Guru
Guru · guru, “the teacher”
Grammar: masculine noun; guru means “heavy, weighty”, and so one who is venerable; as a noun, the teacher. Ācārya is used in the same sense.
Meaning: the teacher who knows the Veda and has realised Brahman, from whom the seeker receives upadeśa and dīkshā; in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa he is to be served as Śrī Kṛshṇa himself.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa teaches who the guru is, how he is to be served, and what comes through him.
The marks of the guru. Prabuddha, one of the nine Yogeśvaras, tells Nimi Mahārāja that moksha, which comes from ātma-jñāna, is the highest good, so the sādhaka seeking that jñāna must take refuge in a guru. The guru is skilled in the Veda, has realised the truth of the Parabrahman, and is firm in śama, dama and the rest. The sādhaka must regard that guru as his own ishṭa-daiva, serve him without deceit, and learn from him the dharmas of bhakti, by which Śrī Hari, the Self of all, is pleased and gives his very self to the bhakta. Āvirhotra, teaching the way of pūjā, says that by the grace of the ācārya the sādhaka receives mantra-dīkshā, the ācārya teaches him the method of pūjā, and he then worships Purushottama through a mūrti of his liking (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 3).
The guru is Parameśvara himself. Nārada Maharshi tells Yudhishṭhira how each fault of the sādhaka is to be conquered, grief by viveka, hypocrisy by serving mahātmās, rajas and tamas by sattva, and says that a man can conquer all these faults easily and surely by bhakti to the guru. The guru who has given the lamp of jñāna is Parameśvara himself. For one who thinks the guru “just an ordinary man”, all his hearing of the śāstra is as useless as an elephant’s bath, for the elephant bathes and then throws dust on itself. Śrī Kṛshṇa is the master of prakṛti and of the jīvas; the foremost yogīs meditate on his feet in their hearts, yet the world thinks him an ordinary man; in the same way the guru too is Parameśvara (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 15).
Many gurus. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava the words of Dattātreya to Yadu Mahārāja. Dattātreya names the gurus from whom he learned, among them the child, the maiden with her bangles, the arrow-maker, the snake, the spider and the bee, and last his own body, from which he learned viveka and vairāgya. Then he says that knowledge gained from a single guru is not firm and complete, for the maharshis have described the one Parabrahma-tattva in many ways (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 9).
Serving the guru. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that the sādhaka should serve a guru of peaceful nature who knows his tattva, regarding him as Śrī Kṛshṇa’s very form. Pride, envy, haste, possessiveness, fault-finding and idle talk must not be in him; skill in work, firm love for the guru and the desire to know the truth must be. Gaining knowledge is like churning fire: the ācārya is the lower wood, the śishya the upper wood, the upadeśa the churning stick, and the jñāna that gives happiness is the fire born of the churning. When a most skilful ācārya teaches, a most skilful śishya gains the knowledge of the ātmā, which burns up saṃsāra and its root, ajñāna (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 10). The later fruit of enjoyments is only sorrow; the wise man who has gained vairāgya towards them but has not learned the way to reach Śrī Kṛshṇa should go to a contemplative śrotriya guru, and until the direct realisation of Parabrahman he should serve Śrī Kṛshṇa in the form of the guru with śraddhā and reverence, and not look for faults in the guru (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 18). The one who is weary of saṃsāra and detached receives the guru’s upadeśa and meditates on the truth taught without break; then his mind gives up its attachment (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 20).
Śuka‘s own guru. Ending his account of the lokas below the earth, Śuka tells Parīkshit that he has described them according to śāstra, without going beyond his guru’s teaching (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 25).
Related terms: Ācārya · Śishya · Dīkshā · Upadeśa · Gurukula · Gurudakshiṇā
Other meanings
Guru has more than one meaning in the Purāṇas and Itihāsas. Besides the meaning above, it names those listed here, each with where it is told.
- Bṛhaspati: the son of Aṅgiras Maharshi, guru of the devas and the graha Guru, adhideva of Guru-graha and Guruvāra; his passage through each rāśi in a year, the parivatsara, is told with the other grahas on Navagrahas. Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 164; Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 22
Named in passing
- Guru, son of Saṅkṛti: a son of Saṅkṛti in the Pūru line and the brother of Rantideva, told on Rantideva. Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 21
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 25; Skandha 7, Chapter 15; Skandha 11, Chapters 3, 9–10, 18, 20