Lotus

The Lotus or waterlily is an aquatic plant of Nymphaea with broad floating leaves and bright fragrant flowers that grow only in shallow waters. The leaves and flowers float and have long stems that contain air spaces. The big attractive flowers have many petals overlapping in a symmetrical pattern. The root functions are carried out by rhizomes that fan out horizontally through the mud below the water. Lotuses, prized for their serene beauty, are delightful to behold as their blossoms open on the surface of a pond. In India the sacred lotus is legendary and much folklore and religious mythology is woven around it.

Lotus scientifically known as Nelumbo Nucifera is the National Flower of India. It is a sacred flower and occupies a unique position in the art and mythology of ancient India and has been an auspicious symbol of Indian culture since time immemorial. The Lotus symbolises divinity, fertility, wealth, knowledge and not to forget enlightenment. Lending to its uniqueness, the flower grows in murky waters and rises on a long stalk above the surface to bloom glorious. It is also a symbol of triumph, since the lotus is rooted in the mud and can survive to regerminate for thousands of years. It represents long life, honour, and good fortune.

National Flower India

The flower Lotus is regarded with divinity and grace. Often, the Hindu Goddesses Lakshmi and Saraswathi are associated with the flower lotus. Even Lord Shiva, who wanted to escape the wrath of the Lord Saneeswaran, morphed himself into the shape of a bee and took asylum inside a lotus. Buddhists regard this flower as a sacred one.

The Lotus symbolizes purity, beauty, majesty, grace, fertility, wealth, richness, knowledge and serenity. They are found in white and pink colors in general and they grow in shallow and murky waters. The pink one is regarded as the National Flower of India. Some blue colored flowers are also sighted. These flowers enjoy a warm sunlight and intolerant to cold weather. This is why, they are not seen blossoming in the winter. The floating leaves and flowers have long stems, which contains air spaces to maintain the buoyancy.

The lotus is the foremost symbol of beauty, prosperity and fertility. According to Hinduism, within each human inhabiting the earth is the spirit of the sacred lotus. It represents eternity, purity and divinity and is widely used as a symbol of life, fertility, ever-renewing youth and to describe feminine beauty, especially the eyes.

One of the most common metaphysical analogies compares the lotus' perennial rise to faultless beauty from a miry environment to the evolution of man's consciousness from instinctive impulses to spiritual liberation. In the Bhagavad Gita, man is adjured to be like the lotus - he should work without attachment, dedicating his actions to God - untouched by sin like water on a lotus leaf and the beautiful flower standing high above the mud and water. In the postures of hatha yoga, the lotus position, padmasana, is adopted by those striving to reach the highest level of consciousness, which itself is found in the thousand petalled lotus chakra at the top of the head. For Buddhists, lotus symbolizes the most exalted state of man--his head held high, pure and undefiled in the sun, his feet rooted in the world of experience.

Mythology and Symbolism of the Lotus Flower

In India the sacred lotus is legendary and much folklore and religious mythology is woven around it. Rich in meaning and metaphor, the Lotus symbolises divinity, fertility, wealth, knowledge and not to forget enlightenment.

It is associated with the goddess of wealth Maha Lakshmi, who brings prosperity, purity, chastity and generosity. She is the embodyment beauty, grace and charm. She sits on a fully blossomed lotus flower, symbolizing purity, beauty and everything that is good.

Other Uses of the Lotus Flower

The seed, the leaf and the stem are edible and also can be used as a medicine.