Flowering Shrubs - Part 1

Flowering Shrubs – Part 1 – Purity

Although there are now more than 20,000 photographs in my library, taken over a period of more than fifty years, beginning with the early Nikon film cameras and various colour films and now progressing into the digital era, there remain may more photos to be taken of plants and flowers whose inner significances Mother has revealed to us.

I have selected some of the better photos to include in these articles and initially considered eighty of them arranged by significance, but finally have been guided to write a series of articles in order to reduce the overall length of each article and to include as many comments by Mother relating to the significance of each flower as well as continuing to add relevant and inspiring quotations from Sri Aurobindo and Mother.

I welcome all who wish to contribute their special photographs for possible inclusion. Of prime importance is sharpness, close-up (macro) detail of the flowers, accurate colour and no disturbing background. As these articles progress towards an eventual book, A Field Guide to Flower Significances, it would be helpful to have photographs of the plants as well.

Shrubs come in a vast range of sizes and shapes from small plants less than half a metre high to towering specimens more than six metres in height. Shrubs are woody plants with several branches rising from the ground but do not have the single or multiple trunks that are characteristic of trees. A number of shrubs also have a climbing habit or at least are semi-climbers. We call these scandent shrubs and they may be listed under shrubs or climbers, according to their most characteristic shape.

There are a number of flowers that vibrate with the message of purity. In Flowering Shrubs Part 1 – Purity, we find Gardenias and Jasmines, among the world’s most delightful fragrances.

Purity is perfect sincerity and one cannot have it unless the being is entirely consecrated to the Divine.^[1]

The Mother

On earth, true purity is to think as the Divine thinks, to will as the Divine wills, to feel as the Divine feels.^[2]

The Mother

Aspiration for Vital Purity

Delicate, modest, insistent

Vital Purity

Mother’s comment :

It begins with the abolition of desire.

Vital Purity

Radiating Purity

Mother’s comment:

It charms and fascinates making all Nature fragrant.

There are many lovely forms of Radiating Purity such as these above and the one below, all bearing fragrant single flowers.

Radiating Purity

Perfect Radiating Purity

Mother’s comment :

Nothing escapes its action.

Air glowed and teemed with marvellous shapes and hues,

In the nostrils quivered celestial fragrances,

On the tongue lingered the honey of paradise.^[3]

Savitri

Again, there are numerous forms of Perfect Radiating Purity,

among the most delightful and enchanting fragrances of all flowers.

Perfect Radiating Purity

There is a force of purity,

not the purity of the moralist,

but an essential purity of spirit,

in the very substance of the being.^[4]

Sri Aurobindo

Another fragrant gardenia is the dwarf Perfect Radiating Purity growing in Mother’s Garden, pictured above and below.

It often bears one hundred and more flowers at a time.

Collective Purity

Mother’s comment :

A very precious achievement, but difficult to obtain.

Desire nothing but the purity, force, light, wide-ness, calm, Ananda of the divine consciousness and its insistence to transform and perfect your mind, life and body^.[5]

Sri Aurobindo

Along with purity and as a help to bring it about, concentration. Purity and concentration are indeed two aspects, feminine and masculine, passive and active, of the same status of being; purity is the condition in which concentration becomes entire, rightly effective, omnipotent; by concentration purity does its works and without it would only lead to a state of peaceful quiescence and eternal repose.^[6]

Sri Aurobindo

There are many other beautiful viburnum in varying colours and flower shapes with a few that, for me, vibrate with the same message,

Collective Purity, both having the same ball-like inflorescence.

Collective Purity - Viburnum plicatum ‘Popcorn’

Collective Purity - Two forms of Viburnum macrocephalum - Chinese snowball

Mental Purity

Mother’s comment :

A mirror that does not distort.

Mental Purity

Integral Mental Purity

Mother’s comment :

A spotless mirror turned constantly towards the Divine.

Purity in the Cells

Mother’s comment:

Can only be obtained through the conquest of desires; it is the true condition for good health.

Purity

Mother’s comment :

True purity is fragrant!

Purity

Mother’s comment :

The natural condition of the psychic.

Flowers raise towards the sky their perfumed prayers and aspiration.^[7]

Integral Purity

Mother’s comment :

The whole being is purified of the ego.

Divine Purity

Mother’s comment :

Happy just to be, in all simplicity!

First Appearance of Purity in the Inconscient

Mother’s comment :

The sign that the inconscient is on the way to becoming conscious.

Power of Integral Purity

Mother’s comment :

The power to accept only the divine influence.

Question asked of Mother: “Do the strong-scented flowers represent a more ardent psychic prayer than the unscented ones?

Mother’s reply: “Their nature gives itself more generously and more intimately.^[8]

Footnotes

[1] Collected Works of the Mother – Centenary Edition – Vol. 14 – Page 156

[2] Collected Works of the Mother – Centenary Edition – Vol. 14 – Page 156

[3] Savitri - BOOK I: The Book of Beginnings - CANTO III: The Yoga of the Soul’s Release

[4] Works of Sri Aurobindo --> English --> SABCL --> Letters on Yoga_Volume-24

[5] Works of Sri Aurobindo --> English --> Other Editions --> The Mother by Sri Aurobindo --> Chapter 3

[6] Works of Sri Aurobindo --> English --> Other Editions --> Arya --> A Philosophical Review VOL.2 --> 15 March 1916.htm

[7] Mother’s comments for the book - Flowers and Their Messages

[8] Mother’s comments for the book - Flowers and Their Messages

Botanical Notes

Aspiration for Vital Purity – Duranta erecta (D. repens) - Pigeon berry, Sky flower, Golden dewdrop

Vital Purity – Duranta erecta (D. repens) ‘Alba’ - Pigeon berry, Sky flower, Golden dewdrop

Radiating Purity - Gardenia augusta [G. jasminoides] - Jasmine, Cape jessamine – (single flower)

Perfect Radiating Purity – Gardenia augusta [G. jasminoides] - Jasmine, Cape jessamine – (double flower)

Perfect Radiating Purity – dwarf form – Gardenia jasminoides ‘Radicans’ - Jasmine, Cape jessamine

Collective Purity - Viburnum plicatum - Japanese Snowball

Collective Purity – 2^nd form Viburnum plicatum ‘Popcorn’ - Japanese Snowball

Collective Purity – 3^rd and 4^th forms Viburnum macrocephalum – Chinese snowball

Mental Purity – Tabernaemontana divaricata - Crape jasmine, Crape gardenia, Pinwheel flower, East Indian rosebay

Integral Mental Purity - Tabernaemontana divaricata flore-pleno – semi-double flowers - Crape jasmine, Crape gardenia, Pinwheel flower, East Indian rosebay

Purity in the Cells – Lantana - Shrub verbena

Purity – Jasminum – all varieties with single flowers - Jasmine, Jessamine

Psychic Purity – Jasminum – all varieties with semi-double flowers - Jasmine, Jessamine

Integral Purity – Jasminum sambac – all varieties with fully double, highly fragrant flowers - Jasmine, Jessamine

Divine Purity – Isotoma longiflora

First Appearance of Purity in the Inconscient – Plumbago zeylanica

Power of Integral Purity – Hibiscus rosa-sinensis – Chinese hibiscus, Hawaiian hibiscus, Rose-of-China