Saraswati: Three Divine Aspects Of Mahasaraswati  

By JAYDEEP CHAKRABARTY  

The Vedic concept of Saraswati was three-fold: First, she is like the sacred river which gave birth to the Aryan civilisation. Second, she was vak or speech personified, as expressed in the Rig Veda’s Vak Sukta . 'Speech’ basically refers to the sacred-word or the Vedas themselves.

The third and most important aspect is Saraswati’s identification with Gayatri, although the Gayatri mantra is worship of the Sun-god, Suryanarayana. The Sun-god symbolises three female deities: Gayatri, Savitri and Saraswati, to be invoked in the morning, noon and evening respectively.

Saraswati is the goddess of wisdom, learning, music and all other fine arts. Both Valmiki and Vyasa were her ardent devotees. In the Ramayana, when Brahma came to grant the three brothers Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana their wishes, the gods were anxious: What would Kumbhakarna do once his desires were granted? So, Saraswati confused Kumbhakarna so much that when Brahma asked him what he wanted, he replied that he wanted to sleep forever.

The Vishnupurana declares that the name of our motherland is derived from the name of Saraswati: ''Bharata is the country wherein resides goddess Bharati (Saraswati) ’’. There are various legends about her origin. The Kalika Purana says that Saraswati emerged out of Brahma. After her birth, she was circumambulating Brahma, who, in order to watch her do this, created three more heads for himself. When she moved upwards, Brahma created the fifth head. Angry with this behaviour, Lord Shiva severed Brahma’s fifth head, which stuck to Shiva’s hand - which is why Shiva is also called Kapali.

According to the Brahma Vaivarta Purana , Saraswati was created by Krishna from his tongue, symbolising Saraswati as the speech- faculty of the Absolute. She wanted to marry Krishna, but Krishna sent her to Lord Vishnu, who is but Krishna’s four-handed form. Lord Vishnu was already married to Lakshmi and Ganga. Once, after a quarrel, the three goddesses cursed each other - Saraswati and Ganga turned into holy rivers and Lakshmi into the tulsi plant.

Coming from the puranas to the yogic system, Saraswati again has a very prominent place. As in the physical world, there is a Triveni-Sangam (confluence of three) within our subtle-body ( Sukshma-Sharira ). There is a Triveni at the spot between our eyebrows, the ajna-chakra, which is the actual prayaga. He whose mind passes through this Chakra, becomes one with the Absolute. The three vital Nadis concur at this point - Ida, Pingala and Sushumna . Normally people breathe through Ida or Pingala , the left or the right nostril but the perfect yogins breath through the Sushumna which cannot be perceived by others. Sushumna is Saraswati, who is antah-Salila whereas the other two are Yamuna and Ganga respectively.

Saraswati is the ninth Mahavidya and is the presiding goddess of the Sun. According to the Markandeyapurana , Saraswati is Chit, while Lakshmi and Kali represent the Sat and Ananda aspects respectively. The universe floats on a great ocean of divine consciousness, the Brahman. The Tantras say that by worshipping Saraswati, we can come closer to Brahman. She can give us worldly wisdom ( apara vidya) , but the wise pray to her for the supreme knowledge ( para-vidya) .

The Chandi says the 16-armed Mahasaraswati killed the demons Shumbha and Nishumbha . But Saraswati is popularly worshipped in the four-handed form. Her colour is white, representing absolute purity of knowledge. Equally rich in symbolic meaning is hamsa , the swan. Though in water all the time, it never gets wet.

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See also: Saraswati, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)