Guru meaning

Guru is the Sanskrit word for a teacher, and above all for a spiritual teacher who guides a student over many years. Literally it means heavy or weighty: a person of substance whose words carry weight.

In English the word has drifted to mean any expert, as in a marketing guru. In the traditions it comes from, it names a specific and serious relationship between teacher and student.

What does the word guru literally mean?

As an adjective, guru means heavy, and it is a distant cousin of the Latin gravis, the root of the English word grave. In Sanskrit grammar a guru syllable is a long or heavy one, the opposite of laghu, light.

A second explanation is the one most often heard in yoga classes. The Advaya Taraka Upanishad, a later yoga text, divides the word into gu, darkness, and ru, that which removes it. On this reading a guru is the one who removes ignorance. It is a teaching about the role, not the history of the word, and both readings are worth knowing.

Where does the guru appear in the texts?

The Upanishads are built around teachers and students. The name itself is often explained as sitting down near a teacher, and many passages are dialogues, such as the father Uddalaka instructing his son Shvetaketu in the Chandogya Upanishad. The Mundaka Upanishad tells the seeker to approach a teacher who is learned and steady.

The Bhagavad Gita can be read as one long lesson from teacher to student, with Krishna instructing Arjuna on the battlefield, as described on the page about the Gita and yoga. The relationship came to be called guru-shishya, teacher and disciple, and the passing of teaching from one generation to the next is called parampara.

How do Buddhist, Jain and Sikh traditions use the word?

In Buddhism the word is common in the tantric traditions. The Tibetan word lama is the standard translation of guru, and in Vajrayana practice the teacher has a central place. Earlier Buddhist texts more often speak of the kalyanamitta, the good friend who guides practice.

In Jainism, monastic teachers are honoured in the Namokar mantra, which salutes the acharyas, the upadhyayas and all monks among its five supreme beings. The word guru is used for these monastic teachers in everyday Jain life.

In Sikhism, Guru is the title of the ten founding teachers, beginning with Guru Nanak in the fifteenth century, and of the scripture itself, the Guru Granth Sahib.

How does the word show up in modern yoga?

Some styles keep the language of the old relationship. In Ashtanga yoga, students often referred to K. Pattabhi Jois as Guruji, and the Mysore room he taught in is called a shala, the traditional word for a hall of learning. Some classes open with a chant that honours the teacher.

Most modern studios use the plain word teacher instead. A teacher in a group class or a private lesson is there to guide the practice, and a sensible student keeps their own judgement, asks questions and says no to any adjustment or instruction that does not feel right. The respect the word guru carries works best when it goes both ways.