Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, wore a Nazi costume complete with a swastika armband to a fancy dress party. This was just a youngster all dressed up for a theme party, but it created a major furor. He had to make a public apology for having hurt sentiments by sporting the swastika. Hitler and his Nazi army did great harm to the swastika. The Nazi swastika – a black one, a little tilted, with arms turning clockwise on a white circle against a crimson background – denotes evil to anybody who sees it even today.
There are many theories about why Hitler chose the swastika for his flag. Some say that the swastika is a Nordic cross and that it displayed the Nazi belief in Christianity. Hitler’s Mein Kampf describes the Nazi flag, referring to the swastika as a symbol of victory for Aryans whom he believed were of a superior genetic strain and the forefathers of Northern Europe. The swastika was a common symbol for the Aryans who believed that they were a superior and pure race. Hitler borrowed both the concept and the symbol from the pre-historic Aryans.
The association with evil has lingered since the World Wars and their aftermath and not many people are able to associate the swastika with what it originally stood for – all that is pure and good.
The swastika can be traced back to ancient civilizations over 3000 years ago in several cultures all over the world. China, Japan, southern Europe, India and even Native Americans used the symbol and had different names for it. Whatever the name, the symbol has always represented life, good luck, victory and power. While use of the symbol has slowly vanished from other religions, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism have continued to use it in the original context.
The oldest swastika has been traced back to the Indus Valley civilization (Mature period 2600–1900 BCE), which flourished in the Indus River Basin (in modern-day India and Pakistan). From here it went to Southeast Asia and is still in use there. In the Western world, this symbol has been found at the site of ancient Troy.
Swastika is a Sanskrit word made up of the sounds ‘su’, ‘asti’ ,‘ik’ and ‘a’. In Sanskrit ‘su’ means good, ‘asti’ is to exist and ‘ik’ translates to “what is and what will be”, with the ‘a’ at the end denoting the feminine gender of the word. The word swastika thus means all that is good exists and will continue to exist. The symbol – an equilateral cross with right facing arms bent at right angles – denotes perpetuity of all that is good universally, with the four arms denoting the four directions.
Symbols in Hinduism are meant to be reminders of a virtuous way of living. So they are used everywhere – houses, temples, clothing, books, for ritual worship, in new homes, on new cars…in all new beginnings. Hinduism has several such practices that are meant to reinforce positive thoughts, which in turn will lead to positive actions.
The swastika in Hinduism represents the sun’s rays, which symbolize life, health, prosperity and victory. In Buddhism it is treated as a symbol for eternality and universal harmony. In Buddhism the left facing swastika represents love and mercy and the right facing one represents strength and intelligence. The Buddhists call it manji. Hinduism does not use the left facing swastika.
There are skeptics who question the ‘power’ of the symbol. A commonly asked question is that if the swastika symbolizes victory, why did the Nazis not win? The swastika stands for victory of dharma – universal good. What the symbol stood for did win after all! So the next time you see a swastika symbol – most likely in a Hindu home – let it remind you of eternal goodness everywhere in the world.
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