rashtriya.rifles
BANNED
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2012
- Messages
- 1,202
- Reaction score
- 0
Exploring India
- Thread starter KRAIT
- Start date
Joe Shearer
PROFESSIONAL
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2009
- Messages
- 27,493
- Reaction score
- 162
- Country
- Location
Yes, sure. Please give me a little time, as I am busy getting ready for the day and may be tied up for the next eight to ten hours. It is an abstruse subject, dry as dust. Do feel free to remind me, if you see that I might have forgotten.
Water Car Engineer
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2010
- Messages
- 13,313
- Reaction score
- 8
- Country
- Location
These ones are recent depictions of her though. The artist who made those were influence by the Chola statues.
Chinese-Dragon
RETIRED TTA
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2010
- Messages
- 33,932
- Reaction score
- 52
- Country
- Location
I should also clarify that the dancers in this video are all deaf.
It was performed by the China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe.
Shinigami
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2011
- Messages
- 3,611
- Reaction score
- -10
it might intrest you to know that this "thousand hand dance" originated in india and is still prevalent in modern art such as Bollywood
KRAIT
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2012
- Messages
- 16,971
- Reaction score
- -27
- Country
- Location
PR video from MEA. BTW why you find it creepy ?
Last edited by a moderator:
Developereo
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2009
- Messages
- 14,093
- Reaction score
- 25
- Country
- Location
Completely unrelated, but the lotus leaf is highly water repellant and the micro-structure of the lotus leaf is mimicked to create fabrics which remain bone dry even after soaking in water for several hours.
KRAIT
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2012
- Messages
- 16,971
- Reaction score
- -27
- Country
- Location
We have more commonality than we know. Its really an opportunity to inform people about it so that we can find more common ground.
@T.R. Nice addition and @Chinese-Dragon Nice video too.
@T.R. Nice addition and @Chinese-Dragon Nice video too.
Last edited by a moderator:
indushek
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2010
- Messages
- 3,732
- Reaction score
- -1
- Country
- Location
Shall we blame that on the Brahmins ?
AFAIK there used to be a belief that indians must not cross the border of the bharat-varsha or else they would become a mleccha..
And the reason suggeted by kingkobra could also be one of the reasons..
Man you guys can't talk about history without blaming us, we are like the dashboard
Chinese-Dragon
RETIRED TTA
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2010
- Messages
- 33,932
- Reaction score
- 52
- Country
- Location
Chinese Buddhists also say "Om" (唵
a lot.I remember my parents would always make this sound when describing meditation.
Last edited by a moderator:
Shinigami
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2011
- Messages
- 3,611
- Reaction score
- -10
Must Watch
Great Compassionate Heart Dharani - 5 Repetitions - YouTube
east asian dance and Sanskrit slokas. maybe CD can explain?
Great Compassionate Heart Dharani - 5 Repetitions - YouTube
east asian dance and Sanskrit slokas. maybe CD can explain?
anant_s
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2012
- Messages
- 5,600
- Reaction score
- 92
- Country
- Location
SANCHI STUPA
he most elaborate and well known of the more than 50 magnificent Buddhist monuments that crown the hilltop of Sanchi, India, is Stupa Number One or the Great Stupa. It is part of an entire complex of structures, mostly stupas, built between the 3rd Century BCE and the 12th Century AD. The stupa is not a building in any traditional sense. Once a burial or reliquary mound, the stupa has become a purely symbolic object.
SANCHI
Sanchi is 68 kilometers north of Bhopal in the state of Madhya Pradesh. It is unique, not only for having the most perfect and well preserved stupas, but also for offering the visitor a chance to see, in one location, the genesis, flowering, and decay of Buddhist art and architecture during a period of about 1500 years -- almost covering the entire range of Indian Buddhism. This is surprising since Sanchi was not hallowed by any incident in Buddha's life nor was it the focus of any significant event in the history of Buddhism.
Proximity to a city was of importance for Buddhist monasteries as the monks were obliged to go begging for half of every day. The religious duties that filled the other half day made it difficult to situate a monastery in a noisy town. For this reason large monastic communities sought a situation outside a city or on a busy trade route. The Emperor Ashoka saw Sanchi as an ideal place to give shape to his newly aroused zeal for Buddhism. It has always been a quiet, meditative place that was, meanwhile, located near the very prosperous city of Vidisha. The success of the Buddhist settlement was due in great measure to the piety of the rich, mercantile community of the nearby city.
