Sarasvati: Mother of Wisdom, Learning & Music.
SYMBOLS: Lotus, Veena or vina an indian stringed instrument, book, peacock, white swan (or goose) the colors white & yellow.
USUAL IMAGE: A beautiful woman wearing ether yellow or white with white skin. She has a genial expression and four hands which represent the four aspects of human personality in learning: mind, intellect, alertness and ego in which she holds a veena, a book, a lotus & prayer beads. Sometimes she is shown holding a drum or a pen or making a sign of blessing with one of her hands. She set on ether a peacock or a white swan or goose.
RULES: She is the Goddess of learning, knowledge, speech, and music. It is said that she invented the language of Sanskrit and that she is the inspiration for all science.
HOLY BOOKS: The Vedas, but really all books, particularly if they are about science, learning, scholarship or music.
HOLY DAYS: Vasant Panchami or Saraswati Day, celebrated every year on the 5th day of the bright fortnight of the lunar month of Magha (In 2005 it falls on February 13th) It is believed to be her birthday.
PLACE OF WORSHIP: Alters, many of which are situated in libraries, and all places of learning.
MAJOR TABOOS: Disrespect for learning and knowledge, Some say that Sarasvati and the Goddess of wealth, Lakshmi are jealous rivals and that pursuing wealth alone will assure that Sarasvati's gifts will desert you. Which may go toward explaining why so many rich people can act so stupidly as well as the whole `impoverished scholarŽ thing.
RELATIVES: Brahma (father / consort) Some say that she was the first being created by Brahma when he devided himself, making her the female half or that she was born from a gush of water from his side. Others say that Shiva is her father & Durga her mother. In Buddhism she is the consort of Manjushri the bodhisattva of wisdom.
FORM OF WORSHIP: As with other Vedic Goddesses.
SYNODEITIES: Nabu (Babylonian), Thoth (Egyptian), Athena (Greek), Minerva (Roman), Bo Hsian (Taoist), Mimir (Norse, Icelandic), A'as (Hittite), Ifa (West Africa), Ogma (Celtic)
DETAILS: In one version of the Vedic creation myth Sarasvati was the first being created after Brahma, some say his female half, others that she flowed out of him as the first river.
Shortly after she came into being she walked (or danced) shyly around Brahma so that Brahma brought about the first lust. So great was his lust that as she walked (or danced) around him he grew another face at each of the directions so that he would not have to turn his head to see her, and when she floated over him he grew a fifth face on the top of his head (this was later burned off by Shiva.)
Each of the four faces began to speak poetry directed at the Goddess. Because of this she invented writing so that these words could be preserved, and thus was Sanskrit born so that she could write down the four Vedas.
After this they retired into seclusion for 147,688,000 years (100 divine years) during which they created everything that exists.
There are other myths in which she has different and sometimes less auspicious origins, and among the Buddhists she is a human, a bodhisattva, but still a human.
However in almost all of them she is the Goddess of speech, learning, wisdom, and music. She is said to be the direct inspiration of all science and scholarship. As well as the inventor of sanskrit one of the worlds oldest written languages which some claim in it's pure form is capable to fantastic things. (chants that can make things burst into flames, change reality etc...)
Still as a inveterate reader I have to pay my respects to a Goddess about whom it is said that all libraries and places of learning are her temples.
- Terry McCombs
