Namastey

In today’s world when we say “Namaste “as a form of greeting to an elderly person they accept it gracefully and say Namaste to you and go on blessing you as well . But when we say Namaste to our peers of the same age group... a huge grin comes on the face .. it seems almost like you just said a joke !! We are getting so much used to saying “hi “ or “hello “ that Namaste sometimes sounds like an alien word.

One small incident which motivates me to write this article was that in an award giving function the chief guest who was an eminent personality from south east Asia bowed down each and every time he gave away the awards to the students. Perhaps that was the way they greeted each other in their county! Each time he bowed with the same dignity and grace. While the students at the receiving end just took the award while nodding their heads in a gesture to say thank you. Some tried to bow awkwardly trying to replicate the same respect. I felled appalled! Why couldn’t the students show the same respect by folding hands in Namaste .

Is it the children fault today that they don’t know how to greet people in their indegenious way of greeting?? That they are not confident saying Namaste or using its gesture !?!

No the fault lies in us ! We are quick at adopting western ways of lifestyle and in this procedure somewhere down the line we have become very casual in the way we greet people. Unconsciously we have moved from saying Namaste to saying hi or hello . And now saying “hello “has become more acceptable than saying Namaste .

Children mostly learn through observation. They see , hear and decipher what we are saying. They emulate us ! They have picked up the same casual way of greeting that we have showed them .

However it would be amazing if we took out time to understand the meaning of this word . Namaste in Sanskrit can be broken into “Namah “ which means to bow and “te “ meaning to you ..thus saying ...I bow to you .

This greeting is accompanied by a slight bow made with folded hands pressed together, palms touching the fingers pointing upwards , in front of the chest . Literally we perform a mudra!

Namaste has a lot of significance attached to it . When we say Namaste we also convey that “the Divine in me bows to the Divine in you .” That we are not above or below but equal to each other . Namaste is the most popular non contact form of greeting and it always carries with it an element of respect.

Saying Namaste is gaining explosive popularity due to yoga in the western world but the sad thing is we Indians are loosing touch with it and becoming more comfortable saying “ hi aunty “ “hello beta “

Saying Namaste has been our traditional form of greeting. It has sustained through several generations and now it’s our duty to keep it alive and teach our future generations to say it confidently without any apprehensions .

Saying Namaste as our form of greeting is our cultural identity. And we have to foster this connection to the coming generations by consciously saying it whenever we meet and greet people.

We have to acknowledge that the traditional and modern ways of life can co exist in a way without dropping our indegenious way of greeting. We just cannot let go our way of greeting which carries so much of significance and meaning by saying something as casual as saying hello!