Etiquette

[Indialover]

Namaste,

I realize I am not familiar with etiquette.

I think Namaste as a greeting is never wrong. Does Namaskar mean the same?

I find other greetings in the forum which are new to me and I do not just want to copy them without knowing the inner meaning.

I find ‚pranam‘ at the beginning and at the end of a posting. I read about the meaning in the lexikon. But when do I use it?

When do you use ‚ji‘ behind the name?

Believe me I do not want to violate any custom … if it should happen, forgive me and kindly let me know.

[Abhishek Born Again]

Namaste India Lover Ji,

Well I would answer your curious questions,well I will try to .In our culture,we greet anyone whenever we meet by saying Namaste,Namaskar,Pranam,Vanakkam (as EM Ji mostly uses,it is in Tamil I guess) and yes they all mean the same thing.We start a conversation in HDF by saying these so that it doesn't only mean typing your point of view but it should seem as if we are talking to each other and discussing something.It shouldn't look as if we are reading something.And at the end of every post we say Pranam,Dhanyavad which means Thank You.This is done to show respect to the person we are posting to.

This is nicely given in this thread,Have a look when you have time -
http://hindudharmaforums.com/showthr...-Ideas-for-HDF

And as far the word "Ji" is concerned,it is also a sign of Respect to others.It is generally used for the elders in our culture.

I hope this helps.

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam: We are a diverse group, so we get a variety of greetings and closings. I like the diversity in it because it is reflective of who we are as a group. I thing 'Greetings," and "Thank you" in English would be acceptable as well. ABA summed it up nicely.

Aum Namasivaya

[Indialover]

Thank you Abhishek Born Again, for the useful description and the link.

for you this question may be curious … but we live in completely different cultures, so better ask.

Pranam and Dhanyavad was completely new for me – you do not learn this as a tourist, and I was just as a tourist in India so far.

The ji I thought is for gurus and great souls. Although some Indians called me mataji around the age of 50. Anyhow I was not sure what ji really means … between the lines.

Let’s have a short digression into my society.

We are also polite, no questions, but in another way.

In my society no one wants to be old, the society belongs to the young. Grandfather and grandmother are loved by their children and grandchildren, but they are not respected in the Indien sense.

So if you call a 55 years old person ‚ji‘, you indirectly say ‚you are old‘. This can be the greatest affront. It depends on the personal attitude of the person. The secure way is to leave it.

This to justify my question – it is so easy to insult someone if you are not familiar with society customs.

I have no problem with my age, I love Indian culture, so thank you all who called me Abiramiji and Indialoverji.

Pranam

[Abhishek Born Again]

Namaste Abirami Ji,

I fully understand what you mean here Cultures can be totally different but at the end of the day we all are the same.The same children of the Supreme One.
Also,we don't say "Ji" to justify anyone as old,you misunderstood me here.It is just to respect that person and if we just call someone by their name without putting "Ji",it sounds a bit rude.And as you gave a note of your India trip when they called you "Mataji" which means "Mother".Even if they didn't use "Ji" there it would have been alright because the word "Mata" is one of those words which means Mother so it needs no Suffix to prove its greatness.Mothers are the best in the world.

According to me getting old is nothing bad.We should all see the good side of it like those people have so much wealth of experience that money can't buy.I am just 21 year old and I see guys and girls of my age getting ready in nice shirts,pants and doing all sorts of things to look beautiful but I don't do it because I know that this is all temporary.It is inevitable to we will get older but I don't see it has a bane but as a boon.I always have liked to stay more with the people who are experienced because we learn something from them.That is only because they have passed from our age and they know what blunders we can make in our inexperience life.

Dhanyavad

[Indialover]

Namaste ... so young and such wise words - you are blessed Abhishek Born Again!


Pranam
Abirami

[Abhishek Born Again]

Namaste Abirami Ji,
It's all my Madhav's Grace.

Dhanyavad

Jai Shri Hari

[Believer]

Namaste,

......Although some Indians called me mataji around the age of 50. Anyhow I was not sure what ji really means … between the lines.

In my society no one wants to be old, the society belongs to the young. Grandfather and grandmother are loved by their children and grandchildren, but they are not respected in the Indien sense.

So if you call a 55 years old person ‚ji‘, you indirectly say ‚you are old‘. This can be the greatest affront. It depends on the personal attitude of the person. The secure way is to leave it.

Our Western society is so youth oriented and no one wants to die.

As a new arrival in the West many decades ago, it took me some time to learn that concept and to be extra careful not to use any words which could be construed as labeling another person old. It is almost a sinful thing to do, because labeling somebody old probably also means that (s)he is getting closer to checking out of this world and that seems to be the most painful thing to think about for people here. Maybe because of material affluence people unintentionally think that this is as good as it gets, and because of the lack of acceptance of the concept of reincarnation, they also think of dying as the permanent severance of ties to this world. Anyway, it is what it is and we have to let people think and live with their conditioning. But be rest assured that a 'ji' added to a name is just a mark of respect and not something derogatory. Another aspect of Indian culture is to call others by age-centric relationship even though one is not related to the person addressing you. So, a young person would consider and address older people of his/her parents age as 'uncle/auntie', even though they are complete strangers to each other. That also is a mark of respect and not showing up another person to be 'old'. And older people are by and large revered, so there is no disrespect shown by addressing somebody as older than you. It is all part of the package called Indian/Hindu culture and in that respect, is not too different from other Asian cultures.

Pranam.

PS, greeting a person varies widely with the area you are in, in Ladakh along the northern fringes, it is 'jule', in the Hindi heartland it is 'namaste', in the villages of the North it is 'Ram Ram', in Punjab it is 'Sat sri Akal', in Gujrat it is 'Jai shree Krishna', in Taminnadu it is Vannakkam, and the list goes on. Every linguistic/geographical region has its own language and its own traditions. Having been there 40 times, you probably know more about that than a naive native like me. Okay mataji?