SARASVATI — The Flowing-One

SARASVATI — The Flowing-One 

The Śakti of Brahma, represented as both his daughter and his consort, is the goddess of speech, the Flowing-One (Saras-vati). She represents the union of power and intelligence from which organized creation arises.

Speech is the power through which knowledge expresses itself in action. Sarasvatī is the source of "Sonic-creation". Creation or rather "Projection" of the universe occurs in two parallel processes — creation through sound (nāma) and the projection of forms (rūpa).

She is the goddess of eloquence, of all forms of knowledge, the patroness of the arts and of music. She is the source of all communication through language and writing. She is the power that resides within all poetry and writing.

The name Sarasvatī is that of a sacred river, mentioned in the Rig Veda as: — "She who goes pure from the mountains as far as the sea." This river dried up about 2000 years ago and the course can now be seen from space. According to the Mahābhārata, the river was dried up by the curse of the sage Utathya.

Saras, which means fluid, refers to anything that flows and as such applies to speech and thought as well as water. Other names of Sarasvatī are Eloquence (Bhāratī), Transcendent Knowledge (Mahā-vidyā), Speech (Vāc), Transcendent-Word (Mahā-vāṇi).

She is the Noble-One (Ārya), the Power-of-the-Immense-Being (Brahmi), the Wish-Cow (Kāma-dhenu), the Womb-of-the-Seed or Womb-of-the-Elements-of-Speech (Bīja-garbha), Divinity-of-Wealth (Dhaneśvari), etc.

Symbols

Pustaka (Book) - 

The sacred Scriptures and all forms of book learning and theoretical knowledge. In the modern context it would include computers and all other forms of visual and sound media as well.

Japa-mālā (Rosary) -

 Spiritual practice. Meditation and the recitation of mantras.

Vīnā (Lute) - 

Music, singing, dancing. Inner sound of spiritual harmony; the vibration of the atoms in motion, creation, the sound of the spheres, the harmony of all the diffuse elements of the cosmos.