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Jai Guru Deva, Om
During the making of this page, I get a number of emails from people that visit that have questions that aren't answered on the page. The question I get most often is "What does "Jai Guru Deva, Om" mean in "Across the Universe"?. So, I decided that I should post it to save you guys the trouble of emailing, and to satisfy the curiousity of countless others who always wondered what it meant. Plus my page is titled "Across the Universe", so I believe it is fitting. Just a note, there are a couple of other sites that have other translations on its meaning, and in no way am I saying that I'm completely right, and they are wrong, I'm just trying to explain this to the best of my knowledge. The words are Sanskrit, and translate loosely. Anyway, here is what I believe the translation means.
Guru Deva, actually it is Guru Dev, is invoked in the song because he was the Maharishi's teacher. He is an actual person, and they invoked him in their meditation every day. The name actually has meaning in itself. A Guru is a teacher, or spiritual leader of sorts. Dev, according to some other sites I went to, means god or heavenly one. As stated, Maharishi's actual teacher's name was Guru Dev. John Lennon appeared to take the liberty adding the "a"on the end. Jai means, and there are several meanings I have for this, "I give hope, or thanks to", this I was told, but some sites say it means, "victory" or "salutations". Om, is probaby the easiest part to explain. Om is believed to be the natural vibration of the universe. Hence, when many meditate, they make the "ooohhhmmmm" sound. They are trying to bring in that vibration of the universe.

So all together it means, "I give thanks (victory) (salutation) to Guru Dev (or heavenly teacher), om".
I have recently received an email with an alternate interpretation I thought I would share with all of you. This comes from Greg:

I studied to be a Yogic monk in my youth. I can give you a
better translation.Firstly although the words Guru Diva are the name of Maharishis teacher. Gurus names are often aspects of God almost without exception. This phrase is not so much a homage to Maharishi teacher, its more of praise to God. Remember that Guru also translates as God / Brahma and not just any human teacher. Your thinking of humans, think more broader of the deeper spiritual message. During his immersion in eastern thought his lyrics would have reflected the deeper spiritual sentiment and not just ode to the teachers teacher.
All said here is a better translation.

Jai Guru Deva OM
Victory to God Devine OM

Om cannot easily be translated as a single English word. It is used as the most sacred word in Indian thought. It represents the birth growth and death of the Cosmos. It is also the Vibration / sound of the Cosmos literaly.If you could step outside the Universe and listen to it that is what you would hear. The Yogis hear this in deep meditation. One way of thinking of OM would be Alpha-Omega. From OM all the English words like Omniscience, Omnipresence are derived from. Deva means Divine , this is where the English word divinity comes from. Do you see the Sanskrit roots that have shaped our English words?

Much thanks to you, Greg. I sincerely hope all of you enjoy and find use of the interpretations provided here.

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• thanks so much CA, i read it, learnt a lot! the lyrics of -bambooseven- ♀ (32 bytes) () 10/01/2008 postreply 15:50:51