Guru Purnima and Balaram Purnima are dedicated to the spiritual master. Guru Purnima is the appearance day of Srila Vyasadev. Krisna Himself comes in the form of Srila Vyasadev to give us knowledge. Giving spiritual knowledge is a very important function, therefore Krisna is performing it Himself in the form of a guru, or in the form of Balaram, who is samasti-guru, or the tattva of guru. The manifestation of guru principle in the form of our spiritual master, who is the representative of Balaram, is called vyasti-guru.

Universal guru principle represented by Balaram is non-different from Krisna because Balaram is Krisna's vaibhav prakas.

Svayam-rupa or the original form of God is Krisna in Vrindavan. He manifests His full power and His full madhurya. Svayam-rupa of Krisna dances only with Srimati Radharani, whereas His svayam-prakas is dancing with every gopi. Svayam-prakas, or manifestations of Krisna are of two types: 1) prabhava-prakas - Krisna in Dvaraka; 2) vaibhava-prakas - Krisna’s manifestation in different moods or different colors. The first manifestation of Krisna’s vaibhava-prakas is Balaram. In this rupa He is Bhagavan Himself, but He only wants to serve Krisna.

Primarily Balaram is Krisna’s friend, but sometimes because He is six days older than Krisna He becomes like His parent and serves Krisna in vatsalya-rasa. Sometimes He serves Krisna in dasya-rasa. In another form as Ananga Manjari, younger sister of Srimati Radharani, He also serves Krisna in madhurya-rasa. Balaram is also the original guru of everyone.

Our dharma is to serve, but because of some ignorance we don’t know how to serve, we want to be served. When Krisna in the form of our spiritual master gives us this experience that it’s much more pleasurable to serve than to be served, he establishes us in our eternal relationship with Krisna.

While we are chanting the Holy name, it’s our duty and it’s a prescribed procedure of chanting the Holy name, we first have to meditate on our guru, because otherwise we will not be able to chant the Holy name with a proper understanding of who I am, who is chanting this Holy name.

There are a lot of anarthas in our heart and Krisna will remove them if we very sincerely pray to Him to remove them as He kills the demons in His naimittika-lilas. Two demons killed by Balaram are Dhenukasura and Pralambasura, they should be removed by our own endeavors, but only with the help of spiritual master. Dhenukasura is the manifestation of our gross attachment to the fruits of our karma. Working hard to remove these anartha means to serve spiritual master in his mission. In this case we will be able to experience the real connection with the Holy name. Pralambasura manifests our thirst for material relationship, it is a more subtle anartha and is more difficult to remove.

Just like Balaram became very heavy, the spiritual master also becomes heavy to help us get rid of attachment to this material world. Only when these two anarthas are removed, we will be able to taste the sweetness of the Holy name.