Guru

The principle of an authoritative teacher who transmits realized understanding rather than mere information, central across many of the traditions this archive covers despite their otherwise significant differences.

interpretation. Interpretation — one way of reading the material among several.
Tradition: hinduism Tradition: sikhism Theme: teaching Theme: authority Theme: tradition Theme: transmission

Guru names a principle running across many of the traditions this archive covers despite their otherwise significant differences: the conviction that certain kinds of understanding are properly transmitted through a living, authoritative teacher, rather than recoverable from texts alone by a sufficiently diligent solitary reader.

More than an instructor

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Sources & further reading

Related in the archive

Text

The Principal Upanishads

A body of philosophical texts that shifted attention from ritual toward questions about the self, reality, and liberation.

Person

Guru Nanak

The founding figure of the Sikh tradition, a teacher and poet whose work emphasized devotion, ethical living, and social equality.

Person

Adi Shankara

An influential philosopher associated with a non-dualist reading of Vedanta and with extensive commentarial work — with much of his biography known through later tradition.

Person

Patanjali

The traditional systematizer of yoga philosophy, credited with compiling the Yoga Sutras into a coherent path of disciplined liberation.

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