Dear Arindam,
There was a very special experience on my visit to Chennai this past Tuesday during a conference of the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin to which Pashi Kapoor and I were invited.
After all the awards were given out and many speakers gave presentations that lasted nearly three hours before the dinner, I sat at a table about 50 feet from the large windows that opened on to an enclosed garden. To my delight I saw a pure white oleander in magnificent bloom. It was filled with flowers and truly touched my soul but I could not quite remember Mother's significance. The significance of the pink and the red forms immediately came to me but the meaning of this beautiful glistening white flower eluded me.
Pashi Kapoor was sitting much closer to the window, probably only 20 feet away and I kept pointing to him to look out the window. He thought I was pointing to the buffet table which was up against some of the windows but I shook my head, "No" and kept pointing to the oleander in the garden outside. Then he saw it and he too was astounded at its beauty.
The next morning the conference continued but the room was partitioned off since there were far fewer people in attendance. I went behind the partitionon the side of the room where we had dinner and looked out the window and & No white oleander! I then asked the hotel staff if this was the banquet room and I was assured that it indeed was, but to satisfy myself I walked outside in front of the building and even throughout the ground floor of the Trident Hotel. Suddenly the significance came to me, Quietness established in the mind or Quiet mind, both single white flowers.
I then found Pashi and asked him to confirm where he had sat and then asked him to look through the window for the white oleander. He too was astounded that it wasn't there. The area was well manicured with a nice lawn and the oleander was in the ground when we saw it. We looked at all the other plants in the area but the space where the white oleander had been was only undisturbed lawn!
Narad