Namaskar - Meaning of this traditional Indian Greeting

http://www.samarthbharat.com/namaskar.htm

clipped by ky1008 May 24, 2008

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NAMASKAR

Namaskar and Namaste are not just greetings. They are a denial of one's ego and are an affirmation of one's faith.

The traditional form of greeting in India is based on a profound philosophy of non-arrogance or negation of ego.

NAMASKAR is made of three words:

NAMAH + OM + KAR = NAMASKAR

NAMAH literally translated means NOT ME. It is a negation of one's identity and hence of one's ego or arrogance.

OM is the sound of life. It is believed that to begin with there was only the sound of OM and the whole world evolved from it. OM is used often in meditation. The whole cosmos is summed up in word OM .

KAR means shape/form of or manifestation of. OMKAR hence means manifestation of OM. OMKAR means the whole of UNIVERSE / COSMOS. The totality of the Universe is like a System taken as a whole without dividing it into divisions and sub-divisions. OMKAR can be called by various names such as BRAHMA, SHIVA etc. In a way, OMKAR is similar but not identical to GOD. OMKAR is omnipresent and omnipotent. Though OMKAR may take a human form but OMKAR is not necessarily human.

The above interpretation of NAMASKAR as NAMAH + OMKAR has been questioned by some experts on the ground that the disappearance of the sound of O is inexplicable. Grammatically speaking, the objection seems tenable, even though the above interpretation is popularly accepted. In view of this objection, the following interpretation is proposed.

NAMASKAR is made of three words:

NAM + AS + KAR = NAMASKAR

NAM is the root form of NAMAH and has the same meaning as NAMAH - NOT ME.

AS means "To Be" or "To Exist". Another word derived from the same root is Astitva which means existence.

KAR means doer or one who makes or creates. For example, KAR can be seen in the words Kalakar, Chitrakar, Karmkar, Charmkar. In the above words, the suffix kar leads to the meaning of one who creates art or painting or work or leather.

ASKAR would hence mean the the creator of all that exists or the one who causes the property of being or existence.

NAMASTE is also used as a greeting.

Namaste is made of two words: NAMAH + TE = NAMASTE

In Sanskrit, Te means they. The literal meaning of NAMASTE hence is "Not me, they". The word they refers to all the Gods. NAMASTE is hence a philosophical statement affirming that the doer of everything is not me but the Gods.

In Oriental culture a greeting is an affirmation of one's belief and is a recitation of the name of the Lord, as one sees Him. The utterance of the name of the Lord is said to be sufficient to make the day / morning / evening good for both the persons - the person conveying greetings and the person receiving greetings. Some examples are as follows:

RAM-RAM or JAI SHRI KRISHNA or HARE KRISHNA or JAI SHRI RAM or JAI SIYA RAM are some of the common greetings in Hindus. All of them have name of a deity and either proclaim the victory of the said deity or declare the said deity to be GOD.

Sikhs say SAT SHRI AKAL , which means that Truth is the God and is timeless. Sikhs also say WAHE GURUJI KA KHALSA, WAHE GURUJI KI FATEH. This is a declaration that the ultimate victory will be of the Guru and his followers.

Muslims say KHUDA HAFIZ , which means Khuda is the Protector.

In all the above Oriental Greetings, persons exchanging greetings, invoke a principle or thought or belief, which forms a bondage between the persons. In no case, does one make a direct wish to the other. Both persons start with a common premise which is generally a negation of their own egos and identities. Their individual egos and identities are submerged in the identity of Larger than Life Reality which both persons accept as sacred. Being a part of the same larger than Life Reality, gives a sense of oneness and is the beginning of a harmonious relationship.

While wishing you NAMASKAR , Samarth Bharat proclaims a complete absence of arrogance. We accept that we are virtually nobodies while the Cosmos is the Ultimate Being. We see ourself in mathematical terms as "Limit tending to Zero" while the Cosmos is all pervading and is infinite. We see ourself as a part of this Infinite. The reality is this infinity and role of each one of us is only a small beep on this time-space continuum.

