THE MOTHER

 

The Spiritual Significance of Flowers

 

Part I

 

Test and Photograph

 

Contents

 

 

 

Chapter 1

Chapter 7

Aditi and Avatar

Spiritual Attainments

Aditi

Mastery

Avatar

Wisdom

 

Inspiration

Chapter 2

Revelation

The Divine

Consciousness turned towards the Light

Sachchidananda

Conversion

 Divine Presence

New birth

Divine Love

Realisation

Divine Grace

Victory

Divine Help

Transformation

Protection

Immortality

 

Beauty

Chapter 3

Art

The New Creation

Refinement

Promise

Dignity

New world

Wealth

New creation

 

The future

Chapter 8

Superhumanity

Power

 

Godhead

Chapter 4

Agni

Living for the Divine

Supramental Consciousness

To live only for the Divine

Beauty of supramental youth

Attachment to the Divine (orchids) 

Charm of the new creation

Trust in the Divine

Individual power

Friendship with the Divine

Dynamic power

Love for the Divine (roses)

Power of progress

 

 

Chapter 5

Chapter 9

Road to the Divine

Planes of Consciousness and Parts of the Being

Ascension

Complexity of the centres

Aspiration

Supramental influence

Prayer

Spiritual aspiration

Devotion

Spiritual beauty

Remembrance

Psychic work

Opening

Psychological perfection

Receptivity

Mind

Tapasya

Higher mind

Renunciation of desires

Mental simplicity

Unselfishness

Quiet mind

Discipline

Vital opening

Thoroughness

Vital purity

Endurance

Elegance in the emotions

Service

Refinement of sensations

Work

Physical consciousness turned entirely towards the Divine

Organisation

Light in the blood

Help

Peace in the cells

Progress

Peace in the sex centre

 

Health

Chapter 6

Dreams

Bases of Spiritual Life

Power of Truth in the Subconscient

Sincerity

Divine Will acting in the Inconscient

Purity

 

Simplicity

Chapter 10

Humility

Collaboration of Nature

Peace

Blossoming of Nature

Silence

Spontaneous aspiration of Nature towards the Divine

Gratitude

Abundance

Cheerfulness

Light in fairyland

Goodwill

Bird of paradise

Balance

 

Harmony

Chapter 11

Generosity

Awakening of Matter

Faithfulness

Psychic awakening in Matter

Right attitude

Gold

Enthusiasm

Fire

Life energy

 

Plasticity

Chapter 12

Courage

Radha and Krishna

Boldness

Radha's consciousness

Absolute truthfulness

Krishna's light in the Overmind

Spiritual speech

Krishna's play

No quarrels

Krishna's Ananda

Certitude

 

 

Part II

 

Sri Aurobindo Ashram

 

First Edition 2000

(C) Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 2000

Published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Publication Department

Pondicherry, India

Printed in Singapore at Ho Printing

ISBN 81-7058-609-7

THE MOTHER

 

The Spiritual Significance of Flowers

 

Part I

 

Test and Photograph

 

Publisher s Note

 

"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 this language, she identified the significances of almost nine hundred flowers. In this book, these flowers and their meanings are presented in -the light of her vision and experience.

The book consists of two separately bound parts. Part 1, the text and photographs, is arranged thematically on the basis of the Mother's flower-significances. In each of the twelve chapters, flowers of related significance are grouped together; these groups are then placed in a sequence that develops the theme of the chapter. The organisation of the chapters is outlined in the Contents.

 


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.

Part 2 is a reference volume containing indexes, glossaries, detailed descriptions of the flowers and other information. The three indexes make it possible to locate the flowers in Part 1 by looking under the Mother's significance, the botanical name or the common name.

 


 

The Origin of the Significances

 

Mother, when flowers are brought to you, how do you give them a significance? By entering into contact with the nature of the flower, its inner truth. Then one knows what it represents.

Mother, how do you give a significance to a flower?

By entering into contact with it and giving a meaning, more or less precise, to what I feel.

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 nor a feeling, but something of both; it is a spontaneous movement, a very special vibration. Well, if one is in contact with this vibration, if one feels it, one receives an impression which may be translated by a thought. This is how I give a significance to flowers and plants. There is a kind of identification with the vibration, a perception of the quality it represents, and gradually through a kind of approximation (sometimes it comes suddenly, occasionally it takes time) there is a convergence of these vibrations, which are of a vital-emotional order, and the vibration of mental thought, and if there is sufficient accord one has a direct perception of what the plant may signify.

THE MOTHER

 


The Mother

 

 

The Mother

 

The Mother was born Mirra Alfassa on 21 February 1878 in Paris. A student at the Academic Julian, she became an accomplished artist. Gifted from an early age with a capacity for spiritual and occult experience, she went to Tlemcen, Algeria, in 1906 and 1907 to study occultism with the adept Max Theon and his wife. Between 1911 and 1913 she gave a number of talks to various groups of seekers in Paris and began to record her deepening communion with the Divine in the diary later published as Prayers and Meditations.

In 1914 the Mother voyaged to Pondicherry, South India, to meet the Indian mystic Sri Aurobindo. After a stay of eleven months,

 


she was obliged by the outbreak of the First World War to return to France. A year later she went to Japan, where she remained for four years. In April 1920 the Mother rejoined Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry. Six years later, when the Sri Aurobindo Ashram was founded, Sri Aurobindo entrusted its material and spiritual charge to her, for he considered her not a disciple but his spiritual equal and collaborator. 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 an international township, Auroville, in 1968. The Mother passed away on 17 November 1973.

 


Sri Aurobindo

 

 

Sri Aurobindo

 

Sri Aurobindo was born in Calcutta on 15 August 1872. At the age of seven he was taken to England for his education. There he studied at St. Paul's School, London, and at King's College, Cambridge. Returning to India in 1893, he worked for the next thirteen years in the Princely State of Baroda in the service of the Maharaja and as a professor in the state's college.

In 1906 Sri Aurobindo quit his post in Baroda and went to Calcutta, where he became one of the leaders of the Indian nationalist movement. As editor of the news- paper Bande Mataram, he boldly put forward the idea of complete independence from Britain. Arrested three times for sedition or treason, he was released each time for lack of evidence.

 


Sri Aurobindo began the practice of Yoga in 1905. Within a few years he achieved several fundamental spiritual realisations. In 1910 he withdrew from politics and went to Pondicherry in French India in order to concentrate on his inner life and work. During his forty years there, he developed a new spiritual path, the Integral Yoga, whose ultimate aim is the transformation of life by the power of a supramental consciousness. In 1926, with the help of the Mother, he founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. His vision of life is presented in numerous works of prose and poetry, among which the best known are The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga and Savitri. Sri Aurobindo passed away on 5 December 1950.