Flower Song

The Mother said: “When I give flowers, it is an answer to the aspiration coming from the very depths of your being. “It is an aspiration or a need — it depends on the person. It may fill a void, or else give you the impetus to progress, or it may help you to find the inner harmony to establish peace. “I give you flowers so that you may develop the Divine qualities they symbolize. And they can directly transmit into your soul all that they contain, pure, unalloyed. They possess a very subtle and very deep power and influence.” From the start of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1927, the Mother used flowers in her interactions with the sadhaks who came to see her. From an early period, she gave significances to certain flowers. In this way there evolved a language of flowers by which the Mother communicated with the sadhaks. “Flower Song” (http://flowersong.in) — compiled from decades of research done by Narad (Richard Eggenberger) — brings together about 900 flowers with their spiritual and psychological significances given by the Mother. Selected passages from Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s writings help the beautiful images to impress upon the seeker their living qualities. Various properties of each flower such as common and botanical names, family, petals, distribution, along with the colours for all known variants have been noted. A search feature has also been provided to easily locate a flower by looking up its metadata. And since this is an ongoing project, many more details and features will continue to be added in the future. It is our hope and aspiration that a study of these selections, by enabling us to enter into a living communion with the world of flowers, will lead us to a deeper relationship with the true, the beautiful, the Divine. “Life must blossom like a flower offering itself to the Divine,” said the Mother.