Samarth Bharat would like to hear from you a Namaskar or Namaste or Khuda Hafiz or Sat Shri Akal or any other greeting (as you like).

Guru fights world's 'poverty of love,' one hug at a time - CNN.com

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/08/22...

clipped by ky1008 Aug 22, 2007

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By Delia Gallagher

CNN

KERALA, India (CNN) -- Mata Amritanandamayi is known as the "hugging guru." Some days, she will sit for up to 20 hours straight as tens of thousands of devotees line up to feel her embrace and hear her whisper motherly advice.

Thousands of people -- followers and curious alike -- visit her ashram, or spiritual center, to be hugged; she turns no one away.

2 of 2

Followers come from all over the world to Amma's ashram, or spiritual center, in Kerala, South India, to get a hug; many choose to stay.

"There are two types of poverty in the world, financial poverty and the poverty of love; the second is more important," says Amritanandamayi, who goes by Amma, which means "mother".

Amma grew up poor, in the same seaside village on the southern tip of India where she built her ashram. Villagers believed she could cure sick cows. As a young girl, she was known to take what little food her own family had and share it with others.

Although Amma shies away from describing herself as psychic or magical, some followers think she is divine.

"I have only one feeling," says Navaratnama, a young girl from Mangalore, who traveled 11 hours on a train to see Amma. "That I have touched God."

Navaratnama says she hopes to become pregnant and decided to make the journey to Kerala after Amma appeared to her in several dreams. Followers flock to Amma's hugs »

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Amma greets her followers with a steady gaze and a smile; she listens to their concerns or sometimes just hugs them. Many are too emotional to speak. On a typical weekend day, some 30,000 followers visit the ashram to feel her embrace. Amma says her message to each person she meets is love.

"I want to awaken motherhood in both men and women," Amma says, referring to selfless love. "Motherhood is something that is fast disappearing from the world."

Roughly six months each year, Amma leaves her ashram and travels the world, holding meetings in hotel ballrooms in major cities in the United States, Europe and South America. From these places, she gathers even more devotees, many of whom visit her ashram in India as volunteers.

Gautam is a fair-haired, freckle-skinned 31-year-old from California who has been living at the ashram for eight years. Before Amma renamed him, he was known as Brian Harvey and worked at Yahoo.

"Before I met Amma, I think it was the typical American lifestyle of living for myself, trying to make myself as comfortable as possible," Gautam says.

He was attracted by Amma's emphasis on selfless service to others, he says. Gautam now dresses all in white and works for free as one of Amma's aides. He has even picked up the local language, Maylayalam.

The ashram is mix of foreigners and locals working side-by-side. They send out Amma's newsletters, serve guests in the cafe (one for Western food, one for Indian food) and organize the thousands of visitors who come for a day, a week or several months.

Roughly 80 percent of India's 1.1 billion people are Hindu. The religion's rituals vary, but generally they are performed by male priests and consist of offerings of sweets, incense, fire and flowers.

Amma's ashram is rooted in the Hindu tradition, but not tied to it. Here you will find female priests conducting ceremonies in the temple. A picture of Jesus hangs in Amma's private quarters. Visitors of all denominations are welcome.

Amma has no formal education, and her philosophy is not of the intellectual kind. She teaches love of neighbor as a means to self-fulfillment and peace. Service, rather than study, is the focus of her work. Unlike many Hindu gurus, Amma does not preach any particular spiritual practice, such as yoga, meditation or chanting.

"Fundamentally, what everyone needs is mental strength and self-confidence, to manage the mind just as we manage the outside," she says.

An Indian newspaper reported that Amma's income was around $80 million last year, although her representatives would not confirm this figure. The money comes from private donations and the sale of books and CDs.

Much of this money is in turn given away to help the poor or the those affected by natural disasters. Amma has donated millions of dollars to help the victims of the tsunami in South Asia and Hurricane Katrina in the United States. She also runs a series of homeless shelters in 38 American cities.

