Apart from being used as a greeting, it is also a part of the 16 Upacharas that are used during formal worship in a temple or some other religious place. When it comes to worshipping a deity, then Namaste signifies ‘greeting the God’. Namaste is part of the daily procedure in India. Hence you would often get to see this gesture in various Indian classical dance forms, in everyday religious rituals and yoga postures. If you practice this gesture in India, then it would be helpful for you in establishing a connect with people here, and forming a great bond.
Derived from the Sanskrit language, Namaste is formed by joining two words, namas and te. ‘Namas’ means ‘bow’, ‘adorations’, ‘obeisance’ and ‘salutation’; and ‘te’ means ‘to you’. Therefore, the literal meaning of Namaste is ‘bowing to you’. While saying Namaste in the traditional style, you must bow slightly and press both the hands together, with fingers pointing upward, thumbs on the inside near the chest and palm touching, it is called Pranamasana (The Prayer Pose) or Anjali Mudra.
The inner portion of the palms should not touch each other and there should be some space between them. The stage of awakening of spiritual emotion (bhāv) is important to the seeker at the primary level. Hence, for awakening spiritual emotion (bhāv), he should keep space in between the palms, whereas a seeker who is at the advanced level should refrain from leaving such space in between the palms to awaken the unexpressed spiritual emotion (bhāv).
The Sashtanga Namaskara symbolise modesty and complete submission of a devotee to the god without ego. Sashtanga Namaskara: (pronounced as Sa:ashta:anga wherein Sa: means ‘along with’ or ‘together’, ashta: means number eight, anga: means body parts) A gesture performed using eight parts of the body, by lying flat on the ground, face down, with eight parts of the body (legs, stomach, chest, mouth, nose, forehead, hands, and ears) touching the floor. While lying face down one has to turn their head so as to touch each ear to the ground at the same time switching their legs placing them one over the other, meaning, when the left ear touches the ground one leg come on top over the other, when the right ear touches the ground, the other leg comes on top of the other.
Nowadays, Namaste can be said without the bow as well, but when you say it with the bow, it makes the greeting more formal and respectful, especially when you say it to an elder or an important person. So when you say Namaste to someone, it implies ‘I bow to the divine in you’. This gesture is also associated with the Brow Chakra, i.e. the mind center or the third eye.
Therefore, when you meet someone in person, you do not just meet a physical being, but you meet their mind too. And then when you say Namaste by bowing your head and joining your hands, the gesture implies ‘may our minds meet’. This is a great way of expressing your love, respect and friendship to the person whom you meet.
Your palms have a lot of nerve endings – something that medical science has also discovered today. Actually, your hands speak more than your tongue and your voice. There is a whole science of mudras in Yoga. Just by holding your hand in certain ways, you can make your whole system function in different ways. The moment you place your hands together, your dualities, your likes and dislikes, your cravings and aversions, are all leveled out. There is a certain oneness to the expression of who you are.
The energies are functioning as one.
Namaskar is not just a cultural aspect. There is a science behind it. If you are doing your sadhana, every time you bring your palms together, there is a crackle of energy – a boom is happening. On the level of your life energy, there is a giving, or you are making yourself into an offering to the other person. In that giving, you will make the other being into a life that will cooperate with you. Only if you are in a state of giving, things around will work out for you. This is so for every life. Only if it gets the cooperation of all life around itself, it manages to prosper.
Namaskar is simplest form of yoga. The entire physical world is a product of polarities. There is masculine and feminine, yin and yang, Shiva-Shakti, whatever you want to call it. Just put these two hands together and look upon something or someone that matters to you, your wife, your husband, your child, your mother, father, a tree, a rock, a cloud, sun, moon, whatever you like, look upon something with loving attention for three to five minutes, you will see your system will begin to harmonize in a wonderful way.
India is a hugely diverse country. Hence, Namaste is spoken differently in various cultures and languages. In Telugu, it is called Namaskaramulu, while in Kannada it is spoken as Namaskara or Namaskaragalu. Vanakkam is how you say it in Tamil and Namaskaram in Malayalam. In East India, it is called Nomoshkar in Bengali and Nomoskar in Assamese. Not just Hindus, but Sikhs also greet people by folding their hands, however, their greeting is called ‘Sat Sri Akal’.
In Indian tradition touching the feet is very common gesture that we used to give to our elders. It is a sign of respect and adopted since Vedic period and also known as Charan Sparsh. The children from a very small age were taught to touch the feet of elders, whether grandfather, grandmother, father or mother, etc. In the epic Mahabharata, Yudhistar stated that touching the feet of the elders gives strength and feeling of greatness.
Even Rishis have observed four beneficial factors of touching the feet, i.e. it gives strength, intellect, knowledge and fame. In an era of modernisation also touching the feet gives gesture and respect to the elders which most of the generations are still following. Elders give blessings while touching the feet by saying long life, fortune, wisdom, etc. Before seeing the scientific reason behind touching the feet first we will see how we should touch the feet.
