Blossom like a flower

GENEROSITY
• Generosity
• Psychic Generosity
• Generosity in the Vital
• Perfect Generosity in the Vital
• Psycho-Physical Generosity
• Generosity in the Physical
• Manifold Generosity

GENTLE
• Gentleness
• Vital Gentleness

GODHEAD
• Godhead

GODS
• Protection of the Gods

GOLD
• Gold
• Purified Gold

GOODWILL
• Goodwill
• Courageous Goodwill
• Attempt at Vital Goodwill
• Mental Goodwill
• Vegetal Goodwill towards the Supramental Forces

GOSSIP
• Gossip

GRACE, THE
• Call of the Divine Grace
• The Divine Grace
• Right Use of the Granted Grace

GRATITUDE
• Gratitude
• Detailed Gratitude
• Mental Gratitude
• Integral Gratitude

GREED
• Conquest over the Greed for Food
• Greed for Money

GRIEF
• Without Grief

GROUPING
• Grouping

GROWTH
• Growth

GUARDIAN, THE
• The Guardian

GUIDANCE
• Aspiration for Supramental Guidance in the Subconscient
• Aspiration of the Mind for the Supramental Guidance
• Matter Aspiring for the Supramental Guidance
• Matter under the Supramental Guidance

Whatever the appearance we must bear,
Whatever our strong ills and present fate,
When nothing we can see but drift and bale,
A mighty Guidance leads us still through all.




Aspiration of the Mind for the Supramental Guidance
The mind feels that its complexity is powerless and asks for a greater light to illuminate it.

Justicia aurea
Medium-sized yellow tubular flower with the corolla partly divided into two lips, emerging from a conspicuous dark green bract; in dense brushlike terminal spikes. An erect narrow shrub with four-sided stems.


Matter Aspiring for the Supramental Guidance
Dissatisfied and troubled. Matter asks for a powerful guide to put it in order.

Odontonema strictum
Small red curving tubular flower with five irregularly separated flaring lobes; borne in erect branching racemes. A small to medium shrub with wavy-edged leaves.


Matter under the Supramental Guidance
The condition required for its transformation.

Hamelia patens
Scarlet bush, Firebush
Small orange narrow tubular candlelike flower borne in terminal cymes. A shrub or small tree with oblong lanceolate leaves in whorls.

Growth
It will multiply and assert its right to be.

Primula
Primrose
Small showy salverform flowers in all colours, usually with five somewhat scalloped lobes and a contrasting centre; borne in compact heads. A popular garden perennial with basal leaves.

The Guardian
Vigilant and thorny, it knows how to protect what it guards.

Acanthus ilicifolius
Sea holly
Small deep blue tubular flower with the lower edge divided into three lobes, set in a spiny calyx and borne in tall spikes. A medium-sized spiny shrub with holly like leaves.

Grouping
Indispensable for collective action.

Clerodendrum paniculatum
Pagoda flower
Small reddish orange salverform flower with exserted stamens and five rounded lobes shaded light orange at the edges; borne in large erect rounded terminal panicles with reddish orange stems. A small to medium-sized shrub with large stiff cordate leaves.

Without Grief 
The contemplation that leads you beyond suffering.

Saraca indica
Asoka, Sorrowless tree
Large compact panicles of small mildly fragrant orange and pale orange four-lobed salverform flowers with elongated crimson stamens. A small ornamental tree with translucent pinkish tan new leaves.

Conquest over the Greed for Food
A promise of good health.

Dombeya Xcayeuxii
Small scented cup-shaped flower with large exserted cream white stigmas and sheer delicate pink or white petals that persist and become dry and papery with age; borne in many-flowered umbels on long pendant stalks. A large shrub with broad hairy heart-shaped leaves.


Greed for Money
The surest way to diminish one’s consciousness and narrow one’s nature.

Ochna kirkii
Bird’s-eye bush, Mickey Mouse plant
Small glossy jet black oval fruits that protrude from waxy red sepals; borne in short panicles. A decorative woody shrub with narrow leathery leaves and delicate evanescent yellow flowers.

