About - Be a Meditator Symbol

The symbol for Be a Meditator, came about in 2016. I had started creating infographics that aimed to give tips to meditators to go deeper into their practice. The inspiration for that came from my first assignment with a company about team building.

I had asked the CEO to set an inspiring goal to rally his team. And knew that as actions speak louder than words, I should demonstrate my words through action. So I set the goal to create 3650 infographics. As I approached the 70th infographic, it became clear that a signature was needed.


My collaborator and art teacher, Dr. Archana had said that when you do something, you should sign your name. It takes a great deal of purity and strength to put your name to something. Now to add text on an infographic would be distracting, so I decided to create this symbol.

 The starting point was an image from a function we had organized when I was still in Seattle. In this function, we had photographed an orb on top of the head of one of the speakers. This orb became the starting point. As I looked at the geometry of the structure, I realized that though it was round, it had hexagonal shapes inside it. And I called it the Golden Hexagon.

In fact, the first iteration was 6 hexagons, one inside the other. However, I felt a little uncomfortable with the sharp edges and it looked fairly complicated. So from there I went through many iterations. As I drew the shapes, different geometrical shapes kept coming out of it, stars within the hexagons, circles around the stars. The image below gives you a glimpse of the different iterations I went through to create this symbol.

Soon the shapes started to come together, and also a scheme that represented my own journey. In the center is space, which is the creation of all things and the goal of the meditator, to be in the space where there are no thoughts. Outside of this is a star, which represents unlimited possibilities. Then there is a golden hexagon, which represents the Sun. The colors outside of it, represent the earth plane with the 6 chakras. The seventh or Shahastrahara is also represented by the center. The 6 colours also represent the beauty of the earth plane along with all the kinds of intelligence we need to thrive in it. Outside of that is Blue. Blue is the colour of consciousness. Even when I saw the first cover of Bam (in my mind), I had a feeling that it would be blue. Blue like the ocean. I had shared an earlier draft of the symbol with my friend Dipika and she too had liked one that had a lot of blue. However, the blue was out of balance. Having created all of these, I realized that the symbol was still not complete, so I decided to go see Dr. Archana the next day.

She had suggested that my name has to be in the symbol and it was only after I added it that I felt that the symbol became powerful. My name, Saurabh is represented by the S created by the earth petals. If you see the overall shape, combining the Purple petal with the Red petal, you will see an S. This S is not overly dominating, but it is present. In the earth plane, we need an identity, an ego. And I understood while creating this symbol that one cannot suppress the ego. One has to observe it and put it in its rightful place where it serves the center. These lessons came as fascinating insights as continued my work on the symbol. Dr. Archana was able to sense the incompletion in the symbol that I felt and suggested spatial changes. For example, even though we knew the S completed the symbol, it still felt a little out of balance. We corrected this by changing the size of the petals and making the consciousness (Blue) equal to the petals in size.

If you look at this pencil version of the symbol, you can see the measurements. The line from the Golden Hexagon to the circle is divided into 4 parts. The first part of one side is linked to the third part of the other side via a curved line. This brought the balance. On the earth plane, we have to balance our earthly responsibilities with our cultivation of consciousness. In other words, Sansara is Nirvana. This showed up when the petals and the conscious part of the hexagon came into balance.

And finally, there was the golden aura around the Hexagon. This was another part that Dr. Archana suggested I add in and when I did, I finally felt that it was complete.

I have read a little bit about the golden ratio and about sacred geometry. In my calculations, this symbol was going to be 3 equal parts. 33% Golden, 33% Blue, 33% Light (VIBGYOR and the white center). These 3 represented Sun, consciousness and the earth and I think the completed symbol actually maintains these ratios. Though the work was done intuitively, there is a mathematical equivalent to it.  This was a completely fascinating revelation to me. That some ratios felt better than other ratios and that balance was the key to a sense of completion.

With this done, I also shared it with a few friends who were all impressed. I am happy this symbol has been completed and is a part of the work I am doing with infographics. I am able to add it to each graphic so as to create a recognition, but more importantly, to sign my name with purity and pride in my creation. I am grateful to the universe.

Regards,
Saurabh
July 6th, 2016