padmA

My parents were religious; my father used to pUjA quite regularly, offer sandhyAvandana, and recite a lot of stOtras and explain their meanings too. My mother was very religious observing all vratas and fasting on EkAdaSi and other days. My parents-in-law too were very religious. Have you heard the expression of a ganjA (incidentally ganjA is a Sanskrit word) plant growing in a garden full of tulasI plants? I am that pot plant in the holy garden! I am not a great follower of religious practices. At the same time I respect religion, all religions. I am greatly influenced by the poetry resonating in religion. This aspect always fascinates me. While in India, we are always reminded of the festivals and holy days - these are called habba and hari dina in kannaDa. But here it is quite difficult to keep track of such days. For a few years I had a colleague Lakshmi. She used to remind me of such days and offer prasAda to me. She left our group now. So many a time I had to depend on the calendar or e-groups.

Enough of this digression. Of all the ashTottaraSatanAma (108 names) for the various gods and goddesses, I am always fond of those for Krishna and Lakshmi. These are relatively long and quite poetic. In the one for lakshmI, I am always fascinated by the following lines where the name of padmA occurs numerous times.

padmapriyAM padmahastAM padmAkshIM padmasuMdarIm
padmOdbhavAM padmamukhIM padmanAbhapriyAM ramAm
padmamAlAdharAM dEvIM padminIM padmagaMdhinIm

She is fond of the lotus
She has hands like the lotus, eyes like the lotus
She is beautiful like the lotus
She is born of the lotus
She has a face like the lotus
She is the consort of the god with the navel-lotus
She wears a garland of lotus flowers
She is of the most auspicious of women
She smells of lotus fragrance
She is the most worshipful goddess, lakshmI!

One of the most beautiful lotus representations of Krishna and Radha is found at http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.exoticindiaart.com/hindu/radha_krishna_the_lotus_lovers_hj19.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.exoticindiaart.com/product/HJ19/&usg=__ULkyV_hDCsb74Eghde91UPjxPJA=&h=800&w=586&sz=168&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=sa_w4JgsC4HT4M:&tbnh=143&tbnw=105&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dradha%2Bkrishna%2Blotus%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7DKUS_en%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

I took the heart motif of OM and made it as a petal for an eight petalled lotus flower representing ashTalakshmI. Here is an assemblage of that lotus motif. The gaps formed by this gives an illusion of sun.

My heart is a lotus
I offer it at thy feet
The lotus lasts for one day
The fragrance lasts for one hour
The joy of being lasts for one minute
The memory of that one minute lasts
for one life time - my life time
I am waiting ... and waiting
Make this lotus bloom

Regards! - mOhana