The Making of BloomO! - The soulful flower card game

Jyoti grew up in the Ashram school and has been an artist, educator and dancer amongst many creative pursuits. She has written and illustrated many children’s visual story books. Currently she is a teacher at Nandanam School in Auroville and continues to experiment and explore her sadhana by painting.

Chetana grew up in Mumbai and has a Bachelors in Science and a Masters in Graphic Design from San Francisco, USA. Her professional career has been in leading teams delivering User-Experience Design and she is also a graphic designer and aspiring artist. Her master’s thesis was on the visual interpretation of three of Sri Aurobindo’s poems. She is currently based in Auroville.

The Flowers brought us together

Chetana recalls that it was in September 2022 when she met Jyoti at La Terrace in Auroville after many people had mentioned it would be a good idea for them to connect. This first conversation between an artist and a designer went on for over two hours. They discussed print production details for the book Flowers: A Joyful Companion To The Soul, a 177-page full-colour book depicting 80 of Jyoti’s exquisitely detailed, watercolour paintings of flowers, with the spiritual names an significance given by The Mother (launched on August 15, 2022).

This project was inspired by Tara Jauhar, who lived in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram for many years. In her book Growing Up With The Mother she captured myriad magical moments and interactions with The Mother, one of which was focused on Mother’s love for games of skill, one of which was a game of skill based on flowers called The Game of Flowers (1940).

Tara recalled, “She brought us The Game of Flowers, in which She took great interest. The game was played with two sets of cards. One set was the picture of the flower and its spiritual significance. It also had the botanical and common name written underneath, but this had no importance for the game. The second set of cards was smaller in size and carried only the spiritual name of the flowers. The small cards were placed in one heap in the centre face down. The picture cards were distributed equally among the players. Each player in turn would pick a card from the centre heap and whoever had the corresponding picture card, would take it out from his collection and put it down in the centre. The one who finished all the cards first would be the winner.

“To start with, The Mother gave us about 20 cards in which the pictures of the flowers had been pasted or painted. Below, in Her own hand, was written the significance. A few days later She added more cards. All the artists of the Ashram were asked to paint new flowers, which kept adding to our collection. These paintings had to be done according to the dimensions of our cards. At the end of a few months we had almost 500 cards. When these were distributed to the players, each of us had more than 80 cards in our hands. Playing with them regularly, we learnt to tell the significance of each flower easily. Through this game The Mother taught us to love flowers and understand them.”

The Art of BloomO!

Jyoti’s love for poetry and Sri Aurobindo’s letters to aspiring poet disciples have permeated her attitude toward the art she creates: “For me, art has always been a thirst for beauty. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have said that it is the material manifestation of the Divine. Sri Aurobindo encouraged this approach to art, as it is a similar movement of opening that is required for the Sadhana.”

When Jyoti was asked to take on this project, she immediately said ‘yes’ given the joy of creating something The Mother had worked on. Then the question arose as to why flower paintings are needed when one could get a photo of them. This self-inquiry led her to approach the project as an opportunity to be true to the character of each flower and yet be creative, bringing forth the atmosphere, the spiritual essence, of what each flower stands for, described by The Mother. She selected 80 flowers to paint and the initial flower book was organised by flowers in three spiritual themes: Divine Love, Individual Sadhana, Collective Sadhana.

The Design of BloomO!

The start of Chetana’s design process was inspired by John Cage’s philosophy, which revolves around the value of the questions asked during the process. The focus is on the exploration of questions rather than just finding answers. This fosters curiosity, experimentation and innovation, leading to original and meaningful solutions.

This principle resonates strongly in the journey of BloomO!’s design for Chetana. While working on her thesis during her Masters design programme, she came across this anonymous quote on design and ever since it has been a guiding force for most of her work and role as a designer.

“Design is a verb. It is the process of active discovery, investigation, analysis, order, insight and creation. From scattered data comes information, from subjective opinion emerges a focused idea.” This process ultimately shaped BloomO!’s design with a clear focus on user needs.

Usability studies were conducted for game play, incorporating feedback from children, adults and solo play sessions, to refine the user experience.

An inner journey

The process of coming up with cards and drawing them felt like an inner journey. “Along with painting the flower itself,” says Jyoti, “the aspiration to express something of the vibration and atmosphere of its significance through the painting was what made the journey with the project challenging and meaningful. This required me to go within, to connect to the flower, and at the same time open up to what was deeply alive in me and receive guidance from The Mother. Had I chosen to do a merely botanical work, I could have still done it as an offering, but I may have missed out on opening up to inspiration and guidance for a deeper expression of the work. How much I succeeded I don’t know, but journeying with it is what mattered to me”.

Chetana pointed out that her role complemented Jyoti’s, ensuring the product experience was both usable and environmentally responsible, with a strong aesthetic. “Throughout the process, we collaborated closely, paying meticulous attention to detail, particularly during print production. The journey of making BloomO! was passionate, involving both giving and letting go, and invoking The Mother’s eye for beauty and grace.

⁠So has their relationship with flowers evolved since then? Chetana gained insights from Jyoti’s artistic interpretation of the spiritual messages of each flower, particularly Aditi and its twelve attributes. “BloomO! has deepened my appreciation for the aesthetic and spiritual aspects of flowers after what was a botanical curiosity since childhood (I would dissect flowers and make collages). I frequently use the cards for guidance or reflection as a start to the day, and playing as a group continues to spark enriching conversations and collective energy.”

Jyoti said that though she knew that The Mother has given spiritual significance to the flowers, she had not plunged into them as deeply yet. Connecting to them more closely, to their significance and The Mother’s comment for each flower, she realised that one can do Her Yoga just by journeying with the flowers and opening oneself to them - a Yoga through beauty. “Lately I have been playing this game in different circles, with both children and adults, and I’m always touched to see how deeply people relate to it and how much they enjoy it. It is really The Mother’s game, inspired by what She had created, and everyone receives Her blessings through it.”