Swastika



Lingam



Do not hide the fact that in India I’m still bewildered when I run, and this happens very often, in the swastila as this is a symbol that is indelibly linked to the disastrous and insane Nazi ideology.

Yet this symbol, which in present in many ancient civilizations, is highly significant in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

In the Vedic period, the swastika is the graphic symbol of Surya, the Sun god, and then the swastika is coupled mainly to the god Ganesh.

Swastika is a symbol connoting general auspiciousness, present on the doors of homes, lingam, vehicles or even on camels as you can see in this picture I took near Delhi.

The symbolic meanings of the swastika are many and they change with changing traditions.

The tradition most fascinating to me is that explains the swastika is a graphical representation of the development of multiplicity from a single point and develops the universe. The point is the intersection of the cross and is called bindu, the limit of the manifest. The manifest was created by multiplicity from a unmanifest and it devoleps in a non-linear way, so the arms of the cross are bent to symbolize that outward forms of the universe don’t ever take us to their fundamental unity, the center, the Truth. The journey from manifested reality to unmanifested and unchanging reality is not linear, but twisted, tortuous, complex, outside of human logic.

The swastika reminds us of the ultimate reality that is not accessible to the human spirit and does not fall undel human control.