The Mother: Flowers and Their Messages

Editor's Note

Flowers and Their Messages is primarily a book of the Mother, where Sri Aurobindo's touch is undoubtedly felt. The spiritual significances of flowers are, we believe, a completely new way of looking at them. It may also be called a book of the Integral Yoga, for the Mother used flowers as an aid in our self-development to realise the highest possibilities that await us. A conscious and intimate relationship with flowers can help us to experience a beautiful communion with the Divine. Sri Aurobindo once remarked: "The plants are very psychic but they can express it only by silence and beauty." Here the Mother has made of that beauty an eloquent and potent expression.

This revised and enlarged edition has in the Introduction a few more passages from the writings of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. The section 'Nature, the Mother and Flowers' traces her sensitivity to Nature and her intuitive work of giving the spiritual significances of the flowers that were offered to her. Two other lists have been inserted: the first is a compilation of some of the names previously used by the Mother; the second gives the corresponding name to hibiscus flowers first given for Auroville. We have added one more flower that Mother named but was not included till now. This Hibiscus appears on page 115.

As in earlier editions the order of botanical names is followed, but these are often shortened by giving only the generic name. In the case of the conifers and the orchids however, the family name is used, since the Mother named the family as a whole. For the few scientific- minded readers, there is on page 297 a short list of alternative botanical names corresponding to the ones used in this book.

The Mother once remarked during a conversation that she could transmit a state of consciousness more easily to a flower than to a human being.

When the first edition of this book was in preparation she said: "This is a book for those who want to know what flowers tell us."

It is our joy to share this gift of the Mother with all who cherish and treasure flowers.

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