28th January 2012: SARASWATI PUJA 2012 (India)

Saraswati (Sculpture)

In Hinduism Saraswati (Sanskrit: सरस्वती, Sarasvatī ^?), is the goddess of knowledge, music, arts and science. She is the consort of Brahma, also revered as His Shakti.

The name Saraswati came from “saras” (meaning “flow”) and “wati” (meaning “she who has …”), i.e. “she who has flow” or can mean sara meaning “essence” and swa meaning “self”. So, Saraswati is symbol of knowledge; its flow (or growth) is like a river and knowledge is supremely alluring, like a beautiful woman. She is depicted as beautiful fair Goddess with Four arms, wearing spotless white saree and seated on white lotus. She is also known as “Sharada”, “Vani” and “Vagdevi” (both meaning “speech”).

Saraswati, known as Sraosha in Zoroastrianism is the guardian of earth. Sraosha (“obedience”) is also the wife and messenger of Ahura Mazda, and her role as the “Teacher of Daena”, Daena being the hypostasis of both “Conscience” and “Religion”. She also guides the souls of the deceased to find their way to the afterlife. Her symbolic animal is the peacock, whose crowing calls the pious to their religious duties. She is also called Druga for fighting off Drug (Drug, the name for female demon in ancient Veda, from the Sanskrit root druh “to be hostile”). The name Druga is made of Sanskrit dru or dur “with difficulty” and gā or jā (“come”, “go”). Saraswati is known as a guardian deity in Buddhism who upholds the teachings of Gautama Buddha by offering protection and assistance to practitioners. She is known in Burmese as Thurathadi (သူရဿတီ,pronounced [θùja̰ðədì] or [θùɹa̰ðədì]) or Tipitaka Medaw, Chinese asBiàncáitiān, in Thai as Surasawadee (สุรัสวดี) and in Japanese as Benzaiten. In the East Indian states ofBihar, West Bengal, Orissa: Saraswati is considered to be a daughter of Durga along with her sister Lakshmi and her brothersGanesha and Karthikeya. (Source: Wikipedia.org)

Saraswati Puja 2012…

… in Mumbai