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 3
The really new thing is that a new world is born, born, born. It is not the old one transforming itself, it is a new world that is born. And we are right in the midst of this period of transition where the two are entangled — where the old still persists all-powerful, entirely dominating the ordinary consciousness, but where the new one is quietly slipping in, still very modest, unnoticed — unnoticed to the extent that outwardly it doesn't disturb anything very much for the time being, and in the consciousness of most people it is even quite imperceptible. And yet it is working, it is growing — until the time comes when it will be strong enough to assert itself visibly.
The Mother
There are people who love adventure. It is these I call, and I tell them this: "I invite you to the great adventure." It is not a question of repeating spiritually what others have done before us, for our adventure begins beyond that. It is a question of a new creation, entirely new, with all the unforeseen events, the risks, the hazards it entails — a real adventure whose goal is certain victory, but whose road is unknown and must be traced out step by step in the unexplored. Something that has never been in this present universe and that will never again be in the same way. If that interests you . . . well, let us embark. What will happen to you tomorrow, I don't know. The Mother
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SIGN OF THE SPIRIT
What we mean by Spirit is self-existent being with an infinite power of consciousness and unconditioned delight in its being.
Sri Aurobindo
Spirit is Sat or pure existence, pure in self-awareness (Chit), pure in self-delight (Ananda). Therefore Spirit can be regarded as a triune basis of all conscious being.
All things here are expression, form, energy, action of the Spirit; matter itself is but form of Spirit, life but power of being of the Spirit, mind but working out of consciousness of the Spirit. All Nature is a display and a play of God, power and action and self-creation of the one spiritual Being. Sri Aurobindo
This world is, no doubt, based ostensibly upon Matter, but its summit is Spirit and the ascent towards Spirit must be the aim and justification of its existence and the pointer to its meaning and purpose. Sri Aurobindo
35 Sign of the Spirit The Spirit says, "I am here!" Viscum album. White
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PROMISE
I know with absolute certitude that the supramental is a truth and that its advent is in the very nature of things inevitable.
The manifestation of the Supramental upon earth is no more a promise but a living fact, a reality. The Mother
What Sri Aurobindo promised and what naturally interests us, we who are here now, is that the time has come when some beings among the elite of humanity, who fulfil the conditions necessary for spiritualisation, will be able to transform their bodies with the help of the supramental Force, Consciousness and Light, so as no longer to be animal-men but become supermen. The Mother
36 Promise The future is full of promise. Abutilon Xhybridum. Several colours
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37 Mental promise The assurance that the supramental goal will be realised. Abutilon indicum. Bright yellow
38 Vital promise The vital is full of possibilities ready to be developed. Abutilon Xhybridum. Deep reddish purple
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39 Promise of realisation The best encouragement. Tropaeolum majus. Several colours
40 Promise of realisation in the mind The mind must become silent in order to let the Supramental Consciousness take its place. Tropaeolum majus. Yellow
41 Promise of realisation in the physical mind A good encouragement for the necessary effort.Tropaeolum majus. Light yellow and red
42 Promise of realisation in the physical Courage to face the long labour. Tropaeolum majus. Yellow and maroon
43 Promise of realisation in Matter The best encouragement for doing what is necessary. Tropaeolum majus. Dark red to maroon
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PROMISE OF REALISATION
There is another aspect of the Divine Grace, the aspect of a progress that will be victorious over all obstacles, the aspect that will propel humanity to a new realisation, that will open the doors of a new world and make it possible not only for a chosen few to benefit by the divine realisation but for their influence, their example, their power to bring a new and better condition to the rest of humanity. This opens up roads of realisation in the future, possibilities that are already foreseen, when an entire portion of humanity, the one that has opened itself consciously or unconsciously to the new forces, will be lifted up, as it were, into a higher, more harmonious, more perfect life. The Mother
44 Promise of renewal May ugliness disappear from the world. Galanthus nivalis 'Viridapicis'. White
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45 Creative Word Belongs only to the Divine. Leucanthemum Xsuperbum. White
46 Descent of the Light It flows towards the earth in harmonious waves. Laburnum anagyroides. Golden yellow
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CREATIVE WORD
[The Creative Word] is the word which creates. There are all kinds of old traditions, old Hindu traditions, old Chaldean traditions, in which the Divine in the form of the Creator, that is, in His aspect as Creator, utters a word that has the power to create. So it is this . . . And it is the origin of the mantra. The mantra is the spoken word that has a creative power. An invocation is made and there is an answer to the invocation; or one makes a prayer and the prayer is granted. This is the Word, the Word that, in its sound ... it is not only the idea, it is in the sound that there is a power of creation. It is the origin of the mantra. In Indian mythology the creator God is Brahma, and I think that it was precisely his power which has been symbolised by this flower, the "Creative Word". And when one is in contact with it, the words spoken have a power of evocation, of creation, of formation or of transformation; the words . . . sound always has a power; it has much more power than men think.
