Padma (Lotus): Meaning
पद्म (कमल)Padma, the lotus, is one of the four emblems of Vishnu, usually held in a lower hand. It stands for purity, beauty and the unfolding of creation: in the Puranas a lotus rises from Vishnu's navel and Brahma is born upon it. It also signals the presence of Lakshmi, the lotus goddess.
What does it symbolise?
The lotus grows from mud yet blooms clean and untouched above the water. Tradition reads it as the soul that lives in the world without being stained by it, an image the Bhagavad Gita (5.10) uses directly: one who acts without attachment is untouched by sin, as a lotus leaf is untouched by water.
Because Brahma is born on the navel lotus, it is also the image of creation unfolding from the divine, and because Lakshmi is the lotus goddess, of beauty, fortune and abundance.
