Please do visit again.
1)
Kumbh – a pot full of water, topped by flowers, leaves, coconut
etc.
2) Tilak / tiko / chandalo – the world famous
mark on the forehead of Indians – popular in the west for the “bindi” worn
by women.
It is a mark of respect. When a person applies a vermillion / sandalwood /
camphor mark to your forehead, they are
showing respect for your intelligence, status, etc. When
a husband applies the vermillion mark to his wife’s forehead, he is showing his
respect for is life partner, and, by using the red vermillion, he is promising to protect
her with his very life blood !
Religious sects use the tilak
as a very public sign of their uniqueness. Each
sect’s tilak is imbibed with their own philosophy and represents their own ideals /
ideas.
In social gatherings, people
apply tilaks to each other as a mark of unity and mutual respect.
3) Swastika – The Hindu swastika points in a
clockwise direction, for millennia, it has been a symbol of progress, social, spiritual
and financial.
4) Lamp – one of the most commonly recognised
symbol of Hinduism.
Most religions consider the
fire to be of divine origin. Hence, the lamp
is a representative of the divine, invoked at all auspicious occasions to witness our
deeds. It represents knowledge, upliftment and
light – the light of truth.
© Bhagwat Shah