Blossoming Delights

For this month’s photo-feature we bring you some shots of recent blooms from our humble little garden. We are grateful to have this little green space which is a constant source of joy for us in its changing forms, colours, blossoms, and textures. We hope these image will bring joy to our readers as well.

All images by Suhas Mehra. Quotes selected by Beloo Mehra.

---

 

What is God after all? An eternal child playing an eternal game in an eternal garden.

~ Sri Aurobindo, Aphorisms

Flowers and trees are the poetry of Nature; the gardener is a romantic poet who has added richness, complexity of effect and symmetry to a language otherwise distinguished merely by facility, by directness and by simplicity of colour and charm.

~ Sri Aurobindo, Early Cultural Writings

When you see a flower, do you ask the gardener to reduce the flower to its chemical components? There would then be no flower left and no beauty.

~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Poetry and Art

Flowers are the prayers of the vegetal kingdom.

~ The Mother

Flowers are very receptive to people’s vitality—to the QUALITY of the vitality. There are people, when they hold a flower it wilts instantly; with others, it opens. I myself saw several times Sri Aurobindo take a half-wilted flower in his hand, and it became quite fresh again—it was quite happy!

~The Mother, Mother’s Agenda: April 29, 1967

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.

In some countries (particularly here [in India]) certain plants are used as the media for worship, offering, devotion. Certain plants are given on special occasions. And I have often seen that this identification was quite in keeping with the nature of the plant, because spontaneously, without knowing anything, I happened to give the same meaning as that given in religious ceremonies. The vibration was really there in the flower itself…. Did it come from the use that had been made of it or did it come from very far, from somewhere deep down. From a beginning of the psychic life? It would be difficult to say.

~ The Mother

---

pic 1: Ixora chinensis/Ixora; Spiritual Significance: Psychic Aspiration; Constant, regular, organised, gentle and patient at the same time, resists all opposition, overcomes all difficulties.

pic 2 and 3: Zephyr flower/Rain lily; Spiritual Significance: Prayer; self-giving is true prayer.

pic 4: Rangoon creeper; Spiritual Significance: Faithfulness; we can count on You; You never fail us when we need You. Mussaenda; Spiritual Significance: Mental Goodwill; likes to show off a little, but is very useful. Passion flower; Spiritual Significance: Silence; the ideal condition for progress.

---

To see last month’s photo-feature, click HERE.

To see all photo-features on this blog, click HERE.