Without bending your knees, bend the upper half part of the body and stretch both the arms with head between them to touch the feet of elders. The fingertips of the left hand should touch the right foot of the elder and vice versa. Then, in return elder person will give blessings and touch the top of your head with right hand. Scientific reasons of touching the feet are: According to science, a human body contains negative and positive currents of electricity. The left side of the human body carries negative current and the right side of the body has positive current.
Therefore, two halves together complete a circuit built of positive or negative. And so it is suggested that while touching the feet, we should cross the hands. So that the positive current in both flows in a uniformed circuit and similarly negative flows jointly in a circuit. Thus, both the currents formed a well-unified circuit.
We all know that nerves coming out of the brain are present all over the body. These nerves end at the fingertips of hand and feet. So, when you touch your fingertips to the opposite feet of the elder, the energies of two bodies are connected. Fingers and palms become the receptor of energy and feet of another person as giver of energy.
When you touch the feet of an elder keeping aside your ego, then the elder accepts your shraddha or your reduced ego and their heart emits positive vibes or thoughts and energy, we can also say it as karuna which reaches you through their hands and toes.
We can also say that a kind of cosmic energy also released while touching the feet that connect each other’s mind and heart. The same we can say with handshakes and hugs also. It is said that when you touch the feet of a good soul, you will choose the right path or you will get the right direction in your life to work.
Bowing down and touching the feet increases blood circulation which is good for health. There are three methods of touching the feet one is to lean forward and touch the feet, second is to sit on the knees and touch the feet and the third is also known as ‘Sashtang Pranam’.
In an exercise it is said that leaning forward and touching the feet stretches the waist and back bone. When you sit on the knees and touch the feet of an elder relieves the pain of your knees as a person bends his or her knees. All the joints of the body get stretched. In Sashtang Pranam whole body is stretched and cures the body pain. Thus, there are lots of benefits in touching the feet of an elder as it gives a kind of respect and dedication which arise automatically and helps in suppressing the egoistic nature of a person.
While paying obeisance to God, bring the palms together. The fingers should be held loose (not straight and rigid) while joining the hands or palms. The fingers should be kept close to each other without leaving any space between them. The fingers should be kept away from the thumbs. The inner portion of the palms should not touch each other and there should be some space between them.
The stage of awakening of spiritual emotion (Bhav) is important to the seeker at the primary level. Hence, for awakening spiritual emotion (Bhav), he should keep space in between the joined hands, whereas a seeker who is at the advanced level should refrain from leaving such space in between the palms to awaken the unexpressed spiritual emotion (Bhav).
After joining the hands one should bow and bring the head forward. While tilting the headforward, one should place the thumbs at the mid-brow region, i.e. at the point between the eyebrows and try to concentrate on the feet of the Deity. After that, instead of bringing the folded hands down immediately, they should be placed on the mid-chest region for a minute in such way that the wrists touch the chest; then only should the hands be brought down.
The fingers should not be stiff while bringing the palms together because this will lead to a decrease in Sattva component from the vital and mental sheaths and thus increase the raja component in them. By keeping the fingers relaxed, the subtlest Sattva component will get activated. With the strength of this energy, embodied souls are able to fight powerful distressing energies.
In the Namaskar posture, the joined fingers act as an antenna to assimilate the Chaitanya (Divine consciousness) or the Energy transmitted by a Deity. While joining the palms, the fingers must touch each other because leaving space between the fingers will result in accumulation of energy in that space. This energy will be immediately transmitted in various directions; therefore the seeker’s body will lose the benefit of this potent energy.
About the space to be maintained between the palms: For a seeker at the primary level, it is advisable to leave space between the palms; it is not necessary for a seeker at an advanced level to leave space between the palms. After joining the palms, bow a little. This posture puts pressure on the navel and activates the five vital energies situated there. Activation of these vital energies in the body makes it sensitive to accepting sattvik frequencies. This later awakens the ‘Atma shakti’ (i.e. soul energy of an embodied soul). And later, Bhav is awakened. This enables the body to accept in large measures the Chaitanya emitted by the Deity.
Touch the thumbs to the mid-brow region. (Please see images above.) This posture awakens the Bhav of surrender in an embodied soul, and in turn activates the appropriate subtle frequencies of Deities from the Universe. They enter through the ’Adnya chakra’ (Sixth of the 7 chakras in the Kundalini) of the embodied soul and settle in the space parallel to it at the back interior of the head. In this space the openings to all the three channels converge; namely, the Moon, the Central and the Sun channels. Due to the movement of these subtler frequencies in this space, the Central Channel is activated. Consequently it facilitates the speedy transmission of these frequencies throughout the body, leading to purification of both the gross and subtle bodies at the same time.
