Brigit and Sarasvati (3)
The Creative Power of Sound continued
In the Brahmanas she takes on a greater role in creation since Prajapati, the main deity, is said in one place to have produced creation by combining his mind and his speech and thus impregnating himself. Another version suggests that Prajapati's mind produces Vac, Speech, who then has a desire to create and multiply and extend herself. The combination of mind, or thought, and speech is a potent and creative mix. The power of words may be seen in the belief that the mantra of a deity is equal to the deity herself, as is the deity's name. Many later Hindu texts convey the idea that the world is created through sound, that creation is set in motion by ultimate reality in the form of sound. The syllable Om is said to contain the whole process of creation.
As we have seen, Sarasvati is identified with Vac in the Brahmanas, and therefore has a role in creation. In later Hinduism, Sarasvati is associated with the god Brahma and here too she plays a part with him in creation. Brahma decides to create the world and goes into meditation which enables his body to divide into two parts, male and female. The female half is Sarasvati and Brahma desires and mates with her, creating Manu who goes on to make the world.
She is also associated with Krishna who divides himself into male and female, purusa and prakriti, spirit and matter, in order to bring about creation. The female half has five saktis or dynamic powers, and Sarasvati is the sakti whose specific task is to pervade reality with insight, knowledge and learning.
Some of her epithets show her as a powerful, creative goddess - Jaganmata, 'mother of the world', and Visvarupa, 'containing all forms within her'.
Elsewhere she is said to spring from the tip of
Krishna's sakti's tongue, appearing as a lovely girl wearing yellow,
adorned with jewels and carrying a book and a vina or lute. There are
other stories in which she is said to dwell on the tongues or in the
mouths of Brahma or to be in the mouth or on the tongue of Vishnu,
whose wife she sometimes is. Vishnu also has a wife called Lakshmi
who represents wealth and fertility and more material values.
Sarasvati, in contrast to this is connected with wisdom and more
spiritual values. A Bengali proverb states:
Lakshmi's gilded basket spills over with wealth
But it is Saraswati's humble mat on which sits wisdom.
There are many epithets applied to Sarasvati which underline her connection with speech, such as: Vagadevi, 'goddess of speech', Jihvagravasini, 'dwelling in the front of the tongue' and Kavijihvagravasini, 'she who dwells on the tongues of poets'. But other epithets also identify her with the powers of thought which give rise to speech such as: Smrtisakti, 'the power of memory', Jnanasakti, 'the power of knowledge', Buddhisaktisvarupini, 'whose form is the power of intellect', Kalpanasakti, 'who is the power of forming ideas', and Pratibha, 'she who is intelligence'. (16)
Sarasvati, Goddess of Culture
Human thought, memory and creative intelligence have given rise to culture and so, not surprisingly, Saravati has become the goddess of culture. She is the inspiration behind the arts, often invoked by poets, but also associated with music, dancing and science. She is usually depicted with a vina or lute, and a sacred book.
Her puja, the day on which she is worshipped, is Vasant Panchami, celebrated in early spring, (January/February), on the fifth day of the waxing moon of Magh (which was January 31st in the year 2001). Books, pens, musical instruments and gurus are worshipped on this day and pictures and statues of her are put up in schools and universities. Children are taught their first words on this day, regarded as auspicious, and the song Sarasvati Vandana is sung to her in schools.
Transcendence and Purity
As seen in this hymn, whiteness and the swan and lotus are typically associated with her. The theme here is of purity and transcendence. She is said to shine like the moon, her purity is fiery and she is entirely sattvic or spiritual, unlike other Hindu goddesses who are identified with fertility, sexuality and blood. Sarasvati gives birth to works of art rather than to children and in the stories about her, her sexual aspect is not highlighted. She is said to have tried to escape from Brahma when he wanted to have sexual intercourse with her. She is not, therefore, a domestic goddess.
As we speculated earlier when looking at the significance of river symbolism in Hindu religion, she is associated with transcendence, with the idea of moving away from the shore of ignorance to that of enlightenment, of being reborn. In a sense she has evolved from having a purifying and cleansing function like water, to being herself the embodiment of purity, that which is purified. The lotus is a symbol of transcendence; although it is born of the muddy waters it rises above them, using their fertility to blossom into a flower of perfect beauty. The swan is also a symbol of transcendence and perfection in Hindu thought and, as Kinsley notes, Sarasvati flying above the world, seated on her swan, suggests the realm of artistic and creative achievement that has enabled human beings to transcend the restrictions of the physical world and to create beauty and perfection.
Sri Aurobindo sees the Vedic Sarasvati as the inspiration that comes from the Truth-Consciousness, "Inspiration from the Truth purifies by getting rid of all falsehood, for all sin according to the Indian idea is merely falsehood... Saraswati, the inspiration, is full of her luminous plenitudes, rich in substance of thought. She upholds the Sacrifice, the offering of the mortal being's activities to the divine by awakening his consciousness so that it assumes right states of emotion and right movements of thought in accordance with the Truth from which she pours her illuminations and by impelling in it the rise of those truths which, according the Vedic Rishis, liberate the life and being from falsehood, weakness and limitation and open to it the doors of the supreme felicity.... Saraswati brings into active consciousness in the human being the great flood or great movement, the Truth-Consciousness itself, and illumines all our thoughts. We must remember that this Truth-Consciousness of the Vedic Rishis is a supramental plane, a level of the hill of being...which is beyond our ordinary reach and to which we have to climb with difficulty. It is not part of our waking being, it is hidden from us in the sleep of the superconscient. We can understand then what Madhuchchhandas means when he says that Saraswati by the constant action of the inspiration awakens the Truth to consciousness in our thoughts."
Sri Aurobindo also suggests that her sister goddesses, Ila and Bharati (with whom she is identified in Puranic worship) or Mahi must be different forms of knowledge. Mahi, based on the texts, he describes as "the luminous vastness of the Truth" and Ila is full of energy and brings knowledge. Her name means she who seeks and attains and it contains the same association of ideas as the words Rita (Truth-Consciousness) and Rishi (a seer, a poet). Ila may therefore well be the vision of the seer which attains the truth. (17)
