Satguru means true guru. The title means that his students have faith that the guru can be trusted and will lead them to moksha, enlightenment, inner peace, an utopian society, or heaven, or will give them good karma in their next life, or peace. It is based on a long line of Hindu philosophical understandings of the importance of knowledge and that the teacher, guru, is the sacred conduit to self-realization.

A guru is originally a teacher (In Sanskrit गुरु, Gu=darkness; Ru:light ), literally the one that takes you from darkness to light. In India, every teacher is called guru. In the West, its usage has extended into anyone who makes religious or philosophical statements and has followers because of this. In further extension it means simply expert.

In Hinduism guru is used interchangeably with satguru (literally: true teacher). Traditionally the title "guru" is used in the context of a relationship between a teacher and a student, rather than an absolute.