Guru 4

The word guru (Sanskrit: गगर), a noun, connotes "teacher" in Sanskrit, but in Indian traditions
it has contextual meanings with significance beyond what teacher means in English.[2] The
guru is more than someone who teaches specific type of knowledge, and includes in its scope
someone who is also a "counselor, a sort of parent of mind and soul, who helps mold values
and experiential knowledge as much as specific knowledge, an exemplar in life, an
inspirational source and who reveals the meaning of life."[2] The word has the same meaning
in other languages derived from or borrowing words from Sanskrit, such as Hindi, Marathi,
Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Bengali, Gujarati and Nepali. The
Malayalam term Acharyan or Asan are derived from the Sanskrit word Acharya.

As a noun the word means the imparter of knowledge (jñāna; also Pali: ñāna). As an
adjective, it means 'heavy,' or 'weighty,' in the sense of "heavy with knowledge,"[Note 1] heavy
with spiritual wisdom,[16] "heavy with spiritual weight,"[17] "heavy with the good qualities of
scriptures and realization,"[18] or "heavy with a wealth of knowledge."[19] The word has its
roots in the Sanskrit gri (to invoke, or to praise), and may have a connection to the word gur,
meaning 'to raise, lift up, or to make an effort'.[20]

Sanskrit guru is cognate with Latin gravis 'heavy; grave, weighty, serious'[21] and Greek βαρύς
barus 'heavy'. All three derive from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷerə-, specifically from
the zero-grade form *gʷrrə-.