There is nothing that gives you a joy equal to that of gratitude. You hear a bird sing, you see a lovely flower, you look at a little child, observe an act of generosity, read a beautiful sentence, look at the setting sun, anything whatever: suddenly this comes upon you, this kind of emotion, so deep, so intense, that the world manifests the Divine that there is something behind the world which is the Divine.

THE MOTHER

And yet, of all movements, the one that perhaps gives the most joy—an unalloyed joy, untainted by egoism - is spontaneous gratitude. It is something very special. It isn't love, it isn't self-giving. It is a very full joy. Very full. It is a very special vibration unlike anything other than itself. It is something that widens you, that fills you, that is so fervent! Of all the movements within the reach of human consciousness, it is certainly the one that draws you most out of your ego. . . .When you can enter this vibration in its purity, you realise immediately that it has the same quality as the vibration of Love: it is directionless. .. . Ultimately, gratitude is only a very slightly coloured shade of the essential vibration of Love.

THE MOTHER

Gratitude
It is you who open all the closed doors and allow the saving Grace to enter.

Ipomoea carnea
Large white to pale pink extremely sheer funnelform flower with a lavender pink throat; borne singly; flowers close rapidly towards mid- day. A straggling shrub that blooms profusely most of the year.


Detailed Gratitude
The gratitude that awakens in us all the details of the Divine Grace.

Merremia quinquefolia
Small white funnelform flower with a limb that emerges from a light green calyx and has a recurved edge; borne in axillary cymes; the buds and flower stalks are covered with bristly hairs. A rampant perennial vine with palmate leaves and clusters of dry seed capsules that resemble miniature wooden roses.


Mental Gratitude
The gratefulness of the mind for what makes it progress.

Merremia tuberosa
Wood rose, Yellow morning glory, Spanish woodbine, Hawaiian wood rose
Medium-sized golden yellow funnelform flower with the corolla tube completely enclosed by enlarged sepals; borne in few-flowered clusters from the leaf axils but blooms one at a time. A vigorous woody vine that has palmate leaves with seven deeply cut lobes and dried seed capsules that resemble carved wooden roses.


Integral Gratitude
The whole being offers itself to the Lord in absolute trust.

Operculina turpethum
Wood rose
Large white funnelform flower with five shallow irregularly rounded lobes, a light greenish yellow throat and a corolla tube enclosed in light green enlarged sepals; borne singly or in few-flowered cymes from the leaf axils. A rampant vine with attractive seed capsules.

An absolute faith and trust in the Grace is, in the last analysis, the Supreme Wisdom.

THE MOTHER

The more complete your faith, sincerity and surrender, the more will grace and protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mother are with you, what is there that can touch you or whom need you fear? A little of it even will carry you through all difficulties, obstacles and dangers; surrounded by its full presence you can go securely on your way because it is hers, careless of all menace, unaffected by any hostility however powerful, whether from this world or from worlds invisible. Its touch can turn difficulties into opportunities, failure into success and weakness into unfaltering strength. For the grace of the Divine Mother is the sanction of the Supreme and now or tomorrow its effect is sure, a thing decreed, inevitable and irresistible.

SRI AUROBINDO

Call of the Divine Grace
Not loud but persistent and very perceptible to those who know how to listen.

Operculina turpethum
Wooden rose
Light brown rattlelike seed capsules shaped like a wooden rose but thinner and more delicate than the true Wooden rose (Merremia tuberosa).


The Divine Grace
Thy goodness is infinite, we bow before Thee in gratitude.

Hibiscus mutabilis
Cotton rose, Confederate rose mallow
Large double flower with soft delicate petals that open pure white and gradually turn pink during the day.


Right Use of the Granted Grace
No deformation, no diminution, no exaggeration, a clear sincerity.

Saponaria
Soap-won, Bouncing Bet
Small white or pink flowers with five widely separated petals; borne in many-flowered umbels. A strong rhizomatous perennial.

Mental Goodwill
Likes to show off a little, but is very useful.

Mussaenda
Small lemon yellow or yellow funnel-shaped flower with five petals embossed with a star; the base of the flower is surrounded by one to five conspicuous sepals of various forms and sizes in cream white, pink or red which form the attractive part of the flower; borne in sparse terminal clusters. An erect decorative shrub.


