The Spiritual Significance of Flowers

“Flowers speak to us when we know how to listen to them” the Mother said. “It is a subtle and fragrant language”

As if to provide a key to his language, she identified the significance of almost nine hundred flowers and published them in a most beautiful book with pictures of their meanings in the light of her vision and experience.

The book consists of twelve chapters with flowers of related significance grouped together. The groups are then placed in a sequence that develops the theme of of the chapter.

THE ORGANISATION OF THE FLOWERS (1)

Aditi and Avatar : Aditi; Avatar The Divine : Sachchidananda; Divine Presence; Divine Love; Divine Grace; Divine Help; Protection The New Creation: Promise; New world; New creation; The future; Super humanity Living for the Divine: To live only for ;the Divine; Attachment to the Divine; Trust i the Divine; Friendship with the Divine; Love for the Divine. Road to the Divine: Road to the Divine; Ascension; Aspiration; Prayer; Devotion; Remembrance; Opening; Receptivity; Tapasya; Renunciation of Desires; Unselfishness; Discipline; Thoroughness; Endurance; Service; Work’ Organization; Help’ Progress. Base of Spiritual Life: Sincerity; Purity; Simplicity; Humility; Peace; Silence; Gratitude; Cheerfulness; ;Goodwill; Balance; Harmony; Generosity; Faithfulness; Right attitude; Life energy; Plasticity; Courage; Boldness; Absolute truthfulness; Spiritual speech; No quarrels; Certitude.

Spiritual Attainments: Mastery; Wisdom; Inspiration; Revelation; consciousness turned towards the Light; Conversion; New Birth; Realization; Victory; Transformation; Immortality; Beauty; Art’ Refinement; Dignity; Wealth. Power: Godhead; Agni; Supra mental Consciousness; Beauty of supra mental youth; Charm of the new creation; Individual power;; Dynamic power; Power of progress. Planes of Consciousness and Parts of the Being: Complexity of the centres; Supra mental influence; Spiritual aspiration; Spiritual beauty; Psychic work; Psychological perfection; Mind; Higher Mind; Mental simplicity; Quiet mind; Vital opening; Vital purity; Elegance in the emotions; Refinement of sensation; Physical consciousness turned entirely towards the Divine; Light in the blood; Peace in the cells; ;Peace in the blood; Peace in the sex centre; Health; Dreams; Power if Truth in the sub conscient; Divine Will acting in the Inconscient. Collaboration of Nature: Blossoming of Nature; Spontaneous aspiration of Nature towards the Divine.; Abundance; Light in fairyland; Bird of paradise. Awakening of Matter: Psychic awakening in Matter; Gold; Fire. Radha and Krishna: Radha’s consciousness; Krishna’s light in the Over mind; Krishna’s play; Krishna’s Ananda

THE ORGANISATION OF THE FLOWERS (2)

Contents & the origin of the Significance

Mother, each flower has its own significance, doesn’t it?

Not as we understand it mentally. There is a mental projection when one gives a precise significance to a flower . . . . A flower does not have the equivalent of a mental consciousness . . . It is rather like the movement of a little baby, neither a sensation not a feeling, but something of both; it is a spontaneous movement, a very special vibration.. . . THE MOTHER

She considered flowers of spiritual significance, and gave names to 800 different types, according to the spiritual quality they convey (Flowers and Their Messages, Flowers and Their Spiritual Significance). These would be presented to disciples, as a vehicle for conveying her blessings and grace.

Sri Aurobindo 1872-1950Aurobindo’s education began in a Christian

convent school in Darjeeling, and then, still a boy, he was sent to England for further schooling. He entered the University of Cambridge, where he became proficient in two classical and three modern European languages. After returning to India in 1892, he took various administrative and professorial posts in Baroda and Calcutta, and then turned to his native culture and began the serious study of Yoga and Indian languages, including classical Sanskrit.The years from 1902 to 1910 were stormy ones for Aurobindo, as he embarked on a course of action to free India from the British raj. As a result of his political activities and revolutionary literary efforts, he was imprisoned in 1908. Two years later he fled British India to refuge in the French colony of Pondicherry where he devoted himself for the rest of his life solely to the development of his unique philosophy. There he founded an ashram as an international cultural centre for spiritual development, attracting students from all over the world.

The principal writings of Sri Aurobindo

According to Aurobindo’s theory of cosmic salvation, the paths to union with Brahman are two-way streets, or channels: enlightenment comes from above (thesis), while the spiritual mind (super mind) strives through yogic illumination to reach upward from below (antithesis). When these two forces blend, a Gnostic individual is created (synthesis). This yogic illumination transcends both reason and intuition and eventually leads to the freeing of the individual from the bonds of individuality, and, by extension, all mankind will eventually achieve moksha (liberation). Thus, Aurobindo created a dialectic mode of salvation not only for the individual but for all mankind. His vision of life is presented in numerous works of prose and poetry, among which the best known are The Life Divine (1940), The Human Cycle (1949), The Ideal of Human Unity (1949), Secrets of the Vedas (1956), Collected Poems and Plays (1942), Essays on the Gita (1928), The Synthesis of Yoga (1948), and Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol (1950).

