Meaning of symbols in Hinduism
When we see any of the Hindu Gods pictures as statues, we see all sorts of things in their hands. There is more in it than meets the eye. The symbols represent things deep in nature and the end of this world. For example, Vishnu, the God and with most of the other Gods have four hands and each holding an object. Vishnu has a shanghu (conch shell), chakra (discus), gadha (mace) and padma (lotus).
The shanghu (conch) represents sound and vibration.
As soon as a child is born the doctor holds him upside down holding by one leg and slaps the kid in the buttock. A slap and suddenly the child cries out “Kuaahhh”. The sound of the conch is emitted. The first sound of the baby represents the conch sound.
Then comes chakra (discus)as the wheel of time which rotates the same as the weather spring, summer, winter, and autumn. The wheel of time which is basically shown in pictures means the flipping of days in the calendar. As an example days, months, years pass as a child from age 1 growing into young boy to adulthood to old age the passage of time.
Then he becomes very old and dies. That’s when the gadha (mace) comes into play. As a mace/club of the gadha will smack everything to dust and powder, so the old man becomes dust when he is buried or burned, ash to ash and from dust to dust which explains the mace.
And then the lotus which as everyone knows is not grown but springs forth in the bog, mire, dirt and filth and any marshy or plenty stagnant water. The lotus if the note has a very long stem put like the umbilical cord of a baby attached to the mother. In the same way, the lotus is there to represent the birth of a child from the mother attached the umbilical cord to the stem of the lotus. In Hinduism the lotus is the seal of the lady God Laksmi equals Amman equals to the mother and from the lady, a woman springs forth a new life. The birth of a baby is similar to the evolution of life. The time circle goes round and round.
