Swastikas

As we get ready to leave, we have spent some time talking about our first impressions. I remember our first night arriving in Penang. It had been a long bus ride and we were ready for a place that we could call home for a while. I stared out the window hungry for something that felt familiar when we passed the "Red Swastika Society" with a huge swastika on the face.

If you can't have comforting, then slightly disturbing and farcical is second best. We have since encountered swastikas everywhere. There have been multiple history lessons in our home about World War II after the initial shock when Sophie mentioned what a cool symbol it was and wondered if there were earrings. Finally, we looked up what the swastika symbol means and why we keep seeing it in temples and other places.

So it is an ancient symbol that means a lot of important things to Hindus and Buddhists. Here's the best summary that I found:
In Loving Ganesha, Satguru Sivaya Subramaniyaswami, founder of Hinduism Today, explains the significance of the swastika to Hindus: "The swastika's right-angled arms reflect the fact that the path toward our objectives is often not straight, but takes unexpected turns. They denote also the indirect way in which Divinity is reached--through intuition and not by intellect. Symbolically, the swastika's cross is said to represent God and creation. The four bent arms stand for the four human aims, called purushartha: righteousness, dharma; wealth, artha; love, kama; and liberation, moksha. This is a potent emblem of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal truth. It also represents the world wheel, eternally changing around a fixed center, God. The swastika is regarded as a symbol of the muladhara chakra, the center of consciousness at the base of the spine, and in some yoga schools with the manipura chakra at the navel, the center of the microcosmic sun (Surya). Hindus use the swastika to mark the opening pages of account books, thresholds, doors and offerings. No ceremony or sacrifice is considered complete without it, for it is believed to have the power to ward off misfortune and negative forces."

That's actually some pretty interesting symbolism that Tillich and Jung would even appreciate. The swastika is as central to many Eastern religions as the cross is to Christianity.

I can't imagine what it is like to have a symbol that holds so much of one's heart twisted and corrupted with such evil. The swastika is illegal and Germany and I can't imagine folks in the US doing backflips over a building bearing one. Yet, it brings great comfort to millions.

I don't know if a religion can exist without its essential symbols and I don't know if symbols can be reclaimed after they have been corrupted. There are times that it is hard to keep dusting off the cross after folks have stood in its shadow preaching hate and violence. We have to keep proclaiming the symbol as one of infinite love and forgiveness in the face of evil and death.

I'm not sure that I will ever be able to see the thousands of swastikas in some temples without grimacing, but I am thankful to learn about the depth of meaning in the swastika before it was distorted.