Aurobindo’s Philosophy and spiritual vision

One of Sri Aurobindo's main philosophical achievements was to introduce the concept of evolution into Vedantic thought. Sri Aurobindo rejected a major conception of Indian philosophy that says that the World is a Maya (illusion) and that living as a renunciate was the only way out. He says that it is possible, not only to transcend human nature but also to transform it and to live in the world as a free and evolved human being with a new consciousness and a new nature which could spontaneously perceive truth of things, and proceed in all matters on the basis of inner oneness, love and light.

Evolutionary philosophySri Aurobindo argues that humankind is not the last rung in the evolutionary scale, but can evolve spiritually beyond its current limitations to a state of spiritual and supra-mental existence. This evolutionary existence he called a "Divine life on Earth", characterized by a spiritualized, supra-mental, truth-consciousness-oriented humanity.

Process of creation and evolution

He speaks of two central movements in the process of creation: an involution of consciousness from an original omnipresent Reality, manifesting a universe of forms, including matter; and an evolution of those material forms in creation upward toward life, mind, and spirit, reconnecting to their spiritual source. It is also a process of evolution.

InvolutionThe process by which the Energy of creation emerged from a timeless, space-less, ineffable, immutable Reality, Sri Aurobindo refers to as the Involution. In that process the Reality extended itself to Being/Existence (Sat), Consciousness, that generated a Force - (Chit); and Bliss (Ananda)-- self enjoyment in existing and being conscious. Through the action of a fourth dimension, Supermind (i.e. Truth Consciousness), the Force (Chit) of Sat-Chit-Ananda was divided into Knowledge and Will, eventually formulating as an invisible Energy that would become the source of creation. Through its own willful self-absorption of consciousness, the universe would begin as Inconscient material existence from out of that Energy

EvolutionThe process of existence emerging out of the Inconscient is referred as evolution. Initially, it emerges gradually in the stages of matter, life, and mind. First matter evolves from simple to complex forms, then life emerges in matter and evolves from simple to complex forms, finally mind emerges in life and evolves from rudimentary to higher forms of thought and reason. As each new principle emerges, the previous stages remain but are integrated into the higher principle. Humanity represents the stage of development of mind in complex material forms of life. The higher development of mind in the mass of humanity is not yet a secure possession. Reason and intellect still do not dominate the life of most human beings; rather, mind tends to be turned to the purposes of the life principle, which is focused on self-preservation, self-assertion, and satisfaction of personal need and desire.

Omnipresent reality (Brahman)A central tenet of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy is that the Truth of existence is an omnipresent Reality that both transcends the manifested universe and is inherent in it. This Reality, referred to as Brahman, is an Absolute: it is not limited by any mental conception or duality, whether personal or impersonal, existent or nonexistent, formless or manifested in form, timeless or extended in time, spaceless or extended in space. It is simultaneously all of these but is bound by none of them.

Triple transformation of the individual

Sri Aurobindo's argues that Man is born an ignorant, divided, conflicted being; a product of the original in conscience (i.e. unconsciousness,) inherent in Matter that he evolved out of. As a result, he does not know the nature of Reality, including its source and purpose; his own nature, including the parts and integration of his being; what purpose he serves, and what his individual and spiritual potential is, amongst others. In addition, man experiences life through division and conflict, including his relationship with others, and his divided view of spirit and life.

To overcome these limitations, Man must embark on a process of self-discovery in which he uncovers his Divine nature. To that end, he undertakes a three-step process, which he calls the Triple Transformation.

Triple Transformation(1) Psychic Transformation -- The first of the three stages is a movement within, away from the surface of life, to the depths, culminating in the discovery of his psychic being (the evolving soul). From that experience, he sees the oneness and unity of creation, and the harmony of all opposites experienced in life.

(2) Spiritual Transformation -- As a result of making the psychic change, his mind expands and he experiences knowledge not through the hard churning of thought, but through light, intuition, and revelation of knowledge, culminating in supra mental perception. Light enters from the heights and begins to transmute various parts of his being.

(3) Supra mental transformation -- After making the psychic and spiritual change, he makes the supra mental and most radical change. It is basically a complete transformation of the mind, the heart, the emotions, and the physical body.

