Saraswati

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Saraswati is one of the few important goddesses in the Vedas who have

retained their significance to the present day. Literary evidence

suggests that right from the ancient times down to the modern, she is

perceived in three major roles, as a river, as Vak (speech), and as

a

goddess.

 

In the Vedas her character and attributes are clearly associated with

the mighty Saraswati River. She is the earliest example of a goddess

who is associated with a river in the Indian tradition. In a symbolic

sense she suggests the sacrality inherent in rivers or water in

general. While the symbolism of water is rich and complex in the

religions of the world, two typical associations are important in

Vedic descriptions of Saraswati. First, she is said to bestow bounty,

fertility and riches. Her waters enrich the land so that they can

produce. Second, Saraswati represents purity, as does water,

particularly running water. It is stated frequently in the Vedas that

the banks of Saraswati were especially sacred for ritual purposes.

This also suggests the purifying powers of the river.

 

Another particular association with rivers is the imagery of crossing

from the world of ignorance or bondage to the far shore, which

represents the world of enlightenment or freedom. The river in this

metaphor represents the state of transition, the period of birth, in

which the spiritual sojourner undergoes a crucial metamorphosis. The

river represents a great purifying power in which the pilgrim drowns

his old self and is born anew, free and enlightened.

 

In addition, a curious legend surrounds Saraswati, the river:

Once the celebrated Vedic sage Vasishtha was practising penance on

the

banks of the river Saraswati. Suddenly, the warrior turned saint

Vishvamitra, a sworn enemy of Vasishtha, appeared on the scene and

said to her, 'Flow on and bring Vasishtha floating on your waves.'

Saraswati hesitated for a while, but seeing that Vishvamitra was

determined, she broke through her banks where Vasishtha sat

meditating. Vishvamitra was very pleased. But Saraswati did not stop

at that. She flowed on towards the east, with Vasishtha on the crest

of her waves. Vishvamitra realizing her intention was to protect

Vasishtha rather than harm him, grew indignant and cursed Saraswati,

turning her into a river of blood.

 

When the poor sages, who lived in hermitage on her banks, came for a

bath, they were shocked to find a flowing stream of blood. Saraswati

prayed to them, ' I was a river of pure water. But the sage

Vishvamitra ordered me to bring his enemy, the good sage Vasishtha,

floating to him. I sensed mischief but was afraid of Vishvamitra's

ire. So I carried Vasishtha away from where he sat, but instead of

delivering the innocent sage to his ill-tempered colleague, I took

him

to a safer place. Vishvamitra realized my intention and cursed me. I

feel so unclean and humiliated. Can't you sages cleanse my water and

restore my purity?'

 

 

 

'We surely can and are definitely going to do just that,' said the

kind-hearted hermits, who were moved by her courage. So, through

their

magic powers Saraswati regained her purity and again became a river

flowing with water. This is why she is also referred to as

Shonapunya,

a Sanskrit word meaning 'one purified of blood'.

 

Conception of Goddess Saraswati as a flowing blood river is open to

interpretation as a symbol of the menstrual blood flow in women,

particularly since Saraswati is conceived of as an ever-flowing

stream

which purifies and "fertilizes" the Earth.

 

Later ancillary Vedic literature consistently equates her with the

goddess of speech, known as Vak. The importance of speech in Hinduism

is both ancient and central. The entire creative process is said to

be

held in the sacred syllable OM, and the idea of creation proceeding

from shabda -brahman (ultimate reality in the form of sound) is often

mentioned in the ancient texts. A mantra too, which may consist of

words or of sounds alone, is said to possess great power. Indeed, the

mantra of a given deity is declared to be equivalent to the deity

itself. To pronounce a mantra is to make the deity present. There

resides in sound a potent quality, and this quality is embodied in

Saraswati, the Goddess of speech.

 

As the embodiment of speech, then, Saraswati is present wherever

speech exists. And so it is that she is pre-eminently associated with

the best in human culture: poetry, literature, sacred rituals, and

rational communication between individuals.