THE "ARCHITECT"
Ashoka Maurya (273 - 236 BCE) was the most famous of the Buddhist rulers of India. A dozen years or so after he began his reign, about 258 BCE, he became a convert to Buddhism. He was a great administrator and a great builder. His empire encompassed the whole of India and Afghanistan. Ashoka's reign of paternal despotism has been compared to that of Constantine or Cromwell. With tireless energy he personally supervised all the affairs of government for 40 years.
His doctrine was less concerned with the analytic aspects of Buddhism and dwelled exclusively on ethics. He dispatched missionaries to other parts of India as well as Ceylon, Syria, Egypt, Cyrene, Macedonia, and Epirus. It is due to Ashoka that Buddhism became, and long remained, the predominant religion of India.
The foundation of this important center at Sanchi was laid by the Emperor Ashoka when he built a stupa and erected a monolithic pillar here. Ashoka built a total of eight stupas on the hilltop of Sanchi including the Great Stupa. A great number of stupas and other religious structures were added over the succeeding centuries.
With the decline of Buddhism, the site decayed and was eventually completely forgotten. But, between 1912 and 1919, the structures were carefully repaired to their present condition and restored.
THE STUPA
The stupa is the most characteristic monument of Buddhist India. Originally stupas were mounds covering the relics of the Buddha or his followers. In its earliest stages Buddhist art didn't represent the Buddha directly. Instead, his presence was alluded to through symbols such as the bo tree, the wheel of law or his footprint. The stupa also became a symbol of the Buddha. More exactly, it became a symbol of his final release from the cycle of birth and rebirth -- the Parinirvana or the "Final Dying."
In a larger sense the stupa is also a cosmic symbol. Its hemispherical shape represents the world egg. Stupas commonly rest on a square pedestal and are carefully aligned with the four cardinal points of the compass. This is a recurrence of the symbolism of the dome whereby Earth supports Heaven and Heaven covers Earth. The axis of the world is always represented in the stupa, rising above its summit. The so-called "parasols," set one above the other along the shaft emerging from its uppermost region, represent a heavenly hierarchy. The cosmic symbolism is completed by a ritual circumambulatory path around the monument.
Stupas are large-scale memorials built in particularly holy places. Generally they enshrine relics of some sort. As a building type the stupa is the forerunner of the pagoda. However, the stupa has also come to be known, on a smaller scale, as the reliquary itself and can be made of crystal, gold, silver or other precious metals.
The Great Stupa of Sanchi underwent a complete reconstruction after wanton damage inflicted upon it in the middle of the second century BCE. The reconstruction consisted of a stone casing, a terrace with a double flight of steps, balustrades, a paved processional path and an umbrella and railing -- all built of sandstone. Four elaborately carved gateways were added in the first century BCE.
The last addition took place during the rule of the Guptas, sometime before 450 AD. By now effigies of the Buddha were permitted and four stone Buddhas were placed against the walls of the stupa facing the gates. Their haloes are elaborately carved.
STUPA & JATAKA TALES
Emperor Asoka (273-236 B.C.) built stupas in Buddha's honour at many places in India. Stupas at Sanchi are the most magnificent structures of ancient India. UNESCO has included them as one of the heritage sites of the world. Stupas are large hemispherical domes, containing a central chamber, in which the relics of the Buddha were placed. Sanchi stupas trace the development of the Buddhist architecture and sculpture at the same location beginning from the 3rd century B.C. to the 12th century A.D.
Asoka when he was a governor married Devi, the daughter of a respected citizen of Vidisha, a town 10 km from the Sanchi hill. Prince Mahendra visited Sanchi with his mother before leaving for the island of Lanka for taking Buddhism there. Emperor Asoka had put up at Sanchi a pillar edict and a stupa containing relics of the Buddha. Addition of new stupas and expressions in stone of legends around the life of the Buddha and the monastic activities at the Sanchi hill continued under several dynasties for over fifteen hundred years. Also, the Brahmi script could be deciphered from the similarities in inscriptions carved at different places in the main stupa.
Sanchi stupas are noteworthy for their gateways as they contain ornamented depiction of incidents from the life of the Buddha and his previous incarnations as Bodhisattvas described in Jataka tales. Sculptors belonging to different times tried to depict the same story by repeating figures. The Buddha has been shown symbolically in the form of tree or through other inanimate figures. One of the sects of Buddhism opposed depiction of the Buddha by a human figure.
