Namas is not just to Bow Down

In the last issue I had discussed about two words, sukha and duhkha. In this issue I have taken up the word namas. The word namas from which we get the words namaskara or which we see in the word namas-te, is derived from the root-sound nam and has a very deeper meaning than what is usually understood by the words namaskara, namas-te and pranaama. The word namaskara is often interpreted to explain that when one does namaskara he must feel that the one whom he bows down is superior to him. Even people somehow try to justify all that is being done in the name of namaskara and claim that to be the spiritual interpretation of it. We can understand the word namas better by clinging to its root-sense.

The word namas, as mentioned above, is derived from the root-sound nam which means ‘to bend or bow or submit one’s self to’. Namati is the third person singular form in present tense. From this root sense the general senses of the words, as one finds in the dictionaries, are: bow, obeisance, reverential salutation, adoration etc. But, to bend also means to be plastic and flexible and elastic. We see this sense in the words like namaniya meaning ‘plastic’, namya ‘bendable or pliant’. All these words are derived from the root nam. The actual meaning of doing namaskara then is ‘to remain plastic in all parts of the being to submit or surrender’. There is a beautiful passage in the book “The Mother” in which Sri Aurobindo says that in order to make our surrender total and perfect “There must be in no part of the being, even the most external, anything that makes a reserve, anything that hides behind doubts, confusions and subterfuges, anything that revolts or refuses.

“If part of the being surrenders, but another part reserves itself, follows its own way or makes its own conditions, then each time that that happens, you are yourself pushing the divine Grace away from you.”

It is in this sense that the real meaning of the word namaskara has to be understood. When we do namaskara, no matter with what gesture we do it, all parts of our being must be free from any rigidity, obstinacy and reservation, and we must be plastic enough to submit ourselves. Then only our doing namaskara can become a true act of submission and surrender to the divine. This also should be the true meaning of Islamic Namaz derived from the same root.

“The Vedic namas, internal and external obeisance, is the symbol of submission to the divine Being in ourselves and in the world. Here the offering is that of completest submission and the self-surrender of all the faculties of the lower egoistic human nature to the divine…”
-Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda, CWSA, Vol.17 p.10

Another very important word derived from the root nam is naama meaning name. The English word name, French nom and the Latin nomen too are the derivatives of the same root. Why the ancient Rishis did chose to create the word naama meaning name from the root nam meaning to bend down or stoop down etc.? For this we need to know what a name signifies. A name, as the ancient Indians have explained, is not just the word by which we describe or identify a particular object, but in its deeper sense, it is the total power, quality and character of the reality embodied in the form of the things. We try to sum up all these by designating a sound, a knowable name. So a name, in its real sense, is the power, quality and character of the being made knowable or conceivable. So by the name the nameless becomes named, the inconceivable is made conceivable, the unthinkable is made to be thought of, the incomprehensible is made comprehensible.

Few other derivatives of nam
namana - bending, bowing down, sinking
namasya - deserving homage, venerable or humble
namaneeya - flexible, plastic, elastic, pliable
namya or naamya - pliant, flexible, bendable
namra and vinamra - inclining, stooping, bowed, bent, curved, hanging down, sunk, submissive, reverential, humble, modest
namo namah - constant submission and surrendering to the Truth