Indian Goddesses / Saraswati

Saraswati is a unique goddess in many ways. She is, along with Rudra-Shiva, the only Vedic Deity still in worship in the country. That is an amazing feat of endurance, almost five thousand years of it. She is also the only goddess in India who does not have a Yaksha or middle-eastern origin. The Jaina religion lays claim to Saraswati too, but her Vedic origins are indisputable. This is the authentic old religion of the Vedas, even more authentic than all the changes that have come over Rudra, the hunter, in the intervening millennia. The worship of Saraswati is thus a tribute to the power of endurance of a good idea. For Saraswati is a sacred river, true, but she is also the personification of wisdom and learning, a sort of Super-Sophia. Saraswati is also unique in that she is the only major deity in worship who does not have an elaborate Purana or Tantra text written up to justify her worship and enumerate the benefits of so doing. This is such a dazzlingly brilliant achievement that most commentators writing about Mother worship in India miss her altogether. Yet she has no lack of worshippers though they are admittedly mostly students.

Saraswati is the original Great White Goddess of India, a function taken over later by Durga and the other variations of the Mahadevi. In the Vedas she is first encountered as a sacred river/goddess, the distinction is never clear, the forerunner of the reverence that would be transferred to Ganga. She formed one boundary of Brahmavarrtha, as the Vedic writers called their land. The name Saraswati itself is one of the most beautiful in all Sanskrit. It means. "Flowingly elegant". The hymns of the Rigveda that praise her are however tumultuous and energetic in tone, not elegant. Saraswati surpasses all the waters in greatness, she is mighty and powerful (the first historical reference to female deities of power). Her roaring waters break down mountains. She is ever active, the great amongst the great, the heavenly stream that pervades the triple creation of earth, sky and the heavens.

Saraswati ensures the fertility of the earth, and as such she is asked to also take care of the needs for humans to be fruitful and multiply, both in progeny as well as in bank balance and store of cattle. She is praised as an invigorator, one who revitalizes the tired land and gives strength to men, who provides immortality in her role as Subhaga, the bountiful one. She is also the first goddess in all literature to be called Mother. She is also called upon to be a protector of her worshippers, "as does a sheltering tree or an iron fort". Saraswati in the Veda has a distinct touch of the warrior goddess about her, slaying those who revile the gods and is even credited with Indra's great feat - the destruction of the Chaos-Demon, Vrita. From all of this it is pretty clear that there are only so many ways a goddess can be worshipped. The Divine Feminine invokes typical responses in her worshipers and it does not matter which age and country we are talking about.

The Veda never tires of praising this divine river as the source of all creative inspiration. She lends eloquence to the dumb, she is the Goddess of Learning and Wisdom and more pertinently, she is the inciter of all pleasant songs, all gracious thought and every sacred word or pious impulse. In this she is similar to the Goddess Vac, or Speech, in the Veda and the later commentators of the Brahmanas merged the two of them.

If you think about it, it is amazing. Every possible combination and permutation of Mother goddess worship has been worked out here, and as the mood and inclination of the people changed, one or the other aspect became personified and worshipped in an endless stream of goddesses. It is absolutely incomprehensible to me how Saraswati remains ignored as the origin for this massive template - Mother worship - in Human Consciousness. Saraswati is such a self-sufficient goddess that she does not have the exciting adventures that provide so much grist to academic mills. She does not have the drama and fascination of Durga or Kali, or the eternal issue of money vis-a-vis God that Lakshmi and her relationship with Vishnu evokes.

By Pauranic times, Saraswati is regarded as the guardian as well as the personification of the Vedas. She is a minor goddess now but she has a terrible power that makes her supremely respected. She never speaks anything but the truth. As a consequence of that, any word that emerges from her mouth will become true, so it behooves everybody to tread warily round her. This aspect of Saraswati is a dim memory of the time Vac was a very important goddess and the power of speech was a living reality in the lives of the people. She is also married off to Brahma, thus assuaging the Pauranic embarrassment and discomfort at all the unmarried, independent goddesses in the Vedas.

Saraswati is always represented as a goddess of dazzling white complexion in a white sari. Her Lotus-seat is white too and so is the swan that is her vahana or vehicle. The swan is a symbol of right thinking, discriminating between the true and the false, exemplified in its mythical ability to separate milk from water and drink only the former. White is also the color par excellence of purity in India. (Mourners at a funeral wear white to counteract the polluting energies/effects of the corpse.) In one of her hands is a white lotus, another symbol of lofty thinking and arising above one's immediate material surroundings, just as the lotus thrusts itself upwards from the mire in an act of beautiful transcendence. Saraswati is also shown carrying a palm leaf manuscript that represents the Veda. She plays the Vina, symbol of elegance, culture, refinement and all the creative aspects of the universe. String instruments represent the letter A in AUM, and stand for all creative unfolding. She is sometimes shown with a rosary or mala, representing the power of meditation, which in India is inseparable from all intellectual pursuits.

