We Do Not Salute Any Human Being

Date: 04 Mar 2008 22:09:48 -0000 From: "K Lingappa" To: AM-GLOBAL Subject: We Do Not Salute Any Human Being Baba "Ka'ra'r kapa't' a'gha'te bha'ungiya' a'lo niye ele ke go atithi..." (P.S. 4305) Purport: Which Divine Guest has come and pulverized the prison gate by His strong blow and freed everyone from the dungeon. Which Entity has come and brought such divine effulgence. O' Ajana Pathik, Parama Purusa, it is Your grace that You have come and removed the Cimmerian darkness. You have removed the fear of staticity, dogma, and disaster. By Your grace You have given the voice to those who did not have a way to speak. Previously, they could not express any of their desires and problems. But with Your infinite compassion You have graced them. These downtrodden people could not raise the protest against their sufferings & tortures. They were facing those injustices silently without so much as saying a word. Their throats were choked. But now all that has changed. O' Parama Purusa, thinking about their suffering and pain, You took up the Gandiiva bow in Your hand and You have made everyone listen to the song of life. You have made everyone's life blissful by removing all sorts of suppressions, repressions, and depressions. Baba, You have graced one and all...

== WE A'NANDA MA'RGIIS DO NOT SALUTE ANY HUMAN BEING ==

Namaskar, In our Ananda Marga, our entire outlook and life is spiritually based-- focused completely on Parama Purusa, revolving only around Baba. Our each and every thought, word, and action is aimed towards Him. From morning till night, our existence is centered around the Divine Entity: When we awaken, we meditate on Him; when we serve others or feed a beggar, we feel that we are serving or feeding Him. When we receive anything from anyone, we feel we have gotten a gift from Parama Purusa. When we talk to our children, we feel that Parama Purusa is expressing Himself in the form of these children, i.e. that He is in front of us in the form of these young boys and girls. In this beautiful way the day passes-- ensconced in His thought & ideation. And our namaskar salutation is part and parcel of this flow: It is one of our daily activities that is related with Parama Purusa. Because as we all know, when we do namaskar we are not saluting any particular individual like Ram, Shyam, Tom, Dick, or Harry, but rather recognizing the presence of the Infinite Supreme Consciousness within that person.

NAMASKAR IS TO BE DONE TO ALL

Our namaskar salutation, therefore, is to be done to all. Because it has nothing to do with one's seniority, social stature, post, age, or any other relative factor. Because when we do our namaskar mudra we are not bowing down to any individual per se. Rather we are paying salutation to the presence of the Divine within that person. Baba says, "Namaska'ra...It can be done to all regardless of their age, because this mode of salutation is used with the ideation that everyone is the manifestation of the Supreme Being." (CC-1, Chapter 7) Thus part and parcel of our namaskar practice is seeing the Divine within all. That is the essence of doing namaskar. For that reason even the senior-most people in society should do namaskar to little babies, and top-level workers should do namaskar to newly initiated persons. And fellow classmates should do namaskar to each other. So namaskar is to be done by one and all to one and all. There should not be any shyness or feelings of superiority that inhibits this process. Because the sweet ideation behind it all is that when doing namaskar we are honoring the presence of the Supreme within that individual. Hence, we should always be ready to do namaskar to anyone.

BE THE FIRST TO DO NAMASKAR

Secondly, side by side Baba's guidelines is that we should be the first to do namaskar. Baba says, "You should always make an effort to do namaskar to others first." (AMIWL-11) So these are two of Baba's fundamental teachings about Namaskar: (1) That it is to be done to all, and (2) that one should be enthusiastic to do namaskar first. These are two fundamentals aspects of our namaskar practice. Reason being that namaskar is an acknowledgement or salutation to Parama Purusa in the form of that human being. It is not the act of bowing down to a particular individual. So we should readily do namaskar to everyone-- first.

