Across India, especially in the North and Eastern India, including Nepal, Vasant Panchami is the day when one of the cardinal goddesses of Hinduism, Devi Saraswati, is worshipped. This falls on the 5^th day on the month of Magha during the time of the spring. Some scholars believe that the linking of Goddess Saraswati with Vasanta Panchami comes from the later day Brahma Vaivarta Purana, where Sri Krshna orders the worship of Devi Saraswati on this particular panchami tithi. Artists, writers, students and just about anyone involved in any kind of creative endeavour seek benedictions of this form of the Divine Mother to enable them to excel in their chosen field of self-expression.

Saraswati is one of the earliest names of the goddess, and a redoubtable member of the Vedic pantheon, that come to us from the time of the Rg Veda itself. The eponymous river Saraswati ( सरस्वती नदी sárasvatī nadī) is considered a central icon of the Vedic era, and even in the post-Vedic texts, is referred to with tremendous reverence. We are told that the early Vedic people lived along the banks of this river, just as most ancient civilizations flourished on the banks of major rivers, and over time, elevated the physical river to the status of a life-giving goddess. While this naturalistic explanation certainly has some scriptural backing, including from the Mahabharata which mentions the drying up of the Saraswati river, there is also another way of looking at the whole Saraswati phenomenon. For She is in Her true scope and manifestation, when seen in a purely Vedantic light, nothing less than a phenomenon par excellence especially in contrast with the frailty and ignorance of the limited human consciousness.

Saraswati can mean, “she of the stream, the flowing movement”, and is therefore, a natural name for a river, but it also means eloquence and the power of speech, as also a movement of inspiration. In spiritual terms any force or capacity, like speech, is a Shakti and a manifestation of the Divine Mother. Saraswati is also referred to as Mahi, meaning vast or great, and found, at times, mentioned in connection with two other names, Ila and Bharati.

IlA saraswatI mahI tisro devIr mayobhuvah;

barhih sIdantvasridah

Sri Aurobindo’s commentary of this verse is as follows:

“May Ila, Saraswati and Mahi, three goddesses who give birth to the bliss, take their place on the sacrificial seat, they who stumble not,” or “who come not to hurt” or “do no hurt.” The epithet means, I think, they in whom there is no false movement with its evil consequences, duritam, no stumbling into pitfalls of sin and error. The formula is expanded in Hymn 110 of the tenth Mandala:

A no yajnam bharati tuyam etu,

ilA manusvad iha cetayantI;

Tisro devIr barhir edaM syonaM,

sarasvatI svapasah sadantu.

“May Bharati come speeding to our sacrifice and Ila hither awakening our consciousness (or, knowledge or perceptions) in human wise, and Saraswati,—three goddesses sit on this blissful seat, doing well the Work.”

Thus ila and Bharati are similar powers of the Divine Mother, similar to Saraswati yet with slight and nuanced differences. While Saraswati is the inspiration that comes down to us from Rtam, the tremendous Truth-consciousness, Bharati and Ila are also different forms of the same energy. In a rik by Madhuchchhandas, in which Bharati is identified with Mahi, this deity, translating literally, is “full of cows for the sacrificer.” To a naturalistic interpreter this may seem like a straight link between an agrarian society’s high regard for bovine wealth, but by this kind of logic, many verses of the Veda appear as meaningless ramblings of prehistoric barbarians. That does not do justice to the belief passed down since the ancient times that the Vedic verses were “seen” by Rishis in a state of Divine inspiration containing lofty spiritual truths, which can be properly understood only by tapashya and sadhana, not mere scholastic or intellectual readings.

In one of Vamadeva’s hymns in the fourth Mandala (IV.3.16) the Rishi describes himself as one illumined expressing through his thought and speech words of guidance, “secret words” – ninya vacamsi —“seer-wisdoms that utter their inner meaning to the seer” — kavyani kavaye nivacana. The Rishi Dirghatamas speaks of the Riks, the Mantras of the Veda, as existing “in a supreme ether, imperishable and immutable in which all the gods are seated”, and he adds “one who knows not That what shall he do with the Rik?” (I.164.39). It becomes clear therefore that even when the Vedic Age was in full force, the verses of the Veda-s acted as symbols of higher spiritual truths. “Go”, therefore, is both cow and light – a spiritual illumination – so prized by our Rishis. Thus Bharati is the Shakti that is filled with a greater illumination which, when invoked, shares a portion of Her exalted status with the performer of the sacrifice.

