Spiritual significance of flowers, Pussy willow = Salix discolor, Salicaceae

50 — Number of the plant

at the book: The Mother. The Spiritual Significance of Flowers.- 1-st Ed. / Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry (India).- Singapore: Ho Printing, 2000.- ISBN 81-7058-609-7

Classification

► Division Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants

► Class Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons

► Subclass Dilleniidae

► Order Salicales

► Family Salicaceae - Willow family

► Genus Salix L. - Willow

Synonyms

Salix discolour

Common names

American pussy willow (English)

Pussy willow (English)

Mimosa (French)

Saule (French)

Верба (Russian)

Ива (Russian)

Description

Pussy willow Small downy erect pearl grey catkins that turn bright yellow with age; borne singly along the branches before the leaves appear. A large shrub or small tree that flowers in early spring in temperate climates.

There is no fundamental difference in the attitude towards the future and the service of the Divine.

It is the powerful golden attraction of the future which draws us in spite of ourselves, as the sun draws the lotus from the mud, and forces us to a glory greater than any our mud or efforts or present triumphs could have foreseen or created.

Evolution, being thus continuous, must have at any given moment a past with its fundamental results still in evidence, a present in which the results it is labouring over are in process of becoming, a future in which still unevolved powers and forms of being must appear till there is the full and perfect manifestation.

Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. - Volume 19. - The Life Divine: Book 2

If the will in a race or civilisation is towards death, if it clings to the lassitude of decay and the laissez-faire of the moribund or even in strength insists blindly upon the propensities that lead to destruction or if it cherishes only the powers of dead Time and puts away from it the powers of the future, if it prefers life that was to life that will be, nothing, not even abundant strength and resources and intelligence, not even many calls to live and constantly offered opportunities will save it from an inevitable disintegration or collapse. But if there comes to it a strong faith in itself and a robust will to live, if it is open to the things that shall come, willing to seize on the future and what it offers and strong to compel it where it seems adverse, it can draw from adversity and defeat a force of invincible victory and rise from apparent helplessness and decay in a mighty flame of renovation to the light of a more splendid life.

Sri Aurobindo. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library in 30 Volumes. - Volume 14. - The Foundations of Indian culture