(RNS) —For Ramesh Rao, a longtime communications professor, the definition of guru — “the remover of darkness” — has been an inspiration for his work.
“That’s what all teachers, I suppose, hope to do when they stand in front of a group of students and say, ‘Let me show you a little bit of the world. Let me open up this box,’” said Rao, who teaches at Georgia’s Columbus State University.
This year, for Guru Purnima — or Full Moon Day, on July 10 — Rao was one of two Indian American teachers to be named the 2025 Grateful2Gurus honorees by the Indica Academy, a nonprofit initiative to promote ancient Indian wisdom and Hindu scholarship in the present day. Arvind Sharma, a professor of comparative religion at McGill University and renowned author of several books, including “Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography,” is his co-honoree.
Avatans Kumar, a linguist by training and the president of Indica, began the G2G program in 2016 to honor those gurus who have contributed to the greater Hindu American landscape.
“We are so indebted toward our gurus, and the debt that we have from their teachings is beyond payment. So we see this as just a small gesture toward the repayment,” said Kumar.
The Hindu tradition …