flowers
Their Spiritual significance
Photo Collection
Human passions changed into love for the Divine
May they become a real fact, and their abundance will save the world.
Rosa Spp. L. (Rosaceae)
Rose
Medium to large red flower. A large shrub.
Rose
Golden rose = love and surrender full of the true consciousness.
Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. - Volume 4. - Bengali Writings. Translated into English
My aspiration to Thee, O Lord, has taken the form of a beautiful rose, harmonious, full in bloom, rich in fragrance. I stretch it out to Thee with both arms in a gesture of offering and I ask of Thee: If my understanding is limited, widen it; if my knowledge is obscure, enlighten it; if my heart is empty of ardour, set it aflame; if my love is insignificant, make it intense; if my feelings are ignorant and egoistic, give them the full consciousness in the Truth. And the "I" which demands this of Thee, O Lord, is not a little personality lost amidst thousands of others. It is the whole earth that aspires to Thee in a movement full of fervour.
In the perfect silence of my contemplation all widens to infinity, and in the perfect peace of that silence Thou appearest in the resplendent glory of Thy Light.
The Mother
The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.- Volume 1.- Prayers And Meditations
(Soon afterwards, Mother goes into a long meditation.)
I saw a series of roses, this big (gesture of about ten inches), coming one after the other - magnificent! All kinds of colors. They certainly had a significance: one would arrive, come forward, as if giving a little bow, and go away, and then another arrived - roses this big.... Because I had complained just before! It was just in front of you (gesture on the heart level), magnificent roses of a perfect shape, and all kinds of colors.
The Mother
The Mother. Agenda. - Volume 8. - 1967
Human passions changed into love for the Divine
My beloved Mother, the whole day I thought of nothing else except that red rose which signifies "Human passions changed into love for the Divine". I want to know precisely what the human passions are.
By "passion" we mean all the violent desires which take possession of a man and finally govern his life - the drunkard has the passion for drink, the debauchee the passion for women, the gambler the passion for dice, etc. If one human being feels a violent and uncontrollable love for another, this is called a passion, and it is of this we are speaking; it is this impassioned love which human beings feel for one another that must be changed into love for the Divine.
The Mother
The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.- Volume 16. - More answers from the Mother
Mother gives Satprem a red rose:
The red rose is the order of the "knights of the Truth." Don't you know this?... I began placing it when Colonel Répiton came here, the one who made the Africa march during the war. Every morning I would give him a red rose, and with him I instituted it. Since then, when I give any man a rose (I give them a red rose), it's so he becomes a knight of the Truth.
But I don't tell him.
The Mother
The Mother. Agenda. - Volume 7. - 1966
(Mother goes into a contemplation then gives Satprem a red rose)
This is "all human passions turned to the Divine," and this (Mother gives a pink rose) is the Response.
The Mother
The Mother. Agenda. - Volume 11. - 1970
Someone who has experienced love for the Divine can no longer love anything but the Divine, and it is the Divine he loves in all those for whom he feels affection; besides, this is the best way to love, because in this way one can be a powerful help for others to become conscious of the Divine who manifests in them.
The Mother
The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.- Volume 10. - The Thoughts and Aphorismes
The true love for the Divine is self-giving, free of demand, full of submission and surrender. It makes no claim, imposes no condition, strikes no bargain, indulges in no violences of jealousy or pride or anger - for these things are not in its composition.
The Mother
The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.- Volume 14. - Words of the Mother
Only, if you climb a rung higher and consciously do what the rose does unconsciously, then it is much more beautiful. But it must be the same thing: a spontaneous flowering of beauty, uncalculating, simply for the joy of being. Little children have this at times (at times, not always). Unfortunately, under the influence of their parents and the environment, they learn to be calculating when yet very young.
But this kind of wish to gain by what one has or does is truly one of the ugliest things in the world. And it is one of the most widespread and it has become so widespread, that it is almost spontaneous in man. Nothing can turn its back on the divine love more totally than that, that wish to calculate and profit.
The Mother
The Mother. Collected Works of the Mother.- Volume 5. - Questions And Answers (1953)
For me sadhana consists in loving the Divine more and more integrally, more and more absolutely, with a love so total that it leads to identification.
The Mother
The Mother. En Route / [Madanlal Himatsinghka].- Pondicherry, 1987, P. 9 (July 1969)