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Richard Pearson
Richard
I would like to draw from what Aster said in the very beginning regarding the collective movement. We are all here today to remember the Mother—a remembrance of the past perhaps but also it is in the present and will be carried far into the future. I would like to also remind you of a word from General Tewari or Kamla, one of whom said: "I was an absolute zero—I was blank, with nothing in my head." I point this out simply because we are all here today sharing the presence of flowers—mighty, subtle, delicate and transforming flowers. It is impossible to describe a flower; it is possible to enter into the presence of a flower by becoming a zero, being blank!
Here are the flowers of the twelve gardens of the Matrimandir. But first let me tell you how I first came upon these twelve names given for the gardens. We were working all day for many days, doing kolams (traditional South Indian designs) for the inaugural ceremony of Auroville in 1968. We came in the morning, worked through the day and went back in the evening for physical education 'group' for there were children with me from the school, where I was teaching; but this too was part of my school work.
All this was for the day of inauguration the 28th February, "1968; there was a beautiful exhibition, I remember the balloon flying high. But what struck me most however was a small placard, on which was written, in French 'Matrimandir—love'; then there was a list of 12 gardens which now we will take up,
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and at the bottom, 'Banyan—unity'. I don't remember much about anything else but this struck a very deep chord in me and this was the first time that I saw these names—perhaps I had not even heard about the 12 gardens of Matrimandir.
Somehow the Mother wanted to choose the flower for the twelve gardens from the wide range of Hibiscus to which she had already given the largest number of names for one single genus. Basically they represented forms of power, beauty and consciousness in often different subtle variations, according to colour, size as well as single and double forms. Even some time earlier the first one that the Mother liked she named Divinite— Godhead—and she would say, "I am giving you godhead." This was the first Auroville Flower, I believe. Later on, for the Auroville flower that all of you know, the orange hibiscus, she said: "This is also for Auroville; it has the colour of the soil of Auroville. They are both flowers of Auroville." She had already named it The beauty of supramental love.
Later the Mother called to bring all the Hibiscus flowers that I could get and said: "I want to know the meanings of these flowers so that I can name a flower for each garden of the Matrimandir." I told her: "You know the names, they are your names." In her beautiful divine modesty, she said: "I need you to remind me!" So, I met her every month on a Tuesday and I believe Narad very excitedly would gather all the Hibiscus flowers that he could get and I collected others from Ashram gardens.
That was a magical moment; in the Ashram and in Auroville, hibiscus were growing that were new to everybody. They were— Hawaiian hibiscus. It was the golden period of the Mother's dream being brought down,—what she called the 'Spirit of Auroville'. It was as though a descent took place.
When I took these flowers to her, she wanted to start in order and the first garden is Existence. She picked up one single pink Hibiscus flower and admired it and asked, smilingly: "What is this called?" I told her—"This is the power in the psychic"— so, she said, "But we have to put the word existence in here, how will we do that?" And she named it finally, after some minor changes: the psychic power in existence. Then after that came consciousness—there was a yellow double golden hibiscus
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already called: Supramental Consciousness—she said this was luminous, like that consciousness. She chose it for the garden of consciousness. The third was easy: bliss (Felicite in French)— ananda; it is also a hibiscus already named. It is a single small medium sized dainty flower.
The next day, after the first three gardens existence, consciousness and bliss or satchitananda the descending triangle in Sri Aurobindo's symbol came—then life, light and power, the ascending triangle of the symbol. For life she chose, a happy and vibrant soothing double, red medium sized flower called power of the consciousness, as all double red hibiscus are. For light we had purified power, and Mother changed the message or meaning to light of the purified power. The one she named had long petals—it lasted two or three days and exceptionally, it was fragrant. The next was POWER—Mother chose a very special flower—aesthetic power. There are two or three forms— but usually it's a very old fashioned large flower with long broad petals and white spots behind each petal. Incidentally her comment for this flower is: "Beauty is a great power."
In the third set we have youth. A very old flower Supramental beauty which we do not see that often was renamed Beauty of supramental youth for that garden. It is a single medium to large coloured. And along with that we have another old fashioned hibiscus: Supramental beauty in the physical. After youth comes usefulness. The Mother had named a flower for Auroville Usefulness of Auroville. This was changed to Usefulness of the New Creation since Mother felt that the word Auroville would not be as universal. Indeed there are about fifteen other Hibiscus named for Auroville, like Success of Auroville, which later changed to Power of success. And this is followed by progress; it's a small single flower with orange stigmas; it is the power to progress and we also have the single flower white with pink veins and orange stigmas, power of progress, but Mother only chose the first small one.
After that the last triad is formed of wealth, harmony, perfection. Towards the end the Mother did not choose all hibiscus, except for harmony which have several varieties. It is a medium to large single flower, coloured soft ochre yellow with a pink, orange or light red centre. It is the power of harmony.
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For wealth she chose water lilies and cactus, wealth and riches respectively. For perfection she said, "Today we don't need a hibiscus, since we have this—the psychological perfection." It is a flower named by her in the very early days probably before 1929. In short this is what I wanted to share with all of you. Now I would be happy if each one of you takes a flower as a friend or mentor: the blessings of the Mother.
I would like to draw your attention at this moment to something that I read only recently. Somebody said to the Mother, "I was arranging this vase and I said to the flower: "Oh, you are going to the Mother," and the flower smiled. When the Mother heard this she asked, "Was it a rose or a hibiscus?" The disciple said that it was a hibiscus. Mother commented: "This is a very conscious flower; I have seen this often."
To conclude, there are two things that Mother always said about the flowers: firstly, that she could transmit more force to people through flowers that she gave them than through any amount of talking; secondly, she said, "Some people always bring me fresh flowers, while others bring withered flowers— they are never able to bring me fresh ones." In the first case the aspiration is ardent living and strong.
Let us keep our flame burning in the heart to offer her fresh flowers and thus be ready to receive her blessings through our contacts with flowers!
Answering with the flower's answer to the sun
They gave themselves to her and asked no more.
Book IV, 2
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Source: Darshan
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