imaṃ me gāthinam upa śruṇuṣva ratho na vāje sarasvatī śrutā

yatīm ivānam bhūri varūtham eṣā havyeṣu no jujuṣāṇā upa sthe

“Hear our call, Sarasvatī, famed in song, like a warrior’s chariot at battle.

Rich in protection, accepting our offerings, stand by us, inspirer of noble thought.”

-Rigveda 6.61.7

To the mighty goddess, who is the embodiment of thought itself, we bow down to you.

In today’s world, Saraswati is seen as someone clad in white, eternally playing her veena, the all-knowing, extraordinarily simple goddess of speech, bestowing knowledge and academic excellence upon anybody who seeks for it. With a book in one hand and a sphaṭika mala in the other, she sits surrounded by swans and peacocks in front of the ever-flowing river. But is that all she is? Can knowledge be this simply described, can the goddess be this easily deciphered?

In the Rig-Veda, Saraswati has been described as the life-giving river, nourishing the earth with knowledge and wisdom. It is only on her banks that the Vedas themselves were composed. The greatest rivers of all, it has been called; extremely motherly and nourishing, yet instead unstoppable and fierce; an eternal current of jñāna, that still flows unseen in the earth, and in our minds to this day.

She is knowledge in the truest sense.
She is the thought flowing through our minds.
She is the tranquility in silence.
She is the steady flow of the river.

As the utter embodiment of wisdom, Saraswati does not seek to be simply appeased. In fact, she steps foot in the drab, dimly lit hut of a poor scholar who simply sits there and seeks the truth. And as graceful as she is, she remains forever seated in that hut, however dimly lit might it be. Wisdom and knowledge, once gained, clearly never leaves, and that is precisely the nourishing and nurturing goddess Saraswati is.

That goddess gave us life, gave it meaning, and gave it truth. But then, she disappeared. The divine river Saraswati dried up.

But why?

As time went by, the truth became more and more polluted.

Knowledge was divided into hierarchies, and only people belonging to certain classes had access, thus greatly limiting it. What was supposed to be a divine gift for all of humanity had merely turned into a social tool for control, being used as a means to climb in life. Like all else, greed had taken over, and knowledge turned into a medium to feed it. 

There remained no longer a search for the truth, but a frantic desire for materialism. The goddess was insulted. And so, Saraswati, in all her might, retracted herself from mankind.

But what does this mean for us? Has the goddess completely abandoned us?

We disagree. As the depreciation of knowledge, and in turn Saraswati, increased, the goddess, refusing to be tarnished, hid herself.

No longer she poured herself completely to all of humanity, but to this day, she still flows; maybe not as a physical entity anymore, but something much deeper. The goddess still is the thoughts flowing in our mind. She still is wisdom. She still resides in that dimly lit hut. Only now, it is only to the truest seekers, that she reveals herself to truly. Seekers with no other interest but only true desire for the pure, unblemished truth; for Saraswati. 

May humanity re-establish the true essence of Saraswati. May mankind realize again, the importance of the truth. May we all, thus, attain her blessings.