The swan is a symbol of the soul in Indian literature, and a ride for Brahma the creator. In dreams, we read in the Upanishads, the soul flies back and forth from the nest of the body like a "lone swan". Paramahamsa, "Supreme Swan", is a title given to enlightened spiritual teachers.
The swan features in moving scenes of soul remembering - recollecting other lives and connections with other members of our soul family. When they come at the right time, such memories return (says the poet Kalidasa) like flights of migrating swans.
There is a beautiful encounter in the
Bhagavata Purana between a king who has been reborn as a woman and a friend
from his previous life. The friend says, "Don't you remember your old
friend? You and I, my dear, were two swans who lived together in the lake of
the mind, until you left me to wander on earth. I created the illusion that
made you think you were a man or a woman. Our true nature is as two
swans."
Photo by Romy Needham
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