The Message of the Lotus Flower

At the annual celebration of our boys' Hindi school, the children performed a little skid in celebration of the lotus flower, India's national flower. In the skid some children wanted to cheat on a math exam and one girl was torn whether she should join the evil plot or not. In her confusion she just told her mother about the dilemma. The mother must have been a wise woman, she told her daughter to meditate in front of the lotus flower to get the answer. So the little girl spent a couple of hours in front of a beautiful picture of the lotus flower and it finally dawned on her that the message of the lotus flower is very clear: the lotus flower resides in shallow and muddy waters but in spite of it grows into a beautiful flower. So we humans are similarly poised to outgrow the murky environment we can be in and develop into the gems we are destined to become. With that answer in hand, the little girl decided to take her chances and took the test without knowing the answers beforehand.

The little girl has gotten an important part of the lotus flower story right but there is even more to it. Yes, finding love and righteousness despite our nature and history is a noble goal. But how exactly do we do it? The trick is to be aware of your upbringing, to be able to see the beauty in both, the murky water as well as the lotus flower. It is the package deal that gives us the beauty, just as the shade and light come as one. So fall in love with the entire picture, don't just zoom into the beautiful flower.  Stop aiming to be the Daughter of God and have a shot of actually becoming Her; stop beating yourself up over your desires, worries and drives, and life will rush to your side and allow you to express yourself in a way becoming of the Daughter of God while still respecting your roots.

To cut a long story short, stop trying to be a lotus flower swimming in an infinity pool in a luxury resort - they don't grow there. Accept your roots and the environment you are in and recognize the beautiful flower that you are. Without your roots you wouldn't be here, and given that you are special, your roots must be special. When you dare to look at the picture in its entirety you will find that life is beautiful as is. That's the message of the lotus flower and it is a very uplifting one.