The Meaning of Namaste

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that the spirit of God dwells in you?
I Corinthians 3:16

My father was a pastor of a Protestant church, thus, making me what is known as a preacher's kid. PKs have a reputation for being goodie-two-shoes who later rebel against the confines of church doctrine and social practice. My family's activities revolved around my father's ministry and the activities of the church.

One of the most emotionally rewarding experiences for me as a child was to go to the altar after my dad gave a sermon and called for the congregation to give their souls to Christ. I longed to feel the warmth of my father's arms around my shoulder, praying quietly in my ear, reassuring me of God's love and mercy, pardoning my sins and blessing my renewed devotion. The altar was the only place where I felt his physical affection for me.

When I became a teenager, my father stopped praying with me at the altar, and I was helped by other church elders. He probably thought it was better to have another adult listen to my confessions rather than superimpose his fatherly figure. Needless to say, it was a dispiriting, disconcerting experience for me.

Looking back, I confused in my mind the blessings of a spiritual relationship with God and the emotional bond with my father. What a head game that is! Eventually, I ran away from home to Latin America at the ripe age of 23. Although I never shied away from religion or spiritual life, I did not find a natural fit for them in my life.

An encounter with the divine

With yoga, I have had an almost physical, sensory rebirth of my belief -- I call it an encounter with the divine within. In my first session of Sudarshan Kriya during my Art of Living training in February last year, I had an extremely moving experience, but translating it into a narrative would fail to capture its magic -- and make me sound like a nut. By the purifying breath, I burned through to a glowing core. I have similar experiences several times over the past year, never quite the same, but it helped me understand why the altar experience of my childhood was so meaningful to me, and why the shift into adulthood was a rupture with a whole spiritual realm of my life.

Yoga has allowed me to reopen myself to the divine. without intermediary or filter. The awe and intimacy of my childhood encounter has shifted to empowerment and immediacy because I no longer have to wait for anyone to show me the direction to look. That's one of the reasons that Namaste rings so true to me -- I have felt the divine in me and it resonates to the same power in others. When I say that word and bring my anjali mudra to my heart, it is a powerful gesture that brings me close to tears.

Other Answers

• Yoga Journal: The Meaning of Namaste by Aadil Palkhivala