Does the word 'Namaste' has multiple meanings?

[Śrī Bharath Krishna asked: Pādanamaskāraṃ Swāmi! Generally, we say “Pādanamskāram” to our Gurus expecting blessings from them. But whenever I said Pādanamaskāraṃ to You during our weekly satsangs, You responded by saying “Namaste”. As far as I know, the meaning of this word is “I bow to you”. Swāmi, since You are a Sadguru but You still use this word “Namaste”, I wonder if there is any other meaning to this word. Please explain it to me Swāmi. Please forgive me if I have asked anything wrong. At Your Divine Lotus feet, Bharath Krishna.]

Swāmi replied: When a human being bows to another human being, the other human being also bows to the first human being in return irrespective of greatness of the human being. This is done because all the souls are equal irrespective of their associated qualities. All souls are made of the same basic material called awareness. The Gītā says that any soul shall find other souls equal to one’s own soul (Ātmavat sarva bhūtāni…- Gītā). The salutation in return is with reference to the equality of all souls basically. Such type of activity indicates the message that no soul shall possess ego towards any other soul based on some acquired greatness. If any soul acquires greatness, it is only due to the grace of God only. Hence, scholars say “Kṛṣṇārpaṇam” (Your salutation is passed on to God Kṛṣṇa) in return whenever they are saluted. This means that all the souls are equal and any greatness acknowledged through the salutation is surrendered to God since God alone is great. Elder souls in the line of Pravṛtti give blessings to youngsters and this tradition has some error. In such tradition, the elder feels himself or herself as great accepting the salutation from the youngster and in return gives blessings as if it has the power to bless other soul. The correct tradition as per the true Spiritual knowledge will be to pass on the salutation to God and if the saluted soul is elder, it should not only pass on the salutation to God, but also shall say “Let God bless you”.

The human incarnation can accept the salutation and can give the blessings to any soul doing salutation. But, such response may increase ego in the human being component of the human incarnation. Alternatively, such acceptance of salutation and giving blessings in return may raise the ego based jealousy in some receivers. In order to avoid such ego and jealousy in the receiving devotees, the human incarnation confines itself to its human being-component only and passes on the same to the devoted soul so that the behaviour of God in human form is at the level of basic safety. The human incarnation always wishes to mix with the human beings without exciting them by expressing the behaviour of God-component so that full freedom exists that encourages them to ask doubts like a friend. God in human form always takes precautionary measures to suppress the possible ego based jealousy in His devotees in the interest of their future Spiritual welfare. Only a demon tries to express his greatness in every possible situation since he is covered with very strong ego.

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