Saraswati Devi -- Education AND Creation!

[Guest guest]

Our beloved member blueblackeyes (we call her Chumki) is a true

devotee of Maa Durga -- as we would only expect from a

no-nonsense Bengali girl!

 

Anyway, Chumki was kind enough to point out that, in popular Hinduism,

Saraswati Devi is the Goddess of Learning, Knowledge and the Arts.

Ganesh, she notes, is the God for auspicious beginnings.

 

She is, of course, correct. However, since this is our first week at

-- the Club having met a sad and unexpected demise -- I

felt we should really have a Goddess as our front-page pic right from

the start.

 

Here is why I picked Saraswati (this is a quote from Sri Swami

Chidananda's "God As Mother" at

http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/download/godmother.htm :

 

"She [saraswati Devi] is not only the outflow of the process of

creativity, She is also all commencement, because commencement is that

point from which creativity starts; and therefore in Hindu society the

Mother is worshipped as all Arambha. Everything that starts is

attributed to the grace Of Goddess Saraswati.

 

"It is a very peculiar factor that side by side with Mother as

Saraswati, presiding over all Arambha or beginning, the devout Hindu

also worships the special aspect of the Deity as Ganapathy [Lord

Ganesh]. But here Ganapathy too is an aspect—but a negative one—of

Arambha. For, He also represents Wisdom, but Mother represents

creative aspect of wisdom and the special worship of Ganapathy, which

is more known than the worship of Saraswati, is done more with the

intention of warding off obstacles, whereas the positive aspect of

worship that She may bestow by Her grace success on all things started

is always centralised upon the adoration of Mother Saraswati."

 

Aum Saraswatyai Namahe