Tulsa Yoga Meditation Center, 5319 S. Sheridan, Tulsa, OK 74145
  • HOME
  • TEACHERS
  • Blog
  • PRIVATE INSTRUCTION
  • YOGA TEACHER TRAINING
  • AYURVEDA

WHAT DOES 'NAMASTE' MEAN AND WHY IS IT DONE?   -  BEST ANSWER

4/23/2020

 
Namaste is a gesture done with hands and palms together in the prayer position and placed in front of the heart or the forehead. In India it is the common way to greet people and bid them farewell. Namaste comes from the root nam, to bow, and te to you. It is often interpreted as “the divine in me bows and acknowledges the divine in you.” This form of greeting differs deeply from the traditional Western style of shaking hands.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, editor of
Hinduism Today magazinje explains: “As a test of how these two greetings differ, imagine you are magically confronted with the Divine. God walks up to you on the street. What do you do? Reach out to shake His/Her hand? Probably not. Though suitable between man and man, it’s an unseemly expression between man and God. We never shake hands with God. I mean, what if your palms are sweating? So, you namaste instead. The reason it feels natural to namaste before God is that it is, in its very essence, a spiritual gesture, not a worldly one. For these and other reasons, Popes never shake hands. Kings never shake hands. Even mothers don’t shake hands with their own children.”


In addition, Satgurur Veylanswami notes: “Namaste is cosmically different. Kings do namaste. Satgurus namaste and mothers namaste to their own family. We all namaste before God, a holy man or holy place. The namaste gesture bespeaks our inner valuing of the sacredness of all. It betokens our intuition that all souls are divine. It reminds us in quite a graphic manner, and with insistent repetition, that we can see God everywhere and in every human being we meet. It is saying, silently, ‘I see the Deity in us both, and bow before It.’ ”


Namaste is frequently used before or after a group yoga class where yogis are invited to bring the palms together, turn to another person and say “namaste”.




Comments are closed.

    Victor M. Parachin ...is a

    Vedic educator, yoga instructor, Buddhist meditation teacher and author of a dozen books. Buy his books at amazon or your local bookstore. 

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.