Advaita Vedanta

====Guru====
{{Main|Guru}}

Advaita Vedānta school has traditionally had a high reverence for Guru (teacher), and recommends that a competent Guru be sought in one's pursuit of spirituality, though this is not mandatory.{{sfn|Comans|2000|p=182}} Reading of Vedic literature and reflection is the most essential practice.{{sfn|Comans|2000|p=182}} Adi Shankara, states Comans, regularly employed compound words "such as ''Sastracaryopadesa'' (instruction by way of the scriptures and the teacher) and ''Vedāntacaryopadesa'' (instruction by way of the Upanishads and the teacher) to emphasize the importance of Guru".{{sfn|Comans|2000|p=182}} According to Comans, this reflects the Advaita tradition which holds a competent teacher as important and essential to gaining correct knowledge, freeing oneself from false knowledge, and to self-realization.{{sfn|Comans|2000|pp=182–183}} Nevertheless, in the Bhamati-school the guru has a less essential role, as he can explain the teachings, but the student has to venture its further study.{{sfn|Roodurmun|2002|p={{page needed|date=February 2022}}}}

A guru is someone more than a teacher, traditionally a reverential figure to the student, with the ''guru'' serving as a "counselor, who helps mold values, shares experiential knowledge as much as literal knowledge, an exemplar in life, an inspirational source and who helps in the spiritual evolution of a student.<ref name=joelmlecko33>Joel Mlecko (1982), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3269931 The Guru in Hindu Tradition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230906162935/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3269931 |date=6 September 2023 }} Numen, Volume 29, Fasc. 1, pp. 33–61</ref> The guru, states Joel Mlecko, is more than someone who teaches specific type of knowledge, and includes in its scope someone who is also a "counselor, a sort of parent of mind and soul, who helps mold values and experiential knowledge as much as specific knowledge, an exemplar in life, an inspirational source and who reveals the meaning of life."<ref name=joelmlecko33/>
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