**Namaste!* Friends,* * * In school our Hindi teacher, Master Vyas gave us a lot of nationalist stories and made us feel proud to be Indians. When he entered the class we greeted him with a "Namaste Guruji".
Ayong was to be our guide in Korea. Pretty, petite and smiling she stepped up and said, "Namaste!" "Namaste!" I replied, surprised she'd learnt the Indian greeting. It was while we were in the bus she turned to me, "Do you know what it means?" she asked. "Yes," I said, "Namaste is a polite Indian gesture of greeting or farewell. In Hindi, the word literally means "bowing to you. But it actually means " I honour the sacred that is within you!" "Wow!" she said, "That's some meaning!" She was silent for a while and I wondered what was going on in her pretty head as her face had a far off look, "Have you ever had anyone honouring the sacred in you?" she asked finally and before I could answer she said, "I have!" "Tell me!" I said, intent to listen to her. "It was the day I moved from Seoul to Bhusan," she said, "*I went to the local store to do some grocery shopping and picked up food items so I filled four grocery carts full. I asked if I could pay with an out of state check. "I just moved here," I explained, "and don't have local checks yet." They said, "No problem!" But when I began looking for my cheque book, I discovered I'd left it at home." All of the groceries had been checked and packed. "I'm so sorry," I said, "I thought I had it with me. If I could just leave the groceries here for a few minutes, I'll run home and get the cheque book." "Don't worry about it," the cashier told me. "Take the groceries home. The next time you're in the store you can pay for them!" "I had just moved from a large city and I couldn't believe what I was hearing! This clerk had never seen me before. But she treated me as if I was a VIP. She was honouring the divine in me!" said Ayong and I saw a tear appear in her eye, "Namaste means just that!" I thought of Ayong yesterday when I got onto a local flight. The air hostess at the entrance had a fixed smile as she looked into space. "Namaste!" she said. 'Namaste" I told her happily, "Where is seat Thirty two E?" She was already looking over my shoulder "Namaste" she said to the passenger behind me and I ploughed down the aisle to find my seat myself. Ayongs voice came back to me, "Don't you love it when you are treated like you are somebody? That even strangers can be treated with honour and respect?" "Yes Ayong," I said silently and looked back at wooden faced airhostess at the entrance, "What a remarkable thing it would be to actually honour the sacred that is within each person we meet, even strangers. Nobody would go unnoticed and everybody would count!" And then a thought struck me; when I'd replied 'Namaste' to the air hostess had I honoured the sacred in her or only thought of seat Thirty two E? Namaste..! Earlier when I sent this to a friend a short note came right back which is interesting. Frankly, I knew he was an excellent writer in English but didn't know he also was a Sanskrit scholar. Modesty prevents my sharing his identity with all of you. He explained to me: "Namaste is actually a combination of two words joined through "Sandhi". The two words are: Namah Te. When two words are joined together in Sanskrit, it becomes Namaste. We all know the meaning of Namah and Te is a shorter version of Tubhyam, which is the appropriate word for "You" in this usage. Namaste has its origins in the great Vedanta philosophy, according to which there is only one Brahman (the Supreme Soul) and all living beings are a replica of that Supreme Soul in varying degrees. When a person greets another person by saying Namaste, he salutes not the sacred in that other person, but that part of the Supreme Soul which the other person has. It is a highly philosophical greeting, almost unique in this world. I am forwarding this because I felt that describing Namaste as a greeting for the sacred in a person was not an adequate appreciation of the depth and richness of such a salutation. -- With best wishes S Chander
