Soul
of a Flower |
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____The
unselfish movement,
uncalculating, is one of the most
beautiful forms of psychic
consciousness in the world. But
the higher one rises in the scale
of mental activity, the rarer it
becomes. For with intelligence
come all the skill and
cleverness, and corruption,
calculation. For instance, when a
rose blossoms it does so
spontaneously, for the joy of
being beautiful, smelling sweet,
expressing all its joy of living,
and it does not calculate, it has
nothing to gain out of it: it
does so spontaneously, in the joy
of being and living. Take a human
being, well, apart from a very
few exceptions, the moment his
mind is active he tries to get
some advantage out of his beauty
and cleverness; he wants it to
bring him something, either men's
admiration or even much more
sordid gains yet. Consequently,
from the psychic point of view,
the rose is better than human
beings. |
____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. |
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____Do
flowers love? |
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____This
is their form of love, this
blossoming. Certainly, when one
sees a rose opening to the sun,
it is like a need to give its
beauty. Only, for us, it is
almost unintelligible, for they
do not think about what they do.
A human being always associates
with everything he does this
ability to see himself doing it,
that is, to think about himself,
think of himself doing it. Man
knows that he is doing something.
Animals don't think. It is not at
all the same form of love. And
flowers, so to speak, are not
conscious: it is a spontaneous
movement, not a consciousness
that is conscious of itself, not
at all. But it is a great Force
which acts through all that, the
great universal Consciousness and
the great Force of universal love
which makes all things blossom in
beauty. |
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____Is
there a sense of beauty in
flowers? |
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____Directly
there is organic life, the vital
element comes in, and it is this
vital element which gives to
flowers the sense of beauty. It
is not perhaps individualised in
the sense we understand it, but
it is a sense of the species and
the species always tries to
realise it. I have noticed a
first rudiment of the psychic
presence and vibration in
vegetable life, and truly this
blossoming one calls a flower is
the first manifestation of the
psychic presence. The psychic is
individualised only in man, but
it was there before him; but it
is not the same kind of
individualisation as in man, it
is more fluid: it manifests as
force, as consciousness rather
than as individuality. Take the
rose, for example; its great
perfection of form, colour, scent
expresses an aspiration and a
psychic giving. Look at a rose
opening in the morning at the
first touch of the sun, it is a
magnificent self-giving in
aspiration. |
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____What
is this psychic prayer that
flowers represent? |
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____The
psychic, when it manifests in a
plant, in the form of a flower,
is in the form of a wordless
prayer; it is the elan of the
plant towards the Divine. |
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____You
have written: "Love of
flowers is a valuable help for
finding and uniting with the
psychic. Could you explain this
more in detail? |
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____Since
flowers are the manifestation of
the psychic in the vegetal
kingdom, love of flowers would
mean that one is drawn by the
psychic vibration and
consequently by the psychic in
one's own self. |
____When
you are receptive to the psychic
vibration, that puts you in a
more intimate contact with the
psychic in your own self. Perhaps
the beauty of flowers too is a
means used by Nature to awaken in
human beings the attraction for
the psychic. |
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____How
can one enter into psychic
contact with flowers? |
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____When
one is in conscious contact with
one's own psychic, one becomes
aware of an impersonal psychic
behind the whole creation and
then, through this, one can enter
into contact with flowers and
know the psychic prayer they
represent. |
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____Mother,
when flowers are brought to you,
how do you give them a
significance? |
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____To
the flowers? But it's in the same
way, by entering into contact
with the nature of the flower,
its inner truth. Then one knows
what it represents. |
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____Each
flower has its special
significance, hasn't it? |
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____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) 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. |
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____If
our flower-offering depends on
our state of consciousness, does
it help us to learn the
significances of flowers even if
it is purely mental to begin
with? |
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____Yes,
surely. |
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____Have
flowers a power in the occult
world? |
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____Yes,
they have an occult power; they
can even transmit a message if
one knows how to charge them with
it. |
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____Can
the flowers transmit other
messages apart from the
significances you have given? |
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____It
is not impossible but the person
who sends the message must have a
great power of formation. |
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____Is
the power of formation purely
occult or can a mental or vital
power of formation also transmit
messages? |
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____The
mental power of formation can
certainly transmit messages. But
for these messages to be received
and understood, the person to
whom they are sent must himself
be very receptive mentally and
particularly attentive. |
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____When
we offer flowers, with what
attitude should we offer them?
Does it matter if we do not know
the significance? |
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____This
depends complely on the person
who gives the flowers and on his
state of consciousness. The same
answer may be given to both the
questions. According to the
degree of consciousness of people
what they do has a deep
significance. |
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____Do
flowers retain the force always,
even when they decay? |
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____Decay?
No, my child; when they dry up,
yes. Decayed flowers are just
nothing. A decomposition takes
place, so the thing disappears.
Perhaps it brings energy to the
soil, that's quite possible; but
still, when it decays it is good
only to make manure to grow other
flowers. But if it dries up, it
is preserved, it can remain for
quite a long time. |
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____Sweet
Mother, what should we do with
the flowers which you give us
every day? |
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____Flowers?
You ought to keep them as long as
they are fresh, and when they are
no longer so, you must collect
them and give them to the
gardener (any gardener you know),
so that he can put them in the
earth to produce other flowers.
Yes, one must give back to the
earth what it has given us, for
otherwise it will become poor. |
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THE MOTHER |
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