Namaste is more than just a greeting.
Namaste is an sanskrit acknowledgement phrase used primarily in India and Nepal and roughly means I bow (namah) to you (te).
I had never really thought about it much, it’s just that word you say out loud when you finish a yoga class. Last week, however, I was introduced to a translation which was more along the lines of the following:
“I honor the Spirit in you which is also in me.” And, more intensely, “I honor the place in you in which the entire Universe dwells, I honor the place in you which is of Love, of Integrity, of Wisdom and of Peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are One.”
These deeper translations are a lot cooler in my personal opinion. However, I have trouble understanding them, particularly the first one. It seems like an acknowledgement between transcendent identities. It just seems hard to grasp, and I could spend hours thinking about what it means.
I find the latter quote a bit easier to comprehend as it refers to acknowledgement at a particular instance of your existence, which can be related to a state you may achieve through practice as in yoga: it’s tangible and refers to a distinct point in time. However, it’s no less interesting.
So the next time you say namaste, think about what you’re actually saying, what you are actually acknowledging in terms of the above quotes. It’s deep stuff.
Humdrum Hill 