A FEW MISNOMERS ABOUT NAMASKAR

Unfortunately, some have forgotten this divine formula. And for that reason certain dogmatic ideas about the meaning of namaskar have crept into our Marga. Chiefly, some have the wrong idea that when doing namaskar they are saluting another human being. When in fact the truth is we are saluting the Divinity within that human being. But due to their dogmatic understanding, some big Dadas are hesitant to do namaskar to those who are their juniors. Those Dadas think that, 'I am more senior and more respected than him, so why should I salute or bow down to such & such person'. Hence with their dogmatic understanding, those big Dadas refrain from doing namaskar when seeing others. This is the common occurrence, especially at retreats. At the same time, Baba guides us that we should always to namaskar to others first. And if those Dadas understood that by doing namaskar they are honoring the Supreme and not bowing down to some human being, then they would surely follow Baba's guideline: They would be the first to do namaskar. But since they have the dogmatic view that by doing namaskar they are bowing down to some human being, then they do not like to do namaskar. And that is exactly what happens when big Dadas go to any public gathering or retreat. They expect the entire campus to do namaskar to them, but unto others they refrain, or at best do namaskar in reply. But again, this entire situation can be averted if everyone becomes more aware about the real nature of our namaskar practice.

NAMASKAR: MEANING OF THE TERM

Here following then is Baba's special explanation about the meaning of namaskar. In various discourses, Baba has explained that: (a) The prefix 'namah' means 'I salute'; (b) The root 'kr' means 'do'; and, (c) 'Ghain' is simply a standard Sanskrit suffix. (d) So: Namah - kr + ghain = Namaska'r Hence the full meaning of 'namaskar' is 'I salute'. So the term 'namaskar' is grammatically vague: It does not literally qualify to whom one is saluting. It just means 'I salute' or 'I pay my salutations'. Beyond that it has no further literal meaning. Why is it like that? Why did the rs'is of old create the word in that way? Because by this way 'namaskar' indirectly refers to Parama Purusa. That is why it is fitting to use the term 'namaskar' when addressing other jiivas-- other human beings. Because the term 'namaskar' recognises those humans as being expressions of Cosmic Consciousness.

NOT A SALUTATION TO OTHER HUMAN BEINGS

We should not forget that no human being should salute any other human being. Ours is not like that of the military or some dogmatic regime. Rather one should always salute Parama Purusa. Because why should we bow down to any human being? That is the spirit and this is the uniqueness of our AM philosophy. In the various religions this supreme idea is totally absent. They salute human beings, but we don't.

REAL MEANING OF NAMASKAR (REVISITED)

So 'namaskar' means: O' Mr Ramesh or O' Mr Manoranjain, I salute the Divine which is residing within you. That is the true spirit of doing namaskar. But if Ramesh or Manoranjan is ignorant and foolish, they will think that they are being saluted. And if the one doing namaskar is foolish, he will think that he is saluting Ramesh or Manoranjain etc. Those who do namaskar in this misguided way, they commit a mistake which is commonly done in the general society-- and unfortunately in our Marga as well. So this false manner should be stopped. In the real sense, with the term 'namaskar' (literally meaning 'I salute'), we are paying our salutations to the Divine in an indirect way. Because we seeing 'Ramesh' or 'Manoranjan' or 'Tom', 'Dick', or 'Harry', as being manifestations of the Supreme. Thus the word 'namaskar' recognises the Divine within them; it is an indirect reference to Parama Purusa That is the way it works. Thus none should get confused and think that by saying 'namaskar' we are saluting another human being or that someone else is saluting us. It is not like that.

CONFUSION ABOUT NAMASKAR IN OUR MARGA

Unfortunately, here again let it be said that some in AMPS are confused and they think that by saying namaskar they are saluting another human being. That is why you might have seen how some Dadas do not like to say namaskar to juniors or new margiis etc. Because they think that they themselves are someone high, worthy of respect, and that it would be unfitting to address someone younger or less senior with the term namaskar. But unto them, those same Dadas want all to quickly come and say namaskar. Because they think by this way they are getting the respect and praise of others. So their misunderstanding works in two faulty directions. Certain top Dadas do not want to say namaskar to others as they think it diminishes their own stature. That is the first half of their dogma. Secondly, they think by having others say namaskar to them then they are getting huge honor and respect. And that is the second half of their dogma. They do not know they are saluting the Divine when they do namaskar to others, and they do not know that the next persons is saluting God by doing namaskar to them. So that is their blindness. This type of misdealing is all due to their misunderstanding of the term namaskar. Theirs is a dogmatic type of meaning that is wrongly based on social status and prestige. That is why some top Dadas do not like to address others by saying 'namaskar' and that is why they want the entire world to come to them and say 'namaskar'. Such is the confusion and deep rooted dogma that has infested their minds. And that is why they cannot get the spiritual benefit of using the namaskar term-- because they fail to realise that by saying namaskar they are indirectly paying their respects to Baba as they have come in form of next. For this reason one should always be zealous to do namaskar to others first. But in general, mostly people do not know this secret so they desire that others should do namaskar to them first.