Evolving soul (psychic being)

Sri Aurobindo laid utmost stress on finding and living in the psychic being (i.e. an evolving soul) within which is the essence of our individual being. If we forge our way into the deepest parts of our being, we will come upon a personal evolving soul. From this psychic being we can overcome the limits of consciousness of the individual human. From there we perceive our true nature and essence; we become more aware of our surroundings; we become one with others and life; we experience an inner Guide that influences us to move in the right direction and catches our negative propensities as they arise on the surface; we come in touch with our universal nature; we come in touch with the transcendent reality and spiritual Force; we overcome the limits of time, bringing timelessness into time; and evoke the powers of the Infinite into this finite existence, to name several…..

Supra mental existenceSri Aurobindo's vision of the future includes the appearance of what may be called a new species, the supra mental being, a divine being which would be as different and superior to present humanity as humanity is to animal. It would have a consciousness different in kin than the mind of the human, a different status and quality and functioning. Even the physical form of this being would be different, more luminous and flexible and adaptable, entirely conscious and harmonious. Between the supra mental being and humanity, there would be transitional beings, who would be human in birth and form, but whose consciousness would approach that of the supra mental being.

Philosophy of social evolution

Sri Aurobindo's spiritual vision extended beyond the perfection and transformation of the individual; it included within its scope the evolution and transformation of human society. In both the individual and in society, the soul and spirit is at first hidden and occult. This, he argues, influences the direction and course of development from behind, but allowing nature to follow its gradual, zigzagging, and conflict-ridden course. Afterwards, as mind develops and becomes more dominant over obscure impulses, the ego-centered drives of vital nature.

The Mother 1878-1973Sri Aurobindo's close spiritual collaborator, Mirra Richard (b. Alfassa), came to be known as The Mother simply because Sri Aurobindo started to call her by this name.

In 1914 the Mother voyaged to Pondicherry to meet Sri Aurobindo, In 1926 she was entrusted the material and spiritual charge of Aurobindo Ashram. Under her guidance the Ashram grew into a large many-faceted spiritual community. She also established a school, the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in 1952, and in International township, Auroville, in 1968

SACHCHIDANANDAGod is Sachchidananda. He manifests Himself as infinite existence of which the essentiality is consciousness, of which again the essentiality is bliss, is self-delight. SRI AUROBINDO

The Supreme is Pure Being, Absolute Existence, sat...The Supreme is also Pure Awareness, Absolute Consciousness, cit...The Supreme is, finally, Pure Ecstasy, Absolute Bliss, Ananda. SRI AUROBINDO

Sachchidananda – Strong and pure, it stands erect in its creative

power

The DivineThe Divine is that from which all comes, in which all lives, and to return to the truth of the Divine now clouded over by ignorance is

the soul’s aim in life In its supreme Truth, the Divine is absolute and infinite peace,

consciousness, existence, power and Ananda.

SRI AUROBINDO

DIVINE PRESENCEIt is intended by the word Presence to indicate the sense and perception of the Divine as a Being, felt as present in one’s existence and consciousness or in relation with it, without the necessity of any further qualification or description. SRI AUROBINDO

It is the Divine Presence that gives value to life. This Presence is the source of all peace, all joy, all security. THE MOTHER

Divine presence - It hides from the ignorant eye its ever-present

magnificence.

DIVINE ANANDAAnanda is Beatitude, the bliss of pure conscious existence and energy.... SRI AUROBINDO

The world lives in and by Ananda. from Ananda, says the Veda, we were born, by Ananda we live, to Ananda we return, and it adds that no man could even have the strength to draw in his breath and throw it out again if there were not this heaven of Bliss embracing our existence as ether embraces our bodies, nourishing us with its eternal substance and strength and supporting the life and the activity.

SRI AUROBINDO

The whole world came out of ananda

According to our own philosophy the whole world came out of ananda and returns into ananda, and the triple term in which ananda may be stated is Joy, Love, Beauty. to see divine beauty in the whole world, man, life, nature, to love that which we have seen and to have pure unalloyed bliss in that love and that beauty is the appointed road by which mankind as a race must climb in God. SRI AUROBINDO

DIVINE LOVE A supreme divine Love is a creative Power and, even though it can exist in itself silent and unchangeable, yet rejoices in external form and expression and is not condemned to be a speechless and bodiless godhead. It has even been said that creation itself was an act of love or at least the building up of a field in which Divine Love could devise its symbols and fulfill itself in act of mutuality and self-giving and, if not the initial nature o creation, this may well be its ultimate object and motive. SRI AUROBINDO

To bring the Divine Love and Beauty and Ananda into the world is, indeed, the whole crown and essence of our yoga. SRI AUROBINDO

DIVINE LOVEDivine Love .... is again not something ethereal, cold and far, but a love absolutely intense, intimate and full of unity, closeness and rapture using all the nature for its expression. SRI AUROBINDO

The Divine Love may not be able yet to manifest on the physical plane, humanity being what it is, as fully and freely as it would otherwise do, but that does not make it less close or intense than the human. SRI AUROBINDO

Love is with all, working for the progress of each one equally - but it triumphs in those who care for it.

