Sri Guru Stotram — Salutations to the Teacher

The Guru Stotram — also known as the Guru Vandanam — is among the most sacred Sanskrit hymns addressed to the guru principle. It is not a hymn addressed to any particular human teacher; it is addressed to the quality of guru itself — the force that removes the darkness of ignorance and reveals what was always present. Guru means, literally, the heavy one, or the one who removes darkness: gu for darkness, ru for the one who dispels it.

The third verse — Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshvara — is perhaps the most widely chanted in the tradition. It maps the guru onto the three primary aspects of the divine: Brahma the creator, Vishnu the sustainer, Shiva the dissolver. What this is saying is not that any human teacher is God in a literal sense; it is saying that the function of the guru — the transformation of consciousness that genuine teaching makes possible — is itself the divine activity operating in the human dimension. The guru is the face the Absolute shows when it moves toward us in the form of understanding.

These fifteen shlokas are traditionally recited at the beginning of practice, on Guru Purnima, or any time the practitioner wishes to renew their relationship with the teacher and the teaching. The audio recording below offers one way of receiving the sound of the text before engaging with its meaning.

akhaṇḍamaṇḍalākāraṁ vyāptaṁ yena carācaram
tatpadaṁ darśitaṁ yena tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ || 1 ||

1. Salutations to that guru who showed me the abode to be known — whose form is the entire universe, by whom all the movable and immovable are pervaded.

ajñānatimirāndhasya jñānāñjanaśalākayā
cakṣurunmīlitaṁ yena tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ || 2 ||

2. Salutations to that guru who opened the eye of one blind due to the darkness of ignorance — with a needle coated with the ointment of knowledge.

gururbrahmā gururviṣṇuḥ gururdevo maheśvaraḥ
gurusakshat paraṁ brahma tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ || 3 ||

3. Salutations to that guru who is the Creator, Sustainer, and Destroyer — who is the limitless one, Brahman itself made visible.

sthāvaraṁ jaṅgamaṁ vyāptaṁ yatkiṅcit sacarācaram
tatpadaṁ darśitaṁ yena tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ || 4 ||

4. Salutations to that guru who showed me the one to be known — who permeates whatever is movable, immovable, sentient or insentient.

cinmayaṁ vyāpi yatsarvaṁ trailokyaṁ sacarācaram
tatpadaṁ darśitaṁ yena tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ || 5 ||

5. Salutations to that teacher who showed me the One to be known — who is but Awareness, the pervader of all three worlds comprising the sentient and insentient.

sarvaśrutiśiroratna virajitapadāmbujaḥ
vedāntambujasūryo yaḥ tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ || 6 ||

6. Salutations to that guru who is the Sun to the lotus of Vedanta — whose lotus feet are made radiant by the jewel of all Srutis (Upanishads).

caitanyaḥ śāśvataḥśānto vyomātīto nirañjanaḥ
bindunāda kalātītaḥ tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ || 7 ||

7. Salutations to that guru who is Awareness, changeless, who is peace, beyond space, pure — beyond the manifest and the unmanifest.

jñānaśaktisamārūḍhaḥ tattvamālāvibhūṣitaḥ
bhuktimuktipradātā ca tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ || 8 ||

8. Salutations to that guru who is rooted in knowledge that is power, adorned with the garland of Truth — and who is the bestower of the joy of liberation.

anekajanmasamprāpta karmabandhavidāhine
ātmajñānapradānena tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ || 9 ||

9. Salutations to that guru who, by bestowing the knowledge of the Self, burns away the bondage created by accumulated actions of innumerable births.

śoṣaṇaṁ bhavasindhośca jñāpanaṁ sārasampadaḥ
guroḥ pādodakaṁ samyak tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ || 10 ||

10. Salutations to that guru — the perennial flow of wisdom from one rooted in the vision of the sruti dries up totally the ocean of transmigration and reveals the essence of all wealth: the freedom from want.

na guror adhikaṁ tattvaṁ na guroradhikaṁ tapaḥ
tattvajñānāt paraṁ nāsti tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ || 11 ||

11. There is no Truth superior to the guru, no austerity higher than the guru, nothing beyond the knowledge of Truth. Salutations to that guru.

mannāthaḥ śrī jagannāthaḥ madguruḥ śri jagadguruḥ
madātmā sarvabhūtātmā tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ || 12 ||

12. Salutations to that guru who is the Lord of the Universe, my Teacher, the Teacher of the Universe — the Self in me and the Self in all beings.

gururādiranādiśca guruḥ paramadaivatam
guroḥ parataraṁ nāsti tasmai śrīgurave namaḥ || 13 ||

13. Salutations to that guru who is the beginning and the beginningless — the highest Deity, to whom there is none superior.

dhyana mūlam guror mūrti pūja mūlam guror padam
mantra mūlam guror vākyam moksha mūlam guror kṛpā || 14 ||

14. The root of meditation is the form of the guru. The root of worship is the feet of the guru. The root of mantra is the word of the guru. The root of liberation is the grace of the guru.

tvameva mātā ca pitā tvameva
tvameva bandhuśca sakhā tvameva
tvameva vidyā draviṇaṃ tvameva
tvameva sarvaṃ mama deva deva || 15 ||

15. O God of all Gods — you alone are my mother, my father, my kinsman, my friend, my knowledge, and my wealth. You are everything to me.

References

1. Guru Stotram (Guru Vandanam), traditional Sanskrit; found in the Skanda Purana and attributed to the Guru Gita tradition. The Devanagari and transliteration are standard liturgical forms in widespread devotional use.
2. Georg Feuerstein, The Guru Principle: A Guide to the Teacher-Student Relationship, Shambhala, Boston, 1999. Careful treatment of the guru concept in the Indian tradition — what it means theologically, and what it requires of both teacher and student.
3. Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Guru and Disciple, Bihar School of Yoga, Munger, 1984. The transmission relationship from the perspective of the Bihar Yoga tradition; practical and clear on the distinction between the guru principle and any particular teacher.