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THE CONCEPT OF 'GURU' IN THE UPANISADS
YAGNESHWAR S. SHASTRI
The Concept of 'Guru' occupies a unique place in our culture. In fact, our rich cultural heritage is handed down to us by our ancient line of Guruş-Vedas, Upanisads, Vedängas, Agamas, Purāņas, Rāmāyaṇa and Mahabharata and other scriptures are handed down to posterity from generation to generation by the great Gurus. In one sense, our culture is 'Guru' culture, Guru tradition. Whenever, our culture, our religion, our tradition was at a very critical juncture, these great 'Gurus' appeared on the Indian seen and revived and rejuvenated our culture. Lord Krishna, Yajnavalkya, Välmīki, Vyasa, Buddha, Sankara, Rämänuja, Madhva," Vallabha and many other great souls are great 'Gurus' of our heritage. They are the true leaders of the entire humanity, they lifted the veil of ignorance and lit the lamp of knowledge in the hearts of people. These great 'Gurus' have guided our society through ages by preaching the eternal values and immortal thoughts of our culture. It is a remarkable fact that our Vedic tradition has in every century produced a number of such great souls, which is largely responsible for the continued vitality of Vedic culture through the ages.
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Knowledge has the highest place in our culture. There is nothing, purer than knowledge (7 fe ana weri afaafu farà IV-38) says the Bhagavadgitä. Thus, in our tradition whoever gives knowledge, is considered as 'Guru' whether it is mother, father, teacher, wife, husband, spiritual teacher, men of great spirit, yogis, saints, sages. In this respect the traditional concept of Guru is very important. From the point of view of traditional etymology, in the word 'Guru', 'gu' means 'darkness' and 'ru' means to destroy, to remove. (yesterettenre: zid PrefÒva: 1) Thus, 'Guru' means one who removes or destroys the darkness of ignorance and lits the lamp of knowledge in us. (It is said that, there is no difference between human beings and animals in respect of eating food, sleep, fear and copulation. But it is discriminative power, knowledge that makes, human beings rational animals. Here, the 'Guru' plays very important role in making men/women real human beings imparting knowledge and discriminative power
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