Let Our Minds Be Pure and Bright!
I have two distinct memories of “Basant Panchami”. One when ‘Basant Panchami’ meant wearing pretty yellow colour dresses and wearing marigold flowers jewelry that my mother used to prepare zealously for me and the other when “Saraswati Pooja” used to be celebrated in school, with many “Saraswati Vandnas” and music and dance programmes. The Goddess Saraswati has always fascinated me because in my eyes this is one goddess that promoted both education and art. Saraswati is the goddess of knowledge and art! My life has revolved around both and this has to be a reason enough for me to get more interested in Goddess Saraswati.
Like every other Hindu festival, even ‘Basant Panchami’ is celebrated following keenly the movement of the Sun and the Earth and the Season Cycle. Spring Season literally means ‘Basant’ in hindi, thus the ‘Basant Panchami’ is celebration of spring season and it falls on the first day of the Spring. The flowers of yellow are ‘Basanti’ in colour , it reminds me of the famous song, ‘Mera rang de basanti chola mahi rang de’’.
Goddess Lakshmi and Goddess Durga are more visible in temples all around India, but Goddess Saraswati has an exclusive place of her own where she is seen more idolized and admired by students and artists community in India. In the music rooms and during music events the image of ‘Veena Vadini’ is noticeable and in schools’ foyers Saraswati idol is invariably found.
How the Goddess come to be regarded as goddess of knowledge and art? According to Hindu mythology, after the creation of the cosmic universe by Lord Brahma, a great pandemonium reigned supreme in the cosmos. Lord Brahma realised that his cosmic universe was bereft of any order, conception and configuration. He had to do something about it, so he created the embodiment of wisdom and art. That is when Goddess Saraswati emerged out his mouth! After the Goddess came into existence all the celestial bodies including the sun, the moon and the stars were created and organised under strict orders. The oceans sprang up and the seasons started changing periodically. In this way, Brahma created the Universe equipped with the eternal source of wisdom provided by the Goddess Saraswati.
Lo and Behold! This myth about Goddess Saraswati was enough to impress me about her significance, for according to this myth, all the order that is found in the cosmos is her contribution! All my geography lessons in fact were possible because of goddess Saraswati’s work of art!
The ever present ‘Veena’ in her hand made me curious about the goddess’s musical talent so my search again led me to a story where she could retrieve from Gandharvas the stolen Soma Plant whose inebriating and invigorating sap was much sought after by the devas. She went to the garden of the Gandharvas and with her veena created enchanting tunes: the ragas and the raginis, when they asked her to give them her music, she put the condition that she would do so only if they give back the Soma Plant to Devas, which they did. After that Saraswati taught them the music and Gandharva became celestial musicians whose melodies had more power to rouse the mind than any intoxicant. This justifies the ‘Veena; in her hand, I decided.
Goddess Saraswati is also known as Bharati (eloquence), Shatarupa (existence), Vedamata ('mother of the Vedas'), Brahmi, Sarada, Vagisvari, and Putkari. As Vac, she is the goddess of speech. I have learnt that Saraswati first appears in the Rigveda and, in later religious texts, she is identified as the inventor of Sanskrit and, appropriately, gives Ganesha the gifts of pen and inks. No wonder children are taught to hold pens and write on this day!
As myths are a plenty there is also a belief that all creatures were born from the union of Brahma and Sarasvati starting with Manu, the first man, this is enough to impress me and bow my head even lower to the Goddess in awe and amazement!
But the question, ‘Why we worship Goddess Saraswati on this particular day?’ remained and it used to keep irking me and after much searching, I deduced that worshipping the symbol of wisdom in the end days of winter comes with a very obvious reason. Goddess Saraswati is not called ‘Nihsheshjadhyapaha’ means who gives relief from inertia and ignorance, for nothing. Winter is the season of lassitude and dullness; things slow down as the length of night is more than the length of day. With coming of spring, the length of the day increases. There are more light and bright days ahead. The bodies and minds tend to open thus Saraswati is worshipped when the night of ignorance, laziness and stupor is getting eliminated by the daylight of knowledge and light, and gaiety That is why Saraswati idols are coloured white and is decorated with bright yellow golden marigold flowers.
Let our surrounding be colorful and our mind be pure and bright. This is the message the festival of ‘Basant Panchami’ and ‘Saraswati Pooja’ together give to all of us.