The sanskrit word Namaste means 'I bow to the divine in you.' -or-
"The Great Perfection within me honors the Great Perfection within you".
 In much of the world today, people do not shake hands when they meet. They may hug formally or kiss one another on the cheek, as in eastern Europe and Arab states. They may bow softly, eyes turned to the ground, as in Japan and China. The Hawaiian greeting, termed "honi," consists of placing the nostril gently beside that of the person greeted, a kind of
sharing of breath, which is life and Pran(a).
For, Hindu(s), of course, the greeting of choice is "Namaste," the two hands pressed together and held near the heart with the head gently bowed as one says, "Namaste." Thus it is both a spoken greeting and a gesture, a Mantr(a) and a Mudr(a). The prayerful hand position is a Mudr(a) called Anjali, from the root Anj, "to adorn, honor, celebrate or anoint." The hands held in union signify the oneness of an apparently dual cosmos, the bringing together of spirit and matter, or the self meeting the Self. It has been said that the right hand represents the higher nature or that which is divine in us, while the left hand represents the lower, worldly nature.
In Sanskrit "Namas" means, "bow, obeisance, reverential salutation." It comes from the root Nam, which carries meanings of bending,bowing, humbly submitting and becoming silent. "Te" means "to you." Thus "namaste" means "I bow to you." the act of greeting is called "Namaskaram,"
"Namaskara" and "Namaskar" in the varied languages of the subcontinent.
Namaste has become a veritable icon of what is Bharatiye. Indeed, there must be a Bharatiye law which requires every travel brochure, calendar and poster to include an image of someone with palms pressed together, conveying to the world Bharat's hospitality, spirituality and graceful consciousness.
You knew all that, of course, but perhaps you did not know that there can be subtle ways of enhancing the gesture, as in the West one might shake another's hand too strongly to impress and overpower them or too briefly, indicating the withholding of genuine welcome.
In the case of Namaste, a deeper veneration is sometimes expressed by bringing the fingers of the clasped palms to the forehead, where they touch the brow, the site of the mystic Third Eye. A third form of namaste brings the palms completely above the head, a gesture said to focus consciousness in the subtle space just above the Brahma-randhra, the aperture in the Crown Chakr(a). This form is so full of reverence it is reserved for the Almighty and the holiest of Sat Guru(s).
It is always interesting, often revealing and occasionally enlightening to muse about the everyday cultural traits and habits each nation and community evolves, for in the little things our Big ideas About Life find direct and personal expression. Take, for instance, the different ways that American and Japanese tool-makers approach the same task. A saw for cutting lumber, if designed in the U.S., is made in such a way that the carpenter's stroke away from his body does the cutting. But in Japan saws are engineered so that cutting takes place as the carpenter draws the saw toward himself. A small detail, but it yields a big difference.
The American saw can, if leaned into, generate more power, while the Japanese saw provides more control and refinement in the cut, requiring surprisingly less effort. Each has its place in the global toolbox.
Each speaks -- like the handshake and namaste greetings -- of an underlying perception of man's relationship with things. In the West we are outgoing, forceful, externalized. We are told by Ma bell to "reach out and touch somebody." We are unabashedly acquisitive, defining our progress in life by how much we have -- how much wealth, influence, stored up knowledge, status or whatever. Every culture exhibits these traits to some extent, but in the east Mother is there to remind us, "Reach in and touch the Self." here we are taught to be more introspective, more concerned with the quality of things than their quantity, more attuned with the interior dimension of life. So, there you have it, the whole of Eastern and Western culture summed up in the handshake which reaches out horizontally to greet another, and Namaste which reaches in vertically to acknowledge that, in truth, that there is no other.
As a test of how these two greetings differ, imagine you are magically confronted with the Divine. The Paramatma, Almighty, walks up to you on the street. What do you do? reach out to shake His hand? Probably not.
Though suitable between man and man, it; an unseemly expression between man and Paramatma. We never shake hands with paramatma. I mean, what if your palms are sweating?
So you namaste instead. The reason it feels natural to namaste before Paramatma is that it is, in its very essence, a spiritual gesture, not a worldly one. By a handshake we acknowledge our equality with others.
We reveal our humanity. We convey how strong we are, how nervous, how aggressive or passive. There is bold physicality to it. For these and other reasons, Popes never shake hands. Kings never shake hands. Even mothers don't shake hands with their own children.
Namaste is cosmically different. Kings do namaste, Sat Guru(s) namaste and mothers namaste to their own family. We all namaste before the Almighty, a holy man or even a holy place. The namaste gesture bespeaks our inner valuing of the sacredness of all. It betokens our intuition that all souls are divine, in their essence. It reminds us in quite a graphic manner, and with insistent repetition, that we can see Paramatma everywhere and in every human being we meet. It is saying, silently, "I see the Deity in us both, and bow before Him or Her. I acknowledge the holiness of even this mundane meeting. I cannot separate that which is spiritual in us from that which is human and ordinary."
And while we are singing the praises of Namaste, it should be observed how efficient a gesture it is in an age of mass cmmunication. A politician, or performer can greet fifty thousand people with a single Namaste, and they can return the honor instantly. In such a situation a handshake is unthinkable and a mere waving of one hand is somehow too frivolous.
There are other, more mystical meanings behind Namaste. The nerve current of the body converge in the feet, the solar plexus and the hands. Psychic energy leaves the body at these junctures. To "ground" that energy and balance the flow of Pran(a) streaming through the nerve system, Yogi(s) cross their legs in the lotus posture, and bring their hands
together.
The Anjali Mudra acts like a simple Yog(ic) Asan(a), balancing and harmonizing our energies, keeping us centered, inwardly poised and mentally protected. It closes our aura, shielding us psychically. It keeps us from becoming too externalized, thus we remain close to our intuitive nature, our super consciousness.
Copyright 1993 by Himalayan Academy. ISSN: 0896-0801.
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