Greetings beautiful souls, I’ve had many people ask me lately of the meaning of Namaste, or Anjali Mudra, as also expressed. I love these conversations and hope you find some resonance in your own perception of this interpretation. May you find alignment in your own truth. Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions, I’d love to hear from you.
Anjali Mudra is an expression of the divine. Practiced usually at the beginning and ending of a yoga class, Namaste is a gesture acknowledging the soul of one in connection to another. A symbol of honor, peaceful promise, and gratitude evoking. This salutation is practiced with the hands held in a prayer position, resting against the heart center in a bowing silence. Cultivating presence and recognition of a higher power in ourselves and others, all one with the divine.
Hands at the heart center creates stability in concentration and balance, while expanding this chakra with the embodiment of love. A stretch in the wrists, each finger, and opening the chest across the shoulders and back enhances calmness, coordination, and awareness. The term Anjali translates to a salutation or an offering in Sanskrit, while the term Mudra means to seal. Thus, essentially forming an energetic seal, a moment of pure intention and acceptance of this higher exchange. Namaste welcomes a new, higher version of the self, while honoring all parts with respect, love, and gratitude. A posture stabilized near the heart chakra and infused with love, the highest vibration of the universe. There is space for deep transformation in this Mudra.
Practiced usually at the beginning, and almost always at the end of a yoga practice, this salutation has become a concrete establishment of peaceful divinity to signify such deep meaning for yogis timelessly. Although the direct understanding of Namaste is heavily debated, it helps root the individual just as they are in the present on their yoga mat. Grounded in gratitude, an expansive heart center widening with love for the self. Widening with love for others. Widened with love for all, and all that is. A recognition of the soul, a realization with awareness of a deeper being than just the physical senses and body. A deeper meaning than just this body. Acknowledgement negligent of judgement. Calling in a centred moment to prepare for class with thoughtful intention intertwined with the divine. Namaste is then practiced at the close of a class, landing back on the mat in presence. Welcoming a higher power now circulating like prana through the new activations integrating within the physical body. Welcoming and honoring the soul with divine presence. Anjali Mudra, is a powerful posture, an activation, a remembering, an honor. Salutations to the divine, to the divinity in thyself and in everything that is.