The top of the Asoka pillar, which comprises of four lions, has been kept in the museum maintained by the Department of Archeology. The size and the weight of the pillar point to advanced construction technology that was existent at the time of Asoka. It must have been an incredible feat of engineering to bring the stone for carving the pillar from the mine to Sanchi and installing it up the hill.
Jataka Tales
Jataka tales as do Aesop's fables teach generosity and self-abnegation based on previous lives of the Buddha as Bodhisattvas. As a Bodhisattva he took births as man, animal or bird. It is believed that the Buddha accumulated virtue by good deeds he did as Bodhisattvas and had attained merit for achieving nirvana in his last birth when he was born as the prince Siddhartha.
JATAKA TALES
Six-tusked Elephant Jataka
The Great Monkey Jataka
The Vessantra Jataka
The Sama Jataka
The Great Monkey Jataka
In this tale Bodhisattva was born as a monkey. He was the king of eighty thousand monkeys. They lived happily on a mango tree by the side of the river Ganges and ate its tasty fruits. Brahamadatta, the king of Varanasi, on knowing that the mangoes of the tree where the monkeys lived were very delicious and sweet, surrounded the mango tree with his soldiers. They started killing the monkeys with arrows. The monkey king at the risk of his life decided to save the lives of the other monkeys. He jumped across the river and found a bamboo pole. When he found that the length of the pole was not enough for crossing the river he tied one end of the bamboo pole to the mango tree and its other end to his waist. He stretched his body and made a living bridge across the river. His friends crossed to safety by using the bridge consisting of the bamboo pole and the stretched body of their king. Devadatta who was also a monkey was the rival of the monkey king. Devadatta found in this situation an easy opportunity for killing the monkey king. He jumped on him violently. The monkey king's heart ruptured out of his body. When Brahamadatta saw the supreme sacrifice of the monkey king his heart filled with sorrow. The Bodhisattva before dying gave a sermon to Brahamadatta. Brahamadatta performed the last rites of the monkey king with honour and respect.
In some of the panels on the gateways of the stupa scenes from this Jataka tale have been shown.
Six-tusked Elephant Jataka
In one of his previous births the Bodhisattva was born as a six-tusked elephant. He lived in the Himalayas with his two female elephant wives named Chulasubhudha and Mahasubhudha . Chulsubhudha despised her husband as she thought that he loved his other wife more than her. She prayed that in her next life she may be born a beautiful girl and have the good fortune of marrying the king of Varanasi. Her deep jealousy and the desire to take revenge from her husband resulted in her death. As she had wished, she was born in her next birth a beautiful girl and became the wife of the king of Varanasi. She feinted illness and pleaded her husband to ask Sonuttar, the king's archer, to bring for her the tusks of the six-tusked elephant. The hunter wounded the six-tusked elephant with arrows and tried to pull out his tusks. The elephant took pity on the hunter and helped him in pulling out his tusks. When the tusks were given to the queen she repented her wanton act and died out of grief.
In some panels on the gateways of the main stupa scenes from this tale have been shown.
The Vessantra Jataka
In one of his previous births the Buddha was born as the prince Vessantra. The prince was very generous. He gifted away the elephant that had supernatural power of bringing rains to the Brahmins of Kalinga, as it was undergoing drought. Vessantara's father, the king, was so upset by this gesture of his son that he ordered the prince to leave his kingdom with his wife, the son and the daughter. Vessantra drove out of his father's country in a chariot driven by four horses. As he left, he gave away the carriage and the horses for asking, and settled in a hut in the forest with his family. Soon he gave away his children to a wandering ascetic, who needed them to do begging for him. Finally, he disposed off his wife in a similar manner. But all ended happily, for those who had asked him for his most precious possessions were gods in disguise, who had decided to test his generosity. They restored to him his family and Vessantra was received back by his father.
In some of the panels on the gateways of the stupa scenes from this Jataka tale have been shown.
The Sama Jataka
This Jataka tale is about the extreme devotion of the Bodhisattva Sama to his parents. Sama's parents had become blind because of snake bite. Sama devoted his life for serving his blind parents. One day when Sama was filling his pitcher with water from a river, the king of Varanasi miss took him for a deer and shot him dead with an arrow. When the king saw the pitiable condition of Sama's parents his heart filled with remorse. The sorrowful king decided to dedicate his life in taking care of Sama's parents. The lamentations of Sama's parents and the noble gesture of the king touched the heart of a goddess who witnessed this situation. The goddess with her magical powers restored the eye sight of Sama's parents and made Sama alive.
In some of the panels on the gateways of the stupa scenes from this Jataka tale have been shown.
