LOTUS THE SACRED FLOWER FOR HINDUS

The lotus is the foremost symbol of beauty, prosperity and fertility.

According to Hinduism, within each human inhabiting the earth is the spirit of the sacred lotus.
It represents eternity, purity and divinity and is widely used as a symbol of life, fertility and ever-renewing youth , to describe feminine beauty, especially the eyes.

.In the Bhagavad Gita,
man is adjured to be like the lotus--
He should work without attachment, dedicating his actions to God--untouched by sin like water on a lotus leaf
and the beautiful flower standing high above the mud and water.
In the postures of yoga, the lotus position, padmasana, is adopted by those striving to reach the highest level of consciousness, which itself is found in the thousand-petal led lotus chakra at the top of the head..
For Buddhists, lotus symbolizes the most exalted state of man--his head held high, pure and undefiled in the sun, his feet rooted in the world of experience.

There is a story that it arose from the navel of God Vishnu, and at the center of the flower sat Brahma. Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Protector) and Siva (the Merger) are associated with this plant. There are also accounts of the world born through a "Golden Lotus" .
source from a Buddhist magazine