THE MOTHER

Divine Love - A flower that is said to blossom even in the desert.

DIVINE SACRIFICEhe Divine’s sacrifice is the descent of the Divine into the obscurity of the unconsciousness.

THE MOTHER

The manifestation of the love of the Divine in the world was the great holocaust, the supreme self-giving. The Perfect Consciousness accepted to be merged and absorbed into the unconsciousness of matter, so that consciousness might be awakened in the depths of its obscurity and little by little a Divine Power might rise in it and make the whole of this manifested universe a highest expression of the Divine Consciousness and the Divine love.

THE MOTHER

Divine Love governing the world - A beautiful and happy world for which

we all aspire.

AN OLD CHALDEAN LEGEND

Long, long ago, in the arid land which is now Arabia, a divine being incarnated upon earth in order to awaken there the supreme love. As one might expect, he was persecuted by en, misunderstood, suspected, hunted after. Mortally wounded by his assailants, he wished to die quietly in solitude so that his work might be accomplished, and being pursued he fled. Suddenly, on the broad barren plain a little pomegranate bush appeared. The savior crept it under the low branches in order to leave his body in peace; and immediately the bush expanded miraculously, grew wider, became thick and luxuriant, so that when the pursuers passed by they did not even suspect that the One whom they were chasing was hidden there, and they went their way.

While drop by drop the sacred blood fell, fertilizing the soil, the bush was covered with marvelous flowers, scarlet, large, crowded and petals innumerable drops of blood.

These are the flowers that for us express and contain the Divine Love.

THE MOTHER

DIVINE GRACE Grace is something spontaneous which wells out from the Divine Consciousness as a free flow of its being. SRI AUROBINDO

No matter how great your faith and trust in the Divine Grace, you will never succeed in understanding the marvelous immensity of its action and the precision, the exactness with which this action is accomplished; you will never be able to grasp the extent to which the Grace does everything, is being everything, organized everything, manages everything so that the march forward to the divine realization may be swift, as complete, as total and harmonious as possible, considering the circumstances of the world.

As soon as you are in contact with it, there is not a second in time, not a point in space which does not show you dazzlingly this perpetual work of the Grace, this constant intervention of the Grace.

DIVINE SMILEYou know, when I say, “The Lord smiles’, that means something; it is sot that I see a smiling face, but it is . . . it is a sola vibration. You know, the sun is flat and dull and cold and almost black in comparison. THE MOTHER

But this presence in all things . . . it is a vibration, but it is a vibration that contains everything, a vibration that contains a kind of infinite power, infinite delight, infinite peace, and vastness, vastness, vastness: there are no limits. And how often, how often the impression . . . there is no form - there is a form and there is no form, it cannot be put into words. And the impression of a look and there are no eyes - there is no look, but there is a look, a look and a smile, and there is no mouth, there is no face! And yet there is a smile and there is a look . . .But He laughs, you laugh, you are happy. THE MOTHER

Divine smile - We can behold the divine smile when we have

conquered our ego.

DIVINE HELPGive yourself to the Divine absolutely, and the Divine Help will always be with you.

THE MOTHER

The help is always there. It is you who must keep your receptivity living. The Divine Help is much vaster than what any human being is able to receive.

THE MOTHER

Divine help - Modest in appearance, powerful in action.

DIVINE SOLITUDE

Divine solicitude (in the sense of solicitude for others, a tender and affectionate and watchful care for their need and their good), the care of the Divine for the sadhaka. SRI AUROBINDO

Divine solitude - Always active, even when we do not perceive it.

BLESSINGS[My blessings are[ for the Will of the Lord

to be done, with full force and power. So it is not necessary that there should always be a

success. There might be a failure also, if such is the Will of the Lord. And the Will is for the progress I mean the inner progress.

So whatever will happens will be for the good. THE MOTHER

Blessings - Pure and innumerable, manifesting themselves infinitely

Solace - The blessings that the Divine bestows on us

PROTECTIONWhen we are in close contact with the Divine, a protection can come which helps or directly guides or moves us; it does not throw aide all difficulties, sufferings or dangers,, but it carries us through them and out of them - except where for special purpose there is need of the opposite. SRI AUROBINDO

When you think of the Lord’s Peace it acts as a call, and the more you think of it the more you surround yourself with it, which is the most powerful protection. THE MOTHER

Protection - Let us give ourselves entirely to the Divine and enjoy His protection.