The beauty of flowers
By Jagdish Kalra

IT was the birthday of my daughter. Near and dear ones came to wish her "happy birthday". They presented her utility items: A beautiful pen, a suit piece, a set of combs, a good perfume and a wonderful dictionary. At night, a dearly loved friend of ours brought a beautiful bouquet of exotic flowers. And the moment the lovely gift was placed in the corner of a small room, it seemed as if a ray of sunshine had come into the place and permeated the very atmosphere of the room with bounteous cheerfulness. The air of the room grew aromatic and made the modest room beautiful and graceful. It was indeed fabulous. A thrill of delight and glee ran through me. It was only a splendid feast for the eyes but also appeared to be a palpable link with nature and beauty.

There is an infectious ebullience in flowers. They are a sweet prescription of zest and exuberance, coming as messengers from nature and seeming to say, "come and see the place where we grow and let your heart be glad in our presence." Perhaps this musing of the flowers inspired the illustrious poet Bhai Vir Singh to compose the following beautiful lines that adore one of the entrances of the Rose Garden at Chandigarh:

Daali nalon torh no saanoon, aasan hut mehak di laai
Lakh gahak je aa ke soongay, khali ek na jaai
Je tun tor ke lai gaya mainu ek joga reh jaavan ga
Oh vi palak jhalak da mela, roop mehak nas jai.

I was wrapped in thought. The resplendent flowers quietly voiced the profoundest wishes and blessing of the erudite and cultured friend much more eloquently than even the most powerful words could express. The very atmosphere was scented with sweetness, elegance and refinement. Each time I gazed at the flowers it gave me pleasant and delightful feeling.

Could there be anything more innocent than flowers! Don’t we feel that they are like children untouched by sin! Are they not the emblems of purity and piousness of truth, a source of fresh delight to the pure and innocent! The flowers are such wonderful companions. They never say cross things to anyone and always look beautiful and smiling. Indeed, the heart that does not love flowers cannot be genial.

Truly, the taste for the beautiful is one of the best and most useful gifts. It is, of course, one of the essential features necessary for the growth of civilisation. Beauty and elegance do not necessarily belong to the homes of the rich. They ought to be all-pervading. Beauty in all things: in nature, in art, in science, in literature, in social and domestic life. But this art has to be cultivated and developed if we have to keep the human race happy. The secret of happiness lies in the enjoyment of little pleasures scattered along the path of life. It consists in collecting little gems of pleasure. The luminous bouquet was thus the manifestation of wonderful feelings of the friend who gave us inexhaustible wealth of joy and happiness.

How beautiful and yet not very expensive are flowers. A flower is the most bewitching of the smiles of nature. One glimpse of dancing and tossing daffodils became perpetual "bliss of solitude" for Wordsworth. Yet a discerning eye can see more than gaiety in blooming flowers. I subscribe to the idea of Henry Ward Beecher who said "Flowers have a mysterious and subtle influence upon the feelings, not unlike some strains of music. They relax the tenseness of the mind. They dissolve its rigor."

It is by the language of flowers that lovers are able to express the feeling that they dare not voice openly. It reminds one of the famous lines of Sahir Ludhianvi:

Main phool laga raha hun tumhare baalon main
Tumhari aankh mussarat se jhukti jati hai
Na jane aaj main kya baat kehne wala hoon
Zuban khushk hai aawaz rukti jati hai

Flowers do have a voice for all, old and young, rich and poor provided we have the sensitivity to listen. "To me", says Wordsworth,

"The meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."

The lovely offspring of the earth have been silently and yet eloquently speaking to man from the first day of his existence reminding him of the goodness and wisdom of nature’s creative powers. When we offer flowers at the altar, we return to the gods things which we know to be indigenous to heaven.

Have a flower in the room. It does not cost much but the gratification it gives is beyond price. Put a flower on the window-sill. Can there be anything more pleasing or inviting than sunbeams streaming through flowers! It is sheer poetry.

Do not despise flowers because they are available at the price of an old song. Common things are often cheap, but common things are invariably the most valuable. Could we get fresh air or sunshine only by purchasing them what luxuries they would be considered. But they are free to all. And we think little of their blessings.

If we learn to enjoy the little pleasures of life, it will sweeten life and bring grace and beauty in it. It will also help one to rise above selfishness and acquaint one with the world without as also with the world within. Wordsworth once said, "‘tis my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes." Perhaps. Should we agree with Tennyson’s If

Little flower-but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.