There’s a lot of people who are skeptical about how yoga is good for you, and if we’re going to be honest about that majority of them. These are often the same people who think they couldn’t achieve that level of flexibility and control with their bodies if their lives depended on it. Well, that’s probably not correct and yoga IS really good for your health – physical AND mental. It’s something that can be beneficial for everyone, although women tend to be more flexible compared to men. There is no such thing as namaste yoga, but the expression is used at the end of yoga practices.
So what does namaste mean in yoga?
It would be the same meaning that is conveyed when people use the expression as a salutation they extend to other. And if you were to look at it from its roots in Hindi (Sanskrit) culture it means ‘the divine in me honours the divine in you’. So it’s your way of saying to another person that you acknowledge their spirituality as much as you acknowledge them as a human being standing in front of them. Why do they say Namaste at the end of yoga? Namaste in yoga is to convey that feeling – that the members of the yoga practice are acknowledging the spirituality of each other.
While we’re not experts with yoga, we do know some things and one of them is that some yoga can cause you to be loudly flatulent when you’re in the poses. Yoga farts do happen, but it’s nothing to be embarrassed about unless you had Taco Bell. However some yogis (the yoga practitioner who leads your practice and will lead with the Namaste salutation at the end of it) are concerned that Namaste is being used too casually these days when focused on yoga practices. This is something to think about, and so what we will look at there he is what’s the long and short of namaste in yoga.
Idea of God in Everyone
Hindus do believe that god resides in everyone, and he doesn’t pay rent. But he enriches your life to such an extent that all you do is ask him to cover the utilities and half the hydro bill. But in all seriousness the belief with namaste yoga is that every person you greet deserves respect, and there’s no better time to put that belief into practice than at he end of a yoga practice. A time when people should be as attuned to their own spirituality based on what they’ve just done for however long.
It’s true that the poses of yoga do open up energy meridian pathways that can heighten a person’s understanding of their spirituality, so all of this makes a lot of sense. In South Asian culture there is some element of hierarchy involved with it two, with it being more common for younger people to speak it when greeting older people. But in Namaste yoga of course this doesn’t apply at all, you will most likely just repeat ‘Namaste’ with your palms pressed together and your head bowed immediately after your yogi has done the same.
So you are as free as you like to say Namaste in yoga, but you should have an understanding of what Namaste means when you say it and you shouldn’t cheapen it to have the meaning that this is what you say when a yoga practice has come to an end.
We Are the Same
Humankind has progressed to the point that most of us have an understanding that we are in fact all the same, and no one is any better than anyone else. Unless you’re an inebriated philanthropist, in which case you may actually be better than anyone else if we’re going to be honest about it. Namaste has also been said to mean ‘we are the same’ in a similar spiritual context. With Namaste in yoga this may make more sense, as by having gone through the practice in the same way every participant has benefited in the same way and is acknowledging that in others who are spiritually heightened in the same way.
Namaste in yoga may also have ties to the Anjali Mudra – which is the hand gesture with palms pressed together in the centre of the chest. This is because the ‘divine spark’ that creates what is being recognized in the other person. This could also lead to a different understanding of what does Namaste mean in yoga – simply that the energy coming from the heart chakra is noted and it is meant to be giving that other person the validation in confirming you see this elemental goodness in them.