Since Brahma was generally supposed to be the Vedic Prajapati, Saraswati is also associated with the famous myth where the Prajapati created her and then succumbed to his lust for his own creation. This is a mistake actually, as Saraswati's position in the Veda is independent of and superior to the Prajapati. It is a good illustration of the complications that get thrown up as ancient texts are sought to be forced into new clothes. By Pauranic times the physical river Saraswati had dried up and its location lost to the knowledge of men. The Mahabharatha makes a feeble attempt to come to terms with this loss with an explanatory myth that Saraswati was cursed by the rishi Utathya. We are very far away indeed from the river that was the embodiment of the Truth, the source of all the sacred power, when we are asked to swallow that she can be cursed.

Saraswati is also regarded as the highest manifestation of the Sattva guna, the quality of goodness, grace and purity. Today however she is predominantly worshipped as a goddess of knowledge and North India and Bengal usually have a spring festival puja associated with her. It is a very hopeful sign that a Goddess of Learning is actually worshipped; though one would wish for more efforts at hitting the books and less worship on other days perhaps. There is also a peculiar, and in my opinion extremely disgusting, popular belief that Saraswati cannot live in harmony with Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth. I have searched in vain for any scriptural or textual sanction for this bosh and have come to the conclusion that it was put about by the lazy and ignorant, not to mention the envious. In any case, with the richest man in the world and the richest man in India both being in the field of IT, that belief is long overdue for cremation.

Unlike many other cultures, knowledge, intelligence and wisdom were highly prized in ancient India, far above merely being rich and powerful. As the old proverb had it:

Swadeshe pujyathe raja
Vidwan sarvatra pujyathe

Meaning,
"The king is worshipped in his own land, but the man of wisdom is worshipped everywhere". This attitude is a direct consequence of the primacy of Saraswati and knowledge in the old outlook. Hence she was also called Smirtishakti (the power of memory), Jnanashakti (the power of knowledge), Kalpanashakti (the power of forming ideas) and so on. Saraswati is thus directly linked to the peculiar attribute of conscious thought that has humans classified as Homo sapiens, the thinking animal that knows it thinks. It is therefore rather reassuring to think that as we enter the Knowledge Age, there is a Goddess of Wisdom still out there waiting for us to receive her infinite gifts.

Details...

The Saraswati Yantra This is a very simple Yantra, but powerful precisely because of its focused approach. It has a six-pointed star formed by the combination of an upward and downward pointings triangle, surrounded by eight lotus petals with mantras inscribed upon them. Curiously, most Saraswati Yantra petals are not bounded by a circle as is common to other Yantras, because the mantras inscribed upon them are too powerful to be restrained. This is the prime Yantra for all those involved in intellectual activities but especially for students, writers and those working in the media.

Design and Significance The outer boundary wall of the smaller size Yantras may have large liminal gaps, [they are thresholds of potential, of awareness, or transformations].In large Yantras however there is enough space to draw a convoluted outer wall with multiple layers. This keeps the liminal gaps active but also filters the energy generated by the Yantra from rushing outwards in an uncontrolled and promiscuous manner. Within each lotus-petal is a bija mantra, that contains in 'sound-seed-form' the power of a god or attribute that influences the manifestation of desirable qualities. These are highly intricate and not all well understood, but they undeniably work. Sufficient to say that almost every god with any stature in India is represented in most Yantras so worshipping or meditating with a Yantra is to worship all the gods at once. The Yantra is a micro-cosmos and it is always directly in contact with, and influencing, the macro-cosmos or larger universe outside. Hence any worship or meditation or affirmation directed towards it finds the desired outcome being easily manifested in the larger physical reality. The Yantra is a machine too, apart from being the symbolic energy body of the god, a machine to bring about transformation by focusing your intent. The Yantra should always be treated with great respect, kept in a place of honor and moved as little as possible. Ideally only one person should handle it at all times. It is recommended that some daily meditation upon the Yantra be practiced as the patterns subtly influence and transform the thought-forms of the mind gently guiding them into habits of prosperity thinking which after all is more important than merely hoping for prosperity.