Lotus significance :
In the poem “Lotus”, Toru Dutt beautifully delineates the dilemma of Cupid, the god of love, in choosing between rose and lily as the best ever flower gift. Between these two choices given by Flora, Cupid could choose none because he desires both the features of “rose-red” and “lily-white” in a single blossom. In this situation, Flora rescues him by providing the lotus – “the queenliest flower that blows” – having both the redness of rose and whiteness of lily.
Here, rose and lily symbolise physical and pure love respectively and stand for Western
culture simultaneously. Lotus serves as the combination of both features and an Indian counterpart representing Oriental civilization. Since the colour of lotus is evenly mingled red and white instead of partly red and partly white, Cupid got its satisfaction because true love also remains thus : the indispensable solution of intensity and chastity instead of the superiority of one over the other. Lotus thus becomes the epitome of balance between beauty and purity, attraction and reverence, longing and gratification. It takes into account both the supreme excellence of humanity, that is eye-soothing beauty and the greatest bliss of divinity, that is soul-soothing love. It seems to draw an invisible line between sensuality and satisfaction, transforming itself into an embodiment of enjoyment laced with sacrifice : both becoming more intense in the presence of each other. Lack of excess and feeling of poise is what made the lotus an important symbol in Oriental metaphysics.
Since lotus is the symbol of indianness, Dutt criticises the superiority complex of
Eurocentricity, and proves that Indian culture can provide solutions to all crises and dichotomy by means of love and union, and not discrimination. The Western ideology promotes binariness and utilitarianism at their extreme so that each object can be structured consumption-oriented. Indian culture, denoted through the lotus, believes in unification of all the diversity – both positive and negative – into a compact benevolence.
