The Mother gave the significances of 880+ flowers as a key to the 'subtle language of flowers', listed here with botanical names, color, comments and photographs.
The Mother: 'Flowers speak to us when we know how to listen to them.. It is a subtle and fragrant language. As if to provide a key to this language, She identified the significances of 880+ flowers. In this book, these flowers and their meanings are presented in the light of her vision and experience. For each flower in Part 1, the following details are given: the Mother's significance, her comment on the significance, the botanical name, and the colour or colours of the flower. Relevant quotations from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother accompany many flower-significances as an aid to understanding them. For most flowers there is a colour photograph to facilitate identification. This reference volume contains indexes, glossaries, descriptions of the flowers and other information. There are three indexes : an Index of the Mother's Significances, an Index of Botanical Names and an Index of Common Names.
THEME/S
Chapter 2
The 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
The Divine has three aspects for us:
1. It is the Cosmic Self and Spirit that is in and behind all things and beings, from which and in which all is manifested in the universe — although it is now a manifestation in the Ignorance.
2. It is the Spirit and Master of our own being within us whom we have to serve and learn to express his will in all our movements so that we may grow out of the Ignorance into the Light.
3. The Divine is transcendent Being and Spirit, all bliss and light and divine knowledge and power, and towards that highest divine existence and its Light we have to rise and bring down the reality of it more and more into our consciousness and life.
Sri Aurobindo
Page 7
SACHCHIDANANDA
God 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.
That which has thrown itself out into forms is a triune Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, Sachchidananda, whose consciousness is in its nature a creative or rather a self-expressive Force capable of infinite variation in phenomenon and form of its self-conscious being and endlessly enjoying the delight of that variation. It follows that all things that exist are what they are as terms of that existence, terms of that conscious force, terms of that delight of being. Sri Aurobindo
Page 8
3 Sachchidananda Strong and pure, it stands erect in its creative power. Hedychium. White
Know more >
Page 9
DIVINE PRESENCE It 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. Thus, of the "ineffable Presence" it can only be said that it is there and nothing more can or need be said about it, although at the same time one knows that all is there, personality and impersonality, Power and Light and Ananda and everything else, and that all these flow from that indescribable Presence. . . . That is always the fundamental significance, - the essential perception of the essential Presence supporting everything else. 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 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. Thus, of the "ineffable Presence" it can only be said that it is there and nothing more can or need be said about it, although at the same time one knows that all is there, personality and impersonality, Power and Light and Ananda and everything else, and that all these flow from that indescribable Presence. . . . That is always the fundamental significance, - the essential perception of the essential Presence supporting everything else. 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
His laughter of beauty breaks out in green trees, His moments of beauty triumph in a flower; The blue sea's chant, the rivulet's wandering voice Are murmurs falling from the Eternal's harp. This world is God fulfilled in outwardness.
Page 10
4 Divine Presence It hides from the ignorant eye its ever-present magnificence.Tradescantia spathacea. White
5 Presence Consciousness in quest of the Presence. Plumbago auriculata 'Alba'. White
6 Divine Ananda Abundant, succulent, nourishing, full of vigour. Vitis vinifera. Several colours
DIVINE ANANDA
Ananda is Beatitude, the bliss of pure conscious existence and energy....
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
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 to God.
Page 11
7 Divine Love A flower that is said to blossom even in the desert. Punica granatum. Orange red, double
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 fulfil itself in act of mutuality and self-giving and, if not the initial nature of creation, this may well be its ultimate object and motive.
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 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.
Love is with all, working for the progress of each one equally — but it triumphs in those who care for it.
