Namaskar : The Simplest Form of Yoga
The act of Namaskar means, “I bow to the divine in you.” In the Yogic culture, the practice of bowing down is given great significance and is seen as a fundamental step towards one’s spiritual growth.
What Is the Spiritual Meaning of Namaskar?
[The following is a transcription of a spoken discourse. To maintain the style and authenticity of Sadhguru’s spoken words, we have retained the original language instead of conforming it to our standard style book.]
When you see a person, whether it is in your workplace, on the street, at home, or anywhere else, the nature of human intellect is such that the moment it sees, it will make a judgment—"This is okay in that person, this is not okay in that person. He is good, he is not good, he is beautiful, he is ugly”—all kinds of things. You do not even have to consciously think all this. These assessments and judgments happen in a moment, and your judgments may be completely wrong because they all are coming from your past experiences of life. They will not allow you to experience something or someone the way they are right now, which is very important.
If you want to work effectively in any field, if someone comes in front of you, it is most important to be able to grasp them the way they are right now. How they were yesterday does not matter. How they are this moment is important. So, the first thing is you bow down. Once you bow down, your likes and dislikes become mild, not strong, because you recognize the source of creation within them. This is the intention behind doing Namaskar.
There is no piece of creation without the hand of the creator operating in it. The source of creation is operating within every cell and atom. This is why, in Yogic culture, if you look up at the sky, the culture taught you to bow down. If you look down at the earth, you bow down. If you see a man, a woman, a child, a cow, a tree, or whatever, you bow down. And it is a constant reminder that the source of creation is within you too. If you recognize this, you are paving the way towards your ultimate nature every time you do Namaskar.
The science behind Namaskar
There is another aspect to this. Your palms have a lot of nerve endings—something that medical science has also discovered. Actually, your hands speak more than your tongue and your voice. There is a whole science of mudras in yoga. Just by holding your hand in certain ways, you can make your whole system function
in different ways. The moment you place your hands together, your dualities, your likes and dislikes, your cravings and aversions, are all leveled out. There is a certain oneness to the expression of who you are. The energies are functioning as one.
Namaskar is not just a cultural aspect. There is a science behind it. If you are doing your sadhana, every time you bring your palms together, there is a crackle of energy—a boom is happening. On the level of your life energy, there is a giving, or you are making yourself into an offering to the other person. In that giving, you will make the other being into a life that will cooperate with you. Only if you are in a state of giving, things around will work out for you. This is so for every life. Only if it gets the cooperation of all life around itself, it manages to prosper.
Namaskar is the simplest form of yoga. The entire physical world is a product of polarities. There is masculine and feminine, yin and yang, Shiva-Shakti, whatever you want to call it. Just put these two hands together and look upon something or someone that matters to you—your wife, your husband, your child, your mother, father, a tree, a rock, a cloud, sun, moon, whatever you like—look upon something with loving attention for three to five minutes, and you will see your system will begin to harmonize in a wonderful way.
| Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, and visionary, and a prominent spiritual leader. An author, poet, and internationally renowned speaker, Sadhguru is the founder of Isha Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to human wellbeing. (www.isha.sadhguru.org) |
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