Acharya Shree, what does 'namaste' mean and how is it incomplete?
Very good question. Namaste is very popular in India and it is a greeting to everyone. Whenever a person sees another person they always greet with 'namaste'.
There is another word, it is called 'namaskara'. And there is another word -- it is called 'pranaama'.
There are few words for the greeting, but namaste is the lowest one among them. Why? Because namaste doesn't have that kind of feeling or that kind of love that namaskara has or pranaama has.
Namaste means I bow to you. That is namaste. But when they found out I bow to you...'te' is the Sanskrit short form of 'tava' or 'tvam'.
That is 'I bow to you', tvam. And it seems like you are bowing to the person. No! When they found out it is bowing to you, it doesn't seem like a good word to greet, so they put the meaning in it, and according to Sanskrit it doesn't really fit there.
They say, "I am bowing to you because I'm bowing to God in you." That's what they put the word in it. But the same time the Hindu culture they don't really think God is in you. No. They think God is only one. According to Hindu mythology, they say that
when you merge with God you become just a part of God. You lost your individuality, your identity fully. Then it means there is no God in you.
Because you have to do sadhana, you have to do lot of things. It doesn't say, it doesn't...even you lose your identity. You just merge with God. They could just say directly "I bow to God".
Instead of saying "I bow to you". And you is in the grip of karma. And when you are in the grip of karma, when you are in the grip of ignorance, when you are in the grip of darkness, you are in the grip of illusion, hallucination, name it.
Always dark around you. How can you bow when your soul is roaming around in the dark and ignorance that "I bow to you". It doesn't make sense. Namaskara is a better word then namaste.
Nama means I bow. Namaskara means I bow a lot. That's just bowing makes more sense because when you just bow you don't see whom you bow, you just bow.
It is just for yourself, not for the other person. You are bowing because you want to be humble. You don't want to be egoistic.
So namaskara is better than namaste because namaste says I bow to you and namaskar says I bow. Bowing makes more sense. Why bowing makes more sense? Because bowing means you are crushing your own ego.
And when you bow down, it is not the question who is in front of you, that whom you bowing. That is not the question. Question is that you want to bow. It means you want to crush your ego.
I will give an example. King Ashoka. He was the great king of India and he started many things in India for spirituality to spread all over. One day he was going around in the city.
Suddenly he was so good to bow down. Suddenly he saw a monk on the side of the road. He ordered to stop his chariot. He wanted to bow down to this monk. And his minister, his name was Yasha, asked,
"Wait a minute. You are king of kings. And the monk, you don't know he's coming from the lowest class or upper class or who is it we don't know it. Your head is very important.
Why are you bowing down?" He said, "I will tell you later, just let me bow down." And he gave, he asked him next day, "There is the skull of the dead man. I order you to sell it. Go door to door if somebody wants to buy it".
And he went according to the king's order. And as soon as people see the skull, they get afraid. To buy it? Forget the buying, they get afraid of it.
And he tried to everyone, nobody wants to buy it. Instead of everybody reacted to be afraid of it. So he told the truth to the king. He said, "What about it will be your head one day? Somebody will buy it?" "No. No." Yasha answered no.
"What about if it will be my head one day? That somebody will buy?" "No sir. Nobody is going to buy." That if the value of my head, nobody is even going to buy my head, if you bow down to someone, to the monk, to the saint, then what is wrong with it?
And he understood. That bowing down means he wants to bow down. That is not the namaste greeting. That is bowing. And pranaama is even much better word.
It is also in Indian culture. Pranaama means I bow down really 100% by my heart. Pranaama is even much better word.
So that's why I always suggest to people to choose the better word. But in our Siddhayatan Tirtha, we have a different greeting. That's what I had to choose, the best one. So we chose this greeting. It is called 'Jaya Siddhaatma'.
Jaya means 'be victorious'. Siddha means 'liberated soul'. Aatma means 'soul', siddha means 'liberated'.
Jaya Siddhaatma - Be victorious liberated soul, who is liberated from suffering, pain. And all the karma, all the darkness, illusions, dust, clouds. It is fully enlightened.
And they merge with God, but they keep their identity. They are in the bliss. So, in a way, Siddhaatma means God. And that's why we have this greeting, Jaya Siddhaatma. Be victorious liberated soul.
Because liberated, they are liberated from the karmas. And when liberated from the karma they are in the bliss. So we have chosen at Siddhayatan this is the best greeting. Jaya Siddhaatma.
And you everyone say, "Jai Siddhatma".
This is the best greeting.