The logo of Bodha is simple, but it has a specific meaning which reflects the thought behind Bodha very well. The outer ring of the logo is not a simple zig-zag structure. It is made of two fundamental geometrical figures - the square and the circle. Actually the circle is created by rotating the squares. This motif and process are very central to Hindu aesthetics and particularly Hindu architecture. Let me explain how.
While building the shikhara in a Hindu temple, our architects encountered a problem. While from the inside the garbha-griha is mostly square, from the outside the articulation of its walls gives it different shapes. The problem was - how to rotate a square from the outside, without disturbing the square from the inside. And they found a solution to this, which one can see most clearly on the walls of the vesara and bhumija style shikharas in Karnata Dravida tradition of temple architecture. The world famous and now UNESCO World Heritage Site temples of Chennakeshava at Belur show the solution to this problem.
If one sees the plan of these shikharas, the square is rotated by repeatedly placing a square in a position which is tilted a little diagonally, and repeating this procedure until the outer structure starts looking like a circle. This geometrical process is reflected in the outer circle of the logo of Bodha.
The square indicates the human order that signifies culture, society and civilization. The circle indicates the natural world. The movement from square to circle indicates the movement from man made order to the higher, more natural order. We start from the structures and ideas that we are familiar with and then proceed to higher truths.
The rotation of a square into a circle reflects this journey of a person from lower to higher states of consciousness.
There is another movement symbolized here. The concentricity of both square and circle in a bindu, a point at the center, which is unchanging and non-rotating (scroll down a page on our website, and notice what happens with the logo on top), symbolizes the very darshana of Hindu dharma. That while at peripheries lies constant flux and motion, all this flux and motion rotates around an unchanging stillness at the center, which is Brahman. Thus, all the movement that is happening in rotating squares and spiraling circles has an unchanging, unwavering, eternal bindu at the center, which is the goal, the aim, the pivot of all human and natural action and thought.
The Bodha logo takes this symbolism further by placing the third eye of Lord Shiva at the center, symbolizing the supreme wisdom reflecting upon itself, doing – vimarsha. Apart from this, the word ‘bodha’ means an inner awakening, a journey towards realizing the supreme truth. This is the symbolism behind Bodha’s logo, trying to capture the essence of Hindu darshana and what we get inspired from.