Now that yoga is becoming more mainstream, it is finding itself in the debate to whether it is an offshoot of Hinduism, or simply another form of exercise. Yoga has now found itself to the far reaches of Georgia USA, where parents are up in arms about the non-exercise portions of the practice. Bullard Elementary School in Cobb County, Georgia has banned the word “namaste” from being used in yoga lessons at the school stemming from complaints from parents.
Even within the Yoga community, the word “namaste” has been challenged, with opponents saying it is some form of cultural misappropriation for non Hindus to use the word. Others in the yoga community don’t use it simply because they have felt it has become cliché.
To give simple definition, this word means “I bow to you.” More elaborate new agey definitions include “the God within be bows to the God within you.” However, I understand that many mainstream Indian Hindu residents use “namaste” or “namaskar” as another way of simply saying “hello.”
Very much like the word “aloha” in Hawai’i where I live, this word has different meanings for different contexts (hello, goodbye, and love). But aloha, like namaste has some element of reverence beyond merely “hi” and “bye.”
I always end my classes with the phrase “Thank you very much for doing Yoga. Peace within. Namaste.” That is in reverence to my very first Yoga teacher Daws, who used that phrase at the end of his classes. For me, it is the closest thing to diksha I have received. I worked intensely with Daws for many years prior to coming to the Iyengar tradition, so that is what I take from his teachings into my classes.
The short of it is, people should not be up in arms about a phrase that conveys exhaled greeting for fear that it may turn their sons or daughters to some mysterious foreign faith, or whether it is misused out of cultural context, or because it is overused.
Last time I checked, I have not converted anyone to Hinduism from my teachings, people in the West still eat Chapati-s and Dahl and are not completely disgracing the Indian subcontinent, and people are still saying hello, goodbye, and I love you even though everyone has been saying it for thousands of years.
It is time for naysayers to lose their tremendous sense of self importance and ignorance, and clearly see objects for what they truly are. Namaste!
from Home Yoga Practice http://ift.tt/1REUmB2
0 Comments