I salute the light within you..

It is strange that I had never really wondered before what NAMASTE literally meant. I mean I knew it meant something that implied the act of bowing in Sanskrit. But wouldn’t have been able to dissect the word down to its roots and elaborate what its literate meaning was. So today when I heard the rendition in the blog title (in a yoga CD of all places!) it got me thinking.. Its pretty neat isn’t it? ‘I salute the light within you!’ ….Seems like a lot to say in a single, short greeting, yet quite remarkable! Its derived from the Sanskrit namas (bow) and te (to you). More accurately though, the implied meaning of the term is - "I respect that divinity within you that is also within me". Of all the countless times that I have spoken this word and greeted family, friends, acquaintances and strangers, I never appreciated its entire breadth. The act of pressing your palms together and bringing them close to the chest that accompanies the vocal address is a pose called ‘anjali mudra’. The symbolism behind the pose is that one hand represents the divine, spiritual self, while the other represents the worldly self. By combining the two, the person making the gesture is attempting to rise above his differences with others, and connect himself with the person to whom he bows. I am not sure if the meaning of the term will really come to my mind the next time I use the salutation—I will probably parrot it out of habit as I have been doing for so many years..Yet I at least know what it implies now and will hopefully try to make it mean more on some occasions!!