Flowers

(Mother to Mona Sarkar:) “A flower spreads a deep love and a peaceful sweetness in a unique, silent and generous gesture in a world torn by pain and sorrow.
         It expresses an ever-present harmony which love alone possesses.”

(Mother to Satprem:) “Flowers are very receptive to people's vitality – to the QUALITY of the vitality. With some people, when they hold a flower it withers instantly; with others, it opens. I myself saw several times Sri Aurobindo take a half-withered flower in his hand, and it became quite fresh again – it was quite happy!
         And I knew a woman in Paris, who claimed to be a disciple [of Mother's], she would always bring me flowers when she came to see me, and always, without a single exception, the flowers had withered. She would arrive and tell me, “But they were quite fresh when I bought them!” (Mother laughs) And they were absolutely finished. So in the end I told her, “It's because you take all their life into yourself!” ”

(Mother to Mona Sarkar:) “There where I have placed my feet on the earth it has been blessed and has become receptive to my force. With gratitude, the earth retains the effect of the transmutation that took place by the fact that I walked on her, that is why she expresses herself in an inexpressible joy.
         And Nature gathers this energy which has emanated from me and sends it here and there to bring forth new plants and new flowers that have not been seen before, impregnated with the New Consciousness. It is astonishing – these flowers! They are distinctly different from what we find ordinarily, with characteristics and modes of another plane of consciousness. They are so beautiful and they symbolise an aspect of this New Creation.”

“Is there a sense of beauty in flowers?

(Mother:) As soon as there is organic life, the vital element comes in, and it is this vital element which gives to flowers the sense of beauty. It is not perhaps individualised in the sense we understand it, but it is a sense of the species and the species always tries to realise it. I have noticed a first rudiment of the psychic presence and vibration in vegetable life, and truly this blossoming one calls a flower is the first manifestation of the psychic presence. The psychic is individualised only in man, but it was there before him; but it is not the same kind of individualisation as in man, it is more fluid: it manifests as force, as consciousness rather than as individuality. Take the rose, for example; its great perfection of form, colour, scent expresses an aspiration and a psychic giving. Look at a rose opening in the morning at the first touch of the sun, it is a magnificent self-giving in aspiration.

Each flower has its special significance, hasn’t it?

Not as we understand it mentally. There is a mental projection when one gives a precise meaning to a flower. It may answer, vibrate to the touch of this projection, accept the meaning, but a flower has no equivalent of the mental consciousness. In the vegetable kingdom there is a beginning of the psychic, but there is no beginning of the mental consciousness. In animals it is different; mental life begins to form and for them things have a meaning. But in flowers it is rather like the movement of a little baby — it is neither a sensation nor a feeling, but something of both; it is a spontaneous movement, a very special vibration. So, if one is in contact with it, if one feels it, one gets an impression which may be translated by a thought. That is how I have given a meaning to flowers and plants — there is a kind of identification with the vibration, a perception of the quality it represents and, little by little, through a kind of approximation (sometimes this comes suddenly, occasionally it takes time), there is a coming together of these vibrations (which are of a vital-emotional order) and the vibration of the mental thought, and if there is a sufficient harmony, one has a direct perception of what the plant may signify.”

(Tara Jauhar:) “And she said, ‘Now what will you do?’ And I said, ‘Mother, let's do the book of flowers.’ And she was happy. So that was the last thing that she did. Every day I was taking flowers to her. She said, ‘I will not write anything with [only] a picture. You have to bring me the flowers, if you want me to write.’
         So every day, all my morning used to go through the gardens collecting those flowers; and I would take them up to her in the evening. And she would write the commentary. And if you look in the flower book, there is a commentary (short commentary). But she wrote every day the commentary. And several flowers: ten, twelve flowers a day. That is how we did.
         Because she would not do without – there were many flowers, which she had given the names while in Europe. They didn't exist in Pondicherry. And the Ashram gardeners started growing them in the refrigerator. (Laughter) And they succeeded! They succeeded with quite a number of flowers they grew in the refrigerator; so I could take the real flowers to Mother.
         And then also some people brought the flowers when they were coming. On the same day, they would give it to me, and I would take it to Mother.
         So this way, the book (which has I don't know how many, maybe a thousand, flowers)... and that remained inside. So wherever I go, I don't see India, the houses and roads; I look at flowers. So I never remember any road. (Laughter)

Who did the photos of the flowers?

Who did the photos? So, I used to go take the prints to Mother; and there were many questions: ‘Mother, there is this flower that has so many colours, what will be the different names of the colours?’... and all that. And she would give. And I would come down her... I also had my own notebook, in which I used to note the questions and answers. (Which were not in what Mother wrote.) These would go to the two Richards: Narad (Richard Eggenberger), and Richard Pearson. They were working together on the botanical names, and on the common names. So every day, they would sit and do the work, and if they had any questions, they would give it to me, and I would again ask Mother.
         So when the book was being printed, the first print we requested Jayantilal to help. He was the main artist for publication of books in those days. He started the Archives also. So when we went to Jayantilal-da, he said, ‘No, we will not put pictures, we will put drawings.’ And then he got somebody – I don't remember who it was – somebody to do the drawings. And the book was published several years later. After Mother finished. A few years it took to get the book, first published with those (gesture of drawing) things.
         And many people were not happy; they could not recognize the flowers form the sketches. So then the big book was designed by the two Richards, again, and it was printed – I think the first one was printed in Singapore. And that is also out of print; now they are working on another one. A little bit improved edition they are working on, just now.”

Flowers and Their Messages (1973) online book

The Spiritual Significance of Flowers (2000) online book

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See also

• Auroville's flower ("Beauty of Supramental Love")
• Matrimandir Gardens
• Savitri Bhavan Nursery
• The Flower Game

External links

• flowersong.in
• www.blossomlikeaflower.com