The Mother
Page 12
DIVINE SACRIFICE
The 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
The law of sacrifice is the common divine action that was thrown out into the world in its beginning as a symbol of the solidarity of the universe. It is by the attraction of this law that a divinising, a saving power descends to limit and correct and gradually to eliminate the errors of an egoistic and self-divided creation. This descent, this sacrifice of the Purusha, the Divine Soul submitting itself to Force and Matter so that it may inform and illuminate them, is the seed of redemption of this world of Inconscience and Ignorance. Sri Aurobindo
8 Divine Sacrifice Is it not a supreme sacrifice for the Divine to renounce the beatitude of His Unity in order to create the painful multiplicity of the world? Punica granatum. Brilliant orange
8 Divine Sacrifice
Is it not a supreme sacrifice for the Divine to renounce the beatitude of His Unity in order to create the painful multiplicity of the world?
Punica granatum. Brilliant orange
Page 13
9 Divine Love spreading over the world Innumerable, succulent, it gives strength and life tirelessly. Punica granatum. Yellow tinged red 10 Unmanifest Divine Love The splendour of the marvellous love that the Divine keeps for the pure heart. Punica granatum. White
9 Divine Love spreading over the world
Innumerable, succulent, it gives strength and life tirelessly.
Punica granatum. Yellow tinged red
10 Unmanifest Divine Love
The splendour of the marvellous love that the Divine keeps for the pure heart.
Punica granatum. White
Page 14
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 men, 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 saviour crept in 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, fertilising the soil, the bush was covered with marvellous flowers, scarlet, large, crowded with petals, innumerable drops of blood. These are the flowers that for us express and contain the Divine Love. The Mother
11 Divine Love governing the world A beautiful and happy world for which we all aspire. Brownea coccinea. Brilliant orange red
Page 15
12 Call of the Divine Grace Not loud but persistent and very perceptible to those who know how to listen. Operculina turpethum. Light brown
12 Call of the Divine Grace
Not loud but persistent and very perceptible to those who know how to listen.
Operculina turpethum. Light brown
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, no matter how great your capacity to see it at work in all circumstances, at every moment, at every point in life, you will never succeed in understanding the marvellous 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 behind everything, organises everything, manages everything so that the march forward to the divine realisation may be as 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.
And once you have seen this, you feel that you are never equal to it, for you should never forget it, never have any fear, any anxiety, any regret, any shrinking ... or even any suffering. If you were in union with this Grace, if you saw it everywhere, you would begin living a life of exultation, of omnipotence, of infinite happiness. The Mother
Page 16
DIVINE SMILE
You know, when I say, "The Lord smiles", that means something; it is not that I see a smiling face, but it is . . . it is a solar vibration. You know, the sun is flat and dull and cold and almost black in comparison.
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.
An incense floated in the quivering air, A mystic happiness trembled in the breast As if the invisible Beloved had come Assuming the sudden loveliness of a face And close glad hands could seize his fugitive feet And the world change with the beauty of a smile.
13 Divine smile We can behold the divine smile when we have conquered our ego. Michelia alba. Ivory white
13 Divine smile
We can behold the divine smile when we have conquered our ego.
Michelia alba. Ivory white
Page 17
SRI AUROBINDO'S COMPASSION The truth of Sri Aurobindo is a truth of love and light and mercy. He is good, great, compassionate and divine. And it is he who will have the final victory. The Mother I always saw him with a perfectly peaceful and smiling face, and above all, the dominant expression was one of compassion. That was what stood out in his appearance. An expression of compassion so ... so peaceful, so tranquil, oh, magnificent. The Mother 14 Sri Aurobindo's compassion Innumerable, ever present, and effective in every instance. Portulaca grandiflora. Many colours
SRI AUROBINDO'S COMPASSION
The truth of Sri Aurobindo is a truth of love and light and mercy. He is good, great, compassionate and divine. And it is he who will have the final victory. The Mother
I always saw him with a perfectly peaceful and smiling face, and above all, the dominant expression was one of compassion. That was what stood out in his appearance. An expression of compassion so ... so peaceful, so tranquil, oh, magnificent. The Mother
14 Sri Aurobindo's compassion
Innumerable, ever present, and effective in every instance.