Map Location
http://maps.google.co.in/maps?hl=en&q=sanchi%20Stupa&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_rfai=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=il
I've been there once and believe me there aren't very many peaceful places than this. A Buddhist monk told me that one can really have conversation with himself here.
Buddhism seeks denouncing of worldly comforts and search for peace within himself from a person. I'm a Hindu myself, but one of the biggest lessons i learnt being there was that a person can seek to find God all by himself without looking at distractions around. Why in world does things like religious intolerance exists when the most personal thing in world is the connection of a person and God he is trying to find.
he most elaborate and well known of the more than 50 magnificent Buddhist monuments that crown the hilltop of Sanchi, India, is Stupa Number One or the Great Stupa. It is part of an entire complex of structures, mostly stupas, built between the 3rd Century BCE and the 12th Century AD. The stupa is not a building in any traditional sense. Once a burial or reliquary mound, the stupa has become a purely symbolic object.
SANCHI
Sanchi is 68 kilometers north of Bhopal in the state of Madhya Pradesh. It is unique, not only for having the most perfect and well preserved stupas, but also for offering the visitor a chance to see, in one location, the genesis, flowering, and decay of Buddhist art and architecture during a period of about 1500 years -- almost covering the entire range of Indian Buddhism. This is surprising since Sanchi was not hallowed by any incident in Buddha's life nor was it the focus of any significant event in the history of Buddhism.
Proximity to a city was of importance for Buddhist monasteries as the monks were obliged to go begging for half of every day. The religious duties that filled the other half day made it difficult to situate a monastery in a noisy town. For this reason large monastic communities sought a situation outside a city or on a busy trade route. The Emperor Ashoka saw Sanchi as an ideal place to give shape to his newly aroused zeal for Buddhism. It has always been a quiet, meditative place that was, meanwhile, located near the very prosperous city of Vidisha. The success of the Buddhist settlement was due in great measure to the piety of the rich, mercantile community of the nearby city.
THE "ARCHITECT"
Ashoka Maurya (273 - 236 BCE) was the most famous of the Buddhist rulers of India. A dozen years or so after he began his reign, about 258 BCE, he became a convert to Buddhism. He was a great administrator and a great builder. His empire encompassed the whole of India and Afghanistan. Ashoka's reign of paternal despotism has been compared to that of Constantine or Cromwell. With tireless energy he personally supervised all the affairs of government for 40 years.
His doctrine was less concerned with the analytic aspects of Buddhism and dwelled exclusively on ethics. He dispatched missionaries to other parts of India as well as Ceylon, Syria, Egypt, Cyrene, Macedonia, and Epirus. It is due to Ashoka that Buddhism became, and long remained, the predominant religion of India.
The foundation of this important center at Sanchi was laid by the Emperor Ashoka when he built a stupa and erected a monolithic pillar here. Ashoka built a total of eight stupas on the hilltop of Sanchi including the Great Stupa. A great number of stupas and other religious structures were added over the succeeding centuries.
With the decline of Buddhism, the site decayed and was eventually completely forgotten. But, between 1912 and 1919, the structures were carefully repaired to their present condition and restored.
THE STUPA
The stupa is the most characteristic monument of Buddhist India. Originally stupas were mounds covering the relics of the Buddha or his followers. In its earliest stages Buddhist art didn't represent the Buddha directly. Instead, his presence was alluded to through symbols such as the bo tree, the wheel of law or his footprint. The stupa also became a symbol of the Buddha. More exactly, it became a symbol of his final release from the cycle of birth and rebirth -- the Parinirvana or the "Final Dying."
In a larger sense the stupa is also a cosmic symbol. Its hemispherical shape represents the world egg. Stupas commonly rest on a square pedestal and are carefully aligned with the four cardinal points of the compass. This is a recurrence of the symbolism of the dome whereby Earth supports Heaven and Heaven covers Earth. The axis of the world is always represented in the stupa, rising above its summit. The so-called "parasols," set one above the other along the shaft emerging from its uppermost region, represent a heavenly hierarchy. The cosmic symbolism is completed by a ritual circumambulatory path around the monument.
Stupas are large-scale memorials built in particularly holy places. Generally they enshrine relics of some sort. As a building type the stupa is the forerunner of the pagoda. However, the stupa has also come to be known, on a smaller scale, as the reliquary itself and can be made of crystal, gold, silver or other precious metals.
