Flowers speak the language of heart

Puja at home

 

Born into a family of devout Tamil Iyers, I grew up watching my grandfather and uncle performing ritualistic worship daily. It is true for the religions I know of but more so for Hinduism where an important and integral part of worship is offering flowers to the deity. Every single day I witnessed flowers being offered to the divine with utmost love and respect. Learning to perform pujas was a natural part of my upbringing and training and soon I found myself doing the same rituals.

Even at a tender age I could feel the difference offering flowers can make. Seeing the beauty of a flower, touching and feeling its delicateness, smelling its fragrance took me inwards to sublime dimension where it was natural and easy to connect with the divine I had sat down to worship. And in that state nothing could express my innermost feelings more than offering the flower to the divine as an expression of love, gratitude and joy.

In those days, my mama used to go to Chandni Chowk (phool mandi) to get weekly supplies of flowers and then stock them in fridge. I loved to offer fresh flowers but it was not easy to get in Delhi (at least in those days). When I joined IIT Varanasi for engineering, one thing which changed is easy access to flowers.

Being a religious and spiritual epicenter, Banaras had lots to offer for worshipers like me. I used to get them (mostly hibiscus) daily (from near Durga Kund) for my worship. There was no dearth of colorful flowers in this spiritual heartland and I and the divinity I worshiped feasted on it.

When I moved down south (Bangalore and Chennai) the options were no less. The kind of flowers I have seen and used in Bangalore for worship is unparalleled. The distinction between the worshiped (divine) and the medium (flowers) has blurred so much that many days I don't use flowers for worship but I worship for flowers.

In Bhagvad Gita, there is a verse (9.26) where the lord says that when someone offers me flower, leaves, fruits and water with devotion and purity, I accept it.

And one day many years ago, a great insight descended on me. If flowers are potent enough to express love to the unseen and abstract divine, and if the divine is manifest in all beings then isn't offering flowers to fellow beings very powerful and dynamic way of worshiping the divine?

Since then I have been giving flowers - to my wife, mother, MIL, aunts, friends, colleagues, neighbors and sometimes even strangers.
 

In almost all the cases, the effect is immediate and profound. Flowers help deeply touch the soul of another human being and make them happy. And there have been very few cases where I have been misunderstood but I have been able to clarify my intent in even those cases.

When I give flowers, I don't want anything other than an opportunity to make someone happy and the deep fulfillment that arises from the knowledge that the divine has accepted my worship.

 

PS. Originally published on September 3, 2017 on Facebook.