Hi,
I was wondering about the meaning of Guru that you use in this video.
According to Paramahansa Yogananda the word Guru means dispeller of darkness. He dedcribes the two words that the meaning is based on, but i forgot... it is written in his lessons...
in the back of my mind, i think the word "guru" means "heavy" in Sanskrit. Could mean one who has more understanding, who has more than you have, who, by virtue of his knowledge, is a heavyweight....
tuyet
Rather than to know the meaning of Guru, one should experience what it is like to have a Guru in life. In my experience, the Guru is kind, generous, respectful and only interested in your spiritual growth.
Yes, guru simply means heavy, that is the literal definition. its actually closely related to the word, giri, which means mountains or coming from the mountains, thus the svamis can be called giri in their name, like Sri Yuktesvar Giri, because mountain are seen as the heaviest thing there is and so Krishna raised a mountain as a symbol of being able to carry any weight and that can only be done by someone heavier than the mountain, so it shows the weight of krishna. From this feat Krishna received the name Govinda.
I don't remember what the SRF lessons had to say about that word, if you find it can you share the page number with me? But i do remember thinking that guru meant the bringer of light, dispeller of darkness until i learned sanskrit and realized it didnt mean that. The lessons were not written by Yogananda, but by his disciples from his lectures and teachings. There is al so somewhere where I think Sri Yuktesvar says, guru means heavy because the guru is heavier in knowledge.
In Lesson 16 right in the beginning it says that the Guru Gita (Vers 17) describes the Guru as dispeller of darkness (from gu, "darkness" and ru, "that which dispels")
@jakobhand I think somewhere in an upanishad it states that definition, where "gu"means darkness, and "ru" means light, so from darkness to light. But Sanskrit words tend to always have more than one meaning.
Guru as heavy is the more common one for sure, like in Ayurveda where they classify foods as being "guru" (heavy) or "laghu" (light).
-Corey
Guru as a dispeller of darkness sounds like the activity that comes from Guru being "heavy" in knowledge/wisdom, learning, intelligence and creativity. Guru/Jupiter's heaviness seems directed toward opening and expansion verses other heavy-type situations like those of Saturn that have the tendency for the opposite effect of darkening/covering/closing. Perhaps the heaviness of Guru could be thought of as density of meaning.