Re : Saraswati's origins

[Guest guest]

If I recall, in the Devi Mahatmyam they say Saraswati

emanated from Durga's left side, just as Lakshmi

emanated from Durga's right side. They are equivalent

Powers, but less powerful than Durga herself.

 

Other sources say Lakshmi was born to the King of the

Milk Ocean, and churned up when the Devas and Asuras

wanted the treasures below the Ocean depths.

Saraswati was born/ emanated from Brahma, as his

Shakti.

 

There is seldom just one "story" to the origins of the

gods.

 

Saraswati is linked to the human mind, as Lakshmi is

linked to the human heart. Brahma fell out of favor

with Hindu practice, and is seldom worshipped, but his

Shakti Saraswati is beloved by artists, musicians and

scholars throughout the world, Hindus, Buddhists,

Jains, all praise her, even Moslem musicians in the

Sub-Continent invoke her before playing. Vaishnavas

say she married Vishnu after leaving Brahma. Shaivas

believe she went to live with Shiva. Ganapatyas see

her as partnered with Ganesha. Shaktas believe her to

be a daughter of Durga, and shares with Kali an image

of a woman with an extended tongue. (Kali's tongue is

ever-ready to taste all experience as Bhogini;

Saraswati's tongue is perpetually speaking all the

world's languages as Vach-Devi.)

 

Saraswati is dressed in white, white-complexioned, and

concerned with ritual purity. But she can appear

dressed in red, with a dark-green complexion, as

Matangi, who explores the forbidden, impure, and

esoteric artistic influences of Tantra.

 

-- Len/ Kalipadma

 

 

--- NMadasamy <nmadasamy

wrote:

> Sarasvati : Why should we make a difference between

> a pot and a

> cloth as their apparent difference is simply

> illusory according to

> [previous]rule? The foregoing name answers the

> question.

>

> Sarasvati is the deity who presides over knowledge,

> ie she is in

> the form of the ocean of the knowledge. That means

> non-sensuous

> knowledge. The meaning is that though in the

> understanding of

> ordinary objects such as "pot etc" no bewilderment

> arises, as Bh.

> gita [V. 15] says, "knowledge is covered by

> nescience hence people

> are bewildered," and it is necessary to confuse

> sinful men because

> they are devoid of divine grace; to conceal from

> them the knowledge

> of nonduality which is the highest of human desires

> and which

> removes all sorrow.

>

> According to Dhaumya, Sarasvati is a girl of two

> years of age. The

> BhAradvAja-smr says "Sarasvati is she who ever

> resides in the tongue

> of all beings and who causes speech, hence she is

> called Sarasvati

> by great rsis". The VAsistha-RAmAyana also says,

> "She is called

> Sarasvati because she is the stream of

> sense-impression"

>

> Bh. NarA : saras - the flow of nectar from

> Brahmarandhra, vati - the

> possessor.

>

>

> BhAskararAya's Commentary

> Translated into English by R. Ananthakrishna Sastry

>

>

>

>

 

 

 

 

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