Vegetal Goodwill towards the Supramental Forces
Each does what it can.

Cuphea micropetala
Small cream yellow tubular flower tinged orange at the base, borne in leafy terminal racemes. A many-stemmed subshrub with lanceolate leaves.

Gold
Should only be used in the service of the Divine.

Bauhinia tomentosa
St. Thomas tree, Yellow bauhinia. Bell bauhinia
Medium-sized light yellow pendulous bell-shaped flower with or without a dark maroon spot at the base of one petal; borne singly or in pairs from the leaf axils. A large shrub or small- tree.


Purified Gold
It is purified by being placed at the service of the Divine.

Bauhinia acuminata
Dwarf white bauhinia
Medium-sized pure white saucer-shaped flower with five broad petals and conspicuous golden anthers; borne in very short racemes. A medium to large shrub with the camels-foot leaves; typical of the genus.

Protection of the Gods
Luminous and clear-visioned.

Bougainvillea
Clusters of showy ovate predominantly yellow and golden bracts in groups of three or more that enfold tiny white to greenish white salverform flowers. A shrub, vine or small tree, usually armed with spines.

I use the word Godhead because it expresses at once the essence of Divinity and its powers - it opens the door on both the impersonal and the personal aspects without stressing either.

SRI AUROBINDO

The Godhead with whom the soul of man has to enter into this closest oneness, is indeed in his supreme status a transcendent Unthinkable too great for any manifestation, Parabrahman; but he is at the same time the living supreme Soul of all things. He is the supreme Lord, the Master of works and universal nature. He at once exceeds and inhabits as its self the soul and mind and body of the creature. He is Purushottama, Parameshwara and Paramatman and in all these equal aspects the same single and eternal Godhead.
It is an awakening to this integral reconciling knowledge that is the wide gate to the utter release of the soul and an unimaginable perfection of the nature. It is this Godhead in the unity of all his aspects to whom our works and our adoration and our knowledge have to be directed as a constant inner sacrifice.

SRI AUROBINDO

He is the one Existence: he is the original and universal Delight that constitutes all things and exceeds them: he is the one infinite Consciousness that composes all consciousnesses and informs all their movements; he is the one illimitable Being who sustains all action and experience; his will guides the evolution of things towards their yet unrealised but inevitable aim and plenitude. To him the heart can consecrate itself, approach him as the supreme Beloved, beat and move in him as in a universal sweetness of Love and a living sea of Delight. For his is the secret Joy that supports the soul in all its experiences and maintains even the errant ego in its ordeals and struggles till all sorrow and suffering shall cease. His is the Love and the Bliss of the infinite divine Lover who is drawing all things by their own path towards his happy oneness.

SRI AUROBINDO

Godhead
Pure and perfect, puts forth its force in the world.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis
Chinese hibiscus, Hawaiian hibiscus, Rose- of-China
Large single shell white or very pale yellow gold flower with crinkled petals, a pink centre, and golden anthers and stamens.

Generosity
Gives and gives itself without bargaining.

Impatiens balsamina
Garden balsam, Rose balsam
Small to medium-sized single or double flowers with irregular wavy petals and a long thin spur; in shades of red, pink, purple and white, often variegated; borne singly in the leaf axils on very thin stalks. A bushy garden annual with succulent stems and serrate leaves.


Psychic Generosity
Gives for the joy of giving.

Impatiens balsamina
Garden balsam, Rose balsam
Small to medium-sized single or double pink flowers with irregular wavy petals and a long thin spur; borne singly in the leaf axils on very thin stalks. A bushy garden annual with succulent stems and serrate leaves.


Generosity in the Vital
Gives itself unstintingly.

Impatiens balsamina
Garden balsam, Rose balsam
Small to medium-sized single rose purple flowers with irregular wavy petals and a long thin spur; borne singly in the leaf axils on very thin stalks. A bushy garden annual with succulent stems and serrate leaves.


Perfect Generosity in the Vital
(No comment)

Impatiens balsamina
Garden balsam, Rose balsam
Small to medium-sized double rose purple flowers with irregular wavy petals and a long thin spur; borne singly in the leaf axils on very thin stalks. A bushy garden annual with succulent stems and serrate leaves.