The Great Stupa of Sanchi underwent a complete reconstruction after wanton damage inflicted upon it in the middle of the second century BCE. The reconstruction consisted of a stone casing, a terrace with a double flight of steps, balustrades, a paved processional path and an umbrella and railing -- all built of sandstone. Four elaborately carved gateways were added in the first century BCE.
The last addition took place during the rule of the Guptas, sometime before 450 AD. By now effigies of the Buddha were permitted and four stone Buddhas were placed against the walls of the stupa facing the gates. Their haloes are elaborately carved.
STUPA & JATAKA TALES
Emperor Asoka (273-236 B.C.) built stupas in Buddha's honour at many places in India. Stupas at Sanchi are the most magnificent structures of ancient India. UNESCO has included them as one of the heritage sites of the world. Stupas are large hemispherical domes, containing a central chamber, in which the relics of the Buddha were placed. Sanchi stupas trace the development of the Buddhist architecture and sculpture at the same location beginning from the 3rd century B.C. to the 12th century A.D.
Asoka when he was a governor married Devi, the daughter of a respected citizen of Vidisha, a town 10 km from the Sanchi hill. Prince Mahendra visited Sanchi with his mother before leaving for the island of Lanka for taking Buddhism there. Emperor Asoka had put up at Sanchi a pillar edict and a stupa containing relics of the Buddha. Addition of new stupas and expressions in stone of legends around the life of the Buddha and the monastic activities at the Sanchi hill continued under several dynasties for over fifteen hundred years. Also, the Brahmi script could be deciphered from the similarities in inscriptions carved at different places in the main stupa.
Sanchi stupas are noteworthy for their gateways as they contain ornamented depiction of incidents from the life of the Buddha and his previous incarnations as Bodhisattvas described in Jataka tales. Sculptors belonging to different times tried to depict the same story by repeating figures. The Buddha has been shown symbolically in the form of tree or through other inanimate figures. One of the sects of Buddhism opposed depiction of the Buddha by a human figure.
The top of the Asoka pillar, which comprises of four lions, has been kept in the museum maintained by the Department of Archeology. The size and the weight of the pillar point to advanced construction technology that was existent at the time of Asoka. It must have been an incredible feat of engineering to bring the stone for carving the pillar from the mine to Sanchi and installing it up the hill.
Jataka Tales
Jataka tales as do Aesop's fables teach generosity and self-abnegation based on previous lives of the Buddha as Bodhisattvas. As a Bodhisattva he took births as man, animal or bird. It is believed that the Buddha accumulated virtue by good deeds he did as Bodhisattvas and had attained merit for achieving nirvana in his last birth when he was born as the prince Siddhartha.
JATAKA TALES
Six-tusked Elephant Jataka
The Great Monkey Jataka
The Vessantra Jataka
The Sama Jataka
The Great Monkey Jataka
In this tale Bodhisattva was born as a monkey. He was the king of eighty thousand monkeys. They lived happily on a mango tree by the side of the river Ganges and ate its tasty fruits. Brahamadatta, the king of Varanasi, on knowing that the mangoes of the tree where the monkeys lived were very delicious and sweet, surrounded the mango tree with his soldiers. They started killing the monkeys with arrows. The monkey king at the risk of his life decided to save the lives of the other monkeys. He jumped across the river and found a bamboo pole. When he found that the length of the pole was not enough for crossing the river he tied one end of the bamboo pole to the mango tree and its other end to his waist. He stretched his body and made a living bridge across the river. His friends crossed to safety by using the bridge consisting of the bamboo pole and the stretched body of their king. Devadatta who was also a monkey was the rival of the monkey king. Devadatta found in this situation an easy opportunity for killing the monkey king. He jumped on him violently. The monkey king's heart ruptured out of his body. When Brahamadatta saw the supreme sacrifice of the monkey king his heart filled with sorrow. The Bodhisattva before dying gave a sermon to Brahamadatta. Brahamadatta performed the last rites of the monkey king with honour and respect.
In some of the panels on the gateways of the stupa scenes from this Jataka tale have been shown.
Six-tusked Elephant Jataka
In one of his previous births the Bodhisattva was born as a six-tusked elephant. He lived in the Himalayas with his two female elephant wives named Chulasubhudha and Mahasubhudha . Chulsubhudha despised her husband as she thought that he loved his other wife more than her. She prayed that in her next life she may be born a beautiful girl and have the good fortune of marrying the king of Varanasi. Her deep jealousy and the desire to take revenge from her husband resulted in her death. As she had wished, she was born in her next birth a beautiful girl and became the wife of the king of Varanasi. She feinted illness and pleaded her husband to ask Sonuttar, the king's archer, to bring for her the tusks of the six-tusked elephant. The hunter wounded the six-tusked elephant with arrows and tried to pull out his tusks. The elephant took pity on the hunter and helped him in pulling out his tusks. When the tusks were given to the queen she repented her wanton act and died out of grief.
