Namaste what?

Prior to yoga, I only know ‘Namaste’ as as a Hindu greeting. You might have heard this word at every end of yoga class with students pressing their palms together as they bow down in unison. Every time you would say this, it will either make you feel excited or lost in translation.

With the continuous trend of creativity in social media, the meaning of Namaste has been reborn and used in different memes and hashtags. The most popular among them is #Namastay, a short and parallel word for ‘Imma stay’. I personally don’t mind the use of this term since it introduces Yoga in a different form. Human creativity is infinite and I like the idea that anyone can create a meaning out of a single word and indirectly introduce a culture.

There is no need to be insecure whenever you utter the word Namaste. Namaste is a respectful greeting usually done with the gesture and even without it, its meaning stays the same.

If we become more technical about it Namaste or sometimes Namaskaram is derived from Sanskrit. ‘Nama’ means bow while ‘te’ means ‘to you’ or simply “I bow to you.” Namaskaram, on the other hand, means salutation. This is why we have our sun salutations commonly referred to as Surya Namaskar. Surya means sun.

Namaste can also be used as a respectful greeting of hello or goodbye in Indian culture.

When you say Namaste with your palms together as you bow your head that is called Anjali Mudra or Pranamasana. But we need not to be technical about these terms as long as Namaste is said with respect.

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