Portulaca grandiflora. Many colours
DIVINE HELP Give 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 15 Divine help Modest in appearance, powerful in action. Malvaviscus arboreus. Bright red
DIVINE HELP
Give yourself to the Divine absolutely, and the Divine Help will always be with you.
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
15 Divine help
Modest in appearance, powerful in action.
Malvaviscus arboreus. Bright red
Page 18
16 Divine solicitude Always active, even when we do not perceive it.Malvaviscus arboreus. Red
17 Divine solicitude rightly understood To understand and receive with gratitude this divine solicitude so often misunderstood. Malvaviscus arboreus. Pale pink
DIVINE SOLICITUDE 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 SOLICITUDE
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
Page 19
18 Solace The blessings that the Divine bestows on us. Mirabilis jalapa. Several colours 19 Solace in the mind A silent peace. Mirabilis jalapa. Yellow 20 Solace in the vital Modest but effective. Mirabilis jalapa. Magenta 21 Integral solace That which one can receive only from the Divine. Mirabilis jalapa. White
18 Solace
The blessings that the Divine bestows on us.
Mirabilis jalapa. Several colours
19 Solace in the mind
A silent peace.
Mirabilis jalapa. Yellow
20 Solace in the vital
Modest but effective.
Mirabilis jalapa. Magenta
21 Integral solace
That which one can receive only from the Divine.
Mirabilis jalapa. White
22 Blessings Pure and innumerable, manifesting themselves infinitely. Scabiosa atropurpurea. Pinkish lavender
23 Blessings on the material world Powerful and innumerable, they answer all needs. Scabiosa atropurpurea. Deep purple
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 happen will be for the best. The Mother
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 happen will be for the best. The Mother
Page 20
PROTECTION
When we are in close contact with the Divine, a protection can come which helps or directly guides or moves us; it does not throw aside all difficulties, sufferings or dangers, but it carries us through them and out of them — except where for a 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
24 Protection Let us give ourselves entirely and sincerely to the Divine and we shall enjoy His protection. Bougainvillea. Many colours
25 Attempt at protection Irregular and not always effective efforts. Bougainvillea 'Mahara'. Bright magenta
26 Discreet protection Does its work discreetly, without attracting attention. Bougainvillea 'Trinidad'. Very pale lavender
27 Psychic protection The protection resulting from surrender to the Divine. Bougainvillea. Pink
28 Emotional protection Surrender to the Divine is the best emotional protection. Bougainvillea. Light lavender pink 29 Vital protection Surrender to the Divine is the best vital protection. Bougainvillea 'Formosa'. Violet 30 Physical protection Is possible only with a total surrender to the Divine and the absence of all desire. Bougainvillea. Red 31 Triple protection Protection in the mind, vital and physical. Bougainvillea 'Blondie'. Pale lavender pink to soft orange 32 Integral protection That which can be given only by the Divine. Bougainvillea. White
28 Emotional protection
Surrender to the Divine is the best emotional protection.
Bougainvillea. Light lavender pink
29 Vital protection
Surrender to the Divine is the best vital protection.
Bougainvillea 'Formosa'. Violet
30 Physical protection
Is possible only with a total surrender to the Divine and the absence of all desire.
Bougainvillea. Red
31 Triple protection
Protection in the mind, vital and physical.
Bougainvillea 'Blondie'.
Pale lavender pink to soft orange
32 Integral protection
That which can be given only by the Divine.
Bougainvillea. White
33 Manifold protection A protection that acts not only on life as a whole but on each of its details. Bougainvillea 'Mary Palmer'. Bright purple pink and white 34 Protection of the gods Luminous and clear-visioned. Bougainvillea. Yellow and golden
33 Manifold protection
A protection that acts not only on life as a whole but on each of its details.
Bougainvillea 'Mary Palmer'.
Bright purple pink and white
34 Protection of the gods
Luminous and clear-visioned.
Bougainvillea. Yellow and golden
Page 21
Page 22
Home
Books
Misc
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.