Botanical Name : Gardenia Jasminoides
Common Name
: Cape Jasmin; Gandharaj - King of fragrance.
Spiritual
Name :Radiating
Purity (Single flower)
It charms and fascinates; it makes all
nature fragrant
Perfect Radiating Purity (Double
flower)
Nothing escapes its action
Gardenia is a medium
to tall evergreen shrub with a very sweet enchanting fragrance.
It has an aristocratic appearance, elegant with glossy leaves
and waxy white flowers, spreading their perfume profusely. The
fresh light green leaves contrast prettily with the darker ones
and can stay for a long time in the vase. The flowers turn ivory
from pure milk white and remain as cut flowers only for a short
time.
The plant has a natural
graceful shape, erect and compact. It requires no pruning except
for removing occasional dead wood. It likes plenty of water, humus
and sunshine. In summer regular sprays of water are beneficial.
The Meaning of Purity
The Mother has named
the flower "Radiating Purity". But what is true purity? We often
link it with social and moral conventions of behaviour, while
it is something much deeper. On the other hand, we sometimes go
to the other extreme and take this as an excuse to break all moral
laws according to our desires. The Mother puts us on guard against
such interpretations and movements.
We give below a beautiful
talk of the Mother on the meaning of Purity.
"To be pure, what
does it mean? One is truly perfectly pure only when the whole
being, in all its elements and all its movements, adheres fully,
exclusively, to the divine Will. This indeed is total purity.
It does not depend on any moral or social law, any mental convention
of any kind. It depends exclusively on this: when all the elements
and all the movements of the being adhere exclusively and totally
to the divine Will.
Now, there are stages,
there are degrees. For example, insincerity, which is one of
the greatest impurities, always arises from the fact that a
movement or a set of movements, an element of the being or a
number of elements, want to follow their own will and not be
the expression of the divine Will. So this produces in the being
either a revolt or a falsehood. I don't mean that one tells
lies, but I mean that one is in a state of falsehood, of insincerity.
And then, the consequences are more or less serious and more
or less extensive according to the gravity of the movement itself
and its importance. But these, if one sees from the point of
view of purity, these are the real impurities."
Spiritual and Moral
Purity
"For example, if
you take your stand on a moral viewpoint - which is itself altogether
wrong from the spiritual point of view - there are people who
apparently lead an altogether perfectly moral life, who conform
to all the social laws, all the customs, the moral conventions,
and who are a mass of impurity - from the spiritual point of
view these beings are profoundly impure. On the other hand there
are some poor people who do things... who are born, for instance,
with a sense of freedom, and do things which are not considered
very respectable from the social or moral point of view, and
who can be in a state of inner aspiration and inner sincerity
which makes them infinitely purer than the others. This is one
of the big difficulties. As soon as one speaks of these things,
there arises the deformation produced in the consciousness by
all the social and moral conventions. As soon as you speak of
purity, a moral monument comes in front of you which completely
falsifies your notion. And note that it is infinitely easier
to be moral from the social point of view than to be moral from
the spiritual point of view. To be moral from the social viewpoint
one has only to pay good attention to do nothing which is not
approved of by others; this may be somewhat difficult, but still
it is not impossible; and one may be, as I said, a monument
of insincerity and impurity while doing this; whereas to be
pure from the spiritual point of view means a vigilance, a consciousness,
a sincerity that stand all tests.
One must be very Vigilant
"Now, I may put
you on your guard against something... - about people who live
in their vital consciousness and say, "I indeed am above moral
laws, I follow a higher law, I am free from all moral laws."
And they say this because they want to indulge in all irregularities.
These people, then, have a double impurity: they have spiritual
impurity and in addition social impurity. And these usually
have a very good opinion of themselves, and they assert their
wish to live their life with an unequalled impudence.
Yet, usually the
people whom I have found most difficult to convert are very
respectable people. I am sorry, but I have had much more difficulty
with respectable people than with those who were not so, for
they had such a good opinion of themselves that it was impossible
to open them. But the true thing is difficult. That is to say,
one must be very vigilant and very self-controlled, very patient,
and have a never-failing goodwill. One must not neglect having
a small dose of humility, a sufficient one, and one must never
be satisfied with the sincerity one has. One must always want
more."
- The
Mother
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