Namaste, I Bow to You

 I don't know when I began clasping palms together over my heart and bowing, but it suddenly occurred to me that I had intentionally been doing this for years, and as soon as I heard my new blog post word, namaste (nah-mus-tay), I knew why. You might now be wondering why a woman with English/Irish-French-German heritage who doesn't do yoga would find the act of bowing that defines namaste an important part of her habits as well as her psyche. Let me explain.

First, the use and meaning of namaste evolved from Sanskrit, "I bow to you," and it is usually said with palms together at the heart while bowing. In Middle Eastern and Eastern countries it is often a simple greeting of hello. Your yoga teacher might conclude each session by saying namaste, for it represents the act of gratitude and respect, acknowledging souls in each other. In America most people use their words without the concomitant bow--hello, how are you? Namaste goes quite a bit farther.

Second, let me assure the reader that you can still express your greeting, appreciation, deep connection to someone without palms-over-heart bowing. For me, however, and perhaps for you, too, living a symbolic life involves a deeper participation, one that this most sincere act not only represents but also enables--a stronger, more resilient connection to the recipient, be it human, beast, or plant. It is with deep gratitude that I say namaste to the person who has greatly improved my life, to the wild and domestic animals in my life that have brought me joy, and to every green tree and plant in my garden that has touched my soul with peace and with comfort. How quickly and effortlessly am I able to say to each, "I bow to you."

Another Sanskrit word, heart chakra, is believed to act as an individual's center of compassion, empathy, love, and forgiveness, and yet the heart is, in every world culture, the center of being, of compassion, of love, of truth, and generosity. Wisdom tradition tells us clearly that we are all one when we live from the heart.

Sanskrit, the origin of namaste and chakra, is 4,000 years old (some say 6,000). So, let's just say we've known about the concepts of the heart--gratitude, respect, compassion, forgiveness, love, and so on, long enough to know them well. The question, then, that completely baffles me is why we often do everything in our power to resist these feelings, knowing we are all one when we live from the heart.

C.S. Lewis wrote a book based on a radio series in 1960 called The Four Loves. He explains these four loves--affection, friendship, romantic, and charity, but concludes that charity (also known as agape) is our chief aim and all other forms of love are in training to become charity. Agape love is the highest form of love--unconditional love, the love of God for humankind. Christians are taught agape love in 1st Corinthians 13 (The New King James Version):

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 

Paul goes on to describe what love is and what it isn't, and he ends his letter to the Corinthians in this way:

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

When we bow to each other and say namaste, we acknowledge the divine spark, the divine connection in each other that can become agape love because it invites us to connect to truth. C.S. Lewis wrote that love is worth the sorrow and the pain we must endure.

Are these just words, read or heard and quickly forgotten? Words we hear that are often read at weddings? Or are they words we must live by, regardless of religion because they apply to all of humanity?

Turn on the news at almost any time of day or night, and you will know these words are too often lost on us. But I am the eternal optimist, for, as seeds sown in early spring, something bigger than ourselves will grow if we nurture it. Let it be love for all of humanity, especially those of us who are broken and in greatest need of love. Perhaps even nations, divided and struggling in sorrow and pain.

Namaste, my friends.