What Is a Guru? A Spiritual Teacher's Perspective

What is a guru, and how do you recognise a real one? Umesh Guruji starts from the word itself: "Gu" means darkness and "Ru" means light, so a guru is someone who helps you move from darkness to light. For him, a true guru never makes you a follower but leads you back to your own inner guide.

What does guru mean?

In the Hindu tradition, Umesh recalls, mother and father give the body, while the guru gives the awakening of the soul. A real guru does not carry you: he makes your shoulders stronger and helps you find the inner guru, your own inner light, because everyone has their own path. The bond between teacher and student is also at the heart of the Bhagavad Gita.

How do you find the right guru?

Not with the mind, Umesh says. Knowledge is everywhere, but a real guru is recognised by feeling: near him the questions quiet down and the mind stops. As the body needs food, the soul needs silence and energy, and "Guru is the soul food". A guru need not even be a person: an apple tree teaches giving, a dog teaches awareness, a small child can teach a lot.

The guru as a mirror

For Umesh, the guru works like a mirror, mostly in silence, showing the student both darkness and light. The ego resists, and the guru sometimes has to "punch" it so the student can let go of fixed beliefs and go beyond the mind. Umesh compares it to cutting a diamond, hard work the guru feels too. He links this inner cleaning to the slow rising of kundalini.