It’s the end of class and your yoga teacher has put you into Svasana. As you drift on your breath and relax a little deeper into your mat, you hear “The light in me honors the light in you. Namaste.” Perhaps you repeat it back as a gesture of thanks to your teacher or maybe you wonder “What does that mean?”
Namaste, pronounced “na MA stay” (with emphasis on the second syllable), is a traditional greeting or salutation that originated in India. It is used as a means to say “Hello” upon meeting and to say “Goodbye” upon departing. It is a word in the Sanskrit language and has three parts that create the meaning. “Nama” means bow, “as” means I or me, and “te” means you. Literally translated, Namaste means “bow me you,” or “I bow to you.” However, there is a deeper meaning associated with the word that goes beyond the literal translation which has been developed more recently as yoga has advanced in the West.
Traditionally, when saying “Namaste”, one would bring their hands together in front of their heart and would bow their head slightly. Bringing the hands together in front of the heart is a mudra called Anjali Mudra and it signifies honoring or celebrating. By combining a spoken “Namaste” with the mudra, the greeting becomes a gesture of recognition and respect. The recognition is of the idea that there is truly no separation between beings and the respect is for the sacredness present inside of ourselves and each other, that we all share because there is no real separation between us. The divinity within us is acknowledged and so the meaning extends outward, to mean something along the lines of “the divine in me bows to the divine in you.”
Performing Namaste as a greeting or salutation is a significantly different experience from the usual Western method of shaking hands or of giving a small wave. Anjali mudra causes a physical reaction to occur in that the energy in your body becomes grounded and centered at once. Attention and awareness then turn inward and the interaction softens. What could be an immediate exchange of egos becomes a gentle and friendly coming together that seeks no harm through domination or exploitation. Remember the last time someone shook your hand and it was either aggressive or limp? When shaking hands we project our perceptions onto the other person, yet when performing Namaste, we instead give honor and respect and suddenly we are with each other as souls rather than personalities.
Without understanding Namaste it may feel awkward to repeat it back to your teacher at the end of class or to return the gesture when it is given to you. Yet, as you grow through your yoga practice, Namaste may become for you a meditation. Even in the brief seconds it takes to give the greeting, your awareness of your own sacredness will grow with each slight bow you make.
Namaste.