In some panels on the gateways of the main stupa scenes from this tale have been shown.
The Vessantra Jataka
In one of his previous births the Buddha was born as the prince Vessantra. The prince was very generous. He gifted away the elephant that had supernatural power of bringing rains to the Brahmins of Kalinga, as it was undergoing drought. Vessantara's father, the king, was so upset by this gesture of his son that he ordered the prince to leave his kingdom with his wife, the son and the daughter. Vessantra drove out of his father's country in a chariot driven by four horses. As he left, he gave away the carriage and the horses for asking, and settled in a hut in the forest with his family. Soon he gave away his children to a wandering ascetic, who needed them to do begging for him. Finally, he disposed off his wife in a similar manner. But all ended happily, for those who had asked him for his most precious possessions were gods in disguise, who had decided to test his generosity. They restored to him his family and Vessantra was received back by his father.
In some of the panels on the gateways of the stupa scenes from this Jataka tale have been shown.
The Sama Jataka
This Jataka tale is about the extreme devotion of the Bodhisattva Sama to his parents. Sama's parents had become blind because of snake bite. Sama devoted his life for serving his blind parents. One day when Sama was filling his pitcher with water from a river, the king of Varanasi miss took him for a deer and shot him dead with an arrow. When the king saw the pitiable condition of Sama's parents his heart filled with remorse. The sorrowful king decided to dedicate his life in taking care of Sama's parents. The lamentations of Sama's parents and the noble gesture of the king touched the heart of a goddess who witnessed this situation. The goddess with her magical powers restored the eye sight of Sama's parents and made Sama alive.
In some of the panels on the gateways of the stupa scenes from this Jataka tale have been shown.
Map Location
http://maps.google.co.in/maps?hl=en&q=sanchi%20Stupa&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_rfai=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=il
I've been there once and believe me there aren't very many peaceful places than this. A Buddhist monk told me that one can really have conversation with himself here.
Buddhism seeks denouncing of worldly comforts and search for peace within himself from a person. I'm a Hindu myself, but one of the biggest lessons i learnt being there was that a person can seek to find God all by himself without looking at distractions around. Why in world does things like religious intolerance exists when the most personal thing in world is the connection of a person and God he is trying to find.
Star Wars
BANNED
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2013
- Messages
- 12,446
- Reaction score
- -14
- Country
- Location
Maybe it is related ... there should have been some reason why this particular flower has been important in cultures across southeast asia...
Lotus (Padma / puskara in sanskrit) always had special significance in Hinduism since ancient times. One of the reason is that as an aquatic plant that flowers above water it appears to be ‘self born’ (svayambhu), which is one of the attributes of God (self born).
Another reason is as some one has pointed out ..it stays in water at the same time repels it. Thus Lotus is a symbol of purity and enlightenment amid ignorance.
The ultimate aim of each human being is to be the lotus flower – perform the Dharma without being attached to the world.
Bhagavad Gita says “One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord, is unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus leaf is untouched by water”
Rig Veda mentions the universe as a Lotus (self born) that churned out Agni (fire/energy).
One of the Sruti i.e. Taittiriya Aranyaka , describes the heart as a lotus bud that hangs down spreading heat thought the body at the center of which is the Flame of the Supreme being.
Patanjali Yoga sutra mentions the basic posture of a Yogi as Padmasana i.e. the Lotus posture to steady your mind and detach it from the physical world while still being in the physical world.
One of the names of Lord Vishnu is PadmAksha (Lotus eyes)…one who sees the whole universe but remains detached from it.
Lord Vishu also holds a lotus which’s opens its petals in the light of the Sun is indicative of the expansion and awakening of our long dormant, original spiritual consciousness in the light of god.
Lotus plants are also perennial and they are in fact the longest living seeds in the world. 1300 years old Lotus seeds were found and when planted they bloomed successfully. They can lie dormant for years under bad conditions and then germinate all of a sudden when the climate is right.
Lord Brahma sits on the Lotus to symbolize being detached from the world he created. He is also svayambhu i.e. self born like the lotus.
…you can see how the lotus has extend to Buddhism as well ..…Buddha is also called lotus eyed.
Similar threads
- Article
