LOTUS Flower

 The  flower which is associated  with beauty is the Rose, but the one associated with purity and spirituality is the Lotus.

In Delhi, the most accessible area to buy lotus flower is the Kalindi Kunj bridge stretch where vendors can bee seen selling the flower along with its stem, commonly called 'bhain' and the fruit.

While i have often cooked lotus stem, i have yet to try the fruit.

Another place where one can buy lotus flowers easily is the ISKCON temple in Delhi.

Nelumbo nucifera, known by a number of names including Indian lotus, 

sacred lotus, bean of India, or simply lotus, is a plant in the monotypicfamily Nelumbonaceae. 

Lotus is the national flower of India and Vietnam.

Hindus revere it with the divinities Vishnu and Lakshmi often portrayed on a pink lotus in iconography. In the representation of Vishnu as Padmanabha(Lotus navel), 

a lotus issues from his navel with Brahma on it. 

Goddess Sarasvati is portrayed

 on a white-colored lotus.From ancient times the lotus has been a divine symbol in Asian traditions representing the virtues of sexual purity and non-attachment.

Often used as an example of divine beauty, Vishnu is often described as the 'Lotus-Eyed One'.

 Its unfolding petals suggest the expansion of the soul. 

The growth of its pure beauty from the mud of its origin holds a benign spiritual promise. 

The lotus plant is cited extensively within Puranic and Vedic literature, for example:

One who performs his duty without attachment, surrendering the results unto the Supreme Lord, is unaffected by sinful action, as the lotus is untouched by water.

—Bhagavad Gita 5.10:

In Chinese culture Confucian scholar Zhou Dunyi wrote:

I love the lotus because while growing from mud, it is unstained.

In the classical written and oral literature of many Asian cultures the lotus is present in figurative form, representing elegance, beauty, perfection, purity and grace, being often used in poems and songs as an allegory for ideal feminine attributes.

  In Buddhist symbolism, the lotus represents purity of the body, speech, and mind as if floating above the muddy waters of attachment and desire.

According to legend , Gautama Buddha was born with the ability to walk, and lotus flowers bloomed everywhere he stepped.

Drawing in turn on these beliefs, the international Bahá'í community adopted this symbolism 

in the design of the Lotus Temple in New Delhi, India.

Courtesy : Wiki and Internet