MountIconography
Hamsa: Meaning
हंसThe hamsa is the divine swan or goose that carries Brahma and Saraswati. Tradition says it can separate milk from water, so it stands for discernment between the real and the unreal. Brahma flies as a hamsa in the story of the pillar of light, and the highest renunciants are called paramahamsa.
What does it symbolise?
Tradition holds
The hamsa is famous for nira-kshira viveka: the power to separate milk from water and drink only the milk. Tradition reads this as discrimination between the eternal and the passing, the real and the unreal, which is the gift of knowledge. Because it moves easily between water, land and sky, it also stands for the soul that lives in the world without being bound by it.
Continue exploring
Open the explorer
