Questioner: What is the significance of flowers in worship?
Sadhguru: Flowers are significant, worship or no worship. If you want to look at it very logically, in terms of biology, flowers are just for reproduction. You may be thinking wonderful things about the flowers—that these flowers are wonderful ornaments for your Gods, but as far as the flower is concerned, it just tries to attract the bee and reproduce. In fact, if you look at the whole world biologically, it is just about reproduction and survival. That is one way to look at it. Another way is that a flower is the height of expression. For somebody, a flower may be God’s own face —it is the divine blooming in its highest way.
Why are flowers used for worship? Why not leaves or stones or pebbles? If you look at a person and the way he inclines himself towards something, if he always thinks of multiplying things, his interest will be in seeds. If he is always thinking of shelter and security, his interests will be in the trunk and branches of the tree. If somebody thinks of pleasure, his interest will only be in the fruit. If such a person plants a mango sapling today, he must be sitting and thinking, “How sweet will the mango be?” He is not interested in the root, the leaves or in anything else about the plant. He does not care what is happening with the plant. He is just waiting for the tree to bear fruit. He will never enjoy the process of the growth of the plant. The appearance of every leaf is not a joy for him. When the tree bears fruit, and if his neighbour’s children don’t steal it, he will be in joy. If the neighbour’s children take the fruit away, five years of expectation will be gone.
If you look at a seed, a plant, a tree, a fruit and a flower, the flower is the most fragile and momentary —it is very brief. If you want to enjoy the beauty of a particular flower, you have to get up early in the morning and look at it. If you get up at 10 o’clock and look, it will not be the same—it is so fragile. So, who is interested in a flower? Spiritual processes have always been referred to as a flowering. We do not say, “a fruiting of consciousness”, but we say “a flowering of consciousness”.
This is because a fruit is always intended in terms of you getting something out of it—that aspect is very dominant in the fruit. Pleasure-seeking is deeply associated with the fruit. But with a flower, somebody who just enjoys life enjoys it. It is just a simple and glorious expression of life. A flower is the most beautiful dimension of the life process of a plant. It is the peak of the plant’s life. So when you offer something to that which you consider as Divine, you want to offer that which is the peak and the highest dimension in you. You would like to pull your heart out and put it there—not your toes. In a plant, the highest dimension of its life is flowering, so that is what you offer.
In your life, the greatest thing that you can do to yourself is not become like a trunk, a root or a seed, but try to become like a flower, because a flower is most accessible.
If you are passing that way, even if you are not willing, it enters your nostrils; you have no choice about it. Even if you are insensitive, you will still feel something happening. All the other aspects do not have that. So the whole effort of any spiritual or religious process is to become like a flower. So, the flower has become symbolic and synonymous with offering.
The author is a prominent spiritual leader.
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