Guru Mantra

You Truly are my Mother And You Truly are my Father .
You Truly are my Relative And You Truly are my Friend.
You Truly are my Knowledge and You Truly are my Wealth.
You Truly are my All, My God of Gods.

History

The Sanskrit term eva means 'indeed, truly' and tvam is 'you'. Thus, guru is truly our mAtA--mother, cha pitA--and father, bandhuH cha--relative and sakhA--friend. He is truly our vidyA--knowledge, draviNam--wealth, and he is truly sarvaM--everything, and mama deva deva--our God of gods!

We identify guru with the people who are our kith and kin first, and then say he is also the essence of our possessions: knowledge and wealth. The term draviNam indicates all forms of movable wealth. And then we conclude, guru is everything, and our God of gods.

This shloka is typically chanted by students towards their teacher, before a learning session starts. The guru reciprocates such adoration with the following shloka, which the students echo

The Prayer