Editor's note: This post was originally published on July 26, 2015. The topic — the meaning of the greeting "namaste" — was in the news this week. According to a report in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, a Georgia elementary school introduced yoga classes to de-stress students, but some parents thought that certain elements of the practice reflected a "non-Christian belief system." The school sent an email about changes in the way yoga will be taught. One change: The greeting "namaste" will be banned.
If you take a yoga class in the U.S., the teacher will most likely say namaste at the end of the practice. It's a Sanskrit phrase that means "I bow to you." You place hands together at the heart, close your eyes and bow.
That's not the namaste I know.
My parents taught us to say namaste as kids growing up in India. They told my younger sister, my brother and me that it was good manners to say namaste to the elders. It was the equivalent of hello, but with an element of respect. If we didn't say namaste, they wouldn't consider us to be good kids.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/07/26/425968146/whats-in-a-namaste-depends-if-you-live-in-india-or-the-u-s
I've written the following - EB
To quote Charles Dickens: "The law is a ass." - Mr. Bumble, from Oliver Twist
Puts me in mind of the last time I sat in a doctor's office. I brought along a book to read. It was a paperback with a title and images to evoke Tibet or else some place in the region nearby. I don't recall exactly. This clean cut guy with a crewcut and suit was also waiting. After getting a gander at my novel, he said as loudly and clearly as he could, "I never allow any kind of eastern thought into my mind." Supposedly addressed to the nurse behind the desk. She tried to ignore him. But I grinned slightly and turned the page and kept reading.