There were once three sister goddesses whose names were Ganga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. Perfect equals in every way, their
radiance shone throughout the three worlds. When they came of age, all three were given in marriage to Lord Vishnu.
Whereas their sister Lakshmi was content,
Ganga and Saraswati wanted to be free. Vishnu, however, was quite attached to all of his wives. Without some trickery there was no escape. The three devised a plan. Ganga and Saraswati would
feign a bitter feud between them. Lakshmi would try to mediate and fail. Vishnu, in a fit of rage, would send away his warring wives.
The plan worked. Lakshmi remained in the
realm of the gods, where to this day she showers radiance, abundance and good fortune upon the earth. Ganga and Saraswati took the form of rivers, flowing from the heights of the heavens to the depths of the seas.
Ganga still flows today as Mother Ganges,
the great holy river of India. As for Saraswati, most say that sometime around the year 3000 BCE, her waters began to recede until they dried up and disappeared. But others tell it very differently. Out of her great love and compassion for the human race, the mighty Saraswati transformed herself from a river of water to the river
of inspiration, flowing through the human heart and soul...
The goddess Saraswati has always held a fascination for me,
but for many years it was mostly intellectual. That changed about
ten years ago when I was on retreat at the ashram where I spent
the formative years of my sadhana. I came into the meditation
hall one morning and was greeted by a most amazing sight. A magnificent
statue of Saraswati had been installed on one side of the room.
Carved from a huge block of sandalwood, the goddess came alive
before my eyes.
I sat there spellbound, riveted to the form, realizing that
in my life as a musician and composer, Saraswati had always been
there, singing from deep within me, yet Id somehow never recognized
this before. It was like meeting a mysterious stranger who had
supported me since my birth and was finally revealing herself
to me. Then the tears came, long and deep,as I faced the many
ways I took my musical gifts for granted. And in a moment of exquisite
and excruciating pain, the reality of this mysterious goddess
broke open inside my heart.
In India, the worship of Saraswati begins in the ancient Vedas, where she
is associated with the Saraswati River, which flowed through northwest India
during the second millennium BCE. As a river goddess, she was worshipped for
the fertilizing, purifying and life-giving powers of her waters. Even during
this early stage of her development, when she was still primarily a river goddess,
the hymns of the Rg-veda describe Saraswati as the "inciter of
all pleasant songs and gracious thought." As the early Vedic religion grew
into the Hindu tradition, Saraswati came to be equated with Vac, the Vedic goddess
of speech.
As the religious culture developed, Saraswati's river nature merged with three
of the key powers identified with Vac – truth, sacred vision and
language – and Saraswati became the great goddess personifying the
highest faculties of human creativity. She has ever since been lauded as the
supreme patroness of music, the inventor of language and the source of insight
and wisdom.
Saraswatiis a vast constellation of archetypal energy. In her transcendental
aspect, she is considered the shakti or power of Om, the sacred
sound from which creation springs. Some tantric sources equate Saraswati's riverbed
aspect with sushumna nadi, the central channel and repository of the
major chakras, while others equate her flowing waters with Kundalini, the supreme
Light of consciousness. Saraswati is also praised as the elemental force that
gives mantras their special power and is strongly identified with the Gayatri
mantra, revered by many as the sound form of light.
In his book Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine, David Kinsley writes
that from the tantric perspective the "deities are thought of as aspects
of the cosmos that correspond to aspects of the human organism." He goes
on to say that "the aim of tantric sadhana is to establish identity
with the deity worshipped...[and] to awaken that deity within oneself."
For me, the brilliance of the tantric system is embedded in this teaching. It's
not about outer worship of a god or goddess we perceive as separate from ourselves.
We establish identity with a deity in order to awaken within ourselves the energy
stream personified by that deity. While outer worship certainly has its place,
if we don't work to embody our chosen deity, we risk falling into the trap that
Tibetan Buddhist teacher Trungpa Rimpoche aptly called "spiritual materialism."
Over the years I've developed practices to awaken my inherent Saraswati energy,
working with mantras and visualizations and contemplating the myths, iconography
and scriptural references surrounding her. All of this makes wonderful food
for body, mind and soul, but the truth is, when Saraswati comes, it is as a
grace, unexpected and unabashedly divine. As a musician, I often feel her presence
when I sing. I also feel it when I'm teaching and performing. For me, the challenge
has been in learning to get out of the way of her force.
Saraswati energy pulsates with the power of revelation, creativity
and the Word. Like water, it has the capacity to cleanse and refine.
Once awakened, the Saraswati impulse slowly washes away the clutch
of ego and wrong understanding and in the open space that is created,
reveals the knowledge of the Self.
Saraswati is elusive and mysterious. Her gifts of insight and inspiration
are not so freely given. As everyone knows, water is very slippery. To keep
Saraswati's waters vital and flowing, we have to work hard to hold them. Discipline,
purity and noble thoughts are a crucial key. As the force of inspiration, Saraswati
is present at the beginning of any creative project; however, the way in which
we shape the initial vision seems to determine how much of her Light will infuse
the finished work.
Saraswati's nature is completely sattvic. She personifies the purest
of the pure. Visualized in white, holding a vina, a mala of crystal
or pearls, and a book, her mount is the white swan. The Sanskrit word for swan
is hamsa and in India, those beings who attain the highest are called
paramahamsas, "Great Swans". One might say they have become
vehicles able to carry the full weight of Saraswati. Needless to say, those
of us who wish to court the energy of this goddess do well to study the ways
of these great swans.
The other day I was contemplating the painting of Saraswati that has held
a special place in my studio for many years. I'd always seen her vina as symbolic
of Saraswati's identification with music and sound. I suddenly realized, "That
vina is me! That vina represents each one of us who longs to merge
with her." It was one of those moments when something we've lived with
forever breaks open and we see it in a whole new way. It reminded me of that
morning ten years before,when awareness of her presence inside me broke open
for the first time.
I sat down to meditate and began to feel her waters streaming through me.
I gave myself over to the experience, letting it move my upper body in graceful,
fluid movements. My fingers flowed into mudras. I felt my trunk expand
until my head and heart both seemed to touch the sky. My lower body, though
feeling weightless, stayed rooted to the earth and I was enveloped in what I
can only describe as the most beautiful music. I couldn't actually hear this
music, but I felt myself becoming one with it. There was no separation between
me, Saraswati and the song. There was only music spilling out from every cell
of me, as me.
My teacher always told us that the mantra, the deity of the mantra and the
one who sings the mantra are the same. Although I understood what he was saying,
it was only intellectual. Now I grasped it with my entire being. Ever since,
I have felt a deeper sense of oneness with Saraswati than ever before –
and a quiet inner knowing that even when I cannot feel her presence,she is always
here, singing the eternal song of the Self and playing on the strings of my
heart.
Welcome Saraswati. Make her your chosen deity. Make her your
friend.Discover that of all the energies of consciousness, Saraswati
is the force that can transform everything you do into art. And
you will come to know yourself as a leitmotif in the cosmic symphony
of which we are each a small and glowing part.