While delving more into this we might as well recall a bit from Sri Aurobindo’s own writings, about how he came across the Vedic corpus for the 1^st time. Of course, some may or may not like his writings, regardless, it is vital that the following passage is quoted lest some are led to ignorantly believe that the man was commenting without sufficient Tapashya or sadhana.

“My first contact with Vedic thought came indirectly while pursuing certain lines of self-development in the way of Indian Yoga, which, without my knowing it, were spontaneously converging towards the ancient and now unfrequented paths followed by our forefathers. At this time there began to arise in my mind an arrangement of symbolic names attached to certain psychological experiences which had begun to regularise themselves; and among them there came the figures of three female energies, Ila, Saraswati, Sarama, representing severally three out of the four faculties of the intuitive reason,—revelation, inspiration and intuition.”

Much later when he was in Pondicherry and on an Adesha from Krshna started studying and meditating on the Rig Veda, did he recognize that the three Goddesses he had seen earlier were Vedic deities.

Coming back to Saraswati and Her sister goddesses, we find Mahi is associated with, apart from illumination, a sense of vastness, brhat, which contains within Herself the Truth, Satyam. Ila, on the other hand, means She who attains, and contains a similar association of ideas as Rishi or Rtam. Thus Ila is the Goddess who sees, or grants the ability of direct perception of spiritual planes and realities. While Saraswati represents the ability to hear the inspired word, and during normal functioning, is the goddess who provides inspiration for creativity. In other words, when the mind becomes more supple in deeper states of meditation and goes beyond the churning of the rationalizing machine, certain kinds of powers of intuition manifest themselves to the sadhaka. Of these, the access to revelation – like a vision seen within which is true – is represented by the goddess Ila; while Saraswati is one who brings about shruti or occult, inspired hearing, analogous to a voice that speaks within and provides inspired inputs.

These fine distinctions, however, came to be neglected later on as Saraswati became associated with “learning” – a crude derivative of Her Vedic nature – while Bharati got merged into her and Ila just vanished and a later story of another Ila came about in relation to the life of the graha Budha! Moreover, as the age of Tantra and Puranas gained prominence, these triple goddesses became represented in the three rivers: Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, or the three channels inside the subtle body, namely, ida, pingla and kundalini, where Saraswati became representative of the subtler susumna, equivalent to the vanished river of vedic era.

Although we now associate Saraswati with learning or education, she is certainly not the goddess of fact accumulation which passes as knowledge these days. She is rather the inspiration of the artist and the creator, of the architect and poet, of the scientist, of all who stand at the forefront of the masterful application of human knowledge and potential. Sri Aurobindo writes,

“Mahasaraswati is the Mother’s Power of Work and her spirit of perfection and order. The science and craft and technique of things are Mahasaraswati’s province. Always she holds in her nature and can give to those whom she has chosen the intimate and precise knowledge, the subtlety and patience, the accuracy of intuitive mind and conscious hand and discerning eye of the perfect worker.”

In the famous Devi Mahatyam, which comes from the Markandeya Purana, we find MahaSaraswati as the presiding deity of the 3^rd section of the text. In Shakti sadhana there are 3 fundamental aspects: an awakening of Shakti, a holding of Shakti, and the application of the same. Each of these is progressively more difficult, thus while many may awaken Shakti by dint of sadhana, only a few are then able to hold it in their mind and body, and even lesser learn how to apply the same. And this, the third part, is where the real guidance of Mahasaraswati becomes vital to the sadhaka.

Where reason cannot reach even by labored meandering advances, intuition prompts us in the right direction. Of all forms of the Divine Mother, it is Mahasaraswati that demands of us infinite patience and a vast capacity for work. Because intuition of creativity does not come when sitting idle, it comes unannounced, when we are completely absorbed in our work, the deeper the engagement the greater is the possibility of opening up the consciousness to the play of Mahasaraswati, who nudges us slightly but persistently towards a greater and more accurate perfection of the work.