Gratitude Is the Guru: Honouring Every Lesson This Guru Purnima

There is no better day to say thank you than today.

Guru Purnima is not just a celebration of one teacher or one lesson. It is a recognition of all the wisdom that has touched us - through people, pain, silence, success, and surrender. It is a bow to the unseen classroom we live in every day. And above all, it is a gentle reminder that we’ve never truly been alone in our becoming.

What is a Guru? Maybe it’s not always a person with answers. Sometimes, it’s just the moment when a question bends in front of truth, the curve of curiosity humbling itself to wisdom. A Guru is where the question ends, and the transformation begins. Sometimes it's a book. Sometimes it's a heartbreak. Sometimes it's a stranger whose presence altered your direction without even knowing it.

So today, thank you. Not just to the formal teachers, but to everyone who has ever unknowingly contributed to who I’ve become. My parents, my friends, colleagues, managers, those who challenged me, and those who supported me. Each one played a role in shaping this vast web of inner learning. Even those who left. Especially those who hurt. From them, I learned compassion. From betrayal, I learned discernment. From appreciation, I understood worth. From those who believed in me, I gathered strength to keep going even when I doubted myself.

The greatest teachers never wore labels. They arrived as life itself. The silence after a breakdown. The detachment after a disappointment. The gut feeling that nudged me when I needed to walk away. These were my greatest Gurus, not because they gave me answers, but because they brought me closer to the voice that already knew.

Work taught me responsibility. Personal life taught me how to feel. Together, they taught me how to choose. Every decision - do I want this or not? became a return to myself. And the self is never built alone. It is gathered piece by piece from what we see, hear, feel, and experience through others.

Sometimes, I wondered why certain things fell apart. But now I see they weren’t falling apart. They were just unwrapping. They were revealing the raw material I was meant to shape. Pain has always introduced me to faith. The miracles? They only appear when you're truly cut open. You learn to see goodness in everything and that kind of sight can only be earned through fire.

Through all of this, one thread stands out: gratitude. Gratitude is not soft. It is the most grounded state we can be in. It makes us responsive, not reactive. It pulls us out of victimhood and places us back into presence. And it’s not just about saying thanks. It’s about seeing the intelligence behind the mess. It is what transforms a wound into a window.

But there’s something even deeper than gratitude : unconditional trust. A kind of trust that doesn’t ask for evidence. A trust that says, “Even if I don’t understand it now, I know I’m being led.” That kind of trust places you in a position of astonishing protection. You begin to live in alignment with something higher. You stop needing to control, and start learning to listen.

When trust and gratitude meet, a gateway opens. That’s when life stops being a random series of events and starts to feel like choreography. That’s when you begin to live in meditation. Not one that happens in silence, but one that happens in awareness.

This Guru Purnima, I honour all those who taught me, intentionally or otherwise. I honour the web of wisdom that brought me here. And I honour the Divine for designing it all so perfectly that even in my most lost moments, I was only being found.

May we all learn to trust more deeply, love more openly, and listen more quietly. Because in the end, life itself is the Guru and our job is to stay open to learning.