no wealth, no luxuriousness.

Teacher guiding us 

Outside home, teachers in school, and colleges are our Gurus. They also worked hard on us, always wanted us to do better. They worked hard on us, for us and with us, so that we can learn and excel in our lives. It would be like showing a candle to sun, if I would say anything in praise for them, because how much and no matter what, I would say, would ever suffice to show their indispensable value in our lives.
Now it is the time to pay respect to our religious Gurus, they help and direct us how to lessen our karmic burden in this birth. We all have certain karmic burden or obligation to give in this present life. All our governing planets come and sits stealthily in their particular house, either ascending  or descending to certain degrees and holding that person captive to their whims. I am not judging, their good or bad merits, but suggesting that this karmic burden can be lessened to a certain extent by following preaching of religious Gurus.
I will be taking up Spiritual Guru in my next post -Gratitude to all the Gurus in our lives-2.

Religious Gurus doing "Havan" rituals for the welfare.

pics from net.