 

Till today, whenever a new baby arrives, grandmothers make a five

pointed star-called Saraswati-sign on the newborn's tongue with

honey.

The tongue, the organ of speech, is thus expected to get hitched to

Saraswati's star early enough.

 

As Saraswati, the goddess, her identity is not as nebulous as Vak

(speech). There are clear descriptions of her form, dress, ornaments

and mount, together with the articles she is associated with. She is

always referred to as extremely beautiful, fair complexioned, with

four arms, ever youthful and gracious looking. She is seated on a

lotus-accompanied by her swan, and holds a lute (Veena) resting

across

her breast. In her hands she holds a rosary, a book and a water pot.

The book associates her with the sciences and with learning in

general. The lute associates her with the arts, particularly the

musical arts, and the rosary and the water pot associate her with the

spiritual sciences and with religious rites. She is dressed in white

and blue garments, reminiscent of her form as a river. Like Lakshmi

and unlike Durga and Kali, she does not carry any arms or weapons.

 

Her color is white, the color of peace. Her clothes, the lotus she

sits upon, and also her familiar swan, are all white. Not for her

Kali's dramatic and gory nakedness, or Lakshmi's dazzling red and

gold. Her robe and appearance show serenity and a total lack of

artifice.

 

Legends say that she sprung from the forehead of her father, Brahma,

as did the Greek virgin goddess Athena who was born from her father,

Zeus's head. As soon as Brahma looked at this beautiful woman, he

desired her, even though she was his daughter. Saraswati disliked

the

amorous attentions of this old god and kept dodging him, but

whichever

way she moved, Brahma grew a head in that direction to see her the

better. As a result he grew four faces on four sides of his neck, and

even a head on top of these four, so that she could not escape by

moving upwards. But Saraswati still eluded him.

 

Brahma was angry. He, being the Creator, was also all powerful. We do

not know how, but legend has it that he did manage to marry the

elusive girl, and produced through her mind the four great Vedas.

Lore

also has it that Brahma discovered that his girl-wife was too aloof

and absent-minded for his liking. He had arranged for a major

fire-sacrifice, at which his wife's appearance by his side was a

must.

He repeatedly warned Saraswati not to take too long over her toilet

and miss the auspicious hour. She must, he had decreed, take her

traditional seat to his left, well in time. But Saraswati behaved

with

her characteristic whimsical disregard for parental diktats. Her

prolonged toilet saw to it that the holy hour passed without the

couple's making the supreme joint offering to the fire God as man and

wife. When Saraswati finally arrived, Brahma was livid. He threw her

out, and replaced her with the daughter of a sage, called Gayatri.

 

Saraswati, thus, though married, never enjoyed domestic bliss like

Durga or Lakshmi. According to most myths she had no children,

possessed a fiery temper, was easily provoked and was somewhat

quarrelsome. She, of all the goddesses, is described as possessing a

very independent will and was not ery obliging to the male gods.

 

As the disinherited daughter and estranged wife, Saraswati lived

perpetually in self-imposed exile. She focuses her calm,

dispassionate

gaze upon the past as pure experience. The capacity to recall without

anger or resentment, is Saraswati's greatest gift to her children:

the

riters, musicians and creators of various art forms. All of them have

ought with tradition, but their fight has been cerebral, not

emotional. For without cutting away the umbilical cord, no innovative

new eginning may ever be made, whether one is creating or

procreating.

This is the message of Saraswati. araswati's ironical eye, one may

be

sure, watches Kali's tussle for power against male demons and

Lakshmi's subterfuges in the male world of power and plenitude. But

she remains a witness, a dispassionate istorian. She is the one who

believes in the ultimate futility of all warfare and the trappings of

wealth.

 

Understandably, such a Goddess could be venerated by the

simple-minded

and earthy householders, but not oved and fussed over by them, like

her regal sister Lakshmi, or even feared and held in awe like Shakti.

Saraswati remains the unblemished ascetic goddess, to whom no temples

are built and who offers nothing except knowledge, no institution, no

protection, no riches.

 

Courtesy of exoticindiaart.com/article/lakshmiandsaraswati