Psycho-Physical Generosity
Generosity of thought and act.

Impatiens balsamina
Garden balsam, Rose balsam
Small to medium-sized bicoloured pink and red single or double flowers with irregular wavy petals and a long thin spur; borne singly in the leaf axils on very thin stalks. A bushy garden annual with succulent stems and serrate leaves.

Picture not available.

Generosity in the Physical
Loves abundance and loves to give it.

Impatiens balsamina
Garden balsam, Rose balsam
Small to medium-sized single or double red flowers with irregular wavy petals and a long thin spur; borne singly in the leaf axils on very thin stalks. A bushy garden annual with succulent stems and serrate leaves.


Manifold Generosity
All in nature is spontaneously generous.

Impatiens balsamina
Garden balsam, Rose balsam
Small to medium-sized all bicoloured single or double flowers except pink and red, with irregular wavy petals and a long thin spur; borne singly in the leaf axils on very thin stalks. A bushy garden annual with succulent stems and serrate leaves.

Picture not available.

Generous Wealth
Likes to be given and spread far and wide.

Nymphaea
Water lily
Large showy usually very fragrant yellow flowers with numerous narrow pointed or rounded petals, many prominent erect stamens and four petal- like sepals; borne singly on long stems, either floating or held above the water. An aquatic rhizomatous herb with large floating peltate leaves.

Faith is a general word — shraddha — the soul's belief in the Divine's existence, wisdom, power, love and grace. ...

SRI AUROBINDO

Faith is the soul's witness to something not yet manifested, achieved or realised, but which yet the Knower within us, even in the absence of all indications, feels to be true or supremely worth following or achieving.

SRI AUROBINDO

[Faith] is in reality an influence from the supreme Spirit and its light a message from our supramental being which is calling the lower nature to rise out of its petty present to a great self-becoming and self-exceeding. And that which receives the influence and answers to 'the call is ... the inner soul which better knows the truth of its own destiny and mission.

SRI AUROBINDO

Faith is certainly a gift given to us by the Divine Grace. It is like a door that suddenly opens upon an eternal truth, a door through which we can see it, almost touch it. ... In the ignorance and darkness of the beginning, faith is the most direct expression of the Divine Power which comes to fight and conquer.

THE MOTHER

Faith
You flame up and triumph.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis
Chinese hibiscus, Hawaiian hibiscus, Rose- of-China
Medium-sized double flower, variegated in red and white.

"When you come to the Yoga, you must be ready to have all your mental buildings and all your vital scaffoldings shattered to pieces. You must be prepared to be suspended in the air with nothing to support you except your faith. You will have to forget your past self and its clingings altogether, to pluck it out of your consciousness and be born anew, free from every kind of bondage. Think not of what you were, but of what you aspire to be; be altogether in what you want to realise. Turn from your dead past and look straight towards the future.

THE MOTHER

The Future
A promise not yet realised.

Salix discolor
Pussy willow
Small downy erect pearl grey catkins that turn bright yellow with age; borne singly along the branches before the leaves appear. A large shrub or small tree that flowers in early spring in temperate climates.


Successful Future
Full of promise and joyful surprises.

Gaillardia pulchella
Indian blanket, Blanket flower, Fire-wheels
Medium-sized single or double compositae flower with prominent trumpet-shaped ray florets encircling the convex central disc; in shades of red, yellow, orange or multicoloured; borne singly. A commonly cultivated garden annual.


Successful Future under the Supramental Influence
(No comment)

Gaillardia pulchella
Indian blanket, Blanket flower, Fire-wheels

Power of the Future
To be capable of working for the future.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'Comet'
Chinese hibiscus, Hawaiian hibiscus, Rose-of-China
Large striking single deep red or deep magenta flower with a satiny sheen.


Power in Service of the Future
Without haste, but sure of its success.

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis
Chinese hibiscus, Hawaiian hibiscus, Rose-of-China
Very large single bright magenta flower with firm crinkled slightly recurved petals.

Photo not available.