MEANING OF THE MUDRA

Lastly, any discussion about namaskar would be incomplete if one fails to discuss the accompanying mudra as well. As we all know, when we say namaskar, first we raise our palms together and touch the trikuti point with our thumbs. By this we are recognising the center of the mind which is at the ajina cakra. And then we lower our palms to the heart or the anahata cakra. By this way we are acknowledging the feeling of heart, which is one of the subcenters of the mind as it is responsible for feelings of love, affection, dedication, and respect. So when we do namaskar, we are paying our deepest salutations to Parama Purusa with the totality of our mind and heart. And when doing the mudra we say, 'namaskar'. This everybody understands. By this manner we are saluting the Divine Entity inside the next person and by this way our entire mind & heart gets spiritualised. Because doing the mudra is very helpful for inculcating the proper ideation. It is just like if you try doing sastaunga pranam from a standing position then it does not work nearly as well as when you do sastaunga pranam while lying on the ground in the proper mudra. Here the whole point is that the mudra supports the ideational flow in the mind since when we do any mudra then it brings the mind and body into one parallel position, which ultimately reinforces the idea in the mind. That is the specialty of our namaskar mudra.

SUMMARY: OUR NAMASKAR IS UNIQUE

We can see that throughout this entire world there are hundreds of ways to salute someone, but the way in AM is totally unique and divine. That is why we must propagate this unique practice all around. All should understand the true meaning of this salutation and follow it-- in body, heart, and mind.

BABA'S BLESSING

By Baba's grace, He has blessed as with a salutation system that brings one closer to Him. Because when we do namaskar we are not saluting any human being, rather we are distinctly paying our salutations to Him-- drawing ourselves closer to Him, by His grace. That is one special aspect of doing namaskar. Baba says, "The only goal of living beings is to attain Parama Purus´a. This singular goal should permeate the major portion of the activities of ideal human beings. You should always remember that from the moment you get up until the moment you go to sleep, Parama Purus´a is your supreme Goal. Whatever you do, you should do keeping your vision fixed on that Goal." (SS-12) Namaskar Karun

Note 1: ABOUT THE SUFFIX GHAIN

As we all now know, the term namaskar is derived from the root 'namah' meaning 'I salute - 'kr' meaning 'do' + 'ghain', which is one of the many traditional suffixes in Sanskrit. For those interested, on page 1413 of Baba's Sanskrit Grammar Book, He outlines many words that employ the suffix ghain:

yuinj + ghain = yoga div + ghain = deva rainj + ghain = ra'ga kr + ghain= ka'r

So ghain is a commonly used suffix in Sanskrit and is also used in the formation of the term 'namaskar'. For more about this linguistic science or to learn more about the use of the ghain suffix, then please refer to Baba's Sanskrit Grammar Book.

Note 2: WE SHOULD ALWAYS SAY NAMASKAR FIRST (PART II)

According to Baba, there are numerous benefits to always doing namaskar first. And Baba furthermore guides us that He always does namaskar first in order to teach others. Baba says, "As ideal human beings you should not wait to give namaskar after another has greeted you: you should rather take the first opportunity to greet others. When someone greets you, it is merely common courtesy for you to salute back; you do not become an ideal human being thereby. Rather one who seizes the first opportunity to salute others is the ideal. So you should always make an effort to do namaskar to others first: you should not care whether the person whom you greet will greet you in return or not. (When people come to me during personal contact, I greet them first whether they salute me or not.) By giving honour to others you will not be belittled, you will rather enhance your prestige." (AMIWL-11) By Baba's above guideline we can understand that those who do namaskar first are better than those who wait to do namaskar in response. Unfortunately, those who are unaware about this do not do namaskar first, they think they should wait for namaskar. But by this way they just cheat themselves and deprive themselves of becoming ideal human beings. That is Baba's specific teaching.