Rahul Gandhi in his first speech in Lok Sabha portrayed the government as a regime based on fear and stressed that the culture of fear is alien to the Hindu religion and Indian civilization. He then invoked the Abhay Mudra, the gesture of the raised open palm that is commonly understood as conveying reassurance and a freedom from fear.
Let us understand what this symbol of Abhay Mudra actually signify. The story goes so. According to Buddhist legend Devdutt, a cousin and a disciple of Buddha, upon not being granted the special treatment he expected, plotted to harm the enlightened one, which is Buddha.
He fed a wide elephant toxins and drove her on Buddha’s path. As the disciples scattered before the charging animal, the Buddha raised his hand in the Abhay Mudra. The elephant is said to have calmed down immediately, gone down on her knees and bowed to Buddha.
This is why the Abhay Mudra is also seen as a gesture of protection or a gesture of granting refuge. This mudra has time and again been used not only in Buddhism but also Hinduism. The Abhay Mudra was seen in the depictions most commonly of Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu and Lord Ganesha.
With the evolution of Mahayana and Vajrayana, Buddhism and the proliferation of Buddhist artworks, the Abhay Mudra was seen as a gesture of protection or a gesture of protection. work outside India, hundreds of mudras entered Buddhist iconography.
Abhay Buddha is but one mudra from the bunch. In the Tantric Buddhist tradition, the mudras came to be associated with dynamic rituals and hand movements, whether they symbolized material offerings, enacted forms of worship or signified relationships with visualized deities.
This is as per Buswell and Lopez, the Princeton dictionary of Buddhism, 2013.
