in bharat (india) the old custom of greeting people is to fold both the hands and saying namaste or namaskar. which actually means the soul or god residing in me is greeting/bowing to the godliness inside you. so basically namaste represents reverentially bowing to the god residing in the other person or to greet the good qualities of the other person.
in old times, when it must be done more reverentially and meaningfully then it must be done to invoke the higher side of other person while meeting. at the same time to also invoke the higher side of yourself. because when you remember the god residing inside each of us while doing namaste, then you can not think evil about other person or you can not cheat the other person. so if namaste is done reverentially then there be less evil and cheating in the world. it will increase dharma (religiousness), satya (truth) and universal brotherhood (because you see that god resides in everybody).
namaste is the way of seeing god inside everyone (satyuga custom) and handshake is custom of kaliyuga. lets find out how?
when you do hand shake then first of all you exchange energies with other person. which is not good for satvic people or people who are on spiritual path. because you are exchanging your satvic/dharmic energy with other person energy.
secondly, you don’t know whether the hands of other person are clean or not. you have to assume that other person hands are clean. but you know hygiene standard is not high in many people. mind it, it can also spread germs.
thirdly the origin of handshake – i had read long back about the origin of handshake. it started out of mistrust and as a safety mechanism. when it started then people were scared of getting attacked by strangers. so they wanted any safety mechanism to know that the approaching person in sight is not carrying weapon. so it was decided that when you see someone approaching you then both the parties are supposed to raise their hands andย show their empty hands to each other. this is done to prove that you are not carrying any weapon and there is no fear from each other.
personally i prefer and love to do namaste or namaskar when greeting people. but nowadays in bharat the handshake has become common practice. so i also end up shaking hands as i don’t want to embarrass other person. because on meeting people, most of them habitually bring out their right hand for shaking and its sound insulting if i refuse to shake hands. but i wish the custom changes back to namaste in india.
lets go back to satyuga customs and way of life style.