Guru Vs Teacher

In continuation with the earlier post "Celebrating Guruhood", I had a conversation with a friend about using the word 'guru' casually and my friend's contention was that we do not call all teachers, Gurus. Which is true. That is exactly the point in my life - my greatest blessing has been that most of my teachers have been Gurus to and for me.

I used the words Guru and teacher knowing full well what I was doing. There is really no translation in English for the word 'Guru', however the nearest is teacher, and if more teachers were like Gurus, we would get somewhere. Even taking the etymological guru - to be one who dispels darkness with his light of wisdom or even as one who goes beyond qualities and form, and even taking it to be spiritual ignorance that the Guru dispels, that is exactly what I am saying - that my teachers have always thrown light on one spiritual aspect or another, and so in that sense they are all Gurus for me.