I recently added two new offerings to my weekly schedule. One is a free livestream meditation on Thursday evenings, the other is a Thursday morning meditative Hatha Yoga class. 

Why Thursdays? Thursday is a day special to my heart as a Yoga practitioner. It is a day when we are minded to pay particular homage to the guru, both inner and outer. 

What does this mean? And why on Thursdays?

Most of us are aware that the days of the week are named after planets or gods and godesses of yore! The day in question here, Thursday is Thor’s day, right? Monday is obviously the Moon day, Saturday is Saturn’s’ day, and Sunday is the Sun’s day. 

We have mercredi, Wednesday, which is Mercurys day. 

And Thursday is Jupiter’s day. 

Jupiiter is the largest planet in the solar system and is the planet of Thursdays in the Vedic tradition, from which the wisdom of Yoga and Ayurveda has been bequeathed to us. 

In the Vedic tradition, just as in our Eurpoean history, the days of the week are associated with celestial spheres and the celestial spheres are associated with specific deities. Apart from Thursday and Jupiter. 

In Vedic astrology, Jupiter is recalled as the guru, or teacher. And Jupiter, as the guru, is said to hold all the qualities of a great teacher or spiritual master. 

Jupiter is said to be beneficent, one of the most auspicious, generous, and helpful planets.

Also this planet, by it’s association with the guru, represents wisdom, sacred scripture, philosophy and benevolence.

And so, I recall, during my time in the ashram in Bahamas, we would chant the guru mantras and shanti mantras (of the Upanishads) on Thursday mornings, to honour and pay homage to the guru and to the teachings of the Vedas.

The word guru can be broken down into two root Sanskrit words – Gu means darkness and Ru is the light that dispels darkness. 

And so, the guru is the one who awakens us to the light which dispels the darkness. What darkness? The darkness which is the ignorance, or fogetfulness of our true nature. That is, who we are in Essence. 

In Essence we are Sat Chid Ananda ,Truth, Consciousness and Bliss. And the whole goal of the Vedic spiritual practices is to reawaken us to our essential naure, for the self-realisation of ourselves as Sat Chid Ananda. 

This is not something that we attain. We are already that. We remove the veil of ignorance from our awareness through the grace of the Guru and the truth of our essential nature is revealed and reawakaned.

In truth we can have an outer guru and an inner guru. Some teachers say we must listen first to the outer guru: others say we must listen first to our inner guru. The guru dwells in our heart, in the seat of our consciousness, Each one of us, will find one or the other easier, according to our natural inclinations. Although I suspect that in our day and age, we will find it hard to surrender to the degree required to really benefit from the grace of the Guru. 

Thursdays, guru’s day, is a day to pay homage to and acknowledge all gurus – inner and outer, and of the past, present and future. It is a day to express thanks and gratitude for the blessings of the teachings and practices, which piece by piece remove the veils of illusion and wrong understanding of the nature of things and of our own being, from our hearts and minds.

It is with great good fortune that we come across a guru, the teachings, and that we live in a country in which we can freely explore, enquire into and practice the teachings. These are the teachings of the Vedas. 

And so there is much to give thanks for. And so Thursday is the perfect day to offer particular remembrance. And what better way to do that than to give a little time to sadhana, to the teachings and the light of our consciousness. 

I hope you’ll join me on thursdays – morning Hatha practice from 7,30am and evening meditation from 7pm. You can get the recordings from me if you can’t make these times. 

With love and best wishes for now, 

Sara Shama

Sat guru natha maharaja ki  jai!

Hail to the true guru!