Sarasvati Puja 25th Sept

As a water goddess, Ma symbolizes fertility and prosperity. Ma Sarasvati is associated with purity and creativity, especially in the context of literary and verbal skills. Her name literally means the one who flows, which can be applied to thoughts, words, or the flow of a river. In the Rig-Veda (6, 61, 7), Ma Saraswati is credited with killing the (demon) Vritra, who represents drought, darkness, and chaos. She is often seen as equivalent to the other Vedic goddesses like Vak, Savitri and Gayatri. Saraswati represents intelligence, consciousness and cosmic knowledge.

Saraswati Stuti states that she is the only Goddess to be revered by all the three great gods of Hinduism viz. Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu, and Lord Shiva. She is the only goddess to be worshipped equally by all the devas, the demons, the Gandharvas (the divine musicians), and the Nagas (the divine serpents).

Mother Saraswati is often depicted as a beautiful, fair-skinned female dressed in pure white often seated on a white lotus (although Her actual vaahan {vehicle} is to be swan). She is mainly associated with the colour white, which signifies the purity of true knowledge. Occasionally, however, Ma is also associated with the colour yellow, the colour of the flowers of the mustard plant that bloom at the time of her festival in the spring. She is not adorned heavily with jewels and gold like Mother Lakshmi, but is dressed austerely- representing her preference of knowledge over worldly material things. She is generally shown to have four arms representing four aspects of human personality in learning, mind, intellect, alertness and ego, holding in her hands: -

A book, which is the sacred Vedas, representing the universal, divine, eternal, true knowledge and her perfection of all the sciences and the scriptures. A mala of white pearls, representing the power of meditation and spirituality. A pot of sacred water, representing creative and purificatory powers.

The musical instrument called the veena, representing her perfection of all arts and sciences. She also associates herself with Anurag - the love and rhythm of music, which represents all emotions and feelings expressed in speech or music. Hence Anurag is loved by Saraswati Mata.

A white swan is often besides her feet. The sacred swan, if offered a mixture of milk and water, is said to be able to drink the milk alone. The swan thus symbolizes discrimination between the good and the bad or the eternal and the evanescent. Due to her association with the swan, Goddess Saraswati is also referred to as Hamsa-vahini, which means "she who has a swan as her vehicle".