"I have no desires, no pleasures," she says. E-mail to a friend

The Sun Online - News: Tooting man is Hindu goddess

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2007140831,0...

clipped by ky1008 Apr 16, 2007

hijras hinduism

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'Goddess' ... jobless Steve Cooper

from Tooting

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Tooting man is Hindu goddess

By JULIE MOULT

and JOHN ASKILL

and from PAMELA TIMMS in India

March 30, 2007

COMMENT ON THIS STORY

JOBLESS Steve Cooper has found work at last — as an Indian GODDESS who thousands of Hindus believe can cure their infertility.

Pilgrims head to a remote jungle temple to be blessed by Steve, 32, from Tooting, South West London.

He places his third finger on the their foreheads and mutters: “The goddess is here”.

Surrounded by followers, Steve told The Sun: “I love being here. I don’t miss anything about Tooting.”

He is regarded as a reincarnation of Bahucharaji, the patron of Indian eunuchs. He has been at the temple in the northern state of Gujarat for three months.

Every time Steve walks through the local village, people flock to greet him, shouting: “Jay Bahuchar Ma” - “The goddess is here.”

Gender bender Steve calls himself Pamela. But his devotees have dubbed him Prema — Hindi for Divine Love.

Devotion ... followers in India flock to see

Prema, also known as Pamela and, er, Steve

He said: “All my life I just didn’t fit.

“Now I’ve found my life. I plan to stay for good. I couldn’t leave now.

“They revere me and believe I am a goddess. I feel what they feel in me.”

Steve was living in a tiny flat in Tooting until deciding on his new career after Indian friends told him he looked and moved just like the ancient goddess.

As soon as he arrived at the temple he was treated as a deity.

He now gets up at dawn and dresses in a holy saffron robe before beginning the daily ritual of blessings.

Steve said: “I feel as if I have come home. I was meant to be here. When I first came to the temple, I sat down and smiled. Everything fell into place.

“After about 20 minutes everyone crowded around and I naturally started blessing people. When I touch people I connect with them.”

Hindu pilgrims have no doubts about his powers. When we asked Bhanu Barot why she was so keen to receive Prema’s blessing, she said, simply: “Because she is a goddess.”

Another woman, Rekha, said she had travelled for days to be blessed by Steve. She added: “My sister-in-law came here and she got pregnant immediately.

“I am hoping the same will happen for me after receiving the blessing of the goddess.” But last night Steve’s stunned brother Justin Cooper said: “He’s just an ordinary guy.

Healing ... left, Steve uses his Hindu power middle, Steve's tattoo depicts the goddess and, right, Hindu elder pays his respects to Steve

Healing ... left, Steve uses his Hindu 'powers', middle, Steve's tattoo depicts

the goddess and, right, Hindu elder pays his respects to Steve

“He never told me anything about this.”

Steve now follows a strict vegetarian diet and sleeps in a spartan room. He lives among 80 eunuchs — castrated men — at the temple. But some have their doubts that he is equipped to be a goddess.

Goddess ... the real Bahucharaji

A eunuch called Sudha said: “He is a fake. I checked and he still has a penis.

“He is a male so can’t be a goddess. He shouldn’t give blessings.” Steve, who has a tattoo of the goddess on his arm, just insisted: “I am both male and female.”

He grew up in Shepshed, Leics, with brother Justin.

Unmarried printer Justin, 36, who still lives in the town, said: “I last saw him about four years ago.

“He had developed a fascination with Hinduism and was visiting temples in London.

“Then about eight months ago he sent me a text saying he was off to India — then another arrived saying he was loving it.

“But we had no idea of the role he was playing.”

Followers of the goddess Bahucharaji Mata believe she was once a princess who castrated her husband because he showed no interest in sex.

Sita Ben Rawal, a trustee of the temple, said of Steve: “People think it is the power of the goddess Bahucharaji that has driven her to come here.