After doing Namaskar, to completely imbibe the Chaitanya of the Deity (that has entered the hands by now), instead of bringing the folded hands down immediately, place them on the mid-chest region in such a way that the wrists touch the chest. The ‘Anahat chakra’ is located at the centre of the chest. Akin to the Adnya chakra, the activity of the Anahat chakra is also to absorb the Sattva frequencies. By touching the wrists to the chest, the Anahat chakra is activated and it helps in absorbing more of the Sattva component.
Effect of this Posture; By doing Namaskar in this manner, the Deity’s Chaitanya is absorbed to a greater extent by the body, as compared to other methods of doing Namaskar. This gives maximum distress to negative energies. The negative energies that have manifested in a person are unable to touch their thumbs at the mid-brow region in Namaskar. (The negative energies are subtle. But at times they enter an individual’s body and manifest it.
From Science of Justice; ‘Namaha’ is a physical action expressing that ‘you are superior to me in all qualities and in every way’. We are all are originally Souls and not bodies. The divinity (Bhagwan/Atma) within us help us remain alive and do Karma. The greeting of Namaskar is when the Soul (atma) in one person acknowledges and pays obeisance to the Soul (atma) in another.
We should ideally Say ‘Namaskar’ when we greet someone and not Namaste. Namaskar has more deeper connection than the word Namaste. Namaskar means greeting a Soul (source of all) while Namaste means greeting the form that is covering the Soul. That is the reason when a person addresses large audience he greets them as Namaskar while when he greets a single person he says Namaste. Though we can use Namaskar even to greet single person.
It was Hinduism that bestowed knowledge to the world that a living body is made up of 5 elements: Water (Jal), Fire (Agni), Earth (Pruthvītattva/Bhumi), Air (Pavan/Marut) and Vacuum (Ākāshtattva/Sunya). Human body is considered as a microcosmo in this cosmic universe. There’s constant and enormous flow of energy within the human body.
Ākāshtattva cannot be harmed, it is endless, it cannot be destructed even when the entire Universe gets destructed to form new creation. Ākāshtattva exists pre-manifestation to post-manifestation. It is always present and most powerful of all elements. By doing the Namaskar Mudra (joining of palms), a greater level of Divine consciousness is absorbed into the body. The person is connected to Ākāshtattva.
The concentration of energy increases while uttering the word “Namaskar”, and person is connected to second element that is the Absolute Earth Principle (Pruthvītattva). This is because the mudra by itself is associated with the Absolute Earth Principle. So joining hands relates to Ākāshtattva and uttering Namaskar connects to Pruthvītattva. As both of the elements of energy connects, other elements also starts connecting with the person – Water (Jal), Fire (Agni) and Air (Pavan/Marut). This result in generation of spiritual positivism in the person.
The human body is composed of immense energy. It is up to us to turn it into positive or negative energy. Shaking hands result in transfer of positive or negative energy while Namaskar only result in transfer of positive energy when done with humble human beings. The choice is yours which type of energy you want to absorb.
When you see a person, whether it is in your workplace, on the street, at home or anywhere else, the nature of human intellect is such that the moment it sees, it will make a judgment “This is okay in that person, this is not okay in that person. He is good, he is not good, he is beautiful, he is ugly” all kinds of things. You do not even have to consciously think all this.
These assessments and judgments happen in a moment, and your judgments may be completely wrong because they all are coming from your past experiences of life. They will not allow you to experience something or someone the way they are right now, which is very important. If you want to work effectively in any field, if someone comes in front of you, it is most important to be able to grasp them the way they are right now. How they were yesterday does not matter.
How they are this moment is important. So, the first thing is you bow down. Once you bow down, your likes and dislikes become mild, not strong, because you recognize the source of creation within them. This is the intention behind doing Namaskar. The moment you place your hands together, your dualities, your likes and dislikes, your cravings and aversions, are all leveled out.
There is no piece of creation without the hand of the creator operating in it. The source of creation is operating within every cell and atom. This is why in Yogic culture, if you look up at the sky, the culture taught you to bow down. If you look down at the earth, you bow down. If you see a man, a woman, a child, a cow, a tree or whatever, you bow down. And it is a constant reminder that the source of creation is within you too. If you recognize this, you are paving the way towards your ultimate nature every time you do Namaskar.
Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutation Benefits
Surya Namaskar is probably the most widespread and well-known Yogic practice. Comprising of a series of twelve asanas or postures, it is no coincidence that the first and last asana incorporates the Namaskar mudra (hand posture).
Traditionally, daily Yogic sadhana always starts with Namaskar and an invocation. This is done to express gratitude to the great masters who have transmitted this knowledge down the generations. It is also a simple way to make the sadhaka more receptive to the process.
The subcontinent of India has been steeped in the Yogic culture for many millennia, therefore many aspects of Indian culture are deeply influenced by the spiritual process. Greeting everyone with Namaskar is a very common practice and an integral part of Indian culture.
Namaste
Authored by Dr Anadi Sahoo