NEW WORLD
The situation we are in is very special, extremely special, without precedent. We are witnessing the birth of a new world; it is very young, very weak — not in its essence but in its outer manifestation — not yet recognised, not even sensed, denied by the majority. But it is here. It is here, making an effort to grow, absolutely sure of the result. But the road to it is a completely new road that has never been mapped out before — nobody has gone there, nobody has done that! It is a beginning, a universal beginning. So it is an absolutely unexpected and unpredictable adventure.
47 New world The result of transformation. Bixa orellana. Pale lavender pink
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NEW CREATION
The only creation for which there is any place here is the supramental, the bringing of the divine Truth down on the earth, not only into the mind and vital but into the body and into Matter. Sri Aurobindo
For centuries and centuries humanity has waited for this time. It has come. But it is difficult. I don't simply tell you we are here upon earth to rest and enjoy ourselves - now is not the time for that. We are here ... to prepare the way for the new creation. You must strive, you must conquer all your weaknesses and limitations; above all you must tell your ego: "Your time is over." We want a race that has no ego, that has in place of the ego the Divine Consciousness. That is what we want: the Divine Consciousness which will enable the race to develop itself and the supramental being to take birth.
48 New creation Strong, lasting and fragrant, it rises straight towards the sky. Polianthes tuberosa. White
49 Perfect new creation Clustered, complete, manifold, it affirms its right to be. Polianthes tuberosa. White, double
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SUCCESSFUL FUTURE
Do you know what the flower which we have called "Successful Future" signifies when given to you? It signifies the hope — nay, even the promise — that you will participate in the descent of the supramental world. . . . Once the world-conditions are ready the full descent [of the Supramental] will take place carrying everything before it. Its presence will be unmistakable, its force will brook no resistance, doubts and difficulties will not torture you any longer. For the Divine will stand manifest — unveiled in its total perfection. I do not, however, mean to say that the whole world will at once feel its presence or be transformed; but I do mean that a part of humanity will know and participate in its descent.
50 The future A promise not yet realised. Salix discolor. Pearl grey
51 Successful future Full of promise and joyful surprises. Gaillardia pulchella. Several colours
52 Successful future under the supramental influence (No comment) Gaillardia pulchella. Red and yellow
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SUPERHUMANITY
When superman is born as Nature's kingHis presence shall transfigure Matter's world:He shall light up Truth's fire in Nature's night,He shall lay upon the earth Truth's greater law;Man too shall turn towards the Spirit's call.Awake to his hidden possibility,Awake to all that slept within his heartAnd all that Nature meant when earth was formedAnd the Spirit made this ignorant world his home,He shall aspire to Truth and God and Bliss.
53 Superhumanity The aim of our aspirations. Dahlia. White
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In a profound sense it is the call and attraction of the future that makes the past and present, and that future will be more and more seen to be the growth of the godhead in the human being which is the high fate of this race that thinks and wills and labours towards its own perfection. This is a strain that we shall hear more and more, the song of the growing godhead of the kind, of human unity, of spiritual freedom, of the coming supermanhood of man, of the divine ideal seeking to actualise itself in the life of the earth, of the call to the individual to rise to his godlike possibility. . . .
If a spiritual unfolding on earth is the hidden truth of our birth into Matter, if it is fundamentally an evolution of consciousness that has been taking place in Nature, then man as he is cannot be the last term of that evolution: he is too imperfect an expression of the Spirit, Mind itself a too limited form and instrumentation; Mind is only a middle term of consciousness, the mental being can only be a transitional being. If, then, man is incapable of exceeding mentality, he must be surpassed and Supermind and superman must manifest and take the lead of the creation. But if his mind is capable of opening to what exceeds it, then there is no reason why man himself should not arrive at supermind and supermanhood or at least lend his mentality, life and body to an evolution of that greater term of the Spirit manifesting in Nature. Sri Aurobindo
54 Radiation of the manifestation The divine manifestation is spreading. Strophanthus. White and purple Each time we try not to be ordinary men, not to live the ordinary life, to express in our movements, our actions and reactions the divine Truth, when we are governed by that Truth instead of being governed by the general ignorance, we are apprentice-supermen, and according to the success of our efforts, well, we are more or less able apprentices, more or less advanced on the way. The Mother
54 Radiation of the manifestation
The divine manifestation is spreading.
Strophanthus. White and purple
Each time we try not to be ordinary men, not to live the ordinary life, to express in our movements, our actions and reactions the divine Truth, when we are governed by that Truth instead of being governed by the general ignorance, we are apprentice-supermen, and according to the success of our efforts, well, we are more or less able apprentices, more or less advanced on the way. The Mother
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MIRACLE
A miracle is nothing but a sudden descent, a bursting forth of another consciousness and its powers . . . into this plane of matter. There is a precipitation, upon the material mechanism, of the mechanism of a higher plane. It is as though a lightning flash tore through the cloud of our ordinary consciousness and poured into it other forces, other movements and sequences.... If we have eyes and know how to observe we can see miracles in abundance. Especially must they be constant among those who are endeavouring to bring down the higher reaches into the earth-consciousness below.
At every moment all the unforeseen, the unexpected, the unknown is before us — and what happens to us depends mostly on the intensity and purity of our faith. The Mother
55 Miracle (Air of Auroville) Marvellous, strange, unexpected. Memecylon tinctorium. Intense blue
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