Contd. From : http://www.oneworldnews.com/lets-understand-and-start-living-hinduisms/
The Science Behind Namastay.
In India, we say “Namastay” not onlyto each other when we greet someone but also when we pray to any Deity. We combine both our palms together in front of the chest and say the word namastaywhile bowing down our head with the emotion of utmost respect and humility. Namaskaaram (Namastay) is one of the five formal forms of greeting written in Hindu scriptures.
Namastay is a Sanskrit word that is derived from the two wordsnamah and te. It means – I bow to you – my greetings to you. But if we further break down the word Namaha, we can interpret it as “na” and“ma” which simply means “not mine”. This helps us to balance our ego while greeting the person in front and hence brings in respect and love for the person being greeted.
Scientifically, the palms of our hands have the pressure points of all the organs in our body or put simply, all the organs of our body are virtually present in our palms, like the links of various programs on our desktop. By saying namastay we not only use words to greet our guest but by bringing both the palms together we greet our guest with full humility from the depth of our hearts.
Let us dig deeper for its spiritual meaning. We are all the sparkles of the same God. We all have HIM within us in the form of the life force, the divinity. This oneness is depicted by folding both the palms together; we offer our gratitude for the divinity in the person we meet. Some of us say the words like “Ram Ram,” “Radhe Radhe”, “Namah Shivaya”, “Jai Jai Ram” etc – indicating the recognition of this divinity. This makes our greeting not just a superficial gesture but one with complete humility and respect.
