Goddess of the Week : Saraswati ( Sarasvatistotra )

HRIM, HRIM is Thy most pleasing bija

O Thou whose moon-like beauty is heightened

By th elotuses ( which surround Thee )

O Auspicious and favourable Devi

Forest fire of the forest of evil thoughts,

Whose lotus feet are worshipped by the universe.

Joy dost thou cause to those who salute Thee,

Destroyer of Ignorance,

Spouse of Hari,

Substance of the World.

None know Thy nature, nor is Thy inner reality known.

Thou art the whole universe;

And Thou it is who existeth within it.

Thou art saluted by the foremost of Devas.

Without part thou existeth in Thy fullness everywhere.

Ever pure art Thou

Greatly art Thou pleased with the recitation of the mantra HRIM.

Thy crown is white as snow.

Thy hands play with the vine.

O Mother ! Mother ! salutation to Thee.

Burn, burn my sloth and grant me great intelligence.

Thou art Knowledge itself.

The Vedanta ever sings of Thee.

Sruti speaks of Thee.

O giver of liberation ! O way to liberation !

Whose power is beyong all understanding.

O giver of happiness, adorned with a white necklace,

Grant to me Thy favours.

Thou art intelligence, intelligence, intelligence,

Thy names are memory, resolution, mind and hymn of praise.

Eternal and fleeing,

Great cause, saluted current of virtue,

Saluted by Hari and Hara.

Ever pure, beauteous of colouw,

The subtlest element of things

Yea, even the very hald thereof.

Thou art the giver of intelligence, intelligence, intelligence.

Who art the giver of joy to Madhava

In the form of HRIM, KSIM, DHIM, HRIM,

Thou holdest a book,

Thou art joyful, of smiling face, and of good fortune,

Innocence, current of charm,

With all powers of arrest.

Burn, Burn my sin,

And dispel the darkness of my evil thoughts.

O praiseworthy of all !

Thou art gih, guuh, Vak and Bharati.

It is Thou who grantest success to the tongue of the greatest poets,

As also in the attainment of al ( forms of ) knowledge.

I pra to Thee, I pray to Thee, I bow to Thee,

Come to my tongue and never leave me.

May my intelligence never go astray,

May my sins be taken away,

May I be free from sorrow.

In time of peril may I never bewildered.

May my mind work freely without impediment

In Sastra disputation and verse.

He who chastely lives, observing silence and religious devotions,

Abstaining from flesh and fish on the thirteenth day of the month,

And bowed with devotion, early each morning

Praises Thee with the most excellent verse.

Will, Skilful in speech, surpass even Vacaspati.

The Uncleanliness of his sins will be swept away.

Such an one gains the fruit of his desires,

The Devi protects him as though he were Her own child.

Poetry flows from his mouth,

Prosperity attends his house,

And every obstacles to success will disappear.

Whoever reads without interruption the whole of this hymn

Twenty-one times on the thirteenth day of the month,

Both on the dark and the light side of the month,

And meditates on Sarasvati garmented in white,

Adorned with white ornaments,

Such an one attains in this world the fruit of his desires.

This auspicious hymn has been made by Brahma himself;

Whoever daily reads it with care acquires immortality.

>From TantraSara. Page 579.