Ashadha Paurnami

[Radhakrishna Warrier]

From my Facebook Post

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Āṣhāḍha Paurṇami – Full moon rising in the month of Āṣhāḍha.

Rain arrives in India in the month of Āṣhāḍha bringing relief from the scorching heat of summer.  Here in the Pacific Northwest of US, we are in the midst of midsummer, a pleasant time of the year with hardly any rain.

आषाढस्य प्रथम दिवसे … On the first day of Āṣhāḍha...  No, today is not the first day of Āṣhāḍha, but on the first day of this month, In Kālidāsa’s “Meghadūta”, the Yakṣha separated from his newly wed wife and living far away in Rāmagiri in central India in banishment from his Himalayan hometown of Alakāpuri, sees a cloud embracing the yonder mountain top.  He begs the cloud to carry a message of his to his wife in the far away Himalayan hometown.  With poetic elegance, Kālidāsa describes in Meghadūta the places the cloud sees on its flight from central India to the Himalayan city of Alakāpuri.

Āṣhāḍha Paurṇami is also the day of Guru Pūrṇima, the full moon day of remembering and paying obeisance to our gurus - all those teachers who bestowed on us the wealth of knowledge.