And finally, isn't the best friend you can have the Divine, he to whom you can say everything, reveal everything? For there indeed is the source of all compassion, of all power to efface an error when it is no longer repeated, to open the way to true realisation. It is he who can understand all, heal all, help you always on the path, help you not to fail, not to stumble, not to fall, but to walk straight to the goal. He is the true friend, the friend of good and of bad days, he who can understand, who can heal, who is always there when you need him. When you call him sincerely, he is always there to guide and uphold you — and to love you in the true way.

THE MOTHER

Friendship with the Divine
Delicate, attentive and faithful, always ready to respond to the smallest appeal.

Canna indica
Indian-shot, Queensland, Arrowroot, Achira
Small glowing red flower with slender erect irregularly shaped petals and a recurved lip streaked yellow; borne in terminal racemes on long stems. An erect perennial rhizomatous herb with lush foliage.


Progressive Friendship with the Divine
As we progress and purify ourselves of our egoism, our friendship with the Divine becomes clearer and more conscious.

Canna indica
Indian-shot, Queensland, Arrowroot, Achira
Small to medium-sized bright reddish orange flower with slender petals slightly wider than those of Friendship with the Divine, and yellow streaks on two petals. Leaves are edged and veined with purple. An erect perennial rhizomatous herb with lush foliage.


Supramental Friendship with the Divine
Luminous and light, always smiling.

Canna indica
Indian-shot, Queensland, Arrowroot, Achira
Small glowing Bright yellow flower with slender erect irregularly shaped petals; borne in terminal racemes on long stems. An erect perennial rhizomatous herb with lush foliage.

Psychological Perfection on the way to Fulfilment
The state of those who take up the Yoga seriously.

Plumeria rubra
Frangipani, Temple tree, Nosegay, West Indian jasmine, Pagoda tree
Medium-sized fragrant five-petalled multicoloured flower, predominantly deep rose to purplish red often shaded with deep yellow to orange. A small tree with broad stiff obovate leaves.

Fortune
Very attractive, but beware - it pricks!

Cereus peruvianus
Cactus night flower, Hedge cactus
Large many-petalled white cup-shaped flowers with innumerable stamens

Foresight
A perception that is under the Divine Influence.

Sanchezia speciosa
Medium-sized waxy golden yellow narrow tubular flower with the edge of the corolla tube recurved and two conspicuous exserted stamens; borne in small clusters from dull reddish orange bracts on one side of erect terminal stalks. A shrub with somewhat fleshy stems and large leaves with prominent cream white veins and midrib.

Vegetal Goodwill towards the Supramental Forces
Each does what it can.

Cuphea micropetala
Small cream yellow tubular flower tinged orange at the base, borne in leafy terminal racemes. A many-stemmed subshrub with lanceolate leaves.

Greed for food has to be overcome, but it has not to be given too much thought. The proper attitude to food is a certain equality. Food is for the maintenance of the body and one should take enough for that — what the body needs; if one gives less the body feels the need and hankers; if you give more, then that is indulging the vital. As for particular foods the palate likes, the attitude of the mind and vital should be, “If I get, I take; if I don't get, I shall not mind.” One should not think too much of food either to indulge or unduly to repress — that is the best.

SRI AUROBINDO

Conquest over the Greed for Food
A promise of good health.

Dombeya Xcayeuxii
Small scented cup-shaped flower with large exserted cream white stigmas and sheer delicate pink or white petals that persist and become dry and papery with age; borne in many-flowered umbels on long pendant stalks. A large shrub with broad hairy heart-shaped leaves.

Opening to Sri Aurobindo’s Force
Sri Aurobindo's help is constant. It is for us to know how to receive it.

Thunbergia kirkii
Small lavender salverform flower with a corolla divided into five squared lobes and a light yellow spot in the throat; borne singly or in pairs. A small attractive shrub with narrow almost rhomboidal leaves.


First Response of the Inconscient to the Divine Force
The first step towards transformation.

Kigelia africana [Kigelia pinnata]
Sausage tree
Large fleshy dull maroon irregularly funnelform flower with crinkled recurved lobes; borne in large racemes on very long pendulous stalks. A medium-sized spreading tree that bears curious sausagelike fruits.