Modern Day Guru's Part I - It's all in a Name

“The right name is an advertisement in itself.”

Hopkins, Claude

-American jazz pianist and bandleader

The word guru from Merriam Webster Online means:

1: a personal religious teacher and spiritual guide in Hinduism

2: a: a teacher and especially intellectual guide in matters of fundamental concern b: one who is an acknowledged leader or chief proponent c: a person with knowledge or expertise: expert

The first meaning of a word is its strongest definition. Remember that rule when writing.

Before we jump into modern gurus, let’s understand the term. A guru is a Hindu teacher. The second meaning was added to Webster’s more recently, yet I’m unable to site the date (if you can contribute that information, please email me).

I currently have in my possession a Christian magazine with an article titled: "How this exercise guru brings fitness and faith--"

As Christian’s, especially Christian writers, shouldn’t we shy away from any references to Hinduism? But what about the second meaning? It’s a second meaning. A good writer uses their strongest vocabulary to make a themselves clear, and that’s my point here. Guru is now cultural for anyone who’s a leader in a particular field. There is a guru energy drink, jazz gurus, a current cutesy comedy movie about a guru, staring Mike Myers, there are marketing gurus, golf gurus, there’s a guru power bar, management gurus, fitness gurus and guru shoes. There are 92,600,000 guru definitions on Google as of July of 2008. That’s a lot of gurus, and none of them should be in reference to a Christian.

Part II of this series will unpack what modern gurus are selling.

**Artwork Permission from Zeb Toons copyrighted

Part II of this series will unpack what modern gurus are selling.